Topic: Iraq
Not all the Brits agree with Tony. Oh well.
- or -
"Here come da Judge! Here come da Judge!"

Here's something from Johan Steyn. Lord Steyn is a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary, one of twelve judges who sits on Britain's highest court. This is from the 27th F.A. Mann Lecture, delivered in London on Tuesday - a lecture series with which I am, sadly, unfamiliar. This judge fellow seems to think the United States is doing a bad thing.

Guant?namo is the subject, specifically our detention of a few more than six hundred folks for more than a year and a half. Here's the judge's summary:

The regime applicable at Guant?namo was created by a succession of presidential orders. It can be summarized quite briefly. The prisoners at Guant?namo, as matters stand at present, will be tried by military tribunals. The prisoners have no access to the writ of habeas corpus to determine whether their detention is even arguably justified. The military will act as interrogators, prosecutors, defense counsel, judges, and when death sentences are imposed, as executioners. ... The number included children between the ages of 13 and 16 as well as the very elderly. Virtually all the prisoners are foot soldiers of the Taliban. By a blanket presidential decree, all the prisoners have been denied prisoner-of-war status.

And the problem is? We get what information we need from them, try them, and execute them. That's what they clearly deserve. Heck, Dennis Miller says so - even Bill Maher has said something like that. Well, what then is the problem?

The trials will be held in secret. None of the basic guarantees for a fair trial need be observed. The jurisdiction of U.S. courts is excluded. The military control everything. It is, however, in all respects subject to decisions of the president as commander in chief, even in respect of guilt and innocence in individual cases as well as appropriate sentences. The president has made public in advance his personal view of the prisoners as a group: He has described them all as "killers."

George Bush says they are. Why not trust the man?

This judge does not:

As a lawyer brought up to admire the ideals of American democracy and justice, I would have to say that I regard this as a monstrous failure of justice.

The question is whether the quality of justice envisaged for the prisoners at Guant?namo Bay complies with minimum international standards for the conduct of fair trials. The answer can be given quite shortly: It is a resounding No.

The term kangaroo court springs to mind. It conveys the idea of a preordained, arbitrary rush to judgment by an irregular tribunal which makes a mockery of justice. Trials of the type contemplated by the United States government would be a stain on United States justice. The only thing that could be worse is simply to leave the prisoners in their black hole indefinitely.

Looking at the hard realities of the situation, one wonders what effect it may have on the treatment of United States soldiers captured in future armed conflicts. It would have been prudent, for the sake of American soldiers, to respect humanitarian law.

Clearly the judge does not know America today. Angry - and ready to torture and then kill, without "due process." Due process, in the current post 9-11 world, is for wimps. As is "diplomacy."

And the courts are a joke. It's obvious who the bad guys are - like Michael and Kobe and Scott. Trails and evidence are something liberals insist on, and we sometimes humor them.

For those of us who think differently, well, what we think about what is right has been labeled as treason - not just by Ann Coulter. Check out the first media advertisements the Bush team is now broadcasting nationwide.

The judge also worries, "what must authoritarian regimes, or countries with dubious human rights records, make of the example set by the most powerful of all democracies?"

And "the type of justice meted out at Guant?namo Bay is likely to make martyrs of the prisoners in the moderate Muslim world with whom the West must work to ensure world peace and stability."

Why worry? Cannot sheer military strength and threats of force stop these last two thoughts from occurring to other nations or guerrilla / terrorist movements? Of course.

Well, I am skeptical. But I wasn't elected president - so what do I know?

Lord Steyn here reviews how this all came about at Guant?namo - who passed what and when to make this our way doing business. And he offers alternatives for how to handle this matter from this point forward.

All bullshit. The government we have elected to make such decisions in our names has decided. Let the world call it a kangaroo court and all that. What are they going to do about it?


A monstrous failure of justice
Johan Steyn
International Herald Tribune Friday, November 28, 2003

Topic: Oddities
A Thanksgiving extra!

The International Herald Tribune this Thanksgiving has republished a classic piece on the day. Click on the link below for the whole thing. I quote a bit of it, but the whole is a classic. It's a Frenchified version of the day.

Meanwhile: The dinde is dandy, so let's give thanks
Art Buchwald The International Herald Tribune
Thursday, November 27, 2003

And a bit of it goes like this ...

One of the most important holidays is Thanksgiving Day, known in France as le Jour de Merci Donnant.

Le Jour de Merci Donnant was started by a group of pilgrims (P?lerins) who fled from l'Angleterre before the McCarran Act to found a colony in the New World (le Nouveau Monde) where they could shoot Indians (les Peaux-Rouges) and eat turkey (dinde) to their hearts' content. They landed at a place called Plymouth (subsequently a voiture Americaine) in a wooden sailing ship named the Mayflower, or Fleur de Mai, in 1620. But while the P?lerins were killing the dindes, the Peaux-Rouges were killing the P?lerins, and there were several hard winters ahead for both of them.

The only way the Peaux-Rouges helped the P?lerins was when they taught them how to grow corn (mais). The reason they did this was because they liked corn with their P?lerins.

In 1623, after another harsh year, the P?lerins' crops were so good that they decided to have a celebration and give thanks because more mais was raised by the P?lerins than P?lerins were killed by the Peaux-Rouges.

Every year on le Jour de Merci Donnant, parents tell their children an amusing story about the first celebration.

It concerns a brave capitaine named Miles Standish (known in France as Kilom?tres Deboutish) and a shy young lieutenant named Jean Alden. Both of them were in love with a flower of Plymouth named Priscilla Mullens (no translation).

...And so, on the fourth Thursday in November, American families sit down at a large table brimming with tasty dishes and for the only time during the year eat better than the French do.

No one can deny that le Jour de Merci Donnant is a grande f?te, and no matter how well fed American families are, they never forget to give thanks to Kilom?tres Deboutish, who made this great day possible.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Be thankful.
Eat too much.
Watch the Detroit Lions game, maybe.

Here?

No entries for a day or two.

I'm off to Carlsbad, California, a two hour drive south of Hollywood, almost to San Diego - almost to Mexico, actually. Thanksgiving with my sister and her family.

Back late Friday afternoon.

Everyone, enjoy the day.

Topic: Iraq
Making Iraq a Model Democracy

A few posts down I was discussing our invasion and occupation of Iraq and how this was a neoconservative project of installing our idea of what we think they should have as a government, and what its policies should be. That would be a secular democracy, with a deregulated totally privatized capitalist economy, few if any social services (to require personal responsibility), friendly to multi-national corporations like Wal-Mart, Starbucks and KFC (and Exxon-Mobil and Arco and the rest), and so on and so forth. Schools would be private, not public. Abortion would be totally illegal.

This is the standard Republican list of how things should be in a well-run nation. Iraq is kind of a "great experiment" in creating this ideal state.

What about freedom of the press?

Well, our president doesn't like the press, "the media" as it were. He claims they filter the truth. Bush told Brit Hume on Fox News that he never reads any newspapers, nor does he watch any news on television. He relies on "unfiltered" news from two of his key subordinates, who summarize events for him.

Given that view of the media, what would a "free press" look like in a nation we get to build pretty much from scratch?

Well, the press would be "responsible" - not reporting things that would cause people to lose faith in their government. You know, kind of like Fox News, only much more disciplined.

You don't believe it? The government we have selected and installed in Iraq has now warned both CNN and the BBC they will face sanctions if they continue reporting things that raise too many questions.

Read this from the Toronto Star:

In another sign of a harder line coming from Baghdad, the Washington-appointed Iraqi Governing Council pulled the plug on the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya satellite television network yesterday, saying it would no longer be allowed to report from Baghdad until it agrees to stop "encouraging terrorism."

Its crime appeared to be airing an audio tape purported to have come from deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. It aired the audio tape, in which a voice calls for a holy war against occupying troops on Nov. 16. The CIA said it could not confirm the voice was, in fact, Saddam's.

"I would like to you know that we are serious in fighting terrorism and the Governing Council will exert more efforts," Jalal Talabani, current head of the council, told reporters in Baghdad. "We will have an active political, media and military role against terrorism."

CNN reported yesterday that it and the BBC had also been warned that they, too, could face sanctions if they did not toe the line.

Well, the current administration hasn't yet been totally able to reign in the press here. I'd say they're three-quarters there, but still face some uppity reporting here and there.

But now we have a model for how it should be done. The "it" here is how the government should work with the press. A short leash.

This is from a section of a longer item -
Resolve won't be shaken: Bush
Vows to avenge soldiers' slayings
$401 billion U.S. defence bill signed
Tim Harper, The Toronto Star, posted Nov. 25, 2003. 06:32 AM (EST)

Topic: Oddities
Film Notes:

For those who like the hot chocolate at Cafe Angelina in Paris (226, rue de Rivoli), or like movies about Paris, consider this news from l'Agence France-Presse (AFP).

New Guide Reveals Paris Settings for Famous Films

PARIS, Nov 25 (AFP) - For people curious to find "Amelie"'s cafe or the little Paris bistro where Audrey Hepburn and Walter Matthau grabbed a bite to eat in "Charade", a new tourist guide makes it all easy.

"Paris Vu au Cinema" (Paris, as seen at the movies) digs into the French capital's rich history as the setting for many films to give readers step-by-step itineraries to finding the real-life addresses glimpsed on the big screen.

Thus the book points the way to the charming Montmartre locales inhabited by Amelie in the 2001 French movie of the same title - locales that have already drawn thousands of Americans, Japanese and Germans struck by the impossibly magical Paris depicted.

Other harder finds can also be traced, including the Cochon a l'Oreille restaurant graced by Hepburn in the 1963 film "Charade", or the museum that stood in for the presidential palace in the French movie version of "Absolutely Fabulous".

Many of the 300 films referenced in the guide are titles only the French know and love, but tracking them down can be rewarding, such as those tracing Sophie Marceau's footsteps in "La Boum 2" to Cafe Angelina - a gourmet's paradise specialising in a divine hot chocolate.

There's also the restaurant l'Escargot Montorgueil that served as the model for the studio decor for Shirley MacLaine's turn as a prostitute in "Irma la Douce", and the commercial yacht used by director Tim Burton in his yet-to-be-released movie "The Big Fish".

The guide's writers, Francois de Saint-Exupery and Marie-Christine Vincent, plan to follow up the book with a whole series about films set in other regions of France.

Buy the book here (site is in French) - it's 14,25 ? (93,47 FRF).

PARIS VU AU CINEMA
de : Marie-Christine Vincent et Fran?ois de Saint-Exup?ry
Editeur : Movie Planet
Genre : Guide Touristique
Date de Parution : 15/11/2003
ISBN : 291524300X - EAN : 9782915243000