Musical Torture
No, this isn't a review of the new Coldplay album. There's a great article in today's Guardian talking about the use of music in torture at Guantanamo Bay.
I can say this for sure: it would only take about two repeats of Barney the Dinosaur's I Love You before I confessed to everything.
Share ThisUpdated: Iraq war killed more than Saddam
A depressing article at The Guardian discusses the death-toll of the Iraq war, in which between 700,000 and 1.5 million people have died. All studies into the human impact of the war except the Iraq Body Count now estimate a death-toll greater than the total killed by Saddam Hussein in 30 years of dictatorship.
There's your moral intervention.
UPDATE: Bush has given a highly upbeat speech about how it was all worth it, despite "a high cost in lives and treasure" - whatever the hell that is supposed to mean. I mean seriously, fuck. Treasure? What the hell is the man on about?
Will Nick Cohen, who flip-flopped on the war before settling in favour of indiscriminate suffering and death (tough decision so he must have been right… right?) - will Cohen also give a speech to say "Non, je ne regrette rien"…? No doubt it'll be rammed with 'thought experiments' and other nonsense, though hopefully not references to 'treasure'.
Share ThisSmash Hamas, smash the unions!
F-16 missiles destroy the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions.
Of course, when part of your genocidal policy against a people consists of ever-increasing radicalistion, you need to make sure that 'civil society' but most importantly, organised labour, cease to exist.
Also, in case you didn't see it already, evidence of US attempts to foment civil war in Palestine. Maybe they're pushing for a 5 state solution now?
[Via: Lenin's Tomb]
Share ThisQ: When is a bombing not a terrorist attack?
A: When it's not done by darkies/Muslims!
Yet again, the White House clarifies exactly how it defines 'terrorism'.
Share ThisCouldn't have said it better myself
The comments on this post at Lenin's Tomb are excellent.
Share ThisBarcelona 'terror' suspects "planned suicide bombings"
It seems that six of the men arrested over the weekend in Raval were planning to commit suicide in (I presume) a synchronised series of bomb attacks on the Barcelona metro system. As if we didn't have enough problems with infrastructure here already.
The PP have been trying to use this as an excuse to force Joan Saura to resign because his statements to the Catalan parliament have not been as complete as they might have. Honestly, when will they learn? It's not like he alleged that the men arrested were members of ETA. I'm of the opinion that the fewer 'statements' made about such arrests, the better. Let's wait for the court proceedings to start.
Share ThisManifesto: explained
"Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."
As quoted in an exhibition of Artists Against The War.
Share ThisSenior US officials implicated in nuclear black market
An interesting post at Lenin's Tomb asks why more isn't being made of Sibel Edmonds's claims about corruption in the US government.
State Secrets laws don't permit her to talk to a judge about it, much less a television reporter, and much of the media has avoided looking too intensely at the matter. Apparently, she knows that several high-placed American officials put US nuclear materials on the black market, some of which were going to Pakistani secret police individuals with connections to 'Al Qaeda'.
By the way, lots of work on at the moment… I'm still working on a few longer posts though.
Share ThisMore trouble in Pakistan
I've just heard that Benazir Bhutto has been assassinated at a rally in Pakistan. This is obviously sad news for a country that stands on the brink of either democracy or disaster. While it's unlikely to be revealed one way or another, I've heard that President Musharaff and the military intelligence service of Pakistan are often accused of being behind terrorist attacks and assassinations. Is it really possible that the state would do something like this? I hope not, for everyone's sake.
Share This11-M Verdicts Due Today
By lunchtime today, we should all know the verdicts decided by the court deliberating the case of the Al Qaeda operatives charged with attacking Madrid in 2004. South of Watford has an interesting post about the possible outcomes, and how they might affect the forthcoming general elections.
Another thing he points out is a poll in Público which reveals that 1/3 of PP voters still believe that ETA was involved in the bombings. Astounding. This is almost certainly as much because of the seeds of doubt sown by the PP in the months and years since the bombings, as it is thanks to the wild conspiracy theories spread by El Mundo, El COPE, Libertad Digital, Red Liberal, Telemadrid etc.
Like the Fox News channel, the first three on that list often rail against what they call 'the mainstream media' (they love the abbreviation 'MSM') which refers to other media source but themselves. While El País may have the edge on newspaper readership (Christ it's a dull read, though), El Mundo is one of the most popular websites in Spain, ranking considerably higher than ElPaís.com. This says to me that however skewed and unbelievable their news coverage might be, El Mundo is the mainstream media (just like Fox News is, just as El COPE is).
I first came across these bizarre conspiracy theories while reading Libertad Digital. For those of you who haven't read it, it sums up the false-centrism of the hard right in Spanish politics. A lot of waffle about economics (that's where the 'Libertad' seems to come from), accompanied by vitriolic 'news' 'reports' all targeted against the Socialists, the Basques, the Catalans, history, free speech, democracy and modernity. Give it a whirl, it'd actually be hilarious if it weren't the 20th most popular Spanish website.
Share This"So where's the medical care?"
A shameless copy-paste from Armando Ianucci's typically amusing Observer column:
Talking of doubt, last week I had a conversation with a genuine neo-con who didn't have any. He was one of George Bush's former speechwriters and I asked him how he responded to the never-answered complaint from most of us that invading Iraq was senseless, because all the terrorists were in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia. His only response was: 'That was then. The question is, what do we do now?' I kept telling him that where we were now was a result of what he did then, but he kept saying: 'No, but what's important is what we do now.' Which is a bit like saying: 'I know I set fire to your house, but can we draw a line under that? What's important now is that I've got a charred hand, so where's the medical care?'
Drawing a line, redefining the issue, re-evaluating the situation in the light of a fresh context; these are all highly sophisticated reverbalisations of: 'I don't know; can we start again?' George W Bush declares progress, even though his definition of progress is to get unbearable violence back to the level it was a year-and-a-half ago. If he goes on redefining phrases to mean around 96 per cent of their opposite, it won't be long before he manages to persuade Americans to think that a 'debacle' is a good thing. Especially if it's an improvement on an outright disaster. Expect soon to have American families celebrate Debacle Day, host Fiasco Barbecues and organise Shambles Carnivals.
Click here to read the original article.
Share ThisThe Conservatives' disastrous London campaign
In what was meant to be a plea to fans of democracy and a rallying call to London's Tories, a Conservative member of the London Assembly has brought into sharp focus her party's links with known terrorists who threaten the violent overthrow of Hugo Chavez's legitimate government. Writing in The Guardian, Angie Bray related meeting with 'Venezuelan dissidents' whom the Mayor, Ken Livingstone, had barred from entry to the GLA building. Comments on her article, most notably from Calvin Tucker of 21st Century Socialism, drew attention to the fact that the so-called 'dissidents' were none other than Aleksander Boyd of the website VCrisis.
On a number of occasions, Boyd has publicly called for the violent overthrow of Venezuela's government (which has won 8 democratic votes, all scrutinised by international authorities). He has also written that he wished he was Genghis Khan so that he could conquer Venezuela and pour molten silver into the eyes of his enemies. Don't we all?
Angie Bray's column was in response to the GLA's decision to buy oil for London Transport from Venezuela in exchange for below-market prices and some knowledge transfer from London to Caracas. Her aim was to paint Livinstone as recklessly doing business with Chavez (a figure hated among right-wing political groups the world over), just in order to offer Londoners 'an election bribe' prior to forthcoming mayoral elections. As some commenters on the Guardian website pointed out: this woman is trying to convince Londoners to vote Conservative by telling a sob story about a violent, self-obsessed terrorist who has also, interestingly enough, referred to writer Tariq Ali as 'that Paki journalist'.
But that's not all! As part of her article, Bray makes claims about ballot papers and the electoral roll in Venezuela which are simply untrue:
Have you ever seen the Venezuelan electoral register? It looks innocent enough at first, with columns for your name, address and polling number. But then it suddenly turns slightly menacing: a long line of columns records every ballot you have ever cast.
This is a fantasy. One can only assume it was fed to her by that ass Boyd as an attempt to get her to see him as the one true Genghis.
In one short blog post, Angie Bray has done more to help Labour's mayoral campaign than Hugo Chavez. Naturally, she should resign for consorting with (and taking mendacious stories from) known terrorists and racists. Also, David Cameron must be asked about his knowledge of Angie Bray's contact with Aleksander Boyd, and whether he agrees that Chavez should be violently overthrown.
Also, just what is considered to be 'an electoral bribe' these days? A proposed Tory tax cut which would hurt the poor by cutting services but benefit the wealthy is somehow passed off as economics whereas a deal with Caracas to source cheap fuel for Transport for London, to the benefit of the poorest, is smeared as a cheap 'electoral bribe'.
Share ThisAir travel and dehumanisation
We had a wonderful weekend in England. London is a fantastic city where I'd like to spend more time. But our departure from Stansted airport did much to cement certain views I've held about air travel for some time now.
Modern air travel is cheap and quick. It also used to be fairly simple but in the last year or so, it has become an increasingly complicated way of travelling. The trouble started with check-in. We joined the queue for our flight shortly after check-in opened. We spent about an hour and a half queueing because of the ineptitude of the woman at the easyJet desk. She was phenomenally slow and left her post for nearly half an hour after claiming that a passenger with dark skin didn't have the correct documentation. His Spanish passport was eventually, grudgingly accepted and the queue continued to shuffle on at the rate of one passenger served every five minutes.
A sign by the check-in desk warned passengers to allow at least 40 minutes to clear security - making clear that the onus is on the passenger to make sure that (s)he gets to the gate on time. In this case, though we had joined the queue as it began, we cleared security with about 10 minutes to spare. At least five passengers toward the end of the queue checked in but were then delayed in the security check phase. They were kicked off the flight and the flight's captain gave us a patronising lecture about leaving enough time to get onto the plane. Perhaps he didn't know that the five passengers whose luggage had to be removed from the flight were delayed because of one of his own colleague's ineptitude.
Next, we approached the security check. This is the biggest recent change to modern air travel. Apparently, current rules (introduced in the wake of various terrorist attacks and attempts), insist that every passenger be put through a series of humiliating trials which test whether they're a terrorist or not. Herded like cattle on their way to the slaughterhouse (or at the very least, the dipping tank), passengers wait in line until shouted at to proceed. Queues appear and disappear as stewards marshall people this way and that like shepherds call sheep. Belts must be removed, jumpers and jackets too. Personal possessions are laid out for all to see in black metal trays for the x-ray.
Next, we are forced to walk guiltily through a metal detector so inefficient that it failed to detect my wedding ring, 2lbs of coins and bulky metal watch which I had elected not to put through the x-ray. The girl in front of me had three bottles of sun cream which were confiscated, obviously because they might have been used for the production of high explosive. After the indignity of dressing myself again in public, I was herded down the next roped-off passageway only to be told to remove my shoes. By this point, I was getting really annoyed. "For Christ's sake!", I said as I pulled my trainers off - all the while being told by the woman at the shoe checking desk that I should 'move out of the way'. This woman obviously noticed my irritation and said to me in a very obviously challenging way, "You seem very angry, sir".
That short sentence made it clear that the exhibition of emotion of any sort was suspicious and deserved being challenged. I have no doubt whatsoever that if I had remonstrated with her over that fact that only half of the passengers were being screened in this way (the rest were allowed to just walk straight past), I would have been questioned - and probably by one of the police officers armed with huge semi-automatic rifles.
My problem here is not with security per se. I'm aware that there's a small number of people out there who want to blow aeroplanes up. I'm also aware, however, that 50% of passengers could just walk through the shoe-checking phase. That I carried loads of metal through the metal detector without it noticing. That I could buy a tennis racket or bottle after security which could realistically be used as a weapon on an aeroplane. That it's by no means inconceivable that a terrorist network could infiltrate airport shops and make sure that a bottle of water, perfume or shampoo that actually contained the ingredients for explosive were placed on shelves for the right person to buy. In short, I don't believe that the security in modern airports is particularly effective. It still contains multiple holes which could easily be exploited by a committed terrorist cell.
In truth, I believe that these security checks we all have to undergo are part of a campaign of psychological warfare, the object of which is not to protect us but to cow us. The series of controls act more than anything else as steps in a process of dehumanisation and humiliation which never fail to conjure up the feeling of the emotions we might experience as we queue for access to the camps.
Share ThisSummer holidays
Blogging has been erratic of late. My real job is going well. There have been a lot of recent events (London & Glasgow attacks, Yemen attacks etc) which I have strong feelings about but on which I've not had time to talk.
==
There is a column at The Guardian which is causing some controversy. The writer argues that to ignore British foreign policy while trying to understand Islamist fanaticism is a mistake. I sort of half agree with him. The way I see it is that our foreign policy has had an effect on a lot of the young men who have joined Islamist groups. But that doesn't mean that Islamism wouldn't exist without Western influence in the Middle East. Sayyid Qutb developed his warped ideas about us in the 1950s.
And still, understanding that Islamism exists without Western military action, it's stunning to think that people believe that our foreign policy has nothing to do with terrorism.
A world without Saddam Hussein is a better world. And yet, the way in which the war was prosecuted seems to have given both a breeding ground and fodder to the Islamists. This is, it must be admitted, a huge strategic failure. Iraq, like it or not, has become both recruiting ground and recruiting poster.
Islamism is clearly the enemy of socialism and democracy. But that doesn't qualify any and all action by Western governments as acceptable. It is right that we criticise our governments when we feel that they have made mistakes or overstepped the mark. Those commentators who try to smother criticism are missing the point. Debate is what makes us strong.
==
thebadrash.com will be on intermittent holiday between now and the beginning of September.
Share ThisIs that it?
Busy times here at thebadrash tower. We bought a new gas grill (like a barbecue, but for cheats) and have been experimenting with it with varying degrees of success. Hint for those just starting out on the barbecue road: when chicken looks like it's cooked, cook it some more. And then some more. Alternatively, puke up a couple of times the next morning.
The big topic for bloggers here has been the unsurprising end to ETA's ceasefire. The usual suspects were quick to voice their traditional mixture of "String 'em up! / Hanging's too good for 'em!". In a way, they're right. If we killed everybody in the entire world, none of these things would happen.
Personally, I don't think the ETA story is that important.
What I find most interesting is whether the Spanish government pursued the Political Parties Law with too much vigour. This policy ended up by denying potential ETA supporters the vote as each party which looked like it might represent their views got proscribed. Stupid move. It makes no sense to ban political parties, even if you consider their supporters to be arseholes, terrorists or whatever. Investigate sources of funding, personal and corporate conduct of the party's members, beef up council database security to stop the thugs getting targets' personal data (though they could probably do this without a database, anyway)… but allow the party to exist. Give it the chance to enjoy limited democratic power as it's elected to town councils and help to lead it away from terrorism.
Comparisons with Northern Ireland are, on the whole, idle and unhelpful. Batasuna needs to publicly denounce violence at some point… and they will, but only if they're operating as a political force. Denying them a democratic voice prolongs the violence.
Ostensibly, the main winners in the current situation are the PP and ETA. Not really that surprising: the two need each other. ETA thrives on the sort of nonsense spouted by halfwits like Aznar and Rajoy, while those halfwits gain their folk devil with which they can terrorise the electorate. Sure, you could present this as a case of the PSOE failing to heed the PP's warnings about ETA all this time. Or you could remember that the PP has been the first opposition party in Spanish democracy to commit itself to wrecking any chance at negotiations, while simultaneously accusing the left of being 'soft on terror'. This led to the absurd wave of banning party lists.
But what about the airport bomb? It was disgraceful, of course. There will probably be more bombs and they'll all make me sad, frightened and angry. But they'll never have the effect on me that I've seen on several blogs: that they can somehow be solved by abolishing democratic rights for a small proportion of the population. This is not a solution, it's a causal factor. Sometimes, one wonders whether those in favour of such a policy secretly know that it'll only cause more trouble… perhaps that's what they want.
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