The New York Times Crossword in Gothic

02.01.09 -- GRID-IRONY

Sunday, February 1, 2009

GRID-IRONY, Puzzle by Victor Fleming and Matt Ginsberg, edited by Will Shortz

SUPER BOWL SUNDAY (81A. Setting for the answers to the 10 starred clues). This Sunday’s crossword is best left to the fans of football. Without a working knowledge of the sport’s terminology, one might have some difficulty in scoring a touchdown, er…solution -- much less becoming enthused over this gridiron special.

The ten entries involved, with their “ironic” clues -- BALL CARRIER (33A. “Airline for Lucille); HASH MARKS (40A. *Corned beef stains?); TWO MINUTE WARNING (62A. *Caution when boiling a 60-Down?); PASS INTERFERENCE (100A. *Chaperon’s job?); TIGHT ENDS (118A. *Tersely edited epilogues?); NEUTRAL ZONE (130A. *Where everyone wears beige?); ILLEGAL MOTION (3D. *Rolling past a stop sign?); EXTRA POINT (16D. *Added comment?); OFFENSIVE LINE (77D. *That dress makes you look fat,” e.g.?); FALSE START (91D. *Onset of a lie?).

The remaining puzzle is an over-sized grid containing a half-time parade of all-over-the-place crosswordese:

Across: 1. To-do, STIR; 5. Symptoms for a car mechanic, HUMS; 9. Some, ABITOF; 15. Big shots?, BELTS; 20. Decorated in ceramic, say, TILED; 22. 1980s hit-makers with a geographical name, ASIA; 23. Hispanic “Sesame Street” character, ROSITA; 24. Cousin of an aster, OXEYE; 25. Holden’s little brother in “The Catcher in the Rye”, ALLIE; 26. Fire, ZEAL; 27. Liquefied, MOLTEN; 28. Agreeing (with), ATONE; 29. Fully constituted, as a session of Congress, PLENARY; 31. Cool, HIP; 35. Envoy, LEGATE; 36. Locales for some paintings, CAVES; 38. Name repeated in Woody Allen’s “MELINDA and MELINDA”; 39. Epoch, ERA; 43. Competitor of Chambers, for short, OED; 44. “54-40 or fight” candidate, POLK; 48. Alternative to cable, DSL; 49. Home of the War in the Pacific National Historic Park, GUAM; 50. IPSE dixit; 53. Unwrap impatiently, RIPOPEN; 55. Subject for Hume, MORALS; 58. The Globe and others, THEATRES; 61. Feudal superior, LIEGE; 65. Dwindle, RUNLOW; 66. Like movies and hotels, RATED; 67. IVAN the Great, leader of 1462-1505; 68. Inattention, NEGLECT; 70. Have ANIN with; 71. Two tablets, say, DOSE; 73. Punch, SOCK; 75. “Bleah!”, ICK; 77. Not quite right; OFF; 80. Swear words?, IDO; 85. Natural do, FRO; 86. Go for the bronze?, TAN; 87. Tick (off), TEE; 88. Present opener?, OMNI; 89. Godfather’s voice, maybe, RASP; 90. Come from AFAR; 91. Tycoons, slangily, FATCATS; 94. Mech. ENGR; 96. Hollywood figure, AGENT; 97. Some golf fund-raisers, PROAMS; 105. Proto-seed, OVULE; 106. Might, STRENGTH; 107. They put on shows, AIRERS; 108. “I think we should say no”; LETSNOT; 1120. Score before winning a game, maybe, ADIN; 111. 5 for B or 6 for C, ATNO; 112. Something to contribute to, for short, IRA; 115. European tongue, ERSE; 116. It may be tapped, KEG; 122. Roman power, VIS; 123. Avon and others, STREAMS; 127. Agronomists’ samples, SOILS; 128. Museum supporters, EASELS; 134. Kind of sequencing, DNA; 135. “Great Expectations” girl, ESTELLA; 136. “No go”, IXNAY; 137. Some of the knights in Wagner’s “Tannhäuser”; 139. TROD the boards (acted); 141. Word sung twice before “to you and you and you”; 142. Dish name, PETRA; 143. It borders France, IBERIA; 144. “Holy cow!”, EGAD; 145. 1983 Streisand role, YENTL; 146. “Kenilworth”: author, SCOTT; 147. Packing a punch, POTENT; 148. Flout, DEFY; 149. Pause, REST.

Down: 1. Bound, in a way, STAPLED; 2. Boat steerers, TILLERS; 4. Spain’s Isabel I, e.g., REINA; 5. Vague, as a recollection, HAZY; 6. Milk, USE; 7. Half-of-Fame forward, MIAHAMM; 8. Mouth watering?, SALIVA; 9. Branch, ARM; 10. BOOB; 11. What a crescent symbolizes, ISLAM; 12. Lord, e.g., TITLE; 13. Verdi masterpiece, OTELLO; 14. Lovers, FANCIERS; 15. Daily meals, board; 17. First pope called “the Great”, LEOI; 18. TYNE and Wear (English county); 19. Sibyl, SEER; 21. Its stroke is “as a lover’s pinch, which hurts, and is desired,” per Cleopatra, DEATH; 30. “An American Life” autobiographer, REAGAN; 32. PER se; 34. “You ANDI” (1982 Eddie Rabbitt hit); 36. Castigate; CHASTISE; 37. Mogul negotiator, SKIER; 41. Takei’s “Star Trek” role;, SULU; 42. Month or year, SPAN; 45. European car, OPEL; 46. Kind of block, LEGO; 47. Had down pat, KNEW; 51. Ruckuses, stinks; 52. White-tailed bird, ERNE; 54. Having gumption, PLUCKY; 56. Shooting star, maybe, OMEN; 57y. Relieved (of), RID; 58. Old “Up, up and away” sloganeer, TWA; 59. Cab’s ancestor, HANSOM; 60. See 62-Across, EGG; 62. Quality, TRAIT; 63. Country singer Jackson, WANDA; 64. “Did IEVER!”; 65. Sum up, RECAP; 69. They close at night, LIDS; 71. 1993 triple-platinum Frank Sinatra album, DUETS; 72. The U.A.E. is in it, OPEC; 74. Totally dominate, OWN; 75. Lawyer’s need, CLIENT; 78. F, monetarily, FRANC; 79. F, musically, FORTE; 81. Anther’s place; STAMEN; 82. Pushed (around), BOSSED; 83. Spur, URGE; 84. Talks through a film, NARRATES; 90. Golden AGER; 92. Just right, APT; 93. Scarlett’s true love, TARA; 95. Ultimate, NTH; 96. It may come after you, ARE; 97. Barber’s emblem, pole; 98. KOA campground user, RVER; 99. Loopholes, OUTS; 101. Pique, SNIT; 102. Flavius’s fire, IGNIS; 103. Eero Saarinen, by birth, FINN; 104. Diminishes bit by bit, ERODES; 106. Boot option, STEELTIP; 19. Member of the mallow family; OKRA; 111. How U.S. senators are elected, ATLARGE; 113. Small creeks, RILLETS; 114. Onslaught, ASSAULT; 117. Site of many an outdoor wedding, GAZEBO; 119. “My GOD!”; 120. Suggested, HINTED; 121. Asian appetizer, SATAY; 124. “Have some!”, TRYIT; 125. London Parliament series painter, MONET; 126. Noise at night, SNORE; 129. Meal in Nisan, SEDER; 130. Barely defeats, NIPS; 131. Board member, EXEC; 132. A law UNTO itself; 133. Moran of “Happy Days”, ERIN; 135. Mini-whirlpool, EDDY; 138. Pre-coll. Exam; 140. Blockhead, OAF.

Incidentally, videotapes of the telecasts of the first two Super Bowls are not known to exist even though they were telecast by both NBC and CBS. Sports Illustrated has reported that the only existing footage of the first Super Bowl is a two minute clip of the game. In the early days of television into the 1960s, copies of TV broadcasts were routinely wiped (erased), in part due to videotape being prohibitively expensive, but mainly because it was thought no one would want to watch something they had already seen and were in on the outcome!

True gridiron irony!

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For today’s cartoon, go to The Crossword Puzzle Illustrated.

Click on image to enlarge.

Puzzle available on the internet at

THE NEW YORK TIMES -- Crossword Puzzles and Games

Israel hopes to colonize parts of Iraq as ‘Greater Israel’

By Wayne Madsen

(WMR) -- Israeli expansionists, their intentions to take full control of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and permanently keep the Golan Heights of Syria and expand into southern Lebanon already well known, also have their eyes on parts of Iraq considered part of a biblical “Greater Israel.”

Israel reportedly has plans to relocate thousands of Kurdish Jews from Israel, including expatriates from Kurdish Iran, to the Iraqi cities of Mosul and Nineveh under the guise of religious pilgrimages to ancient Jewish religious shrines. According to Kurdish sources, the Israelis are secretly working with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to carry out the integration of Kurdish and other Jews into areas of Iraq under control of the KRG.

Kurdish, Iraqi Sunni Muslims, and Turkmen have noted that Kurdish Israelis began to buy land in Iraqi Kurdistan, after the U.S. invasion in 2003, that is considered historical Jewish “property.”

The Israelis are particularly interested in the shrine of the Jewish prophet Nahum in al Qush, the prophet Jonah in Mosul, and the tomb of the prophet Daniel in Kirkuk. Israelis are also trying to claim Jewish “properties” outside of the Kurdish region, including the shrine of Ezekiel in the village of al-Kifl in Babel Province near Najaf and the tomb of Ezra in al-Uzayr in Misan Province, near Basra, both in southern Iraq’s Shi’a-dominated territory. Israeli expansionists consider these shrines and tombs as much a part of “Greater Israel” as Jerusalem and the West Bank, which they call “Judea and Samaria.”

Kurdish and Iraqi sources report that Israel’s Mossad is working hand-in-hand with Israeli companies and “tourists” to stake a claim to the Jewish “properties” of Israel in Iraq. The Mossad has already been heavily involved in training the Kurdish Pesha Merga military forces.

Reportedly assisting the Israelis are foreign mercenaries paid for by U.S. Christian evangelical circles that support the concept of “Christian Zionism.”

Iraqi nationalists charge that the Israeli expansion into Iraq is supported by both major Kurdish factions, including the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan headed by Iraq’s nominal President Jalal Talabani. Talabani’s son, Qubad Talabani, serves as the KRG’s representative in Washington, where he lives with his wife Sherri Kraham, who is Jewish.

Also supporting the Israeli land acquisition activities is the Kurdistan Democratic Party, headed by Massoud Barzani, the president of the KRG. One of Barzani’s five sons, Binjirfan Barzani, is reportedly heavily involved with the Israelis.

The Israelis and their Christian Zionist supporters enter Iraq not through Baghdad but through Turkey. In order to depopulate residents of lands the Israelis claim, Mossad operatives and Christian Zionist mercenaries are staging terrorist attacks against Chaldean Christians, particularly in Nineveh, Irbil, al-Hamdaniya, Bartalah, Talasqaf, Batnayah, Bashiqah, Elkosheven, Uqrah, and Mosul.

These attacks by the Israelis and their allies are usually reported as being the responsibility of “Al Qaeda” and other Islamic “jihadists.”

The ultimate aim of the Israelis is to depopulate the Christian population in and around Mosul and claim the land as biblical Jewish land that is part of “Greater Israel.” The Israeli/Christian Zionist operation is a replay of the depopulation of the Palestinians in the British mandate of Palestine after World War II.

In June 2003, a delegation of Israelis visited Mosul and said that it was Israel’s intentions, with the assistance of Barzani, to establish Israeli control of the shrine of Jonah in Mosul and the shrine of Nahum in the Mosul plains. The Israelis said Israeli and Iranian Jewish pilgrims would travel via Turkey to the area of Mosul and take over lands where Iraqi Christians lived.

Previously published in the Wayne Madsen Report.

Copyright © 2008 WayneMadenReport.com
Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist and nationally-distributed columnist. He is the editor and publisher of the Wayne Madsen Report (subscription required).

Copyright © 1998-2007 Online Journal

01.31.09 -- ESP?

A mentalist on a stage apron in a mind-reading performance, 1900.

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Saturday, January 31, 2009

Puzzle by Ken Bessette, edited by Will Shortz

On an apron between the wings...

Ten letter entries -- ADAPTATION (58A. Evolutionary process); ERECTORSET (63A. Toy with blueprints); KOOLAIDMAN (17A. Ad pitcher who’s really a pitcher); MOVIETITLE (61A. Marquee name); ONTHESTAGE (15A. Between wings); PASSTHEHAT (1A. Seek change?).

Nine-letter -- ANASTASIA (30D. Bergman title role); EMAILLIST (13D. Spammer’s resource); HARDSHIPS (29A. Trials); HONESTABE (29D. Copper head?); RAINMAKER (12D. Indian tribe V.I.P.); RENTALCAR (31D. Terminal offering); RESTSEASY (14D. Stops stewing); STAGPARTY (40A. No place for a lady).

Seven -- ANDRESS (37A. Player of the first Bond girl); HAMITUP (8D. Hot-dog); ONEUNIT (36A. Blood drive quantity); THEWAVE (41D. Stand-up routine?).

Six -- ESTEEM (42A. Hold up); EUREKA (19A. College of the Redwoods locale); MADAME (43D. One of a couple at a French restaurant); SESAME (56A. Kind of beef or chicken); TAMALE (27A. Dish with cornhusks); TENANT (10D. Kind of farmer), keeping TENET company.

Five -- AGAVE (9D. Pita source); 51D. Whac-AMOLE (carnival game); 2D. Have ANOUT (not be trapped); ASTIR (49D. Still no longer); FODOR (47D. Travel writer Eugene); GAITS (50D. They’re shown at horse shows); NAGAT (48A. Badger); NANCE (39A. Actor Jack); NEATO (48D. Swell); NOKIA (35A. Big name in cells); POKES (1D. Dawdling sorts); SAABS (34D. Automotive debuts of 1949); SAFES (46A. Combinations’ locations); SANDP (24D. Market yardstick, for short); SNEES (33D. Bygone stickers); SHLEP (4D. Cart); SPITS (23D. Hot rods?); STENS (23A. Weapons once produced extensively by the Royal Arms Factory) and STEPS (22A. They have their ups and downs), along with the clue for DOW; STORE (3D. Link in a chain?); TEAKS (5D. Trees of the verbena family); TENET (52D. Something a believer believes), keeping TENANT company.

Four -- ASCI (57A. Fungal spore cases); BIAS (60A. Diagonal); BLTS (11D. Short orders?); BRER (11A. Southern appellation); DUCE (32D. Italian leader); EARS (62A. They’re near temples); HSIA (6D. Early Chinese dynasty); KISS (54D. It’s often planted); LAME (16A. Showy wear); MORA (28D. Last name of father-and-son N.F.L. coaches); SNIT (21A. Red state?); STET (56D. Keep in); TALK (53A. Yak); TIAS (18A. Some familia members).

Three -- AHI (26D. Yellowfin, on Hawaiian menus); 26A. Satyajit Ray’s “The APU Trilogy”; DOW (55A. It has its ups and downs, with “the”), along with the clue for STEPS; ETD (7D. Capt.’s announcement); HBO (44A. “Thrilla in Manilla” airer); 20A. IVA Archer, with whom Sam Spade had an affair; MLS (25A. Chicago Fire’s sports org.); 38D. NGO Dinh Diem (first president of South Vietnam); PIC (59D. Shot); STA (45A. Timetable listing: Abbr.).

... ESP? (Excellent Saturday Puzzle)!

Relativity by MC Escher

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For today’s cartoon, go to The Crossword Puzzle Illustrated.

Click on image to enlarge.

Puzzle available on the internet at

THE NEW YORK TIMES -- Crossword Puzzles and Games

Obama the imperialist

Change? In foreign policy, hardly. The new president is in the classic liberal interventionist mould

The first Democratic president in the modern era to be elected on an anti-war ticket is also, to the relief of neocons and the liberal belligerati, a hawk. Committed to escalation in Afghanistan, his foreign policy selections also indicate bellicosity towards Sudan and Iran. During his first week in office he sanctioned two missile attacks in Pakistan, killing 22 people, including women and children. And his stance on Gaza is remarkably close to that of the outgoing administration. The question now is how Obama will convince his supporters to back that stance. Bush could rely on a core constituency whose commitment to peace and human rights is, at the very least, questionable. Obama has no such luxury. In making his case, he will need the support of those "liberal hawks" who gave Bush such vocal support.

It is tempting to dismiss the "pro-war left" as a congeries of discredited left-wing apostates and Nato liberals. Their artless euphemisms for bloody conquest seem especially redundant in light of over a million Iraqi deaths. Yet their arguments, ranging from a paternalistic defence of "humanitarian intervention" to the championing of "western values", have their origins in a tradition of liberal imperialism whose durability advises against hasty dismissal. In every country whose rulers have opted for empire, there has developed among the intellectual classes a powerful pro-imperial consensus, with liberals and leftwingers its most vociferous defenders.

Liberal imperialists have resisted explicitly racist arguments for domination, instead justifying empire as a humane venture delivering progress. Even so, implicit in such a stance was the belief that other peoples were inferior. Just as John Stuart Mill contended that despotism was a "legitimate mode of government in dealing with the barbarians" provided "the end be their improvement", so the Fabians contended that self-government for "native races" was "as useless to them as a dynamo to a Caribbean". Intellectuals of the Second International such as Eduard Bernstein regarded the colonised as incapable of self-government. For many liberals and socialists of this era, the only disagreement was over whether the natives could attain the disciplined state necessary to run their own affairs. Indigenous resistance, moreover, was interpreted as "native fanaticism", to be overcome with European tuition.

The current liberal imperialists are not replicas of their 19th-century antecedents. Cold war priorities, including the need to incorporate elements of the left into an anti-communist front, transformed the culture of empire. If the "anti-totalitarian" left supported US expansionism, they often did so under the mantle of anti-colonialism. Decolonisation and the civil rights struggle meant explicit racism had to be dispensed with in arguments for military intervention.

This was a slow process. Both the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations were terrified of "premature independence" for colonised nations. The state department asserted that "backward societies" required authoritarianism to prepare them for modernity. Irving Kristol, a cold war liberal who became the "godfather of neoconservatism", justified the Vietnam war in part by asserting that the country was "barely capable of decent self-government under the very best of conditions", and thus needed its US-imposed dictatorship. Nonetheless, such arguments today tend to be rehearsed only on the wilder shores of the neoconservative right.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, however, some paternalistic mainstays of liberal imperialism have been reinvented under the impress of "humanitarian intervention". Just as Victorian humanitarians saw the empire as the appropriate tool for saving the oppressed, so the 1990s saw demands for the US military to deliver Somalians, Bosnians and Kosovans from their tormentors - notwithstanding the fact that US intervention played a destructive role in each case.

The agency of the oppressed themselves is largely absent from this perspective. And, as New York University's Stephen Holmes pointed out: "By denouncing the United States primarily for standing by when atrocity abroad occurs, these well-meaning liberals have helped re-popularise the idea of America as a potentially benign imperial power."

The catastrophe in Iraq has produced a reaction against humanitarian imperialism even from former interventionists like David Rieff, who has warned against the "rebirth of imperialism with human rights as its moral warrant". Even so, among liberal intellectuals there is a broad coalition favouring intervention into Darfur, though humanitarian organisations have opposed the idea. And there is little resistance to the escalation in Afghanistan, where "native fanaticism" is once more the enemy. Liberal imperialism is in rude health: it is its victims who are in mortal peril.

• Richard Seymour is the author of The Liberal Defence of Murder leninstombblog@googlemail.com

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/27/obama-white-house-foreign-policy

The Obama Spectacle: History, Hypocrisy, and Empire

The so-called democracy of the powerful U.S. elite continues to live up to its legacy of hypocrisy and deceit.

Now that the spectacle of the Barack Obama coronation as the “American” Empire’s first African-American emperor has run its course, and many, many millions of dollars have been spent on self-adulation by the power elite of this nation, the huddled masses will necessarily be compelled to return to a system of no universal, single-payer health care, increasing joblessness, insatiable corporate / military greed, homelessness, de facto racial disparity & discord, police brutality, a burgeoning U.S. prison population, and endless U.S. wars abroad. For yet again, this nation will have done what it all too often does: perverted its promise, including the dream of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., into a hypocritical nightmare of gigantic and historic proportions.

For the majority of Black, Brown, White, Red, and Yellow peoples, the “dream” to which the late Langston Hughes referred [in the poem A Dream Deferred] has not only been “deferred,” it has been obscenely and grotesquely disfigured and distorted into something almost beyond recognition. Barack Obama’s presidency is not a step forward nor is it a step towards the fulfillment of the struggles by Nat Turner, John Brown, Harriet Tubman, Malcolm X, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and so very many others. Rather, he is the slick pro-apartheid Zionist antithesis and perversion of the fulfillment of these struggles.

Barack Obama has already begun to repeatedly and shamelessly call upon the people of this nation to make “sacrifice[s],” as if the everyday people of this country have not already made enormous, heart rendering sacrifices. How about having Obama’s elite corporate backers in Lockheed, Goldman Saks, and the insurance and banking industries make some meaningful, ongoing, and painful sacrifices?! How about reversing the government’s criminal financial bail out of the big corporations [which government bail-out Obama enthusiastically supported], and passing those billions upon billions of dollars back directly to the everyday people of this nation - no strings attached?! How about immediately stopping all U.S. wars of aggression, and bringing our men and women in uniform home right NOW - no strings attached?! So many of these men and women have made the ultimate sacrifice in the name of so-called U.S. “national security,” which false “security” has meant their being the perpetual working-class cannon fodder for Halliburton and other avaricious corporate components of the U.S. “military / industrial complex.”

Barack Obama, though the first African-American “presidential” figurehead of the U.S. Empire, is actually the last best hope of continuing U.S. international hegemony under the fake cloak of democracy and justice at home and abroad. Therein is Obama’s appeal to the political and economic ruling elites. He is a conscious, willing, and potent tool of the power elite, and should be understood and dealt with as such. He is neither a progressive, nor a leftist or socialist. He is a cynical opportunist and a shrewd politician, who cloaks his double-speak in glitzy so-called “progressive” sounding rhetoric. He is arguably the most dangerous U.S. politician, to the actual economic and political well being of everyday people of all colors, thus far in this 21st Century.

A reader of The Black Commentator recently reminded me of what is undoubtedly the most important, defining, and yet perhaps the least known speech of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It is the speech that Dr. King delivered on April 4, 1967 at the Riverside church in New York City, precisely one year before he was shot down in Memphis, Tennessee, under the auspices of the U.S. Government. The speech is titled, Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence. Every discerning person who peruses this speech will quickly realize what a perversion, of the struggle for justice at home and abroad, the pro-apartheid Zionist Barack Obama really is. We can and must do so much better.

The installment of Barack Obama as U.S. president has not ushered in a “post racial” era in this nation. To the contrary, it has ushered in a heightened economic, political, and yes racial hypocrisy, which the masses of Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow peoples will ultimately not ignore.

The paraphrased adage, often attributed to Abraham Lincoln, that: “You can fool some of the people some of the time but not all of the people all of the time” is absolutely correct. And even though the U.S. corporate media (including CNN and PBS) is unabashedly complicit in their de facto mission to “fool the people,” the legitimate needs and aspirations of the people can be contained for only so long; Obama or no Obama.

To the people of this nation of all colors and ethnicities who are losing your jobs, your homes, and your families…to those with no health insurance… to those who cannot afford to send your children to college…and to those languishing in prisons… this writer says: Place not your faith in the rhetoric of politicians or the false promises of such cynical opportunists. Place your faith in yourselves and each other, in your / our ability to discern the difference between rhetoric vs. reality, and in our determination to find and create ways of organizing and coming together to bring about real systemic change dedicated to everyday people and not the corporate blood suckers of the peoples of this nation and world.

To the long-time freedom fighters, including Assata Shakur, Reverend Edward Pinkney (no relation), Leonard Peltier, the SF 8, and so many others who have held on and struggled for collective justice for so long, and to all political prisoners everywhere, this writer says: Please keep holding on, for the time is approaching when your struggles will

be rewarded and that proverbial “day of reckoning” is hastening hither, sooner than some may realize.

To Cynthia McKinney, Rosa Clemente, and Cindy Sheehan: Thank you for your ongoing and brave examples of what it means to be truly for-real and in service to the people and not the blood sucking corporate / military / prison apparatus.

To the young people of this nation and world be you Black, Brown, Red, White, or Yellow: This writer understands your legitimate rage and your desire for a better world. You have every right to want a just and humane world. YOU are humanity’s present and future. YOU are why so many of us have struggled and died so that we might live through you. YOU must carry this struggle on.

To the peoples of Palestine, Cuba, Venezuela, Haiti, and elsewhere: Know that the peoples of the U.S. do not hate you and that those of us who are socially and politically conscious stand with you in your just quests to live free and strong, unfettered and unhindered by U.S. hegemony.

History does not repeat itself. People repeat history.

Let us commit and re-commit ourselves to the struggle for systemic change in this nation, and not be duped by this latest dose of U.S. hypocrisy in the person of Barack Obama.

Onward...

Is Europe in "Pre revolutionary" Mode?

“Off with their heads” and “man the barricades” the cries of the famed “sans culottes” rang out and sent shivers down the spines of the doomed Bourbon dynasty way back then. These poor yet determined revolutionary men fighting for a semblance of social justice and disparagingly referred to as “without knee breaches” by the ruling royals and aristocracy seem to reverberate in today’s urban European settings.

Governments across Europe tremble as angry people take to the streets

220 years after the French revolution, scenes somewhat reminiscent of the almost long forgotten revolts, are again visible on the streets of Paris. They appear to be pre revolutionary in their scope and political impact. The fall out from all this maybe like a horror film come true for those at the top.

Unions of all sorts have mobilised in protest of what is perceived as anti social government policy of President Nicolas Sarkozy, or a final assault on what remains of the welfare state, decimated by decades of rampant and reckless ultra liberalism which has since run amok. This has paralyzed the country by widespread strike action. From rail to air, transport has been virtually halted. Public employees and their union members fearing for the security of their jobs and anticipated state imposed reforms in the public sector have made many in French angst ridden.

Is Europe in all out revolt or this a dress rehearsal for the real thing?

On Thursday in Spain, echoing the current social unrest in France, unions have taken the cue from their French counterparts and announced upcoming mass protests to denounce huge lay offs and egregious abuses in the name of personal gain and profit in the world’s banking sector on both a national and global banking scale. Spain now holds the ignominious title of having the highest unemployment rate (unemployment is over 4 million in 2009 so far) in all of Europe. An unflattering distinction which it had not held since its pre EU membership days.

The country is experiencing massive layoffs in the construction industry, mainly due to an American style bursting of a speculative property bubble, related to over inflated housing prices and unbridled development. The scale of the anticipated protest may not be a big as those in France but social tensions are apparently as high or at the boiling point and about to blow over.

A Greek tragedy in the making

The upheaval in France and Spain follows weeks of social disturbance in other parts of Europe this month, including the Baltic States, Bulgaria and overall Greece where very violent protest headed by so called “anarchists” and other “leftist” or what official might refer to as “riff raff” took place. A new wave of protests has begun this week. The violent protests seem to be sparked but decades of neo liberal policies imposed from above coupled by the sudden drastic and devastating socially downturn in many EU member state economics. There are now, news reports coming out of Greece of “arsonists” and “anarchists” attacking foreign car dealerships.

Certainly this is all quite troubling for the government. Those in power should ask themselves this: “Are the assailants targeting the symbols associated with a luxurious lifestyle led by a select few fellow citizens?” Or this : “Are the attacks against police stations, the exclusive Athens boutiques and their private security companies (or goons) all part of an overall general exasperation with current policies which have bred intolerable social inequity , and are part of a popular uprising against the ruling classes and their valets the law enforcement stooges? “.

Whatever the causes may be, the protests have spread beyond the cities and now paralyse the Greek countryside as well. This week farmers staged a huge protest using 5,000 tractors to block road and border crossing to neighbouring states, in protest of dropping agricultural prices for their goods and most likely as well their increasingly precarious way of life. The ongoing protests threaten the distribution of food supplies in the country and beyond.

Out in the cold but not alone: Iceland’s Revolution

The long tolerated excesses of the so called “super rich” continue to shake up Europe amidst the worst economic crisis not seen since the great depression. The aftershocks of the collapse of the global banking sector can be seen in Iceland. The once prosperous and stable island is now in total disarray. Recent, streets protest in the quite fishing port of Reykjavik, have led to the fall of the government.

Icelanders are apparently apoplectic about the recent implosion of their national economy thanks to over leveraged lending and excessive deregulation or laissez faire policies greed driven bankers adopted , which led to overexpansion aboard and eventually the bankruptcy of the country, when local banks became inundated with “toxic loans” generated during the sub prime mortgage boom years. This week the government fell to be replace by Johanna Sigurdardottir, 66, whose Social Democratic Party is talking with the Left-Greens on a new administration after protests helped force out her predecessor, Geir Haarde of the Independence Party.

Global Research Articles by Michael Werbowski

01.30.09 -- AXOLOTL, et al

Axolotl, National Geographic

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Friday, January 30, 2009

Puzzle by Brendan Emmett Quigley, edited by Will Shortz

Any puzzle containing the MIASMAS (1D. Noxious vapors) of VON and AVON, PAS and PERS, JAR and JIF, SOB and SOP, RAF and RAJ, DAB and DAR, LDS and LTS, MAV and MOTH, ONAN and OREM, ACCT and DATA, along with ALOG, BAO, INRI or SERE, is usually composed of longer entries meant to be as puzzling as possible, never mind the resulting aforementioned SCREE (45A. Cliffside detritus). Evil chortling emanates from somewhere in the dank, dark dungeon of the DIGERATI (34D. Computer-savvy crowd) gleefully declaiming 47D. “WE DID it!” (cry of accomplishment), taking delight in hearing the wails of WERE DOOMED (47A. Cry when you don’t think you’ll make it), as solvers disappear into the abyss of an etymological morass.

AXOLOTL (35D. Salamander variety) is a common name of but one of approximately 500 species of amphibians -- although it has appeared somewhere in a crossword in the past, how many times will we ever see it again?

VENTURA (36D. Classic Pontiac)? Bonneville, Catalina, Chieftain, Firebird, Fiero, Gran Prix, GTO, LeMans, Safari, Silver Streak, Star Chief, Streamliner, Super Chief, Tempest, Trans Am, all predate the Ventura -- so what’s so classic? For the love of literature, how many Pontiacs do we need to know!

SENECA (44D. “Phoenissae” playwright) as a dramaturge is far less known for the clued title than Euripides, which title by the way is far better known as “The Phoenician Women“. Also, an ACTOR (5D. Person in an apron) is more likely to tread on an apron than in one, as the apron of a stage is not an enclosure, but a platform.

SETH LOW (19A. Early 20th-century New York City mayor), MATT DRUDGE (23A. Journalist with a widely read “Report”); LARRY DAVID (58A. 1993 Emmy winner for “Seinfeld”) along with the hiccups of ATT, CARR, HITE, LEN, TIRO (25A. Newbie: Var.) are the other people in the puzzle.

Entries of activity and/or condition include AS A JOKE (14D. Facetiously); ASTRIDE (12D. One way to sit on a chair); AVERS (26A. Maintains); the cross-clued DINED (48D. Had a 31-Across, e.g.) on RIBEYE (31A. Steakhouse order); DREW UPON (6D. Tapped); IN A STIR (37D. Excited); IN RAGS (8D. Destitute-looking); ON LEAVE (2D. Ashore, maybe); REDEEMS (42D. Saves); REENTER (41D. Verify, as a password); the discretely defined RIPS ONE (51A. Hits a line drive); SKATE (9D. Work on one’s figure, say).

ADDIS ABABA (5A. City at the foot of Mount Entoto) -- said mount densely covered by eucalyptus trees, it’s more akin to a hill. TERRA COTTA (18A. Brownish orange) is better known as “baked earth”. Other long entries with, of course, vague clues -- CRANK CASES (16D. Sludge buildup sites); HIGH TREASON (4D. It has made many people lose their heads); OUTSIDE MAN (52A. Gardener or landscaper); TOBACCO SHOP (25D. Briar locale); TRIPLICATE (56A. Some forms are filled out in it).

The remains of the day include ARMOIRE (40D. Dresser alternative); BETA RAY (13D. Tritium output); 28A. KODAK moment; TROTTER (3D. Horse in harness); XENON (43A. 1980s Big Apple nightclub with a chemical name).

In the future, I suppose one will now need be on the look-out for variations on AXOLOTL -- AJOLOTE, AMBYSTOMA MEXICANUM, MUDPUPPIES, NEOTENIC MOLE, UPA RUPA, WATERDOGS, WOOPER ROOPER, or any other damn slimy thing that creeps out of the crossword constructor’s cranium!

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Octopus Attacking the Nautilus -- Édouard Riou

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Remaining clues -- Across: 1. Woolly bear, eventually; 15. Cross letters; 17. Like falling off ___; 21. Many a defender: Abbr.; 22. Rule that ended in 1974; 27. Not overseas; 29. Not at all wet; 30. Be visibly disconsolate; 32. Foundation maker; 34. It may be mined; 38. Peter Pan rival; 39. “The Emperor’s Snuff-Box” novelist John Dickson ___; 44. Mattress problem; 46. ___ outing; 49. Some linemen: Abbr.; 50. ESPN analyst Pasquarelli; 55. “Women and Love” writer; 57. City south of West Jordan on I-15; 59. Asian lang. Down: 7. ___ el Beida (Casablanca, to its natives); 10. A.T.M. receipt abbr.; 11. ___ Dai (last emperor of Vietnam); 20. Denom. with elders; 24. Touch; 28. Young fox; 30. 911 call, e.g.; 31. Org. involved with the gulf war; 33. From, in some names; 38. Big bump; 45. Offering of appeasement; 50. Asparagus’s family; 53. May days?: Abbr.; 54. Big D cager.

"Human Rights" - A Higher Form of Discrimination

"Human rights" laws are Orwellian doublespeak for giving "rights" to some people and taking them away from others.

Essentially, homosexuals, atheists and Jews have "human rights" while Christians, Muslims and heterosexuals don't. The laws empower minorities in order to disarm and disinherit the majority. They have nothing to do with justice; they are a tool of state coercion.

This is not hyperbole. In countries where these Masonic concepts of "human rights" and
"tolerance" were dominant ( i.e. Mexico, the USSR,) Christian schools were closed, churches burned and priests murdered.

This subtle coercion was underlined again yesterday here in Winnipeg when two married lesbians filed a human rights complaint against a Muslim MD. The female MD, from Egypt, suggested the lesbians find another doctor. She didn't refuse to treat them. She just said that in future find someone else because her religion proscribed homosexuality and she had no experience treating homosexuals. (The clinic offered the womyn another doctor but they declined.)

The local medical association said the MD will have to take more "orientation" courses. Why do the lesbians' genderless rights trump the doctor's religious rights? Because the laws are drafted by Rockefeller-based elitists to undermine heterosexuality and break up the nuclear family. These elitists don't give a fig about homosexuals. They want to subvert society by pushing homosexual dysfunction on heterosexuals. (They are mainstreaming homosexuality while making heterosexuality seem like a perversion i.e. domestic abuse etc.) Human Rights Commissions are staffed by feminists indoctrinated to uphold homosexual rights over religious rights.

Another example: A few months ago the Canadian Muslim Congress filed a complaint over a story by Jewish journalist Mark Steyn on the threat of Muslim world domination. The media blitzed the Canadian Human Rights Commission with indignant complaints about violations of free speech. The CHRC dutifully refused to hear the Muslim complaint. Can you imagine this happening if the article were on Jewish world domination?

Have you noticed that, despite the recession, atheists have money to burn? They can afford to take ads on buses questioning the existence of God. This campaign which began in the UK has come to Canada.

"There's probably no God" the ads say. That's "hate" in my book. Believe what you want but don't plaster it over buses. Everyone has their own conception of God. For me, God is synonymous with spiritual ideals like truth, beauty, harmony and love. So don't tell me there is no God. We are all in touch with God whether or not we believe in Him.

Again, this atheist campaign is just a front for the Illuminati cult that funds all "popular" movements (like feminism.) Getting people to be agnostics or atheists is a step toward eventually enthroning the AntiChrist or Lucifer.

This campaign is an affront to the 72% of Canadians who, according to polls, believe in God. How do they get away with it? The Canadian Jewish Congress hauled me up in front of the human rights commission for saying Pharisaic Judaism made its followers into "metaphysical outcasts." I didn't advertise on buses!

It's time we started taking this Luciferian hatred against God and His natural and spiritual (moral) order to "Human Rights" Commissions. Let's expose them for what they really are: instruments of globalist social engineering and discrimination.

To understand our "1984" world, we must recognize that it is controlled by a Satanic cult, the Illuminati: dynastic families belonging to Jewish finance and the European-American aristocracy united by marriage, money and Freemasonry (i.e. Jewish Cabalism.) Everything that happens, including the financial meltdown, is designed to institutionalize their sinister New World Order.

http://www.henrymakow.com/human_rights_the_ultimate_disc.html

Too Early Maybe Too Late

No matter what you say about the new US President Barack Hussein Obama, the swift and very fashionable reply from some head popped around the door seems to be, "It's just too early to tell."

In an unprecedented show of good will toward the Arab nations, President Obama held an interview with the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya Network. It was immediately hailed "a dramatic piece of public diplomacy aimed at capitalizing on the new American president's international popularity."

But President Obama dropped a large clanger in the works when he forgot to put what Palestine has just been put through before his administration's undying support for Israel.

Whoops! Never mind it's just too early to tell, right?

Then came the new US ambassador to the UN's comments. Susan Rice promised "vigorous" and "direct" nuclear diplomacy with Iran but appeared to be setting preconditions for possible talks. She threatened increased pressure if Tehran refused to halt uranium enrichment. Does that not sound like the last US administration's line?

OK,"One swallow does not a summer make."

On Iraq US troop pullout, reports of Obama's cries of let's get our boys home for God's sake, have rather mellowed to: the new President is being advised by a high-ranking defense team at the Pentagon on a number of options open to the US with regards to the country.

"Haste is the invention of the devil."

And President Obama's Middle East envoy George Mitchell arrived in Israel to call for the cease-fire to "be extended and consolidated" just as Israeli warplanes landed back at their base after having bombed the Gaza Strip again.

"Express not in haste the thoughts of thy mind, for thou canst reveal them."

Obama's Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton has also come up with the kind of talk on Iran that smacks of a not too distant collision course. She said Iran has a "clear opportunity" to demonstrate some willingness to engage meaningfully with the international community. That is patronizing condescension in any language.

"You can't judge a book by its cover."

Just over one week into Barack Obama's presidency, what has been left intact of his campaign promises is the order to close down Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba and a directive to cease all unconventional interrogation methods employed in CIA jailhouses around the world. But how will we ever know if the CIA indeed moves to stop such techniques, because after all, the CIA is a secret service and by definition, it can proceed as before in secret.

And we have run out of proverbs at this stage to get our point across.

The stalwart of the US foreign policy seldom stops to take note of objections by any new president. America's economics are based on owning the lion's share of the international markets and creation of new market environments overseas suitable to the US business operations. The US financial base is similarly finely tuned to operate.

There is very little left to be said to those who believe in the existence of a benevolent superpower; except if they stay up long enough next Christmas, they just might catch a glimpse of St. Nicholas climbing down their chimneys to leave them a present!

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=83997&sectionid=3510303

01.29.09 -- BAR

The Banishment of Rienzi

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Thursday, January 29, 2009

Puzzle by Barry C. Silk, edited by Will Shortz

BAR (66A. Word defined by 17-, 25-, 35-, 45- and 58-Across), LEGAL PROFESSION, BANISH BY DECREE, TAP ROOM, UNIT OF PRESSURE, MUSICAL NOTATION (all defined as See 66-Across) and LAW (60D. 66-Across topic) are the interrelated entries of this Thursday crossword.

ICAME (51A. Start of Caesar’s boast), IMAX (51D. Big film shower), IPASS (21A. Bridge declaration), IPHONE (15A. Time magazine’s 2007 Invention of the Year), IPODS (43A. Products once pitched by U2 and Eminem) are another group, all beginning with a set-apart letter I.

The remaining longer entries are AIRSPEED (20A. Cockpit datum); AMARILLO (54A. Texas panhandle city); MYSPACE (10D. News Corporation acquisition of 2005); MISTRALS (38D. Cold northerly winds of southern France); OILPAINT (4D. Artist’s application); STAMINA (41D. Endurance).

Mid-size -- ALIBI (26D. Out); ASONE (18D. In harmony); BARON (25D. Captain of industry); BORER (27D. Hole-making tool); 47D. “Get Shorty” novelist ELMORE Leonard; EVADE (Duck); GALEN (31A. Influential Greek physician); OUTWIT (4A. Best in mental combat); PATROL (62A. Soldiers may be on it); 44D. “PUTIT down!” (“Drop the gun!”); RAZOR (28D. Shadow remover); SEATON (48D. George who directed “Miracle on 34th Street”); THRESH (6D. Separate the wheat from the chaff); TWEENS (65A. Sixth graders, e.g.); UPPERS 5D. Amphetamines, e.g.).

Short stuff -- AKIN, APSE, APT, ASIN, ARFS, AVIA, CEOS, CUKE, EAVE, EEKS, ENGR, GIZA, GURU, GYRO, IDEO, INF, IZE, IOLA, LETT, LIMB, LOMA, MACS, MME, OARS, ONER, OPEC, ORE, OWN, POPE, ROBS, ROE, SSNS, TEE, URI, XENA, YVES, ZWEI.

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THE NEW YORK TIMES -- Crossword Puzzles and Games

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Remaining clues -- Across: 1. Suffix with social; 10. Some rain gear; 14. Hold one’s ___; 16. Jacques Cousteau’s middle name; 22. They’re inserted in locks; 23. City on the Nile; 32. 1/100 of a krone; 33. Roof projection; 34. Sch. With a Providence campus; 39. Ringo’s drummer son; 40. Plunders; 42. Some eggs; 49. Basilica part; 50. Riga resident; 61. Related; 63. Abbr. in French mail; 64. TV heroine who wielded a chakram as a weapon. Down: 1. Seat of Allen County, Kan.; 2. Deux : France :: ___ : Germany; 3. Technician: Abbr.; 7. Golf club; 8. Like Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony; 9. Place to start a hole; 11. New Balance competitor; 12. Business honchos; 13. I.R.S. data: Abbr.; 19. Tag info; 23. Greek restaurant offering; 24. Logical introduction?; 30. Mice might elicit them; 31. Wise guy; 36. Pet sounds; 37. The Swiss Guards guard him; 46. Crude letters?; 52. Salad veggie; 53. Q ___ queen; 54. Chip without dip?; 55. An arm or a leg; 56. ___ Linda, Calif.; 57. Humdinger; 59. Fitting.

Barack Obama should apologise for 60 years of 'crimes'

The hardline leader also called on Washington to withdraw its troops from across the world as a proof of Mr Obama's commitment to change.

"You were standing against the Iranian people in the past 60 years," Mr Ahmadinejad said during an address in the western region of Khermenshah that was broadcast by state television.

"Those who speak of change must apologise to the Iranian people and try to repair their past bad acts and the crimes they committed against Iran."

As to the troops, he said he expected two kinds of "deep and fundamental" change.

"Meet people, talk to them with respect and put an end to the expansionist policies. If you talk about change it must put an end to the US military presence in the world, withdraw your troops and take them back inside your borders."

Mr Ahmadinejad said the advocates of change must "stop supporting the Zionists, outlaws and criminals".

He called on the United States to "stop interfering in other people's affairs".

He also said the US government should "let the American people decide their own future ... Stop pressuring them," he added, without saying what he was referring to.

Mr Ahmadinejad said he welcomed change but the "change has to be fundamental".

"If someone wants to talk with us in the language that (George W) Bush used ... even if he uses new words, our response will be the same that we gave to Bush during the past years," he added.

Tensions between Washington and Tehran has been high over the latter's nuclear programme.

Mr Bush refused to hold talks with Iran until it stopped its nuclear work, but on Monday Mr Obama extended a diplomatic hand towards Tehran to break the deadlock.

In an interview with Al-Arabia television, Mr Obama promised to lay a framework for his policy towards Iran.

"As I said in my inauguration speech, if countries like Iran are willing to unclench their fist, they will find an extended hand from us.

"It is very important for us to make sure that we are using all the tools of US power, including diplomacy, in our relationship with Iran."

Also on Monday, Washington's UN ambassador, Susan Rice, pledged "direct" support to Tehran if it halts the nuclear programme.

The five permanent members of the UN Security Council – Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States – plus Germany have offered Tehran economic and energy incentives in exchange for halting its uranium enrichment programme.

But Tehran is pressing on with the work, insisting that its nuclear programme is peaceful and solely geared toward electricity generation.

The Security Council has already adopted four resolutions – three of which included sanctions – requiring Iran to suspend enrichment.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackobama/4370711/Mahmoud-Ahmadinejad-Barack-Obama-should-apologise-for-60-years-of-crimes.html

Obama’s Torture Loopholes

On January 22, 2009, President Obama signed a number of executive orders purporting to end the Bush administration’s abusive practices in dealing with treatment of terrorism suspects. Before Americans get too elated, however, they should look carefully at the inhumane interrogation practices these orders may still permit.

When first announced, the new president’s executive orders seemed cause for celebration, prompting the American Civil Liberties Union to feature a link on its website encouraging visitors to email the president and “Send Him Thanks!”

The ACLU summarized the new orders:

President Obama . . . ordered the closure of the prison camp at Guantánamo Bay within a year and the halting of its military commissions; the end of the use of torture; the shuttering of secret prisons around the world; and a review of the detention of the only U.S. resident being held indefinitely as a so-called “enemy combatant” on American soil. The detainee, Ali al-Marri, is the American Civil Liberties Union’s client in a case pending before the Supreme Court.

Like many reacting to the president’s orders, ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero expressed unbridled enthusiasm:

These executive orders represent a giant step forward. Putting an end to Guantanamo, torture and secret prisons is a civil liberties trifecta, and President Obama should be highly commended for this bold and decisive action so early in his administration on an issue so critical to restoring an America we can be proud of again.[1]

Torture by US officials has long been illegal, but the president’s executive order entitled “Ensuring Lawful Interrogations” seems to clarify, to some extent, what activities are proscribed. Disappointingly, though, this order contains loopholes big enough to drive a FEMA camp train through them.

Loophole 1: Torture is prohibited only of persons detained in an “armed conflict.”

The executive order applies only to “armed conflicts,” not counterterrorism operations.

The order states in part:

Consistent with the requirements of the Federal torture statute, . . . the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005, . . . the [United Nations] Convention Against Torture, [the Geneva Conventions] Common Article 3, and other laws regulating the treatment and interrogation of individuals detained in any armed conflict, such persons shall in all circumstances be treated humanely and shall not be subjected to violence to life and person (including murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment, and torture), nor to outrages upon personal dignity (including humiliating and degrading treatment), whenever such individuals are in the custody or under the effective control of an officer, employee, or other agent of the United States Government or detained within a facility owned, operated, or controlled by a department or agency of the United States [emphasis added].

This sounds salutary: America should not torture people detained in armed conflicts. But are such conflicts the only situations in which the US military, federal agencies, and private security companies can detain people today in the name of the war on terror?

Hardly. Many US and foreign citizens have been detained in counterterrorism operations, which another of Obama’s January 22 executive orders carefully differentiates from armed conflicts.

In that other executive order, entitled “Review of Detention Policy Options,” a special task force is commissioned to review procedures for detention suspects. This order clearly distinguishes between “armed conflicts” and “counterterrorism operations”:

The mission of the Special Task Force shall be to conduct a comprehensive review of the lawful options available to the Federal Government with respect to the apprehension, detention, trial, transfer, release, or other disposition of individuals captured or apprehended in connection with armed conflicts and counterterrorism operations, and to identify such options as are consistent with the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States and the interests of justice.

As the president has made this distinction, so should we.

To date, counterterrorism operations have resulted in hundreds of arrests of persons in America and abroad, having nothing whatever to do with any armed conflict. Does President Obama wish limits on what is done to these people when detained and interrogated? His executive order on torture is silent on the issue.

Moreover, we know that many Guantanamo detainees from Pakistan and Afghanistan were sold to US officials by bounty hunters paid up to $25,000 per detainee, regardless of innocence.[2] Are these persons to be considered “individuals detained in [an] armed conflict”? Or must they be arrested while fighting on the battlefield to fit this qualification? Put differently, are blameless, uneducated goat herders who were sold into detention by warlords and mercenaries exempted from the president’s clarified prohibition of torture, simply because they never stepped foot on a battlefield?

Another concern is the US military’s deployment in American cities, which began on October 1, 2008, according to the Army Times.[3] Perhaps this deployment is in preparation for social unrest in the event of an economic collapse. If martial law were declared in America , how would citizens be treated? What if they were detained in FEMA detention facilities? Could they be tortured under the umbrella of “counterterrorism operations” because that is different from “armed conflict”?

To Americans wishing to remain free of torture, a far greater threat than detention during armed conflict is that resulting from what the federal government labels as counterterrorism operations, conducted both on US soil and overseas. Unfortunately, President Obama has not yet clearly addressed torture in this category.

Loophole 2: Only the CIA must close detention centers.

President Obama has ordered the CIA to close detention centers, except those “used only to hold people on a short-term, transitory basis,” which can stay open indefinitely. Exactly how long a duration is “short-term” and “transitory” is unclear.

The executive order states:

The CIA shall close as expeditiously as possible any detention facilities that it currently operates and shall not operate any such detention facility in the future.

This sounds wonderful, but what about other federal agencies? Can the FBI, National Security Agency, Department of Homeland Security, and Defense Intelligence Agency maintain detention facilities where torture may occur? Can private military contractors like Blackwater do so? Under one interpretation of Obama’s executive order on torture, those facilities may still operate and even expand, provided the CIA doesn’t control them. Is it cynical to suspect this could be window dressing?

Loophole 3: Officials may still hide some detainees and abusive practices from the Red Cross.

On the Red Cross’s monitoring of detainees, the executive order reads:

All departments and agencies of the Federal Government shall provide the International Committee of the Red Cross with notification of, and timely access to, any individual detained in any armed conflict in the custody or under the effective control of an officer, employee, or other agent of the United States Government or detained within a facility owned, operated, or controlled by a department or agency of the United States Government, consistent with Department of Defense regulations and policies.

Here again, if a detainee is not one captured on the battlefield by US soldiers in an armed conflict, Obama’s order provides no guidance as to his fate. Government and private thugs may evidently still brutalize detainees obtained in counterterrorism operations and hide them from the Red Cross, unless and until the president issues a further executive order, or Congress passes a law, closing this loophole.

Loophole 4: Abuses not labeled “torture” may continue.

Obama’s executive order on torture does not label any particular practice “torture,” but instead requires that future interrogation practices conform to those outlined in the Army Field Manual. This may be in deference to Bush administration officials who authorized procedures like waterboarding while simultaneously declaring, “ America does not torture.” Debate in some circles will doubtless continue, therefore, over whether waterboarding; deprivation of food, water, and sleep; humiliation; and infliction of severe bodily pain and injury indeed constitute torture.

The executive order imparts the following limitations:

Effective immediately, an individual in the custody or under the effective control of an officer, employee, or other agent of the United States Government, or detained within a facility owned, operated, or controlled by a department or agency of the United States, in any armed conflict, shall not be subjected to any interrogation technique or approach, or any treatment related to interrogation, that is not authorized by and listed in Army Field Manual 2-22.3 (Manual). Interrogation techniques, approaches, and treatments described in the Manual shall be implemented strictly in accord with the principles, processes, conditions, and limitations the Manual prescribes [emphasis added].

By this language, waterboarding and other harsh interrogation procedures are prohibited by implication because they are not authorized by the Army Field Manual. But like other parts of Obama’s order, this prohibition apparently applies only to persons detained in an armed conflict. As discussed above, we are left to wonder whether detainees grabbed in counterterrorism operations can continue being tortured.

Conclusion

The loopholes in President Obama’s executive order on torture may permit cruel abuses of prisoners to continue, using a legal parlor trick. Labeling detainees the product of counterterrorism operations rather than of armed conflict, or holding detainees in detention facilities operated by entities other than the CIA, may allow government agents and private contractors conforming to the letter of the president’s order to continue practices most would consider torture. The president should close these loopholes or explain to Americans why he won’t.

James Hill is a partner in the law firm of McDermott Will & Emery, and a clinical assistant professor of radiology at the University of Southern California School of Medicine. The views expressed are solely his own. Global Research Articles by James Hill

Notes

[1] ACLU Press Release: President Obama Orders Guantánamo Closed And End To Torture; at
http://www.aclu.org/safefree/detention/38455prs20090122.html?s_src=RSS

[2] See: Andy Worthington: The Guantanamo Files: The Stories of the 759 Detainees in America 's Illegal Prison. Pluto Press, 2007; and: Jeffery Rosen: Voices of Victims (a review of My Guantanamo Diary: The Detainees and the Stories They Told Me, by Mahvish Rukhsana Khan). The New York Times, August 10, 2008, at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/10/books/review/Rosen-t.html?fta=y

[3] Gina Cavallaro: Brigade homeland tours start Oct. 1. Army Times, September 30, 2008, at
http//www.armytimes.com/news/2008/09/army_homeland_090708w

Flasback:

Guantánamo children

In a submission to the UN in May, the Pentagon said that no more than eight youths, aged 13 to 17 at time of capture, were held at Guantánamo Bay. But a prisoner list released in 2006 in response to US freedom of information act litigation names 21 inmates under 18 when they arrived. A separate defence department admission brings the total to 22. Testimonies collected by the charity Reprieve, which represents 30 inmates at Guantánamo, indicate the actual number is much higher.

Guantánamo's child prisoners came from all over the world: they were Afghan, Yemeni, Saudi, Russian, Uighuri, and Canadian. Five of them are still there. They are: Mohammed el Gharani, aged 14-15 when he was seized while praying in a Karachi mosque; Hassan bin Attash, aged 16-17 when seized in Pakistan, and rendered to Jordan where he endured 16 months of torture before being transferred; Faris Muslim Al Ansari, an Afghan-Yemeni who was 17 when captured; Mohamed Jawad, an Afghan who was 17 when seized and faces trial by military commission; and Omar Khadr.

Saudi citizen Yasser Talal Al Zahrani, 17 when captured, joined a prison-wide hunger strike in 2005. He was found dead in his cell in June 2006 after apparently killing himself. Guardian