I would like to see some more on that hunger strike claim. The Soviets tended to starve and mistreat their POWs.
In early April 1945, the United States was responsible for 313,000 prisoners in Europe; by month's end this total had shot up to 2.1 million. After the fall of the Third Reich, the number rose to a staggering 5 million German and Axis POWs. Of those, an estimated 56,000, or about 1 percent, died—roughly equal to the mortality rate American POWs suffered in German hands. Those held in Soviet-occupied territory fared far worse. Officially, the Soviet Union took 2,388,000 Germans and 1,097,000 combatants from other European nations as prisoners during and just after the war. More than a million of the German captives died. The immense suffering Germany and her Axis partners had caused surely played a key role in the treatment of enemy POWs. "In 1945, in Soviet eyes it was time to pay," wrote British military historian Max Arthur. "For most Russian soldiers, any instinct for pity or mercy had died somewhere on a hundred battlefields between Moscow and Warsaw." - German POWs and the Art of Survival
The POWs in Guantanamo are unlawful combatants - they do not fight the war in accordance with the Law of War and the terms of the Geneva Convention. Al Qaida's basic strategy is essentially to commit war crimes. They are not "kidnapped partisans."
The answer from the American people would be, "No." They don't want the terrorists held there moved to the continental United States. There is no good reason to do that. There is no reason to close it. It is just a prison camp for POWs, that's it. At best moving the terrorists to other prisons would just move the problem somewhere else. That is pointless.
Two hundred years ago, in 1807, Parliament abolished slavery in Britain. In 1833, all slaves in the British Empire were set free. It took a civil war, Abraham Lincoln and the 13th Amendment, passed in 1865, to end slavery in America.
Even though the British have been commemorating this auspicious occasion, there's little remembrance of it in the places where African slaves came from: Sierra Leone, Senegal, Gambia, etc. Sadly, the African tribal enmities that made the slave trade possible have not disappeared. The tribes' children, sold to the British, Americans and Portuguese slavers, are not commemorated in the lands where they were seized and forced into bondage.
Slavery was abolished in Brazil in 1888 and a little later in other South American countries. But more than a century later, blacks still live in slave-like conditions all across South America or - at best - as second-class citizens....
When slavery is mentioned, our minds gravitate to Europe and America. But I must also mention the enslavement of black Africans by Arabs. Arabs have bought and sold blacks for a thousand years; and even though Saudi Arabia abolished slavery in 1962, in reality, blacks are still traded and treated as chattel in most Arab countries, even at this late date in human history. There seems to be no international will to confront this Arab trade in human beings.
The US is bound by the Geneva Convention because it signed the treaty, not because it holds prisoners. The prisoners are PoWs in either case.
The Red Cross does make visits to Guantanamo.
In order to have the right to all of the privileges and protections of the treaty you have to wage war lawfully under the terms of the treaty - it is an enforcement mechanism. Al Qaida doesn't do that. Their basic strategy is to commit war crimes. Despite that the US treats them substantially in accordance with the treaty. They don't get to cook their own food, for example, which they would be able to do if they were lawful combatants.
The US has waterboarded thousands, or tens of thousands of people, all of them members of the US military except for 3 terrorists, the most recent of which was 10 years ago. I don't believe that any of them were at Guantanamo.
The Authorization for Use of Military Force makes it clear who the US is fighting against, and that it is at war. It is well settled law that such an authorization is legally equivalent to a declaration of war. Al Qaida is, reasonably speaking, a political entity.
Why can't they just have the balls to say "fuck you, this is effectively an authoritarian police state now and we can do whatever we want." I'd appreciate the honesty.
Because the effect is spoiled when the voters get unhappy with a politician and vote them out of office.
The practical effect of Snowden, Wikileaks, and the rest is to weaken the Western world and cause no inconvenience or harm to the genuine authoritarian regimes. All you offer is a false choice and a bad end.
Defense spending is one measure, there are plenty of others that matter. Number of troops, number of divisions, number of aircraft, number of missiles. The readiness of those units and equipment. The technology levels. They all play a part in assessing the strength of a nation's military.
China has been significantly increasing their military spending, and the size of their navy. They have a plan to build a number of aircraft carriers. The Chinese fleet has been taking part in anti-piracy patrols around Somalia which is giving them experience in extended naval deployments. China has been encroaching on the territory of its neighbors, trying to take control of various islands.
China is likely to become an increasingly formidable adversary as times passes.
The Black Book of Communism is one of those rare books that really matters. It is the first systematic and comparative analysis of the "crimes, terror and repression" that accompanied Communism everywhere and that seemed to define its "genetic code." The book's centerpiece is a relentlessly documented narrative of political violence and repression in the Soviet Union under Lenin and Stalin, drawing on extensive archival materials made available to researchers since the collapse of Communist rule in 1991. But The Black Book also contains absorbing accounts of Communist repression in Eastern Europe, Asia, and the Third World.
Stoking tensions with Japan, Vietnam and the Philippines over islands in the South and East China seas has not prevented an increasingly assertive China from opening yet another front by staging a military incursion across the disputed, forbidding Himalayan frontier.
On the night of April 15, a People’s Liberation Army (PLA) platoon stealthily intruded near the China-India-Pakistan tri-junction, established a camp 19 kilometers inside Indian-controlled territory, and presented India’s government with the potential loss of a strategically vital, 750-square-km, high-altitude plateau.
A stunned India, already reeling under a crippling domestic political crisis, has groped for an effective response to China’s land grab — the largest and most strategic real estate China has seized since it began pursuing a more muscular policy toward its neighbors. Whether China intends to stay put by building permanent structures for its troops on the plateau’s icy heights, or plans to withdraw after having extracted humiliating military concessions from India, remains an open — and in some ways a moot — question.
The fact is that, with its “peaceful rise” giving way to an increasingly sharp-elbowed approach to its neighbors, China has broadened its “core interests” — which brook no compromise — and territorial claims, while showing a growing readiness to take risks to achieve its goals.
Yes, but hot grits never went out of style, surviving to the modern age. Of course of late they both seem to be challenged by mycleanpc, the modern equivalent of the old mycleanbuggy.
For systems that have held Top Secret data the media won't be sold, it will be destroyed. The consequences of possible loss are considered too severe. I believe I've read that they have facilities for destruction themselves. It looks like one of the ways they do it is the use of High Security Disentegrators which reduce everything to no more then 3/32" size. Examples here.
I suppose it is possible that they might outsource it, but there would obviously have to be tight controls in place to assure destruction.
Zimmerman was on the phone with the police as a member of the neighborhood watch reporting Martins suspicious behavior. He wasn't "hassling" Martin. He did have a reason, and what he did was legal.
The Authorization for Use of Military Force passed by the US Congress after 9/11 designates the enemy for the conflict. It is well settled law in the US that such an authorization is legally equivalent to a declaration of war. Al Qaida made their intentions clear in 1996 with Bin Laden's Fatwa which is a declaration of war in their culture.
There are a lot of misconceptions about Guantánamo Bay. This is a couple of years old, and doesn't reflect the most current controversies. It's a big topic, and I'm not going to get into all of it right now. One thing I would say to keep in mind is that you can disagree with what the administration says, or does, but remember that al Qaida trains its members to lie about their living conditions, and many of them are highly dangerous prisoners that regularly assault the guards. The training to lie is documented in captured training materials.
Slashdot Mirror
I would like to see some more on that hunger strike claim. The Soviets tended to starve and mistreat their POWs.
In early April 1945, the United States was responsible for 313,000 prisoners in Europe; by month's end this total had shot up to 2.1 million. After the fall of the Third Reich, the number rose to a staggering 5 million German and Axis POWs. Of those, an estimated 56,000, or about 1 percent, died—roughly equal to the mortality rate American POWs suffered in German hands. Those held in Soviet-occupied territory fared far worse. Officially, the Soviet Union took 2,388,000 Germans and 1,097,000 combatants from other European nations as prisoners during and just after the war. More than a million of the German captives died. The immense suffering Germany and her Axis partners had caused surely played a key role in the treatment of enemy POWs. "In 1945, in Soviet eyes it was time to pay," wrote British military historian Max Arthur. "For most Russian soldiers, any instinct for pity or mercy had died somewhere on a hundred battlefields between Moscow and Warsaw." - German POWs and the Art of Survival
The Soviets were not especially benign: The Soviet Story (2008)
The POWs in Guantanamo are unlawful combatants - they do not fight the war in accordance with the Law of War and the terms of the Geneva Convention. Al Qaida's basic strategy is essentially to commit war crimes. They are not "kidnapped partisans."
The answer from the American people would be, "No." They don't want the terrorists held there moved to the continental United States. There is no good reason to do that. There is no reason to close it. It is just a prison camp for POWs, that's it. At best moving the terrorists to other prisons would just move the problem somewhere else. That is pointless.
So much that could be said.
An end to slavery
Two hundred years ago, in 1807, Parliament abolished slavery in Britain. In 1833, all slaves in the British Empire were set free. It took a civil war, Abraham Lincoln and the 13th Amendment, passed in 1865, to end slavery in America.
Even though the British have been commemorating this auspicious occasion, there's little remembrance of it in the places where African slaves came from: Sierra Leone, Senegal, Gambia, etc. Sadly, the African tribal enmities that made the slave trade possible have not disappeared. The tribes' children, sold to the British, Americans and Portuguese slavers, are not commemorated in the lands where they were seized and forced into bondage.
Slavery was abolished in Brazil in 1888 and a little later in other South American countries. But more than a century later, blacks still live in slave-like conditions all across South America or - at best - as second-class citizens. ...
When slavery is mentioned, our minds gravitate to Europe and America. But I must also mention the enslavement of black Africans by Arabs. Arabs have bought and sold blacks for a thousand years; and even though Saudi Arabia abolished slavery in 1962, in reality, blacks are still traded and treated as chattel in most Arab countries, even at this late date in human history. There seems to be no international will to confront this Arab trade in human beings.
Saudi Offers “Castrated African Slave” for Sale on Facebook
Men should have sex slaves, says female Kuwaiti politician
The Sun Rays are pretty handing technology. I was surprised at how well they work.
The US is bound by the Geneva Convention because it signed the treaty, not because it holds prisoners. The prisoners are PoWs in either case.
The Red Cross does make visits to Guantanamo.
In order to have the right to all of the privileges and protections of the treaty you have to wage war lawfully under the terms of the treaty - it is an enforcement mechanism. Al Qaida doesn't do that. Their basic strategy is to commit war crimes. Despite that the US treats them substantially in accordance with the treaty. They don't get to cook their own food, for example, which they would be able to do if they were lawful combatants.
The US has waterboarded thousands, or tens of thousands of people, all of them members of the US military except for 3 terrorists, the most recent of which was 10 years ago. I don't believe that any of them were at Guantanamo.
Guantanamo Bay is a PoW camp, plain and simple.
The Authorization for Use of Military Force makes it clear who the US is fighting against, and that it is at war. It is well settled law that such an authorization is legally equivalent to a declaration of war. Al Qaida is, reasonably speaking, a political entity.
Why can't they just have the balls to say "fuck you, this is effectively an authoritarian police state now and we can do whatever we want." I'd appreciate the honesty.
Because the effect is spoiled when the voters get unhappy with a politician and vote them out of office.
It is both the law and custom to hold Prisoners of War until the conflict is over. That is what the prisoners in Guantanamo are, POWs.
Your notion about abandoning Guantanamo is rather whimsical.
The practical effect of Snowden, Wikileaks, and the rest is to weaken the Western world and cause no inconvenience or harm to the genuine authoritarian regimes. All you offer is a false choice and a bad end.
Defense spending is one measure, there are plenty of others that matter. Number of troops, number of divisions, number of aircraft, number of missiles. The readiness of those units and equipment. The technology levels. They all play a part in assessing the strength of a nation's military.
China has been significantly increasing their military spending, and the size of their navy. They have a plan to build a number of aircraft carriers. The Chinese fleet has been taking part in anti-piracy patrols around Somalia which is giving them experience in extended naval deployments. China has been encroaching on the territory of its neighbors, trying to take control of various islands.
China is likely to become an increasingly formidable adversary as times passes.
Going to an atheist president won't help either. Officially atheist regimes were some of the biggest killers in the last century.
League of Militant Atheists
The Black Book of Communism
The Black Book of Communism - (book review) by Daniel J. Mahoney
The Black Book of Communism is one of those rare books that really matters. It is the first systematic and comparative analysis of the "crimes, terror and repression" that accompanied Communism everywhere and that seemed to define its "genetic code." The book's centerpiece is a relentlessly documented narrative of political violence and repression in the Soviet Union under Lenin and Stalin, drawing on extensive archival materials made available to researchers since the collapse of Communist rule in 1991. But The Black Book also contains absorbing accounts of Communist repression in Eastern Europe, Asia, and the Third World.
The Soviet Story (2008)
a good idea. This would send a positive message to arrogant governments everywhere.
I doubt that China, Russia, North Korea, et. al., will get the message. For some reason nobody seems to be stealing and disclosing their secrets.
Japan accuses China of encroaching in its waters after three ships closed-in on disputed islands
Philippines rebukes China for ‘militarization’ in South China Sea
Bien Dong Encroachments of China
China’s land grab in India
Stoking tensions with Japan, Vietnam and the Philippines over islands in the South and East China seas has not prevented an increasingly assertive China from opening yet another front by staging a military incursion across the disputed, forbidding Himalayan frontier.
On the night of April 15, a People’s Liberation Army (PLA) platoon stealthily intruded near the China-India-Pakistan tri-junction, established a camp 19 kilometers inside Indian-controlled territory, and presented India’s government with the potential loss of a strategically vital, 750-square-km, high-altitude plateau.
A stunned India, already reeling under a crippling domestic political crisis, has groped for an effective response to China’s land grab — the largest and most strategic real estate China has seized since it began pursuing a more muscular policy toward its neighbors. Whether China intends to stay put by building permanent structures for its troops on the plateau’s icy heights, or plans to withdraw after having extracted humiliating military concessions from India, remains an open — and in some ways a moot — question.
The fact is that, with its “peaceful rise” giving way to an increasingly sharp-elbowed approach to its neighbors, China has broadened its “core interests” — which brook no compromise — and territorial claims, while showing a growing readiness to take risks to achieve its goals.
That question is premature. They would still be studying the specs Snowden provided and forming the project plans.
I'd like to know how a chat room worked on a telegraph.
I'd like to know what the flame wars were about.
I think they called them drunkgrams. Sort of equivalent to the current practice of drunk blogging.
Telegraph, telephone, cell phone, internet, people's interests never really change, just the medium.
Almost had a typo. That last bit almost was: "just he medium." Oddly appropriate.
I'd like to see Shakira give a rendition of that. Maybe call it Waka Waka This Time for India.
Yes, but hot grits never went out of style, surviving to the modern age. Of course of late they both seem to be challenged by mycleanpc, the modern equivalent of the old mycleanbuggy.
There is speculation in the press that many Indians will be doing the same.
Close, but I think what you really want is: http://-.
.
Or maybe, http://dashdot.org/
Cash the check.
For systems that have held Top Secret data the media won't be sold, it will be destroyed. The consequences of possible loss are considered too severe. I believe I've read that they have facilities for destruction themselves. It looks like one of the ways they do it is the use of High Security Disentegrators which reduce everything to no more then 3/32" size. Examples here.
I suppose it is possible that they might outsource it, but there would obviously have to be tight controls in place to assure destruction.
It is possible that they might, but since the data they process is Top Secret, the hard drives will be destroyed, and probably the ram as well.
No, Martin conducting a life endangering assault is literally what happened: Noted Forensic Pathologist Says Zimmerman Story “Consistent” with Evidence, As Defense Case Nears End
If anyone had a problem with thuggery, it was Martin.
Has State Opened Door to Defense Introducing Martin Fight Video?
Zimmerman judge excludes Trayvon Martin fighting, social media and marijuana use
Saturday Night Card Game (Would Zimmerman case have been filed if “creepy ass cracker” comment known?)
Trayvon Martin’s Involvement In Local Burglaries Covered Up By Media, School, Police, Prosecutors
Trayvon Martin was suspended three times from school
Zimmerman was on the phone with the police as a member of the neighborhood watch reporting Martins suspicious behavior. He wasn't "hassling" Martin. He did have a reason, and what he did was legal.
The Authorization for Use of Military Force passed by the US Congress after 9/11 designates the enemy for the conflict. It is well settled law in the US that such an authorization is legally equivalent to a declaration of war. Al Qaida made their intentions clear in 1996 with Bin Laden's Fatwa which is a declaration of war in their culture.
There are a lot of misconceptions about Guantánamo Bay. This is a couple of years old, and doesn't reflect the most current controversies. It's a big topic, and I'm not going to get into all of it right now. One thing I would say to keep in mind is that you can disagree with what the administration says, or does, but remember that al Qaida trains its members to lie about their living conditions, and many of them are highly dangerous prisoners that regularly assault the guards. The training to lie is documented in captured training materials.
The Real Gitmo