I am not really sure what is going on here. On one hand you have a Murdoch paper publishing a story which would on the surface, appear to be anti-establishment.
But you have to remember the audience of this paper and look at how the smaller headline reads. It says “terrorist suspects allege abuse”. We all know that most of the people that read the Daily News are pro war and could really give a rat’s ass about how terrorists are treated.
What makes this story a little more interesting is this is the very first time I have ever seen anything about Jewish terrorist suspects. That is pretty much the whole story for me. The other stuff is old news, especially when you think of the treatment of the “american taliban” and that other guy Padilla who are both US citizens.
Save your outrage for other things, such as when Schroeder and Chirac capitulate to Bush and send troops to Iraq.

Posted by: dan of steele | Feb 21 2005 8:16 utc | 3

Has anyone seen any movies w/Nazis lately? Has the experience changed? It certainly has for me, as a Jew. In the last part of the Pianist I re-saw last wk, Nazi soldiers against the backdrop of the ruins of the Warsaw ghetto looked like xAm. soldiers amid the wreckage of Fallujah. It was deeply disturbing. The paragons of evil in the world as I’ve always known it have shifted that deeply.

Posted by: jj | Feb 21 2005 8:53 utc | 5

Well, one thing that Billmon and his “readymade” juxtapositions makes implicitly clear is that the parallels will not dress, talk, or behave the same. No, the descent into fascism in America will not have dear leader strutting Mussilini like on a balcony, goose stepping troops saluting with fanatical precision, or high style SS uniforms with skull and crossbones, least the common man may make the most obvious association. Like any national descent into one party fascism the descent shall appear as a logical, natural, and righteous fulfillment of all that lay dormant, and repressed amongst its people. It is this untapped potential that is to be unleashed in the liberation of those yet unenlightened. And in America this descent will appear, or better yet, will be dis-appeared — dissolved to the extent that it is objectivly invisible, and will assume its place as being a quentessentially normal expression of American destiny. I’m reminded of a recent Nightline discussion about corruption in our recent election and Cokie Roberts exclaiming wistfully that fraud has always been a part of our elections. Or Rush discounting torture as blowing off steam. Or that marine general joking how we love brawling and shooting those guys is fun. Its here and its distinctly American.

Posted by: anna missed | Feb 21 2005 10:52 utc | 7

@ Kate Storm: Antennae are quivering a little.

Posted by: beq | Feb 21 2005 12:59 utc | 9

@jj I happened to watch Casablanca yesterday, and it brought tears to my eyes to see
how we have been brought low by
the betrayal of our most exalted and intimate ideals.
Admittedly there has always been an abyss between American reality and the American dream,
but there was also a shared sense of that the American project remained a “work in progress” dedicated to the elaboration of
the better parts of constitutional heritage, and the amelioration of the common destiny. To imbibe the bitter potion of contemporary American reality and rhetoric is
to be swept into a fable of hate and greed, arrogance and
ignorance, dishonesty and brutality, all masquerading
as their mirror images like
Snow White’s evil stepmother.
We have brought ourselves
low by the waters of Babylon,
but the absurdity of all this
lamentation is that what we have done to others in Mesopotamia and elsewhere is far worse.
I hope to live long enough to
see some of our major war criminals brought to trial.

Posted by: Hannah K. O’Luthon | Feb 21 2005 13:08 utc | 11

HKOL:
I’m hearing Stanislaw Lem when I read your comment… about whether the dream is dead, or is a one dreamed wrong.

Posted by: Kate_Storm | Feb 21 2005 13:57 utc | 13

i too think we need to open a thread to honour the life & work of hunter s thompson
he reminds me very much of the great scottish psychiatrist – that for all their wildness thet were those who searched with all their energy & talent – a form of human decency
hunter i think believed that the american people would turf out the bush cheney junta & his writings before the election attest to that. he thought this criminal administration would be in for a stomping. that was not to be
the criminal clan werer supported by the american population against their proper interests – much as the germans had voted hitler in 1933 for the chimera of ‘security’
hunter saw what we saw & spoke it. he saw the coming fascism – he saw through its surface subtlety to see the naked venal hysteric greed & stupidy that constitutes leadership in our time
hunter needs to be honoured as another soldier who has fallen in what will turn out to be a long war
i do not have it in hand at the moment but there is a beautiful poem of maîakovskii about the sucide of the poet sergeî essenin about the difficulty & the beauty of living – especially in difficult times

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Feb 21 2005 14:19 utc | 15

I’m not sure about a “good” memorial, rememberinggiap… I wonder if the Doctor would really “want” a “good” one…, but I really liked Fafblog’s little paragraph: Hunter Thompson Is NOT Dead

Posted by: Kate_Storm | Feb 21 2005 14:32 utc | 17

HST on Nixon’s death – a better and more daring smackdown that even Greg Palast on Reagan’s death – “good riddance, gipper, just another proof that only the good die young”.
Hunter on Bush in 2002/2003, excertp from Kingdom of Fear.
Thompson shortly before the election (I’d vote for Nixon if he were running against Bush)

Posted by: Clueless Joe | Feb 21 2005 15:14 utc | 19

Here are a few (small I hope) pieces of Al Martin’s most recent post. It is from his pay site but should be shared as widely as possible. Subject: Negroponte,Abrams, Armitage, Goss and others of Iran-Contra criminal fame are being set up in the same positions they had in the 80s.
Starting in the middle and including only some choice bits:
It’s an interesting little hook that there is this concentration of all this knowledge and experience in operating death camps and torture facilities in a regime that is laying the groundwork to construct exactly the same facilities in the United States.
The Bush Cheney regime has given itself the power under the Patriot Acts to commit to a policy of torture of citizens who dissent.
If they want to quiet it, they’d stop putting together this whole cabal. (T)hey’re not concerned about any… baggage from the past being dragged along.
(T)he regime has acted to keep Elliott Abrams and Richard Armitage out of the limelight, because they didn’t want all this baggage from the past being brought up.
The fact that these guys are being brought back … would tell me that the regime isn’t concerned about anything from the past being dragged up. (I)t is more imperative to them… to put this cabal back together than any exposure that may come from it.
Also they’re not even making an effort to control any of the liability (from)…the past, which I think is rather telling. I think it’s telling that the regime considers it more important that the old cabal be put back together for the purposes of control.
And if it is one’s intent, to turn the nation from a democracy to a dictatorship. “Don’t you want people in charge who built dictatorships in the past?”
These men combined have the experience that would be necessary to make this nation actually … work as a dictatorship. If you look at history, in democracies that become dictatorships, those dictatorships don’t…operate very well. They will only operate for a reasonably few years. And then they become inefficient, and fraud and corruption ridden, and there’s leaks and problems.
However, in having all of the aforementioned people in senior positions of government, you have the collective experience of people that know how to make dictatorships work.
In other news,
… a middle-aged San Diego couple, apparently fervently anti-war and anti-Bush, and who think that Bush lied on Iraq had a son,…killed in Iraq.
(T)hey hang up one of their now deceased son’s uniforms on…their house in a San Diego suburb facing the street. On the uniform they hung a sign saying “Bush Lied.”
Last week…a bunch of citizens who are anti-Bush had lined up, several dozen at least, in front of the…house with placards saying, “George Bush lied” and “Beware of the Patriot Acts” and “What has George Bush done to our constitution?”…to support this couple.
After it got nationwide news coverage, the following day, …white vans showed up in front of these people’s house on the other side of the street. And out leapt an entire huge contingent from GeorgeBush.com, who stood …waving American flags and holding pictures of George Bush with his right arm up in the air, saying “Our Leader,” and screaming at the people across the street: “Disloyal! Unpatriotic! Un-American! Seditious!”
The guy leading this…was interviewed by CNN…It was an extremely well organized pro-Bush rally — let’s put it that way. They made sure that their numbers exceeded the numbers of liberals that showed up. They all stood perfectly at attention and straight, holding up America flags, all wearing spit-n-shine patent leather shoes. They were all blonde-haired blue-eyed. They were all wearing gray shirts with American flag bands around their arms, holding up either the American flag or large pictures of George Bush with his right arm up in the air, saying, “Our Leader.”
…when CNN went to interview…admitted that they were from GeorgeBush.com. They also admitted that GeorgeBush.com is currently… “combing the highways and byways of the nation” (to find) concentrations of liberals who refuse to support ‘The Leader.’ He said this was a well organized effort and that they have 500,000 people doing this…intent to make lists of every disloyal, un-American, unpatriotic citizen in the nation. They even call themselves ‘the patriotic ready-response unit.’ That’s how GeorgeBush.com has organized this thing on a local level.
… they are putting together lists of citizens’ names to be submitted to the Office of Homeland Security…
…personal twist… notice from the condo board. The rabidly pro-Bush people on the condo board … are forming a ‘loyalty committee’… go around with the clipboards and the orange and black caps and…mark down every unit that doesn’t have an American flag… automobile that does not have a patriotic bumper sticker or…flag. …refused security passes…instead have to use the regular public access gate…
They mention in the notification…(they)received instructions and a manual…of how to set up this security board, and encouragement and financing from — GeorgeBush.com.
>end fractured quote< Sorry for the transfer of copyrighted material, but to me it is the most pertinent info I've seen in a long time. See full text at almartinraw.com

Posted by: rapt | Feb 21 2005 17:33 utc | 21

Re. Billmon’s post from the NY Daily news:
The ‘9th floor’ and ‘within sight of the Statue of Liberty’ is new. As is the mention of a Jewish suspect. The rest is old news, including the testimony. (See also dan above..)
Btw, it must be about 7 000 arabs / muslims who were arrested, many after they voluntarily and spontaneously registered. Deported or let go, never charged.
Oded Ellner (the Jewish suspect) was one of the ‘dancing Israelis’.
Five Israelis were seen filming as jet liners ploughed into the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001 … His name was Sivan Kurzberg. The other four passengers were Kurzberg’s brother Paul, Yaron Shmuel, Oded Ellner and Omer Marmari. The men were dragged off to prison..
GlobalFreePress
The dancing Israelis:
WhtReallyHappenened
Oded Ellner was the one who did not join in the lawsuit. (There were 5 of them, not 4.)

Posted by: Blackie | Feb 21 2005 19:13 utc | 23