Monday, April 14, 2008

Soviet Union lives again

The more things change the more they are the same.

A friend of mine (OK OK - one of my favorite bloggers - lets not get ahead of ourselves) Digby, from digbysblog.blogspot.com blog (go read that blog now - it is THE best blog out of all the mainstream liberal poltiical blogs), has been harping and is incredulous about a particular admission from our wonderful president.

This admission (source - washingtonpost.com:

President Bush said Friday that he was aware his top national security advisers had discussed the details of harsh interrogation tactics to be used on detainees.

Bush also said in an interview with ABC News that he approved of the meetings(...)

Bush suggested in the interview that no one should be surprised that his senior advisers, including Vice President Cheney, would discuss details of the interrogation program(...)

The Washington Post first reported in January 2005 that proposed CIA interrogation techniques were discussed at several White House meetings.


This next one is important, as it names names and what was discussed/approved:
The Post reported that the attendees at one or more of these sessions included then-presidential counsel Alberto R. Gonzales, then-Attorney General John D. Ashcroft, then-Defense Department general counsel William J. Haynes II, then-National Security Council legal adviser John B. Bellinger III, CIA counsel John A. Rizzo, and David S. Addington, then-counsel to Cheney.

The Post reported that the methods discussed included open-handed slapping, the threat of live burial and waterboarding. The threat of live burial was rejected, according to an official familiar with the meetings.

Got that?

Then-presidential counsel Alberto R. Gonzales, then-Attorney General John D. Ashcroft, then-Defense Department general counsel William J. Haynes II, then-National Security Council legal adviser John B. Bellinger III, CIA counsel John A. Rizzo, and David S. Addington, then-counsel to Cheney


discussed AND approved

open-handed slapping, the threat of live burial and waterboarding.

Oh sorry, apparently the threat of live burial was rejected (me thinks that it was too time consuming and too elaborate a torture device, while punching somebody and drowning them take no time at all).

One of my favorite books is Russia - The People and the Power by Robert G. Kaiser. The book was written in the heyday of communism, and is very out of date now, in the Putin post communist era.

One of the things in this book that struck me were the author's examples of just how different the Soviet Union as a system was to our Western system - of values, governance, culture...

The one example that is still stuck in my mind is about Khrushchev discussing a trip of a concert pianist to the West, to give some performances.

The rest of the Politburo (party big wigs) were dead set against the trip, as the pianist was Jewish and they were very afraid that he would escape to the West and so embarrass the Soviet Union. Khruschev stuck to his decision and allowed the artist to perform his concerts in the West, satisfyingly noting that the man "came back".

The author of the book asks what other country's leaders would concern themselves with the minutiae of letting a pianist perform in other countries? He considered this an insanity, a sign of the profound alienness of the system...


Well, Mr. Kaiser - Welcome to America, Anno Domini 2008!

Where this country's leaders concern themselves with the minutiae (details) of how to torture a man, how to beat up a man, how to drown a man.

I never imagined, when I ran away from communism in the 1980's, that I would end up... in the Soviet Union, circa 1980...

Bonus Material:
This article makes for a chilling reading after the one just below it, spy Satellites, "The spy satellites that spied on the Soviet Union, the satellites that searched for al Kaida and Osama bin Laden were today just given a new, more dangerous target.

Us."

advanced web statistics

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Home Network Awareness Program Announced
03/18/08 | Back

The Neighborhood Network Watch announced today the start of a new community program, the Home Network Awareness Program (HNAP). HNAP is aimed at providing an easy way for people to get involved and to contribute to the efforts of the Neighborhood Network Watch as well as providing the group with valuable information on the states of networks that reside in the homes of our nation.

Participants in HNAP would collect sample network traffic from their own home networks as well as samples from networks within the vicinity. The Neighborhood Network Watch will be making a set of freely available instructions on how to capture network traffic, using the open source packet sniffer TCPDUMP, and how to log onto nearby wireless networks that maybe being operated by neighbors.

These samples of network traffic would then be sent to the Neighborhood Network Watch for analysis using the latest revision of the NNWKAA. The participants would then be sent back a rating for each network along with a rating for the area as a whole.

This allows the participants to not only find out how their own home network is being used but also valuable information about those around their home that may have large amounts of terrorist related traffic flowing over them. This also provides the Neighborhood Network Watch with the ability to see if there is potential terrorist cell activity in or around the participants homes.

The Neighborhood Network Watch will also be releasing a new public service announcement highlighting the goals of HNAP and a how to section on how to search for networks as well as how to capture network traffic.

To learn more about the Home Network Awareness Program click here.

http://www.dhsnnw.org/newsarticles/mar18_2008.html


P.S. I sent in an email to these folks, asking them if i can start spying on some unsavory characters down the street. The email is copied and pasted below.
If i get a reply, i'll let you know.


From: Greg Bacon
Subject: Questions on Program
Date: April 14, 2008 12:05:36 PM CDT
To: hnap@dhsnnw.org

There's a bunch of unsavory looking characters living just down the street from my uncle's house.

These people keep strange hours and seem to be heavily armed. They've made threats against other neighbors, but the police seem either clueless or indifferent to the possibility that these folks might be terrorists.

So, i would like to initiate this WiFi spying against this house of possible terrorists, and wanted to be sure that i wasn't breaking any laws, like the 4th Amendment.

Can i start my electronic snooping on these possible death dealers?

BTW, that house is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC

Thanks

Greg Bacon
Ava, MO

AmericanGoy said...

Greg, there is no way in hell that

www.dhsnnw.org

site is real.

Look at the logo - look at the press releases; their video is from youtube.

It is a very well done, Orwellian spoof, and I congratulate them on it :-)