Human Rights Watch published an article a few weeks ago about suspicions that the US government is using torture in its war against terrorism, even as it condemns it in Iraq. They quote an “unnamed American Official”:

“If you don’t violate someone’s human rights some of the time, you probably aren’t doing your job”

-Washington Post [12-26-2002]

Previously, Bush didn’t make distinctions:

We will make no distinction between the terrorists and those who support them. #

But when it comes to torture, the US is willing to employ torture subcontractors in Egypt, Jordan, and Morocco:

“We don’t kick the [expletive] out of them. We send them to other countries so they can kick the [expletive] out of them.”

-Washington Post [12-26-2002]

Related

• Washington Post: U.S. Decries Abuse but Defends Interrogations
• The Guardian: CIA accused of torture at Bagram base
• HRW: Reports of Torture of Al-Qaeda Suspects

Follow_up

• HRW: DOD Disavows Torture but does not deny charges
• Washington Post: Plan Would Let U.S. Deport Suspects to Nations That Might Torture Them [9-30-2004]
• New Yorker: Outsourcing Torture
• Soverign Immunity and Torture

The Bush Doctrine reminds me of the political philosophy class I took a few years ago: Wolfowitz (liberally paraphrased):

The challenge of the 21st century is the proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction, which make it possible for small groups of people to threaten countries. To prevent this, one nation is needed, whose power is beyond contest. The United States of America must be this Leviathan. #

Hobbes:

“Nature has made men so equal in the faculties of body, and mind; as that though there be found one man sometimes manifestly stronger in body, or of quicker mind that another; yet when all is reckoned together, the difference between man, and man, is not so considerable, as that one man can thereupon claim to himself any benefit, to which another may not pretend, as well as he. For as to the strength of body, the weakest hath strength enough to kill the strongest, either by secret machination, or by confederacy with others, that are in the same danger with himself.” #

– Leviathan Chapter 13

The US’s former allies do not support the “US as Leviathan” System and accuse it of violating Law 9:

“If nature therefore have made men equal, that equality is to be acknowledged: or if nature have made men unequal, yet because men that think themselves equal will not enter into conditions of peace, but upon equal terms, such equality must be admitted. And therefore for the ninth law of nature, I put this: that every man acknowledge another for his equal by nature. The breach of this precept is pride.” #

-Leviathan Chapter 15

London Times war correspondent Christina Lamb is called a ‘unilateral’ journalist because she she is not “embedded”. Her interview on Irish Radio starts at 1 hr 16 min and runs until 1:29

(Link broken)

A California Congressman has drafted a law that would require postwar Iraq use the CDMA cell phone standard. The bill would benefit Qualcomm corporation, whose headquarters are in his district and set the tone for Iraq’s post war reconstruction.

Darrell Issa demagogues for his cause by calling the competion (GSM) an “outdated French standard”. The important question to ask is not what an American Congressman wants, but what is in the best interests of Iraq.

GSM already has 60 million customers in the region and coverage in:

• Kuwait
• Jordan
• Israel
• Turkey
• Saudi Arabia
• Egypt
• Syria
• Iran

America is not likely to gain new friends in the region if exhiles and visitors to Iraq need to purchase new dual chip cell phones.

Related

• Darell Issa’s Letter: Parlez-vous francais?
• Congressional Lawmakers Balk At Plan To Deploy French/German Cell Phone Technology In Post-War Iraq

GSM’s response

• The Guardian: Battle over Iraqi mobile network begins Internet
• News: CDMA Pushed on Postwar Iraq News.com: Legislator makes call for Qualcomm
• Salon: To the victor go the spoils
• Wall Street Journal: Lawmaker Wants Postwar Iraq To Use Qualcomm Technology, by Jesse Drucker
• Reuters: Lawmaker Urges U.S. Wireless Standard for Iraq Slashdot: CDMA vs. GSM in Post-war Iraq
• Computer World: Citing antiwar views in Europe, U.S. lawmaker pushes CDMA technology

 

Update

U.S. push for CDMA standard rebuffed