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Pentagon Seeks A Loophole In The Privacy Act
CygnusXII writes "As reported over @ wired.com. It seems that Homeland Security isn't the only govermental body wanting to keep a database on the good old U.S. population. 'The bill would allow Pentagon intelligence agents to work undercover and question American citizens and legal residents without having to reveal that they are government agents. That exemption currently applies only to law enforcement officials working on criminal cases and to the CIA, which is prohibited from operating in the United States.' Kinda adds a whole new meaning to 'We want you!', or should it be 'We want all your secrets'?"
i can feel a draft!
Can you?
How is this about "My Rights Online"?
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
Seeing, and Believing
The torture tapes the media are ignoring.
By Nick Schulz
EDITOR'S NOTE: Earlier this month, National Review Online obtained a four-minute video of Saddam-era torture at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Many of us here who discussed the matter are ourselves unable to watch the whole video. Some could not get beyond the furious, ecstatic chanting of torturers as they raised swords, celebrating their own dementia in the depths of a man-made hell. What to do with the video was a matter of debate here. On principle this is newsworthy -- and weighing heavily on our deliberations was the fact that a group of United States senators held a press conference on June 2 during which they showed the horrific video and near no one covered it -- in fact, to this date, I am aware of no mainstream news organization other than the New York Post yesterday -- in an opinion column -- that has even mentioned that this new, Department of Defense-provided, video exists and has been shown on the Hill. We also considered this: Some Westerners, including some who did not support the war in Iraq, frankly may not understand the evil that was the Saddam Hussein regime. You watch -- or try to -- the four-minute video and you see the unbearable evil that was -- and that is no more because of the sacrifice of American and Coalition blood.
It's too easy for Americans to forget what we are fighting against. The Daniel Pearl murder, the Nick Berg video, these visuals do remind us in ways mere wire stories, reporting pieces, and commentary can't. In the case of the Pearl and Berg videos, NRO itself never provided links to the videos or the videos themselves. In that same vein, we are not introducing this Abu Ghraib video to public access. Though I can't imagine more powerful images, they're also of the sort no civilized man wants another to have to see. We will not be the ones who show them to you. The decision we came to was to report this news -- the existence of this horrid tape -- graphically, but without showing the actual video. It's awful enough to read about.
It's my hope that Nick Schulz's piece will be a catalyst for more news stories on the nature of the regime that was in Iraq -- the regime that American and Coalition blood have brought to an end.
You'll notice too, that Schulz would have preferred you have a link to the video with his piece -- I understand why. I want every American to know it exists and what is on it -- which is why we asked Schulz to describe it to you. But I, for one, cannot be the conduit for bringing the actual footage in front of your eyes.
I urge you to read Nick Schulz's piece, and write to your evening-news program or cable-news station of choice, your newspaper of record, or your favorite columnist: Ask them why this video hasn't warranted a mention.
-- Kathryn Jean Lopez, Editor, National Review Online
"You don't appreciate what happened in that prison until you see it." -- Aaron Brown, CNN News
Several weeks back, NRO's Jonah Goldberg suggested the press should have practiced self-censorship and refrained from showing the pictures and videos of Iraqi prisoner abuse by American soldiers at Abu Ghraib. CNN anchor Aaron Brown thought Goldberg's notion mistaken and argued that major media outlets were correct to show footage of the abuse: "You don't appreciate what happened in that prison," Brown said, "until you see it."
And whatever the merits of Goldberg's argument, who, at this point, can doubt the veracity of Brown's assertion? No mere rhetorical description of the humiliation that took place can match the emotional wallop of seeing what some demented U.S. soldiers did there.
But we're currently undergoing our first significant test of what might be called journalism's "Aaron Brown doctrine." Two weeks ago, a bipartisan group of U.S. senators held a press conference at which they played a video of ritual prisoner torture by Saddam Hussein's regime. As of this writing, the only mainstream media outl
this guy
Score:3, Insightful
Amazing.