Imprisoned without charges for fourteen years in Guantánamo, Mohamedou Slahi is a symbol of humans' impulse to abuse power and their capacity for redemption.
As a conservative, I now have to self-censor quite a bit. And I recall having to keep my mouth shut when the "Patriot" act was passed those many years ago. Same as it ever was, I guess.
While I frequently state the US has done more good for more people in more countries for a longer period of time than any country in history, stories like this are part of the awful doings of the US, just like any global power throughout history. I simply cannot fathom how any "system" of a "free" country could behave like this for 14 years. Apart from any legal or constitutional issues, it just is not fair.
At the same time, there seems to be no value for a politician standing on principal, so why bother taking the "right" stance when it will only cost you?
They got away with it because media propaganda works. When bush was bombing and they realized people weren’t accepting, they put forward Obama who “hypnotized” everyone, got a novel peace prize amd couldn’t be criticized without being called racist. Everyone went to sleep while Obomber bombed and did the same thing as bush. Then everyone voted out “Hitler” by voting in the senile old man who got endorsed by bush and obomber. Unity and healing!
I want to move to US (immigrant in Canada currently) because I love the US constitution and think there’s need for more people who uphold it. I hate the politicians on both sides. The constitution is worth saving and right now it’s been used as toilet paper.
The most important way to self censor is to speak only from principles....that way only an obvious cad can attack what you say!! Every subject can be addressed that way....no politics, no country, no persons, none of that.....actions described and comment from principles such as justice, honesty, business ethics, compassion, etc.
Immigrant in Canada here who wants to move to US eventually. I am in the same boat as you. I hate identity politics and consider the democrat politicians to be the party of evil and republicans politicians to be the party of incompetent cucks.
For sure. It's a uniparty when it comes to military industrial complex and not helping Americans. I just consider Democrat party to be more evil because Democrats use identity politics as a way to hide their evil. Republicans just bomb the brown kids. Democrats bomb them in the name of "unity and healing" and "building back better". And when they do, people are so hypnotized by a black president that they cannot see no evil.
Well, it looks like the Dems are canceling Lincoln, so I suppose Reps should reclaim the founder of the Reps, but the Dems will just say, "Racist! Racist! See! See!"
'President Obama — who so flamboyantly campaigned in 2008 on the promise to close the camp — instead had his Justice Department appeal the ruling in Slahi’s favor in order to keep him encaged. ' The same man who got a Nobel Peace Prize imprisoning a man who - by all accounts - sounds like the embodiment of peace.
They got away with it because media propaganda works. When bush was bombing and they realized people weren’t accepting, they put forward Obama who “hypnotized” everyone, got a novel peace prize amd couldn’t be criticized without being called racist. Everyone went to sleep while Obomber bombed and did the same thing as bush. Then everyone voted out “Hitler” by voting in the senile old man who got endorsed by bush and obomber. Unity and healing!
Power over the powerless is so intoxicating to those who govern. Unfortunately the partisan divide is so deep even the most common sense efforts to rein in government is seen as unnecessary by whatever party is in power. The illusion we are free continues as we give away our rights little by little to those giddy with power. All is good until they come for me. By then it is too late.
"It cannot be disputed that limitless power was placed in the hands of the U.S. Government to imprison, to monitor, to surveil, to kidnap and to kill anyone it wanted, anywhere in the world, with no checks." - Glenn Greenwald
All that and more: the Global War on Terror also gave the POTUS the power to wage endless war. Since 2001, the U.S. & its allies have dropped at least 325,890 bombs - that's an average of 46 bombs and missiles EVERY SINGLE DAY for almost 20 years. Millions have died, many millions have been injured or maimed, and still millions more have become refugees fleeing the relentless barrage. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/56405.htm. The GWOT has made the world more dangerous for us all.
Why? My theory is primarily twofold. First, the WoT provides the west with a continuous supply of veteran troops and supplying the same to a legitimately threatening nation. It is difficult to overstate the advantage this would provide in a large scale engagement.
Second, it focuses and habituates the more violent elements of society toward the State's chosen agents. It invests the kind of men who might fight against tyranny in the tyranny itself. Imagine how difficult it would be to accept that you have killed and subjugated for an evil regime, and then fight against it.
Secondary effects like public fear mongering, economic stimulus, etc. are just gravy on the biscuit.
OT but maybe Glenn will be pleased to hear that we just adopted a rescue dog. He comes from Alabama and was transported to the shelter in Boston where I volunteer. I met him first on Tuesday and took him home on Friday. He, now named Rocco, and Lucy, our 3-year old rescue, are getting along great, as you see https://i.imgur.com/kj5lp1X.jpeg
Congratulations. I love dogs. Not that many years ago I had 5, 2 were old foundlings off the street who lived to 16 and 17 according to the vet. Dogs live longer when they have other dogs for company, just like people. My neighbor told me only white trash has so many dogs, so I bought a tee shirt that said you couldn't have too many dogs, and told him I would fill in his picture of me by no longer having my lawn mowed, and maybe I would let the car in my driveway grow old and rust, and leave it there. They're all gone, and now only 2. I've been thinking about another one.
I took in a stray border collie and she had puppies....we kept 5, placing one. They all lived long lives and behind me are 3 who are 13 and just got a clean bill of health. You are absolutely right....pack animals like dogs and guinea pigs should always have companions. I told my vet they should prescribe it and give discounts to encourage it.
The vets here make you call from the car and turn your pet over to an assistant....it is getting a little folksy with people chatting outside, etc. But I plan on bringing this up again when it's possible. Thanks!
He was older then us, and he developed alzheimer's, and became really nice, and always wanted to take my dogs for walks, and play with them, but of course I didn't let him take them for walks. Strange.
The first war on terror was horrific and took up my earliest years of life. The second is happening in my early adulthood. Must be fought, but first, called out.
On 9/11, my wife was 4 months pregnant with my first child. Can you imagine our horror at what was done to us, you and me? We didn't know what the future held in store.
I, and my family, WILL fight Authoritarian Socialism (the police State), but I will fight separately from you, unless I hear an expression of righteous indignation also at what was done to US on 9/11.
Oh I understand. 9/11 was a horrifying experience for many people. It killed thousands and destroyed the most famous, popular buildings in the Americas. I understand that many embraced the war on terror out of fear. In some ways, it may be justified and I mean no blame on you.
You can fight separately from me or with me. Either way, we should be on the same side.
I don’t know which side I fall on on that. I was too young at that time. What I do wonder is whether the opinion has changed now vs what it used to be back then when things happened? It’s much easier for us to say something was or wasn’t justified after things have already played out.
Same as Assad and how can we forget Gaddafi. Gaddafi was no angel but at least he didn't allow slaves. Thanks to the regime change, now we have slavery back in Libya.
When you're so abused, as he was, your only option is to attain acceptance, or in his case, forgiveness. It is the only way to take back your life rather then allow the abuse to destroy and consume it with rage and revenge. He's fortunately an articulate man who has been able to use what happened to him to write a book, now a movie, and that's a great way to get back at your abusers, articulate what happened to you, a kind of therapy, and let the world acknowledge the injustice of what America did to you and what it continues to do to others. I would love to see the movie, and I can see it at home. I wanted those who were culpable punished, but never had a hawkish view on finding those who were responsible, and I hope many on this site didn't feel our many criminal abuses in pursuing those responsible was acceptable, or would want it repeated. I think most wouldn't. I didn't want them to kill osama bin Laden, and wanted to here his side of the story.
Yes! The people needed to see and hear OBL, before he was sentenced. The State does not trust us. OBLs will keep coming (blowback) until the State is made to trust US.
When 9/11 happened I was working in Queens, but family were in Manhattan. Scary, but a lot of questions afterwards. I try not to get into conspiracy theories, but it was shocking that some 19 hijackers could abscond with four of our planes bound for different places, and except for the one that crashed in PA the others hit their targets. Wow, does our security system suck. I hate providing excuses for their despicable behavior after 9/11, but maybe they were over compensating for their total ineptitude in terms of providing security, and sending a message to the world, mess with us again, and things will only get worse. Do I believe that? I don't know. I don't know if you are familiar with the Project for a New American Century, but it certainly wanted to take down countries in the Middle East, which we did, and before 9/11 they stated all we need is another Pearl Harbor and we can do it. They certainly used 9/11 to carry through the neocon agenda. You've heard of Kristol and Kagan, now talking heads for the democrats.
The Russians really won that war, and was it necessary for us to be there, well, I just don't know, but our liberty ships got a lot of ammo to them. Of course it was quite unnecessary, well a horror, for Truman to drop those atomic bombs on Japan, and all of this was followed by more death and destruction in the following 60 years, often on a covert level in South America, in Indonesia, including the middle east, and of course there was Vietnam. I don't think people realize who we really are, and I'm not talking about the people, but the government. I was so happy, no war in the last 4 years, but now what?
I won't argue your position about WWII, and the necessity for us to be in that war, and as far as the Russian death toll is concerned I'm no expert on that, but the war was also fought on their soil and certainly one reason for the high death toll. I don't agree that our fear of communism is, or was rational, and it has always been used as an excuse to gain greater US dominance in the world.
According to news reports (and Bhutto in an interview with David Frost), OBL died from kidney disease in the fall of 2001. He had Marfan’s Syndrome and was treated many times in several major medical centers, and was visited by a CIA station chief while hospitalized in the summer of 2001.
Interesting how he was on near constant dialysis but yet was able to orchestrate the implosion of 3 major NYC skyscrapers in one day! Plus destroying just one corner of The Pentagon where an audit of two trillion dollars that were “lost” (according to Rumsfeld the day prior) was on-going!
And a stand-down order for the entire eastern US military!
Damn! That OBL, even on his deathbed was some incredible mastermind of destruction! (Cough)
This is also why I didn’t see a single thing wrong in what Gina Carano tweeted. Media is already treating trump supporters as less than human, talking about re-education camps, AOC tweeting about making lists of trump supporters and getting them fired from their jobs and what not. If they keep poking the bear this way, soon the bear won’t have anything to lose.
Your replay sounds like it's directed at me for disparaging Trump Supporters. I do not do that. My statement about them being sent somewhere was making fun of the view many others in the media hold. And yes, I largely agree with your comment.
Events sometimes come full circle, and those who accepted the foreign War on Terror will be the most likely recipients of the domestic and substantially refined version.
And to think. Men and women once braved a brutal and unforgiving frontier for a chance at freedom. Now it has come to this, a nation cowering from an enemy that poses no rational threat to it. One willing to abandon its soul entire to avoid even the slightest chance of harm. And for what? A few more years of deteriorating health and more junk to throw in a storage facility? Embarrassing.
Look forward to watching the movie. I was one of those Americans who was so angry after 9/11 that I roughly fell into the "Time to take the gloves off." camp. Terrible fact patterns like this one suffered by Mr. Slahi indicate that Glenn's civil liberties concerns regarding GWOT (global war on terror) were entirely warranted and that my dismissal of those concerns was wrong. It seems Glenn has been entirely consistent for twenty years; the inconsistency is who constitutes his detractors.
Thanks for the canary in the coal mine.....the prospect of Patriot 2021 is not so much shocking as fatalistic.
History suggests that the US swings to an extreme (think McCarthy or WW2 internment) but we, over time, swing back.
Not so sure this time we will be able to swing back but Mr. Slahi's perspective on forgiveness is inspirational and calming.
DIFFERENT SUBJECT:
Your business and productivity is admirable. However, please keep breaks / vacations in mind. And work to avoid PVBs (post-vacation blues) but having a future trip planned after your conclude your next well-earned break.
Glenn I donated to your work with homeless animals and it inspited me to adopt another homeless kitten. The article on Mr Slahi was powerful and what a hero he is. My assistant is ordering 5 copies his book Guantanamo Diaries and my church group and I will wath the video this weekend. One minor suggestion which, if not of value, please toss aside: I would consider adding in your articles the potential that our overreaching government will use legislation 1021 which at one page long, is buried in the NDAA in the counterterrorism section. To my amatuer eye 1021 is the Patriot Act on steroids and could, if implimented be ironically, as dangerous to any American's liberty-including those imlementing it- as it is so inclusive as to make anyone vulnerable to arrest, without charges or habeau Corpus. If it is helpful here is short article about it: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/dear-americans-this-law-makes-it-possible-to-arrest_b_57c9b648e4b06c750dd9cd6f . Judge Spring wrote a brilliant opinion in the first Federal court siding with the defendent that the legislation was unconsitutional in Hedge versus Obama. Sadly, soon after, it is my understanding, the DOJ requested a stay arguing no standing for defendent and the case was not accepted at Appeals Court. In my opinion, the legislation 1021 is a serious issue that has the potential to do great harm as few Americans talk about and even less are aware of. Perhaps you could waive in with your expertise as I am hoping I am wrong about the legislation's potential danger to hurt our freedoms in these Orwelian times. Most important keep up the fine work.Thank you, Steve
The story has always been same. In Soviet Union in the 1930s OGPU/NKVD tortured confessions out of people about digging tunnels from Moscow to Washington or New York or being a spy of ten foreigin nations, all at the same time.
Some people thought the crazier confession they would give the likelier someone "up there" was to see that "a terrible mistake was made" and let them go.
That was very naive. No official would ever admit making up evidence let alone having been fooled. No one "up there" was interested in justice either. The order of the day was "if you did not find a reason to charge a suspect with a capital crime, you did not try hard enough".
I think some US govt officials have been building their careers on same principle except executions have been replaced with asset forfeiture and decades in prison -- so far. If We the People keep playing along, I have little doubt the capital punishments will follow soon, en masse.
As a conservative, I now have to self-censor quite a bit. And I recall having to keep my mouth shut when the "Patriot" act was passed those many years ago. Same as it ever was, I guess.
While I frequently state the US has done more good for more people in more countries for a longer period of time than any country in history, stories like this are part of the awful doings of the US, just like any global power throughout history. I simply cannot fathom how any "system" of a "free" country could behave like this for 14 years. Apart from any legal or constitutional issues, it just is not fair.
At the same time, there seems to be no value for a politician standing on principal, so why bother taking the "right" stance when it will only cost you?
Mr. Slahi seems to be an incredible individual.
"Apart from any legal or constitutional issues, it just is not fair."
Correction: "it's just plain evil."
They got away with it because media propaganda works. When bush was bombing and they realized people weren’t accepting, they put forward Obama who “hypnotized” everyone, got a novel peace prize amd couldn’t be criticized without being called racist. Everyone went to sleep while Obomber bombed and did the same thing as bush. Then everyone voted out “Hitler” by voting in the senile old man who got endorsed by bush and obomber. Unity and healing!
I want to move to US (immigrant in Canada currently) because I love the US constitution and think there’s need for more people who uphold it. I hate the politicians on both sides. The constitution is worth saving and right now it’s been used as toilet paper.
The most important way to self censor is to speak only from principles....that way only an obvious cad can attack what you say!! Every subject can be addressed that way....no politics, no country, no persons, none of that.....actions described and comment from principles such as justice, honesty, business ethics, compassion, etc.
Immigrant in Canada here who wants to move to US eventually. I am in the same boat as you. I hate identity politics and consider the democrat politicians to be the party of evil and republicans politicians to be the party of incompetent cucks.
For sure. It's a uniparty when it comes to military industrial complex and not helping Americans. I just consider Democrat party to be more evil because Democrats use identity politics as a way to hide their evil. Republicans just bomb the brown kids. Democrats bomb them in the name of "unity and healing" and "building back better". And when they do, people are so hypnotized by a black president that they cannot see no evil.
This lifelong Republican (sorry, lesser of two evils for me) certainly learned his middle-age lesson in the aughts.
Well, it looks like the Dems are canceling Lincoln, so I suppose Reps should reclaim the founder of the Reps, but the Dems will just say, "Racist! Racist! See! See!"
'President Obama — who so flamboyantly campaigned in 2008 on the promise to close the camp — instead had his Justice Department appeal the ruling in Slahi’s favor in order to keep him encaged. ' The same man who got a Nobel Peace Prize imprisoning a man who - by all accounts - sounds like the embodiment of peace.
What a farcical world we live in.
I think the term for Obama's Nobel Peace Prize is "aspirational".
They got away with it because media propaganda works. When bush was bombing and they realized people weren’t accepting, they put forward Obama who “hypnotized” everyone, got a novel peace prize amd couldn’t be criticized without being called racist. Everyone went to sleep while Obomber bombed and did the same thing as bush. Then everyone voted out “Hitler” by voting in the senile old man who got endorsed by bush and obomber. Unity and healing!
Well, except the part where he joined a group of asymmetrical warfighters.
It is not the press that hypnotizes you, it is just the Americans who live on the island of their superiority. The press is just a mirror.
Power over the powerless is so intoxicating to those who govern. Unfortunately the partisan divide is so deep even the most common sense efforts to rein in government is seen as unnecessary by whatever party is in power. The illusion we are free continues as we give away our rights little by little to those giddy with power. All is good until they come for me. By then it is too late.
There is no partisan divide when it comes to the duopoly's endless passion for Authoritarianism.
"It cannot be disputed that limitless power was placed in the hands of the U.S. Government to imprison, to monitor, to surveil, to kidnap and to kill anyone it wanted, anywhere in the world, with no checks." - Glenn Greenwald
All that and more: the Global War on Terror also gave the POTUS the power to wage endless war. Since 2001, the U.S. & its allies have dropped at least 325,890 bombs - that's an average of 46 bombs and missiles EVERY SINGLE DAY for almost 20 years. Millions have died, many millions have been injured or maimed, and still millions more have become refugees fleeing the relentless barrage. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/56405.htm. The GWOT has made the world more dangerous for us all.
Why? My theory is primarily twofold. First, the WoT provides the west with a continuous supply of veteran troops and supplying the same to a legitimately threatening nation. It is difficult to overstate the advantage this would provide in a large scale engagement.
Second, it focuses and habituates the more violent elements of society toward the State's chosen agents. It invests the kind of men who might fight against tyranny in the tyranny itself. Imagine how difficult it would be to accept that you have killed and subjugated for an evil regime, and then fight against it.
Secondary effects like public fear mongering, economic stimulus, etc. are just gravy on the biscuit.
*troops while not supplying
This is why your $50 was the best money I spent all year. Keep it up!
Same. I am more right leaning but I subscribed to GG for quality journalism and criticism of both sides.
I'm starting to feel like I've ripped off GG.
Pass out the 1-month gift subscriptions like they are candy.
"Don't worry, man. The first one's free."
I think that's how I got addicted.
OT but maybe Glenn will be pleased to hear that we just adopted a rescue dog. He comes from Alabama and was transported to the shelter in Boston where I volunteer. I met him first on Tuesday and took him home on Friday. He, now named Rocco, and Lucy, our 3-year old rescue, are getting along great, as you see https://i.imgur.com/kj5lp1X.jpeg
Congrats! He's beautiful.
Congratulations. I love dogs. Not that many years ago I had 5, 2 were old foundlings off the street who lived to 16 and 17 according to the vet. Dogs live longer when they have other dogs for company, just like people. My neighbor told me only white trash has so many dogs, so I bought a tee shirt that said you couldn't have too many dogs, and told him I would fill in his picture of me by no longer having my lawn mowed, and maybe I would let the car in my driveway grow old and rust, and leave it there. They're all gone, and now only 2. I've been thinking about another one.
I took in a stray border collie and she had puppies....we kept 5, placing one. They all lived long lives and behind me are 3 who are 13 and just got a clean bill of health. You are absolutely right....pack animals like dogs and guinea pigs should always have companions. I told my vet they should prescribe it and give discounts to encourage it.
Did he buy the discount part?
The vets here make you call from the car and turn your pet over to an assistant....it is getting a little folksy with people chatting outside, etc. But I plan on bringing this up again when it's possible. Thanks!
I'm in NY and it's the same here.
Better to be white trash than PMC, eh?
Well Tom if PMC stands for having PreMenstrual cramps your definitely right. I don't know these abbreviations.
White trash like Doris Day and Betty White.....what a snotty neighbor.
He was older then us, and he developed alzheimer's, and became really nice, and always wanted to take my dogs for walks, and play with them, but of course I didn't let him take them for walks. Strange.
That explains why God is so patient with all of us....
I like your response.
The first war on terror was horrific and took up my earliest years of life. The second is happening in my early adulthood. Must be fought, but first, called out.
I agree wholeheartedly. But....
On 9/11, my wife was 4 months pregnant with my first child. Can you imagine our horror at what was done to us, you and me? We didn't know what the future held in store.
I, and my family, WILL fight Authoritarian Socialism (the police State), but I will fight separately from you, unless I hear an expression of righteous indignation also at what was done to US on 9/11.
Oh I understand. 9/11 was a horrifying experience for many people. It killed thousands and destroyed the most famous, popular buildings in the Americas. I understand that many embraced the war on terror out of fear. In some ways, it may be justified and I mean no blame on you.
You can fight separately from me or with me. Either way, we should be on the same side.
That's all I needed! We fight together.
And I don't think our response to 9/11 WAS justified.
I don’t know which side I fall on on that. I was too young at that time. What I do wonder is whether the opinion has changed now vs what it used to be back then when things happened? It’s much easier for us to say something was or wasn’t justified after things have already played out.
Most certainly it has, and for good reason. Yes, hindsight is a spouting poster's (me) best friend.
And since the response to 9/11 is a loooong and complicated subject, take my one sentence opinion about it for what it's worth.
Same as Assad and how can we forget Gaddafi. Gaddafi was no angel but at least he didn't allow slaves. Thanks to the regime change, now we have slavery back in Libya.
When you're so abused, as he was, your only option is to attain acceptance, or in his case, forgiveness. It is the only way to take back your life rather then allow the abuse to destroy and consume it with rage and revenge. He's fortunately an articulate man who has been able to use what happened to him to write a book, now a movie, and that's a great way to get back at your abusers, articulate what happened to you, a kind of therapy, and let the world acknowledge the injustice of what America did to you and what it continues to do to others. I would love to see the movie, and I can see it at home. I wanted those who were culpable punished, but never had a hawkish view on finding those who were responsible, and I hope many on this site didn't feel our many criminal abuses in pursuing those responsible was acceptable, or would want it repeated. I think most wouldn't. I didn't want them to kill osama bin Laden, and wanted to here his side of the story.
Yes! The people needed to see and hear OBL, before he was sentenced. The State does not trust us. OBLs will keep coming (blowback) until the State is made to trust US.
Is OBL really dead?
When 9/11 happened I was working in Queens, but family were in Manhattan. Scary, but a lot of questions afterwards. I try not to get into conspiracy theories, but it was shocking that some 19 hijackers could abscond with four of our planes bound for different places, and except for the one that crashed in PA the others hit their targets. Wow, does our security system suck. I hate providing excuses for their despicable behavior after 9/11, but maybe they were over compensating for their total ineptitude in terms of providing security, and sending a message to the world, mess with us again, and things will only get worse. Do I believe that? I don't know. I don't know if you are familiar with the Project for a New American Century, but it certainly wanted to take down countries in the Middle East, which we did, and before 9/11 they stated all we need is another Pearl Harbor and we can do it. They certainly used 9/11 to carry through the neocon agenda. You've heard of Kristol and Kagan, now talking heads for the democrats.
The Russians really won that war, and was it necessary for us to be there, well, I just don't know, but our liberty ships got a lot of ammo to them. Of course it was quite unnecessary, well a horror, for Truman to drop those atomic bombs on Japan, and all of this was followed by more death and destruction in the following 60 years, often on a covert level in South America, in Indonesia, including the middle east, and of course there was Vietnam. I don't think people realize who we really are, and I'm not talking about the people, but the government. I was so happy, no war in the last 4 years, but now what?
I won't argue your position about WWII, and the necessity for us to be in that war, and as far as the Russian death toll is concerned I'm no expert on that, but the war was also fought on their soil and certainly one reason for the high death toll. I don't agree that our fear of communism is, or was rational, and it has always been used as an excuse to gain greater US dominance in the world.
Yes. 245 years. When will the politicians learn to follow and trust the people?
According to news reports (and Bhutto in an interview with David Frost), OBL died from kidney disease in the fall of 2001. He had Marfan’s Syndrome and was treated many times in several major medical centers, and was visited by a CIA station chief while hospitalized in the summer of 2001.
Interesting how he was on near constant dialysis but yet was able to orchestrate the implosion of 3 major NYC skyscrapers in one day! Plus destroying just one corner of The Pentagon where an audit of two trillion dollars that were “lost” (according to Rumsfeld the day prior) was on-going!
And a stand-down order for the entire eastern US military!
Damn! That OBL, even on his deathbed was some incredible mastermind of destruction! (Cough)
If someone is to be executed in MY name, then I must SEE it.
So glad he is at least done with that ordeal, as much as person can be done with it. I wonder to what camps will 70 million Trump Supporters be sent?
Keep letting the left have their way, it’s called mass graves…
I want to be a chef in the gulags. Since there isn’t much food, I won’t have to do much work either. I think.
What if you're forced to prepare "soylent green"?
I’ll probably jump in the grinder myself.
This is also why I didn’t see a single thing wrong in what Gina Carano tweeted. Media is already treating trump supporters as less than human, talking about re-education camps, AOC tweeting about making lists of trump supporters and getting them fired from their jobs and what not. If they keep poking the bear this way, soon the bear won’t have anything to lose.
Your replay sounds like it's directed at me for disparaging Trump Supporters. I do not do that. My statement about them being sent somewhere was making fun of the view many others in the media hold. And yes, I largely agree with your comment.
Events sometimes come full circle, and those who accepted the foreign War on Terror will be the most likely recipients of the domestic and substantially refined version.
And to think. Men and women once braved a brutal and unforgiving frontier for a chance at freedom. Now it has come to this, a nation cowering from an enemy that poses no rational threat to it. One willing to abandon its soul entire to avoid even the slightest chance of harm. And for what? A few more years of deteriorating health and more junk to throw in a storage facility? Embarrassing.
Happy Birthday a couple of days ago, Glenn. Hope it was joyous. Thanks for your good work. You are a light that we all need these days.
Look forward to watching the movie. I was one of those Americans who was so angry after 9/11 that I roughly fell into the "Time to take the gloves off." camp. Terrible fact patterns like this one suffered by Mr. Slahi indicate that Glenn's civil liberties concerns regarding GWOT (global war on terror) were entirely warranted and that my dismissal of those concerns was wrong. It seems Glenn has been entirely consistent for twenty years; the inconsistency is who constitutes his detractors.
Thanks for the canary in the coal mine.....the prospect of Patriot 2021 is not so much shocking as fatalistic.
History suggests that the US swings to an extreme (think McCarthy or WW2 internment) but we, over time, swing back.
Not so sure this time we will be able to swing back but Mr. Slahi's perspective on forgiveness is inspirational and calming.
DIFFERENT SUBJECT:
Your business and productivity is admirable. However, please keep breaks / vacations in mind. And work to avoid PVBs (post-vacation blues) but having a future trip planned after your conclude your next well-earned break.
Thanks for all.
Glenn I donated to your work with homeless animals and it inspited me to adopt another homeless kitten. The article on Mr Slahi was powerful and what a hero he is. My assistant is ordering 5 copies his book Guantanamo Diaries and my church group and I will wath the video this weekend. One minor suggestion which, if not of value, please toss aside: I would consider adding in your articles the potential that our overreaching government will use legislation 1021 which at one page long, is buried in the NDAA in the counterterrorism section. To my amatuer eye 1021 is the Patriot Act on steroids and could, if implimented be ironically, as dangerous to any American's liberty-including those imlementing it- as it is so inclusive as to make anyone vulnerable to arrest, without charges or habeau Corpus. If it is helpful here is short article about it: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/dear-americans-this-law-makes-it-possible-to-arrest_b_57c9b648e4b06c750dd9cd6f . Judge Spring wrote a brilliant opinion in the first Federal court siding with the defendent that the legislation was unconsitutional in Hedge versus Obama. Sadly, soon after, it is my understanding, the DOJ requested a stay arguing no standing for defendent and the case was not accepted at Appeals Court. In my opinion, the legislation 1021 is a serious issue that has the potential to do great harm as few Americans talk about and even less are aware of. Perhaps you could waive in with your expertise as I am hoping I am wrong about the legislation's potential danger to hurt our freedoms in these Orwelian times. Most important keep up the fine work.Thank you, Steve
The story has always been same. In Soviet Union in the 1930s OGPU/NKVD tortured confessions out of people about digging tunnels from Moscow to Washington or New York or being a spy of ten foreigin nations, all at the same time.
Some people thought the crazier confession they would give the likelier someone "up there" was to see that "a terrible mistake was made" and let them go.
That was very naive. No official would ever admit making up evidence let alone having been fooled. No one "up there" was interested in justice either. The order of the day was "if you did not find a reason to charge a suspect with a capital crime, you did not try hard enough".
I think some US govt officials have been building their careers on same principle except executions have been replaced with asset forfeiture and decades in prison -- so far. If We the People keep playing along, I have little doubt the capital punishments will follow soon, en masse.
Thank you Glenn.