"When London was being bombed to smithereens, (the British) had 200 or so detainees and Churchill said, 'we don't torture'," Mr Obama told a press conference to mark 100 days since he became US president.

"The reason was that Churchill understood, you start taking shortcuts and, over time, that corrodes what's best in people. It corrodes the best of the country."
'We don't torture': Obama invokes Churchill, April 30 2009

"We don't torture," is what George W. Bush also said. But Churchill or Bush saying something does not make it true:

Prisoners complained thumbscrews and "shin screws" were employed at the prison and Dr Jordan's report highlighted the small, round scars that he had seen on the legs of two men, "which were said to be the result of the use of some instrument to facilitate questioning". One of these men was Hans Habermann, a 43-year-old disabled German Jew who had survived three years in Buchenwald concentration camp.

All of these men had been held at Bad Nenndorf, a small, once-elegant spa resort near Hanover. Here, an organisation called the Combined Services Detailed Interrogation Centre (CSDIC) ran a secret prison following the British occupation of north-west Germany in 1945.

CSDIC, a division of the War Office, operated interrogation centres around the world, including one known as the London Cage, located in one of London's most exclusive neighbourhoods. Official documents discovered last month at the National Archives at Kew, south-west London, show that the London Cage was a secret torture centre where German prisoners who had been concealed from the Red Cross were beaten, deprived of sleep, and threatened with execution or with unnecessary surgery.
…
The inmates were starved, woken during the night, and forced to walk up
and down their cells from early morning until late at night. When
moving about the prison they were expected to run, while soldiers
kicked them.

The Brits covered up the whole story and after a secret formal trial let the perpetrators get away with it:

The appalling treatment of the 372 men and 44 women who were interrogated at Bad Nenndorf between 1945 and 1947 are detailed in a report by a Scotland Yard detective, Inspector Tom Hayward. He had been called in by senior army officers to investigate the mistreatment of inmates, partly as a result of the evidence provided by these photographs.

…
Four British officers were court martialled after Hayward's investigation. Declassified documents show that the hearings were held largely behind closed doors to prevent the Soviets from discovering that Russians were being detained.

Another consideration was admitted to be the determination to conceal the existence of several other CSDIC prisons.

…
The only officer at Bad Nenndorf to be convicted was the prison doctor. At the age of 49, his sentence was to be dismissed from the army. The commanding officer, Colonel Robin Stephens, was cleared of a charge of "disgraceful conduct of a cruel kind" and told he was free to apply to rejoin his former employers at MI5.

It seems that Obama wants to follow the Brits in this like he claims to follow Churchill. He wants to take the "shortcut" he is warning against.

Cover up where else and who else the CIA and the military tortured. Don't let people come in front of a court, but if one must, let them get off free to be available for the next round.

And be assured. The next round will come if these criminals do not get the punishment they deserve.

• Billmon on Texas – Second Thoughts, or Rebellion Reconsidered – (Daily Kos)

• How the NSC runs everything – Obama's Chess Masters – (Rolling Stone)
• More on Obama's NSC and Foreign Policy – A Thousand Envoys Bloom – (National Interest)
• Okay. Now prosecute the culprits – Obama: 'I believe waterboarding was torture – (Guardian)

• Poodle does as master says – Gordon Brown: 700 more troops for Afghanistan – (Telegraph)
• Another poodle – Australia boosts troop and financial assistance to Afghanistan – (Radio Australia)
• Theory – Policy in Afghanistan – (Pat Lang)
• Practice – Behind Closed Doors COIN Chatter on Afghanistan – (Ghost of Alexander)

• Swine flu panic – WHO raises pandemic alert level – (BBC)
• It's antisemitic! – Israeli official: Swine flu name offensive – (AP)
• Chutzpah – Israel warns EU to stop criticizing Netanyahu government – (Haaretz)

• Economists change course – The Last Temptation of Risk – (National Interest)
• Game of chicken – Chrysler Bankruptcy Looms as Deal on Debt Falters – (NYT)
• In bailing out banks – The Importance of Battlefield Nuclear Weapons – (Baseline Scenario)

Please share your links, news and views in the comments.

The recent "Pakistan is a failed state" meme, heavily promoted by the Obama administration and its friends, had some of the intended results.

Pakistan's army is bombing and shelling some places in Lower Dir and Buner where the huge and fearsome TALIBOTHRA made an attempt to replace the hapless local government. The army will waste a lot of ammunition, many civilians and a few Pashtun fighters who never posed a real threat to Pakistan's Punjabi majority and the central government. After some fighting and reporting of big enemies-killed numbers to the U.S. the central government will agree to another deal with the locals there.

But the "failed state" meme certainly had an additional effect, likely unintended, to increase the believability of anti-U.S. conspiracy theories.

Yesterday the upper house of Pakistan's parliament discussed the current political situation:

PML-N Senator Raja Zafar-ul-Haq while taking part in the debate said that an anti-Pakistan environment was being created in the world with an impression that the nuclear assets were not in safe hands and that the country is an irresponsible state to pave way for depriving Pakistan from its nuclear assets. “A situation is being created so as to find an excuse to take control of the nuclear assets of the country”, the Senator said, adding that US had also said that Pakistan could be deprived of the nuclear programme if the situation worsened.

Zafar-ul-Haq is leader of the PML-N, the main-opposition party, not a backbencher. The fear of a U.S./Indian plot to get hands on Pakistan's (and Saudi Arabia's) nukes now seems to be a well established thought in Pakistan and certainly not without reason.

I am still unconvinced that it is the real intent behind the recent scare mongering. But who knows? The U.S. military certainly has plans for an 'emergency rescue' of Pakistan's nukes. But the chance of such an operation to be successful, even with some inside help, seems slim to me. Whether successful or not, the consequences would be huge, deadly and not restricted to Pakistan.

Let's hope that Obama does not fall for funny ideas over this issue.

by Lizard
lifted from a comment

when realizations come too late
irreversible damage, broken minds
electrical currents cooking testicles
but when the market dives, eyes get wet w/ tears

they feed us fears and supple nymphs
couched in spacey, wooden wombs
mesmerized by insatiable streams
of capital’s poisonous blooms

all within share torture’s sin
to kill a man five times a day
we welcome a shift to dirty swine
because there’s nothing we can say

nothing softens evil’s hand
or slows its dark, methodic hold
and nothing will be what is left
when sadism’s so easily sold

• Stephen Walt on Netanyahu – The treason of the hawks – (Stephen Walt)
• Still a mystery – State of play in the Harman case – (The Cable)

• A free book – Andy Tamas, Warriors and Nation Builders: Development and the Military in Afghanistan, – (Canadian Defence Academy Press, 2009 (pdf))

• Now keep 'em down – The great crash of the "Chicago school" of economics – (Salon)
• Yves on secondary mortgage 'relief' – Yet Another Program to Enrich Banks at Taxpayer and Borrower Expense – (Naked Capitalism)

• Industrial pigsty – The swine flu crisis lays bare the meat industry's monstrous power – (Guardian)
• How yield expanded – Six Stylized Facts About U.S. Agricultural Subsidies – (Greed Green Grains)

• It's evil – Gagging on Google – (Mavercon/FT)

• Why some names sound 'Jewish' – German Surnames – Last Names – (About)

Please share your links, news and views in the comments.

Sen Arlen Specter switches his party affiliation. That is good for some stuff on the Democratic agenda as it will give them, as soon as Al Franken is seated, a filibuster safe super majority.

Good for Specter too who would otherwise have lost the Republican primary in Pennsylvania. He has good chances to win as a Democrat. Obama says Specter has his "full support."

One wonders how this switch was influenced or will influence his recent initiative to roll back presidential power grabs:

First, I intend to introduce legislation that will mandate Supreme Court review of lower court decisions in suits brought by the ACLU and others that challenge the constitutionality of the warrantless wiretapping program authorized by President Bush after September 11.

…
Second, I will reintroduce legislation to keep the courts open to suits filed against several major telephone companies that allegedly facilitated the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program.

…
Further, I will reintroduce my legislation from 2006 and 2007 (the "Presidential Signing Statements Act") to prohibit courts from relying on, or deferring to, presidential signing statements when determining the meaning of any Act of Congress.

All three positions are to the 'left' of the blue dog democrats and possibly to the 'left' of Obama too. Especially the signing statements act is inconvenient for any president.

Has Specter Obama's "full support" on this legislation agenda or will Specter sell out on these quite important issues to get a friendly welcome in the Democratic caucus?

Ships from the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) are regular guests in Hamburg harbor. But recently their seem to be some changes. While all the IRISL ships used to have those letters written on their gray sides, they are now painted black and the letters are gone. Many of these ships also changed their names.

These three are one and the same ship:

Iran Seestan (bigger)

Cont. reading: Ships Changing In Name Only

• Canadian sadism cover-up – Military police failed to carry out obligations to detainees, probe finds – (Globe&Mail)
• Or little Eichmans? – Naomi Wolf: – We are all torturers in America – (Guardian)

• Obama the neocon – The New American Century Has Not Been Cancelled – (Newshoggers)

• Real or fake? – The pirate king of Somalia – (Globe&Mail)

• Unlike Helena, I think China Hand is wrong with his analysis of Pakistan. More later …

• 'Get your hands off my country' – Polish pianist stops show with anti-US tirade – (Guardian)

• Dangerous 'defense' pork – U.S. Plans Attack and Defense in Cyberspace Warfare – (NYT)

• Because 'they are honest' – Disgruntled Japanese turn to resurgent communists – (Guardian)
• Slow recognition – Are CDS a good thing? – (Salmon/Reuters)

Please share your links, news and views in the comments.

All this news about the 'pandemic' swine flu seems overdone. But it is of cause a pretty sensational issue that has the benefit to distract from the U.S. torture debate.

A good update on the real situation can be glanced through this twitter feed.

There seems to have been an outbreak in early April in a small town in Mexico which resulted in some 20+ confirmed and 140+ suspected flu death. These seem to have been primary infections – i.e. people near huge factory pig farms in La Gloria, Veracruz State caught this first. So far only 10% of the 1,300+ total infected in Mexico died.

It is not astonishing at all that a virus transfer from pigs to humans could happen. Pigs and humans have  very similar organisms. All conspiracy theories around this have so far no factual ground.

The virus seems to be able to transfer from man to man too but probably in a less severe form. There have only been few death cases yet outside of Mexico and the total non-Mexican infections are in the lower dozens. In this globalized world a real pandemic outbreak would likely ramp up faster.

There are wide ranging estimates of 'normal' U.S. death through flu per year from a few hundred up to 60,000. This because a flu is often the 'last drop in the bucket' that kills a person with already severe medical conditions. Therefor the total numbers from Mexico and elsewhere may turn out to be just be a statistical irrelevant blip. Certainly not every death of people who had the virus in the blood stream was caused by that.

We do not yet know how well those people who died in Mexico were before the flu infection caught up with them and how well the medical care was they got – if any. But it is likely that they were already in relative weakened state and had little care.

For all the above reasons it is very unlikely that this will turn out to be a re-run of the 1918 flue pandemic. Today we know much more about virus infections and how to fight them. We know much more about epidemics. Even if this would be a serious one, which I doubt very much, I am confident that we could handle a real one pretty well.

Now lets get back to the real issues. Why again did the U.S. torture people?

picture by beq

Advanced forms of biological warfare that can “target” specific genotypes may transform biological warfare from the realm of terror to a politically useful tool.
"Rebuilding America's Defenses" – The September 2000 PNAC Report (PDF)

—
Note: this is a re-run of a November 2004 post

• Industrial pork – Swine-flu outbreak linked to Smithfield factory farms – (Grist)

• No intention to leave – Exceptions Are Proposed to Deadline of Pullout From Iraq Cities – (NYT)

• Sadism: We don't care of 'results' – CIA reportedly declined to closely evaluate harsh interrogations – (LAT)
• WTF – Appeals court rules Gitmo detainees are not 'persons' – (Raw Story)

• Demanding a Palestinian state = Anti-semitism – Why should they get a state? – (Ynet via FLC)
• Cohen: West Bank "a primer on colonialism" – Clinton’s Mideast Pirouette – (NYT)
• Likely nonsense – 'Iranian arms ship destroyed near Sudan' – (JPost)

• MoA last November: Reserve Requirement As Monetary Policy Tool
  FT today: Let central banks direct the supply of credit – (FT alternative link)
• MoA nine days ago How Credit Default Swaps Create Bankruptcies
  Business Week now – GM: Some Bondholders Want Bankruptcy – (Business Week)
• Roubini interview – 'I Am Not Dr. Doom. I am Dr. Realist.' – (WaPo)
• Geithner: tool of big money – Member and Overseer of the Finance Club – (NYT)
• Deflation – Brothels cut prices to beat the recession – (Independent)

Please share your links, news and views in the comments.

According to the Taguba report torture by military units in Iraq was implemented after the Gitmo commander General Miller visited Iraq in August/September 2003 and recommended that the military police should be used in setting the conditions for intelligence exploitation of the prisoners. The pictures from Abu Ghraib were the result of that visit.

But that was certainly not the first implementation of torture by U.S. military in Iraq. Indeed the chain of torture use by the military was not Gitmo->Afghanistan and Gitmo->Iraq but Gitmo->Afghanistan->Iraq.

This can be concluded from the recently released Armed Services Committee report "Inquiry Into the Treatment of Detainees in U.S. Custody" (pdf).

According to that report's page 149f the interrogations in Afghanistan (besides those by the CIA) were done by regular military CJTF-180 personnel in Kandahar Bagram and based on the Army Field Manual 34-52. There were no Standing Operation Procedures (SOP).

In October a new special force group (SMU TF) came in and decided to handle interrogations themselves. There is reason to believe that these were Navy SEALs. They immediately send a team to Gitmo to learn what was done there. The team came back with a copy of Gitmo's yet unauthorized wishlist of torture techniques and immediately started implemented those. Early December 2002 two people in Bagram died from torture administered by regular army forces.

In January the SMU TF implemented Standard Operation Procedures for its interogations that were based on the Gitmo wishlist and the December 2 Rumsfeld memo for Gitmo which was later rescinded. These included toture techniques like isolation, stress positions, sleep deprivation and later the use of dogs. Shortly after that the regular U.S. forces in Afghanistan implemented similar SOPs.

Then came Iraq (page 158):

Cont. reading: How U.S. Torture Came To Iraq

• Philip Stephens on Sadism – Abuse of the law handed victory to terrorists – (FT, alternative link)
• A question to be asked in court – Who Ordered the Torture of Abu Zubaydah? – (Counterpunch)
• U.S. Soldier Who Killed Herself–After Refusing to Take Part in Torture – (E&P 1 2)
• Frank Rich – The Banality of Bush White House Evil – (NYT)

• Creating a ‘failed state’ – Hillary and Pakistan – (Craig Murray)

• Late: Senator Arlen Specter – The Need to Roll Back Presidential Power Grabs – (NYRB)

• Analysis: Helena Cobban – Obama and Netanyahu – Storm Clouds Ahead? – (IPS)
• The map – The Palestinian Archipelago – (Strange Maps)
• An (unsuccessful) attempt to discuss with racists – Israel: Civilians & Combatants – (NYRB)
• Huh? – Lieberman: Israel will not attack Iran – even if sanctions fail – (Haaretz)

• On sharia-compliant finance – The Money that Prays – (LRB)

Please share your links, news and views in the comments.

Myth: This only about the CIA.
Fact: Most of the torturing was done by the military, especially by special operation troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Myth: This was based on legal findings.
Fact: Torture on Abu Zubaydah and many people in Afghanistan was ordered and conducted months before any legal finding was made. The later legal arguments were made to justify torture and have been retracted.

Myth: The torture cases are only about water-boarding.

Fact: The other techniques used in these interrogations also constitute torture.

Myth: Important intelligence was gained through this.

Fact: The CIA IG says he could not find any proof for that claim.

Myth: Obama issued a general amnesty for the torturers.

Fact: Obama does not have the legal power to do such a thing. The U.S. is obligated to prosecute torture. Obama can pardon people only after they have been judged.

As Bernanke is doing his best to actively create inflation, the Chinese look for ways out of the immense amount of dollars they hold and to minimize their losses.

It took a while but their strategy is now clear. The will buy as much natural resources as they can get for the currently depressed prices.

Iron ore:

Although iron ore demand in other countries is slumping, in China demand is apparently increasing. In the first quarter of this year, China imported 131 million tons, up 18.8%, year on year. In March alone China imported 52.08 million tons, 46.2% over the same month last year and a record high.

Oil:

Cont. reading: China’s Resource Strategy

• Very well sourced – but it was not only the CIA – Ten Terrible Truths About The CIA Torture Memos (Part One) – (Andy Worthington)
• Ten Terrible Truths About The CIA Torture Memos (Part Two) – (Andy Worthington)
• Why do they put torture in quotes? – In 2002, Military Agency Warned Against ‘Torture’ – (WaPo)
• A Comic – The Guantanamo Bay Torture Memos: For Kids! – (Cracked)
• Plus – Torture Flowchart – (Vagabond Scholar)

• The tip of an iceberg – Americans Accused of Stealing Fuel in Iraq – (NYT)

• Possible – Is the Harman Story an Attempt to Silence Her about Torture? – (Emptywheel)
• Harman, Goss and Pelosi – Perplexing – (War and Piece)
• Gideon Levy – Word games – (Haaretz)

• Neo-what? – The ideology that dare not speak its name – (Crooked Timber)
• Smart folks – China gold reserves apparently doubled – (Marketwatch)

Please share your links, news and views in the comments.

Over the last months two new wind turbines were erected about three miles from my place. These are the biggest ones on can currently buy with a maximum output above 6 megawatt each. Yesterday the blades for the second one were lifted to the top of the 135 meter high tower. The crane used was the very first brand new Demag CC9800-1 and the lifted nose section with the three rotor blades weighed 369 metric tons.

bigger

Expected output from one of these is 20 million kilo watt-hours per year, enough for 5,000+ (European) households. High of the hub is 442 feet (135m), the rotor diameter 416 feet (127m), tower base diameter 48 feet (14,5m) – more here (pdf, page 6f).

To really get the size of this machine find the person in this picture:

Cont. reading: Windy Friday

While asking for a bi-partisan whitewash investigation into torture the neo-conned WaPO editors ask the most important question of our times:

Should Bill Clinton, Sandy Berger and their team have been held criminally or civilly liable for dereliction of duty 3,000 people died in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, given that they knowingly allowed Osama bin Laden to flee Sudan for sanctuary in Afghanistan?

No, I didn't make that up.

• Krugman: Prosecute sadists – Reclaiming America’s Soul – (NYT)
• Robinson: Prosecute sadists – Where 'Those Methods' Lead – (WaPo)

• Hamas weapon hold found – 3,000-year-old arms storehouse uncovered in Sinai – (Haaretz)
• Freedom of speech? – 6 years in prison for airing Hezbollah TV in NYC – (AP)
• Daniel Levy on Netanjahu's and Abbas' tricks – Potential Traps for George Mitchell – (PfP)

• William Pfaff I – American Fascism – (Pfaff)
• William Pfaff II – Europe Needs No Part in Doomed Afghan War – (AntiWar)

• More Pakistan panic – U.S. Questions Pakistan’s Will to Stop Taliban – (NYT)

• Most pension plans are fake anyway – socialize them and tax the rich – Plight of Carmakers Could Upset All Pension Plans – (NYT)
• Let's bury it deep – ‘Washington Consensus’ a thing of the past now – (Gulf Times)
• About over – Treasury Prepares Chrysler Bankruptcy as GM Nears Deadline Too – (Bloomberg)
• A (self-serving) insider view of the Treasury 2006-2009 –
  The Financial Crisis: An Inside View – (Brookings (pdf, long))
• How did the Freddie Mac CFO really die? – Chinese mop-up crew? – (Xymphora)

Please share your links, news and views in the comments.

Sorry, not in the mood to write today. So here are a few more links to drive you away 🙂

• Dozens of Prisoners Held by CIA Still Missing, Fates Unknown – (Pro Publica)
• Pepe Escobar: Torture whitewash from The Dark Side – (ATOL)

Is publishing this affair now payback to AIPAC and Rosen for sabotaging Chas Freeman's appointment to chair the National Intelligence Council?

• Intelligence Officials Tipped Pelosi To Harman Wiretap – (CQ)
• Harper on the Harman/AIPAC affair – (SST)