The military is required to release their correspondences with each other, so that we the people can have an insight into how they are carrying on. It turns out that some of these documents describe the army's practice of imprisoning wives of the men they are trying to apprehend. One of the emails asks what they are doing to get the husband, and then asks, "Have you tacked a note on his door and challenged him to come get his wife?" The same email correspondence suggests that the wife had information, and was being uncooperative, but I think they made it pretty obvious that they were holding the wife as bait. Later in the emails, it comes up that Iraq’s Ministry of Justice will only continue to hold the female detainees if they are being charged by the Iraqi police. That’s one hoop they don’t even have to jump through in the states any more. I do not know exactly where I stand on this issue, because on the one hand it is kidnapping, but on the other, they are supposedly capturing an insurgent. It’s a tough call, but the article I read refers to detaining a woman and taking her away from her three children, one of which was only 6 months old. This woman was still nursing and she was kept away from her baby for two days, a travesty that was put to an end when the officer who originally took her in (on orders) complained. Here is the original story, and a link to the emails.
The big thing in politics now is the talk about Bush's illegal eavesdropping on citizens'
calls. I personally am pissed off that he can listen to my phone calls, and more importantly livid about the
fact that he feels that he feels he has no reason to abide by the law and at least ask the fisa court if it
is all right to listen. It is not like they made the obligations difficult to listen to private conversations.
He does not even have to ask before listening, he gets a full week to ask for permission, and in this week,
he could have learned everything you talk to your mom about. However, Bush feels that those rules do not apply
to him, not like they apply to every other president, but that is not my point. My point has nothing to do with
Bush's abuses of American rights, but has to do with his allowance of the abuses of non-american rights. It is possible that
Cheney and Rumsfeld may have to testify in a European probe dealing with the possibility of torture, Senator
Dick Marty of Switzerland said that "more than 100 suspects may have been transferred by U.S. agents to countries where they faced torture or ill treatment in recent years".
Europe is finally on to the fact that we use torture to get information that we need. I am extremely surprised it took them so long to prove it. I mean, didn't they watch the last
season of 24. As unrealistic as 24 is, I hope that the people that protect my country are able and willing to do whatever Jack Bauer does.
January 25 2006