Yank in London
"We have it in our power to begin the world over again"
Tom Paine - Common Sense
"A republic, sir, if you can keep it."
Benjamin Franklin
"War! What is it good for? Absolutely nothing!"
Norman Whitfield / Barrett Strong
occasional musings on politics, culture and life in general from an american in exile
"We have it in our power to begin the world over again"
"A republic, sir, if you can keep it."
"War! What is it good for? Absolutely nothing!"
19 July 2008
The one million name list
America's list of potential terrorists has now reached seven figures. Any predictions as to when it will reach eight figures? But don't worry. If you're not an evil doer you have nothing to worry about unless you might want to fly somewhere.
Labels: big brother, egwot
¶ 13:29:00 0 comments links to this post
I don't suppose anyone notified you but...
...last weekend there was yet another terrorist attack on American soil, this time in the form of a firebomb attack on the US consulate in Okinawa. Fortunately no one was injured.
¶ 13:01:00 0 comments
links to this post
10 July 2008
So much for "no terrorist attacks on American soil"
Because embassies and consulates ARE AMERICAN SOIL. I thought you should know.
Labels: egwot
¶ 19:32:00 0 comments links to this post
28 June 2008
Double standards?
Brown-skinned and Muslim suspected evil-doers are kidnapped and interned without rights or hope at the Guantánamo Bay Beach and Leisure Resort and elsewhere. When the US government eventually gets bored with this these unfortunates are sent off to various and sundry countries without so much as a "sorry mate".
Meanwhile white-skinned and presumably Christan suspected evil-doers get to stay at home and end up with a cheque for $4.6 million.
Just doesn't seem fair does it?
Meanwhile white-skinned and presumably Christan suspected evil-doers get to stay at home and end up with a cheque for $4.6 million.
Just doesn't seem fair does it?
Labels: egwot
¶ 15:02:00 0 comments links to this post
21 June 2008
Gitmo means never having to say you're sorry (or just bloody wrong)
So far the United States government, in all her magnanimity, has found that 38 of the "evil doers" it had (illegally) held at the Guantánamo Bay Beach and Leisure Resort to be "ex-evil doers". So they get flown somewhere with a few clothes, maybe a Qur'an and no apology, no compensation for the years that they have spent on the lovely Caribbean isle of Cuba.
¶ 11:32:00 0 comments
links to this post
18 June 2008
In which I explain why I am not proud to be an American
Because it is now becoming clear that, with absolute certainty, both the US military and the US "intelligence" community have engaged in systematic, intentional and highly managed horrific abuse of prisoners and detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan, Cuba and places unnamed. We have finally lost any remaining moral authority we may have had. These are crimes against humanity and someone, hopefully several someones, high up needs to pay and pay dearly.
Key quote: "If the detainee dies, you're doing it wrong".
Key quote: "If the detainee dies, you're doing it wrong".
Labels: crimes against humanity, egwot, torture, us "intelligence", us military, why I live in exile
¶ 13:42:00 0 comments links to this post
14 June 2008
Topsy turvy world
An ostensibly left wing government, if only by American standards, has just pushed its draconian 42 day detention without charge bill through the lower house of Parliament. New Labour's probable replacement, the right wing Tories, plans not just to scrap the 42 day limit but to reduce the limit below the current 28 days! I knew I shouldn't have had the mushroom omelet for breakfast.
Labels: british politics, egwot, justice
¶ 12:32:00 0 comments links to this post
12 June 2008
I thought these guys were bought and paid for
Why does the Supreme Court of the US hate freedom so much that they would dare to rule that the guilty evildoers held forever without charge at the luxurious Guantánamo Bay Beach and Leisure Resort have the right to access to civilian courts in order to contest their internment? Apparently these misguided justices believe that the framers of the Constitution intended for evil doers to have rights. I am shocked, appalled and not a little disappointed.
Labels: egwot, gitmo, justice, scotus
¶ 16:01:00 0 comments links to this post
09 June 2008
Is Laura Bush a terrorist or just trying to sell doughnuts?
The soon to be ex-First Lady is visiting Afghanistan to let us know how well things aren't going there. But what is that around her neck? I, for one, am suspicious but I shall let others claim the credit!
The soon to be ex-First Lady is visiting Afghanistan to let us know how well things aren't going there. But what is that around her neck? I, for one, am suspicious but I shall let others claim the credit!
Labels: afghanistan, egwot, wingnuts
¶ 16:59:00 0 comments links to this post
So who the hell wants it then?
Parliament is due to debate and vote on the proposed new 42 day internment detention limit this week. Yesterday Home Secretary Jacqui Smith admitted that MI5 has not asked for these new powers simply saying that the ghostly security service has said that the "scale of the threat" is growing. Today The Guardian also reports that at least four of the nations top police executives are attacking the plans saying that it will damage the reputation of the police, damage the police forces' relations with the Muslim community that is clearly the target and lead to pressures to manufacture evidence against those held without charge.
Gordon, I think you're hanging your hat on the wrong peg.
Gordon, I think you're hanging your hat on the wrong peg.
Labels: big brother, british politics, egwot
¶ 15:03:00 0 comments links to this post
31 May 2008
"Oops, we didn't mean Malaysians are terrorists...
...we probably should have said brown people are terrorists". The Royal Marines are ever so sorry for any confusion caused.
Labels: british life, egwot
¶ 14:34:00 0 comments links to this post
Could it be an election year?
Suddenly, and with little or now warning, we are winning the Eternal Global War on Terra. Well done everyone.
Nonetheless I reckon Americans should brace themselves for some solo Ernies and perhaps even an Elmo or two as the election draws near.
Nonetheless I reckon Americans should brace themselves for some solo Ernies and perhaps even an Elmo or two as the election draws near.
Labels: egwot, us politics
¶ 12:49:00 0 comments links to this post
"As soon as the kangaroos arrive we'll be ready to start"
Authorities at the palatial Guantánamo Bay Beach and Leisure Resort have had to dismiss judge Colonel Peter E. Brownback III from his role as the chief judge. Although no explanations were given for putting Col. Brownback on gardening leave it appears that amongst other things he was insisting that the prosecutors turn over evidence to the defence teams and that he was resisting the carefully worked out schedule that would see the first convictions verdicts come in time for the coronation of President John McCain in November!
As if we need evidence! These men are evil doers and we all know it. Why else would the US government be financing their six or seven year long holidays in Cuba?
Labels: egwot, gitmo, justice, us military
¶ 12:18:00 0 comments links to this post
28 May 2008
Mid-week madness
Fun with War Crimes - Episode 2 - "9/11 Changed Everything"
Labels: captain codpiece, egwot, humour
¶ 14:35:00 0 comments links to this post
25 May 2008
Be afraid; be very, very afraid
It can, it might and it probably will happen here.
According to arguments by government lawyers at a hearing in the case of Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, a legal US resident who has been held without charge on US soil for over six years, the President of the United States "can send the military into any U.S. neighborhood, capture a citizen and hold him in prison without charge, indefinitely".
Not at all totalitarian or unconstitutional or even terrifying. I am now going to go and hide.
According to arguments by government lawyers at a hearing in the case of Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, a legal US resident who has been held without charge on US soil for over six years, the President of the United States "can send the military into any U.S. neighborhood, capture a citizen and hold him in prison without charge, indefinitely".
Not at all totalitarian or unconstitutional or even terrifying. I am now going to go and hide.
Labels: amerika, big brother, egwot
¶ 15:26:00 0 comments links to this post
24 May 2008
97th and falling
The 2008 Global Peace Index has been released. Iceland is number 1 followed closely by Denmark, Norway, New Zealand and Japan. The UK is a disappointing 49th. The United States, beacon of peace for the planet, is 97th behind such oceans of serenity as Jamaica, Bangladesh, the Dominican Republic, Syria and Rwanda. The success story of Iraq finds it in dead last place behind Somalia, the Sudan and then Afghanistan. The Eternal Global War on Terra must be going well then.
¶ 14:18:00 0 comments
links to this post
17 May 2008
Well no one said no permanent prisons, did they?
The US is planning to build a huge new prison at Bagram (Afghanistan) to accommodate between 600 and 1,100 American prisoners. Some of the prisoners at the current facility, where there have been many unresolved accusations of mistreatment and torture, have been held without charge for over five years.
Perhaps this is the "double Guantánamo" that Gov. Romney got so excited about.
Perhaps this is the "double Guantánamo" that Gov. Romney got so excited about.
Labels: afghanistan, egwot
¶ 13:38:00 0 comments links to this post
13 May 2008
Yet another evil-doer...
...not quite as evil as advertised. The Pentagon has dropped charges of murder and war crimes, related to the 11 September attacks, against Mohammed al Qahtani. the charges were dropped on Friday but the Pentagon didn't get around to notifying the defense team until yesterday.
¶ 17:33:00 0 comments
links to this post
08 May 2008
Nature v. nurture debate re-opens
The news that one of the many suicide bombing recently carried out in Baghdad was executed by a former resident of the Guantánamo Bay Beach and Leisure Club will undoubtedly raise calls from the right to throw away the key (or worse) for all of the (not yet found) guilty evil doers who are living the life of Reilly on the Cuban beach. In fact a Navy spokesman, Commander Jeffrey Gordon, said that "there is an implied future risk to U.S. and allied interests with every detainee who is released or transferred from Guantanamo". Well that just settles it doesn't it. I guess it really doesn't matter whether Kuwaiti Abdallah Salih al-Ajmi was a terrorist when he arrived in Cuba-but-not-Cuba, as the US government assures us he was, or whether he was only one when he left. We have not choice but to lock him and his like forever or they will follow us home; or in this case to Baghdad.
Labels: egwot, gitmo, iraq, justice
¶ 16:05:00 0 comments links to this post
Have we no decency left?
No matter where one stands on the invasion of Iraq, the "Eternal Global War on Terra" or the use of military tribunals to bring "justice" to those we define as "illegal combatants" it is hard to imagine that one could support the use of these tribunals to try someone who was a 15 year old boy at the time of the alleged crime. This is, of course, unless one is a member of the American government.
US military judges see no reason why Omar Khadr, a Canadian, should not befound guilty tried at the tribunals in the resplendent Guantánamo Bay Beach and Leisure Club. Mr. Khadr has spent over 25% of his life in (probably illegal) US custody.
US military judges see no reason why Omar Khadr, a Canadian, should not be
Labels: egwot, gitmo, human rights, justice
¶ 13:48:00 0 comments links to this post
