CIA Torture
CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou calls on journalists to tell ‘full story’ of US torture
by John Casey
Published in: All Stories, CIA Torture
CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou, who exposed the treatment of al Qaeda suspects held in secret prisons, told the Bureau today it was now down to journalists to “tell the full story” about the intelligence agency’s torture programme because politicians did not have the will.
In a video interview on the last day of his house arrest recorded for the Bureau by film-maker Tarquin Ramsay, the former CIA counter-terrorism analyst called on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence to release more details from its 6,000-page report on CIA torture completed last December.
The committee published a heavily redacted 525-page executive summary, which contained shocking details about “enhanced interrogation” techniques. Kiriakou said the release of more details was vital, not only for accountability, but also to avoid a repeat of the programme in the future.
“If the next president decides he wants to torture prisoners, all he needs is a stroke of his pen. We need legislation that will permanently and formally outlaw torture,” he said.
“So while it’s nice to have a redacted version of the executive summary out there in the public, there really hasn’t been any real change – nothing we can point to as a success for human rights… It’s up to journalists to get the full story because certainly the government won’t tell us.”
Kiriakou believes he was the “fall guy” for the CIA’s torture programme. He blew the whistle on the interrogation operation, becoming the first US government official to confirm the use of waterboarding. He continues to believe what he did was right.
He was sentenced to 30 months in jail in January 2013 for revealing classified material of CIA undercover identities.
Kiriakou also makes criticisms of Washington politicians, many of whom wanted the details of the Senate report redacted. He said torturing prisoners neither worked nor prevented any terrorist attacks.
His remarks come as The Bureau of Investigative Journalism and The Rendition Project published the first comprehensive profiles of the 119 people secretly detained and tortured by the CIA. You can read our full report, view our infographic and see the full data here.
Kiriakou also called on the US government to adhere to the international treaties it has signed outlawing torture and to introduce new legislation to explicitly ban torture.
This report is part of a joint investigation with The Rendition Project and is being supported by the Freedom of the Press Foundation. To support the Freedom of the Press Foundation’s fundraising appeal for this investigation, please click here.
Washington specializes in covering up mistakes and misdeeds and viciously going after anyone, tinker, tailor, soldier or spy, that won’t play ball.
ReplyDeleteWhy ?
ReplyDelete>>>On October 22, 2012, Kiriakou pleaded guilty to disclosing classified information about a fellow CIA officer that connected the covert operative to a specific operation. wiki<<<
I call on you to tell 'the full story' of Iranian torture.
Cheers !
g'nite
Alfreda Frances Bikowsky "The Queen Of Torture"
ReplyDeleteNBC News yesterday called her a “key apologist” for the CIA’s torture program. A follow-up New Yorker article dubbed her “The Unidentified Queen of Torture” and in part “the model for the lead character in ‘Zero Dark Thirty.'” Yet in both articles she was anonymous.
ReplyDeleteThe person described by both NBC and The New Yorker is senior CIA officer Alfreda Frances Bikowsky. Multiple news outlets have reported that as the result of a long string of significant errors and malfeasance, her competence and integrity are doubted — even by some within the agency.
The Intercept is naming Bikowsky over CIA objections because of her key role in misleading Congress about the agency’s use of torture, and her active participation in the torture program (including playing a direct part in the torture of at least one innocent detainee). Moreover, Bikowsky has already been publicly identified by news organizations as the CIA officer responsible for many of these acts.
The executive summary of the torture report released by the Senate last week provides abundant documentation that the CIA repeatedly and deliberately misled Congress about multiple aspects of its interrogation program. Yesterday, NBC News reported that one senior CIA officer in particular was responsible for many of those false claims, describing her as “a top al Qaeda expert who remains in a senior position at the CIA.”
NBC, while withholding her identity, noted that the same unnamed officer “also participated in ‘enhanced interrogations’ of self-professed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, witnessed the waterboarding of terror suspect Abu Zubaydah and ordered the detention of a suspected terrorist who turned out to be unconnected to al Qaeda, according to the report.”
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/12/19/senior-cia-officer-center-torture-scandals-alfreda-bikowsky/
CIA counter-terrorism officer Alfreda Frances Bikowsky Silverstein, who headed the CIA anti-Bin Laden “Alec Station,” has been a mystery until the last few days when NBC News mentioned her, without giving her name, as the rambunctious CIA officer who personally witnessed acts of waterboarding. The recently-released Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA torture anonymously identified Bikowsky as a key part of the torture program and its primary defender.
ReplyDeleteBikowsky, a former CIA Soviet analyst, succeeded Michael Scheuer as the head of Alec Station in 2003 and remained its chief until the station's closure in 2005. She had been with Alec Station since its formation in 1996. Until 2011, Bikowsky reportedly was the head of the CIA's "Global Jihad" element.
The media has been reticent to expose Bikowsky. It is clear that Bikowsky and her assistant at Alec Station, Michael Anne Casey, ordered FBI liaison agents Doug Miller and Mark Rossini not to share information with FBI headquarters and its chief counter-terrorism agent John O'Neill, about the arrival from Malaysia in San Diego of two of the future 9/11 hijackers, Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi. Both future hijackers were financially supported during their stay in California by the Saudi embassy in Washington then headed by Bandar bin Sultan, also known as "Bandar Bush" because of his close links to the Bush family. Details of this link between the Saudi embassy and the two hijackers are contained in the still-classified and redacted 28 pages from the Senate Intelligence Committee report on 9/11 failures.
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteShe is an interesting gal and to some a bette noir. I find it fascinating that she succeeded Michael F. Scheuer, who I have posted on several times.
DeleteThat would be Bête Noire.
DeleteA good current example is Hillary aka Livia Drusilla.
Nature called.
Back to bed.
For me at least, Hillary.
DeleteEveryone should have
A Bête Noire
Or four.
No stupid, Bette Noir is one of the D.N.Aliens, genetic abominations kept at Project Cadmus. Bette Noir tries to leave her grotesque physical form in search of psychic energies which would allow her the freedom she desired. She was drawn to J'onn J'onzz, as he is a powerful telepath. After their first encounter she attacked Dubbilex, and Martian Manhunter was called in to investigate. He stopped her and attempted to rehabilitate her.
DeleteJohn may have endangered his CIA colleagues which would piss everybody off.
ReplyDelete:) heh
I guess I'm just not into the D.N.Aliens.
Are they Iranian ?
Hamas ?
I'd wager Quirk knows the D.N.Aliens.
It sounds a fascinating story, for sure.
g'nite
The story of D. N. Aliens is one that has garnered millions of dollars for its creator.
DeleteYou really are ignorant of the culture of your country, Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson.
It sounds an absolutely fabulous, fascinating story.
DeleteI hope Betty Black gets the psychic powers she so richly deserves, in monomythean form.
This is her true quest.
She will have to fight it out in the realm of supernatural wonder like everyone else, excluding you.
You haven't even begun the quest. It is too late for you, alas, your quest aborted, not even born.
By the way, how is your super important hush hush project of the coasts of Panama going these days ?
DeleteYou never seem to mention it.
Hmmmm...counts days......hmmmm......only 18 more days till your Iraq ISIS Free Memorial Day 2015 Prediction Date.
bwabwabwahahahahaha
Some 'military expert'.
haHaHAHAHaha
Probably another weak'ish employment report, tomorrow, but things seem to be picking up nicely in the weeks following the sample week.
ReplyDeleteTo wit: Another extremely strong jobless claim, this morning - 265,000. You would have to go way back to find back-to-back jobless claims numbers as low as the last two weeks.
If taken as a percentage of the labor force, they might be the strongest on record. If not, I'd bet they're pretty close.
A container ship seized in the Strait of Hormuz by Iran last week has been released, its operator has confirmed.
ReplyDeleteRickmers Shipmanagement said the 24 crew members of the Maersk Tigris "are in a good condition".
The Marshall Islands-flagged vessel was intercepted by Iranian patrol boats on the 28 April.
Iran said it had been detained because of a long-running legal dispute between the Danish shipping firm Maersk and a private Iranian firm.
Maersk, the world's largest container shipping company, had been ordered by an Iranian court to pay $3.6m (3.2m euros) to Pars Oil Products for cargo that allegedly had not been delivered.
Permission for the release of the ship was given after the Iranian authorities received guarantees "for the enforcement of the judicial decision", the country's Ports and Shipping Organisation said.
Rickmers said in a statement that Maersk had "put up a security in relation to the underlying court case".
Funny stuff, it is not just George Soros who is facing a large tax bill.
ReplyDeleteThe Socialists of India are screwing their pooch.
India has experienced increasing capital outflows. Why?
Foreign investors may soon be liable to pay India’s minimum alternative tax (MAT), which India has required local companies to pay since the late 1980s.
If a local company’s income tax rate in India is less than 18.5 percent, then it has to pay the 20 percent MAT.
India’s government said in 2012 that foreign funds should be treated equally with local firms and could be liable to pay back taxes for the past seven years.
As a result, US$870 million of foreign capital fled from India in April alone.
http://www.ejinsight.com/20150507-if-brics-is-outdated-what-next/
California obtained 27% of its electricity from Renewables (non-large hydro,) yesterday.
ReplyDelete27%
Deletehttp://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2015/05/07/tesla-batteries-solar-storage-elon-musk/70931456/
When Tesla founder Elon Musk said last week that his electric car company would move into the home energy business, no one was surprised. Analysts had predicted the announcement for months, especially as Tesla ramped up construction on a massive battery factory near Reno, Nevada.
But that didn't stop rooftop solar advocates from celebrating.
Tesla's plan to power homes with batteries is the latest sign of a coming energy revolution, experts say. That revolution will take the form of rooftop solar paired with battery storage, a combination that could allow homeowners to reduce their dependence on utilities — or abandon utilities entirely.
"The solar industry is growing really fast, and storage isn't an absolute necessity in the next few years,"
said Shayle Kann, a vice president at GTM Research, a clean-tech consulting firm.
"But in the long term, it's very important."
Iowa, btw, tapped Wind for 28.5% of its electricity last year.
DeleteWind
News updates from Syria….
ReplyDeleteIran/Hezbollah/Syria are now using chorine gas inside of the barrel bombs it drops…
Gots to LOVE the respectful way they slaughter the civilians of Syria…
Syrian helicopters dropped explosive barrels in the town of Mount Kncefrh corner Brive Idlib, resulting in deaths from suffocation.
DeleteHow COOL is that.
Red-lines, scmed-lines….
When is the ISraeli government invading?
DeleteDoes not ISrael have "Red Lines" ?
or are they all pink, now ...
Now it's Amerika's NEW as BBF Iran, Syria and Hezbollah!
DeleteYOu should know Jack, you get the memos
my bad… BFF
DeleteJack, why are you now so shy about supporting Iran and Syria and their use of poison gas?
DeleteBe proud Jack, don't wiggle and be a hypocrite...
As measured by aid dollars ...
DeleteThe ISraeli are still the BFF of the US.
To bad, that.
Actually the "arabs" as a collective receive tons and tons more aid…
DeleteNow if you understand that all aid is not called aid?
then you will see what we spent on Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq DWARFS what we spend on Israel.
But since you don't understand America very well I can understand your confusion
But notice Jack still attempts to CHANGE the subject rather than address the issue….
DeleteSyria, Iran and Hezbollah are using poison gas on syrians and palestinians….
Condemn it Jack….
Or would that cause your Iranian bosses to be upset with you?
America is about to give Iran 50 BILLION as a signing bonus….
DeleteHmmm sounds like AID to me...
WASHINGTON - A federal appeals court declared on Thursday that a National Security Agency program that sweeps up logs of Americans' phone calls is illegal, representing the most significant legal setback yet for the long-running surveillance operation.
ReplyDelete.
ReplyDelete28pages.org
It’s Time to Declassify Those 28 Pages
Seeking the American government’s analysis of the 9/11 attacks, most people look to the 9/11 Commission Report. There is, however, another report that merits equal attention: the Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Community Activities Before and After the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001.REDACTED1
President George W. Bush censored 28 pages of this report—an entire section said to describe the involvement of specific foreign governments in the attacks. After reading it, Congressman Thomas Massie described the experience as “disturbing” and said, “I had to stop every two or three pages and rearrange my perception of history…it’s that fundamental.”
In the interest of achieving justice for victims and preventing future attacks, knowledge of foreign government involvement in 9/11 must be shared with the American people…and with the world.
28Pages.org works to build awareness of the 28 pages and bolster the growing, bipartisan movement to pressure Congress and the president to finally release them. Use 28Pages.org to study the issue, follow efforts to declassify the 28 pages and learn how you can help pressure the government to do the right thing...
.
Jack HawkinsThu May 07, 10:26:00 AM EDT
ReplyDeleteWhen is the ISraeli government invading?
Does not ISrael have "Red Lines" ?
or are they all pink, now …
Notice the lack of understanding of what I posted and how Jack responded?
What is "Occupation"Thu May 07, 10:19:00 AM EDT
News updates from Syria….
Iran/Hezbollah/Syria are now using chorine gas inside of the barrel bombs it drops…
Gots to LOVE the respectful way they slaughter the civilians of Syria…
What is "Occupation"Thu May 07, 10:20:00 AM EDT
Syrian helicopters dropped explosive barrels in the town of Mount Kncefrh corner Brive Idlib, resulting in deaths from suffocation.
How COOL is that.
Red-lines, scmed-lines….
Any English speaking American would UNDERSTAND I was talking about Obama and the USA's Redlines when it came to Syria using poison gas on it's civilians….
But Jack, who is a paid Iranian propagandist, can only stay on script…
Notice he doesn't condemn the Iranian/Syrian/Hezbollah attacks on civilians using barrel bombs, let alone barrel bombs containing chlorine gas….
It's not even an issue of a double standard…..
The blatant excuses for using weapons of mass destruction against civilians ON PURPOSE should be condemned
lol
Deletelike shooting fish in a barrel…
iranian loving fish that is...
too bad of those civilians in syria…
Deletethey are expendable according to Jack..
Syria using chlorine gas to attack town, activists say
ReplyDeleteGovernment helicopters dropping barrel bombs filled with chemical weapons on people of Saraqeb in Idlib, activists say.
A suspected chlorine-gas attack by Syrian government helicopters has killed a child and injured about 40 people in Saraqeb, activists say, in the second attack on the northwestern town in days.
Friday night's alleged attack in Saraqeb, in Idlib province, which is controlled by a coalition of opposition groups, follows reports of a similar helicopter barrage using barrel bombs on Wednesday.
It also comes a day after an international chemical-weapons watchdog said it was ready to investigate a series of recent chemical attacks.
Videos shared by the Syrian Civil Defence activist group showed medics and residents rushing children to a local hospital as they coughed, some gasping for air.
A video from Nareb, another town in the province where fighters supported by Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia have made gains in recent days against troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, showed a medic receiving oxygen himself after rescuing people from another attack.
Wow the story has come into the English side of the news...
Aleppo children killed in regime bombing of school
ReplyDeleteAt least seven, including students, are killed after barrel bomb destroys primary school in rebel-held area.
Wow, and on purpose…
A Syrian government helicopter has struck a school with a barrel bomb in the northern city of Aleppo, killing at least seven civilians, including children, a monitoring group has said, as other sources reported higher death tolls.
"The primary school students were playing in the courtyard when the barrel bomb hit," Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said on Sunday.
He said the school is in Saif al-Dawla, a district where control is split between the regime and opposition.
"The children were taking a test there today because they were afraid their own school would be bombarded," Abdel Rahman said.
The centre's director and other civilians are in critical condition after the attack, he added.
The Aleppo Media Centre, an activist group on the ground, said at least 10 people were killed and 20 others injured in the attack.
An AFP correspondent described buildings in ruins and small bulldozers working to clear the rubble.
Classroom walls had completely collapsed, exposing mangled chairs and desks, and men carried whatever books they could save out of the building.
Barrel bombs are highly indiscriminate crude weapons made of old barrels or containers that are packed with explosives and typically dropped from helicopters.
The weapons are often used on rebel-held areas across the country.
Just last month, more than 100 schools in the city had to close temporarily after a regime air attack killed five children and three teachers.
On Saturday, the United Nations issued a fresh call on the Syrian government to stop using explosive weapons in the besieged Palestinian refugee community of Yarmouk and other populated areas.
Wow, The Syrians with the assistance from Hezbollah and Iran are bombing schools on PURPOSE!!!
Members of the U.N. Security Council were stunned watching a video shown yesterday by a Syrian doctor. It purports to show children dying from a chlorine gas attack in the town of Sarmin, an Idlib province. Here's the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, after seeing the doctor's presentation.
ReplyDelete(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
SAMANTHA POWER: The video in particular of the attempts to resuscitate the children, I don't - I mean, if there was a dry eye in the room, I didn't see it.
SIEGEL: The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons says that chlorine is delivered in barrel bombs dropped from helicopters. It's widely believed that pro-Assad regime forces have the arsenal and the aircraft to do that. For more on the effects of chlorine gas and how it evidently remains on the battlefield despite Syria's agreement to dispose of its chemical weapons, we turn now to chemical weapons expert Amy Smithson. Thanks for joining us once again.
AMY SMITHSON: My pleasure to be with you.
SIEGEL: And, first, what does chlorine gas do to its victims?
SMITHSON: Well, chlorine will cause you to cough and have respiratory difficulties if you inhale it. And it can release fluid into the lungs. It's kind of like drowning on dry land. It's a horrible, horrible way to die.
SIEGEL: But it is very often lethal when used, you're saying?
SMITHSON: It can be lethal if enough is inhaled. But this is a commercial chemical that has many constructive uses - for example, water purification. And unfortunately we are now approaching the 100th anniversary of when chlorine was introduced as a weapon of war in World War I battlefields.
SIEGEL: But back in 2013 when Syria agreed to relinquish its chemical weapons, the public discussion was very much about mustard gas and serine gas. Did the Syrians somehow manage to get chlorine gas exempted from that agreement or did they just not observe the agreement?
SMITHSON: The Syrians relinquished what they declared as chemicals that they acquired for weapons purposes. But the way that the treaty works is that inspectors are supposed to go to their industrial sites and make sure that chemicals are not being diverted from those sites that would normally be used for standard purposes like, as I mentioned, water purification.
SIEGEL: Are you in any doubt that in the Syrian War it would be the Armed Forces or its allies - not the rebels they're fighting against - who would most likely have used chlorine gas?
SMITHSON: Both Human Rights Watch and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons have presented strong evidence that chlorine is being delivered from helicopters, and the only combatant in this conflict that has helicopters is the Syrian government. So I have absolutely no doubt who's behind this.
SIEGEL: Given what's happening in Syria these days, it seems unrealistic to think that inspectors would be visiting chemical plants, wherever they might be. Is this a flaw in the treaty - that it would require inspections during wartime in hostile areas in order to enforce a provision like keeping chlorine off the battlefield?
SMITHSON: When the Syrian government joined the Chemical Weapons Convention, it is the first time in history that a government has agreed to give up a weapon of mass destruction in the midst of a conflict. I do not believe that the Syrian government has fully declared everything that it has - for example, some delivery systems and perhaps quantities of ricin, which is both a chemical and a biological agent. So there are going to be problems along the way, including getting inspectors in for routine inspections of commercial sites in Syria in the midst of a conflict.
SIEGEL: Amy Smithson, thanks for talking with us once again.
SMITHSON: My pleasure.
SIEGEL: Amy Smithson, chemical weapons expert, speaking to us about news of a suspected chlorine attack in Syria last month.
I blame all the death in Syria directly on our Sharia compliant Quisling Quake, aka "QQ", myself.
ReplyDeleteHe vetoed even discussing a humanitarian intervention by the West to separate the warring parties.............
.
DeleteThat's gratitude for you.
I tried to cut off discussion on the subject out of a surfeit of charity and pity simply to save you embarrassment and the predictable derision of the other patrons here. It was a humanitarian gesture I would have extended to any human with your obvious handicaps.
Everyone knows you are the town bumpkin but at the time I was trying to limit your opportunities for making a fool of yourself, a task I now realize is 'mission impossible'. I don't even try anymore.
.
Sounds like out and out war crimes are being supported by Iran, fighting for civilization.
ReplyDeleteO'bozo will soon take them off the #1 spot on the terrorist list soon, though.
DeleteHe will take them off the list completely............
Appeals court rules NSA's collection of phone records not authorized by 'Patriot Act'.............Drudge
ReplyDeleteThis is good news. This is the ONE issue on which Quirk has been dead on correct. Even the terminally confused get one right, if there are lots of questions on the multiple choice exam.
Why Obama Will Just Keep Making the Middle East Worse
ReplyDeleteMay 6, 2015 by Daniel Greenfield
A few years ago it was the Muslim Brotherhood. These days it’s Iran. Next week it may be ISIS or Al Qaeda. Obama stands with the worst elements in the Middle East. That’s always been his philosophy...........
.........Jimmy Carter tried to stabilize Iran and the region by aiding the Ayatollah. Instead of stabilizing anything, a revolutionary Shiite Iran became a loose cannon that not only threatened the United States, but dragged the rest of the region into its wars. From the Iran-Iraq war to terrorism in Lebanon and all the way to Al Qaeda looking for some experts to teach its terrorists how to hijack a lot of planes, the peanut farmer’s crop was a harvest of wars and bombings that killed a lot of Americans and even more locals.
Obama picked up where Carter left off. And the problems are bigger, but basically the same. The difference is that Obama had the leisure and disregard for national security to move the same foreign policy philosophy into destructive testing mode. America’s traditional alliances have collapsed. The rest of the region is handling problems on its own with Obama stuck trying to lobby the Saudis or Israel on behalf of Iran. When the Saudis bomb the Shiite Houthi terrorists in Yemen, the Iranians run to Obama. When the Israelis urge sanctions on Iran, the Iranians run to Obama to fix the problem for them.
In its own perverse way, Iran is becoming a client state of America. But it’s a client state that, like the Palestinian Authority with Israel, is actively trying to destroy us. The lesson from that failed effort was that you can’t use terrorists to stabilize territory. All that terrorists can do is destabilize it even more.
But the lessons of that failed peace process were never learned and attempts to use terrorists to stabilize entire countries continued.
Obama is still attempting to negotiate with the Taliban to stabilize Afghanistan. Negotiations with Iran to stabilize the region are going so well that every Sunni Muslim country that can afford it is rushing off to get its own nuclear program started.
There’s no telling how stable the Middle East will be once it has more nuclear nations than existed in the entire world a generation ago; probably even more unstable than the atomic structure of Plutonium.
The only thing Obama can keep doing is making the Middle East worse because it’s the only possible outcome of his foreign policy. American guilt requires perpetual atonement and the only people we can get it from are tearing apart the Middle East and the world.
About Daniel Greenfield
Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is a New York writer focusing on radical Islam.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/2015/dgreenfield/why-obama-will-just-keep-making-the-middle-east-worse/
ISIS is making gains in capturing all of the oil refinery that has been in the news. This is the oil refinery that one of our military big wigs said was so important compared to Ramadi.
ReplyDeleteISIS in Ramadi has established something of a stalemate there.
The jihadi that masterminded the Charlie Hebdo attack has gone on to the jihadi heaven.
Fox News didn't know yet whether this was the result of a drone attack, or not or some other means of transportation to heaven.
Watch Fox News to keep current on Middle East news.
.
DeleteCaution: But always check back in an hour or so to see if they have been forced to retract what they have broadcast.
.
For our Sharia Compliant "QuakingQ" Quirk, et.al. --
ReplyDeleteMay 7, 2015
Conservative pundits for sharia?
By Karin McQuillan
Tuesday night, Fox News carried a barrage of criticism against free-speech heroine Pam Geller for her draw Mohammed contest. She was attacked by Greta van Susteren, Bill O’Reilly, and Laura Ingraham, without being given a chance to be interviewed and defend herself. Megyn Kelly and Sean Hannity were the stand-up guys.
In response to my blog post Tuesday on Megyn Kelly calling out O’Reilly on why Geller is absolutely right, I received an e-mail from a normally clear-headed conservative friend who asserted that Geller was purposely provocative and that it is wrong to insult anyone’s religion.
Here’s the key difference. Muslims can follow their own religious beliefs, but they can’t force me to follow them. They believe that it is wrong to draw Mohammed; Catholics think it is wrong to get divorced; Jews think it is wrong to eat pork. You are not insulting Judaism by eating pork, a Catholic by divorcing, or a Muslim by drawing Mohammed.
To claim that drawing Mohammed is an insult is a jihadi idea. It is not an American idea. It is applying their code to our behavior. Drawing Mohammed is entirely normal political speech. It is not a gratuitous insult; it is fighting the imposition of sharia law in America.
Pam Geller is the bravest woman in America at this moment...............
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2015/05/conservative_pundits_for_sharia.html
>>>She deserves to be given a podium so her voice can be heard by millions. That supposedly conservative journalists are attacking her instead signals their incapacity to counter jihad in America.
DeleteIt is crucial for the survival of civilization that all of us speak out loudly and clearly about the many truly appalling and abominable aspects of Islam. Geller’s speakers were saying true things about Islam that are mislabeled insults because they are critical. Islam must be criticized.
If we don’t support the bravest among us when they criticize Islam’s fascist ways, why are we surprised when the missing moderate Muslims remain silent and invisible? They are not allowed to criticize their religion either, even in America.
It was an ex-Muslim who won Geller’s contest. Does he not deserve our applause and support for defying the monsters who kill anyone who dares leave Islam?
Christians are being tortured, raped, beheaded, and burned alive, and having their children stolen. On American campuses, the one place jihadi front groups are allowed free rein, Jewish students are being vilified, harassed, and even physically attacked. Muslim women in America are murdered by their fathers for normal dating. Baby Somali girls in America are having their clitorises cut off.
Where is your voice? What is your church or synagogue doing? Why do we tolerate for one second politicians and pundits racing forward to assert that we must not criticize Islam? It is a nightmare religion to those who live under it, and to those under its reach.
Geller’s free speech event was done not to provoke a violent response. It was done to defy a violent response. That is noble<<<
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2015/05/conservative_pundits_for_sharia.html
Hear, hear
.
DeletePam Geller is the bravest woman in America at this moment...............
Possibly true.
She certainly has no qualms parading her mindless inanity before the world.
.
Dumb fuck, dumb fuck, dumb fuck
DeleteMindless inanity, my ass
No, HERE is the bravest (and, most useful) woman in America.
ReplyDeleteMeet The Fist-Shaking Socialist Behind America's Highest Minimum Wage
Without looking, I am betting it's that nitwit from Seattle.
DeleteNow I am looking.
DeleteAnd...........
I was right !!
Seattle has become one big traffic jam.
Wonderful place in many ways, but straight down hill from when mom was there.
Of course, you could make a case for This gal.
ReplyDelete<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/07/christine-mau-first-female-f35-pilot_n_7229768.htmlAir Force Announces First Ever Female F-35 Fighter Jet Pilot, Lt. Col. Christine Mau</a>
Air Force Announces First Ever Female F-35 Fighter Jet Pilot, Lt. Col. Christine Mau
DeleteShe's a good choice.
DeleteYo, Bob,
ReplyDeleteI was wondering how you would react if you were walking home from the store some night and a Hispanic guy came up to you and started accusing you stealing something? Would you be nice and empty your pockets for him to demonstrate you hadn't stole anything or would you tell him to f-off?
There is a nice little short documentary on the front page of nytimes.com right now titled:
"‘A Conversation About Growing Up Black’"
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/07/opinion/a-conversation-about-growing-up-black.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=photo-spot-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0
Take a look and let me know what you think about it.
Yo, Ash, yo bro, what it is, what it is, wha happenin' dood ?
DeleteI wouldn't do either.
Hopefully I would be packing and have a little confidence and would simply say kindly leave me alone and walk away with the gun in my pocket cocked and my eyes very alert.
What would you do, Noble Ash ?
Delete(I'd hope you'd tell him to fuck off, and you'd finally get that good non life threatening non serious injury but truly frightening mugging you so richly deserve and desperately need. You would a better man for it)
DeleteDid you watch the video?
DeleteI would tell him to mind his own business. So, you'd shoot him if he kept pestering you hunh?
I will watch a little later. Got to drive into town now.
DeleteIf he got violent/attacked me so I feared for my life or great bodily harm I would hope like hell I would shoot him.
What would you do if he kept pestering you hunh ?
Cheers !
Even if your name was Trayvon and his was Zimmerman?
DeleteWe all know the little bait trap Ash is setting for Bob. But Search and Frisk is not Constitutional.
ReplyDeletehttp://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/judge-rules-nycs-stop-frisk-unconstitutional/story?id=19936326
Well that certainly proves it Ash, your short NYT video proves the Police are racist bullies everywhere.
ReplyDelete*********
AshThu May 07, 07:06:00 PM EDT
Even if your name was Trayvon and his was Zimmerman?
This is idiocy, Ash, not worthy of you.
You can, should and must do better.
We all know the US Department of Justice found ZERO cause to indict Zim on anything at all, and that Trayon was banging Zim's head into the concrete when Zim used force.
Stop with your stupidities now Ash.
Stop it now.
Pipe down.
You embarrass yourself in front of the mega millions of readers here.
You have wasted the time of stadiums full of people all across America.
In a hopeful omen of things to come here, the British Conservatives have won big time.
ReplyDeleteGod Save The Queen
DeleteStrike 'big time'.
DeleteIt was closer than I heard a few minutes ago.
Cameron will need to form a government coalition.
.
DeleteHe should talk to Bibi. He formed one with a 1 vote margin.
.
The case against the Police in Baltimore is fraying badly around the edges, even falling apart.
ReplyDeleteThe Chief Investigator against the Police had been in the Police Force and been canned for misbehavior thus raising the question of a grudge and a conflict of interest.
The original Medical Examiner's report did not support homicide, but was changed under pressure.
The knife does seem to have been illegal.
etcetc
Watch Fox News for moment by moment updates.
Judge 'Hang Em High' Rufus has already ruled 'Guilty as Charged' on all counts.
DeleteI am assuming that the Police are saying they saw the knife in the possession of Sir Freddie. If they say they did not see the knife, and lacking something else suspicious, we are back to Judges Napolitano and Pirro and an illegal arrest.
DeleteEven if the knife is found to be legal, the suspicion that it was not is enough for a defense of the Police.
Contra Judges Napolitano and Pirro -
DeleteA Prosecution That Threatens a City
Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/418018/prosecution-threatens-city-andrew-c-mccarthy
..............It is not at all clear to me that the police were wrong to pursue and arrest Freddie Gray. Much has been made by commentators of the fact that the police did not have a warrant for Gray’s arrest or see him commit a crime when they ran after him. This is an unrealistically narrow conception of probable cause. Imagine the not-at-all-unusual situation in which, in a high-crime area, a suspect who has just, say, mugged a woman and taken her wallet, sees a police officer as he’s leaving the scene. The police officer did not see the mugging. The suspect makes eye contact with the officer and flees in the opposite direction. It would be cold comfort to the woman who has just been assaulted, and infuriating to most law-abiding citizens, if the officer decided not to pursue the suspect — who got away, to mug another day — just because he hadn’t witnessed the mugging. Our jurisprudence teaches that “reasonable suspicion” and “probable cause” are not hyper-technical terms; they are commonsense concepts. And, of course, the officer is not required to let the suspect get away. In the hypothetical circumstances just described, a cop would have a good-faith basis for suspicion of wrongdoing, even if he did not yet have probable cause. The law permits a brief investigative stop in that situation. The suspicion would heighten if the suspect continued running away after the police officer directed him to stop. In the brief detention, the police officer would be permitted to pat the suspect down, and to seize a weapon if the suspect had one. And if the officer believed in good faith that the weapon was illegally possessed, he could make an arrest. Some counter that it is not a crime to run away from a cop.
True enough. But our jurisprudence teaches that “reasonable suspicion” and “probable cause” are not hyper-technical terms; they are commonsense concepts that ask how a reasonable, experienced police officer would judge what he sees in the heat of the moment. The average person who runs away from police has done something wrong; it is not unreasonable for a cop in a crime-ridden area to conclude that he is probably dealing with the average person, not the unusual type who runs for no apparent reason. And the whole point of the investigative stop is that police can ask a few questions and let the detainee go on his way if there is no good reason to detain him further. Police have the right to be wrong, as long as they are wrong in a reasonable way. That is the case not only when they detain someone but when they decide they have grounds to make an arrest. If a police officer finds on a suspect what he believes in good faith is an illegally possessed knife, he can arrest the suspect. If it turns out that the knife is actually legal, the remedy is to vacate the arrest — not to prosecute the cop for unlawful imprisonment. It’s a mistake, not a crime.
DeleteNote that I am not arguing against a prosecution for some form of involuntary manslaughter in the death of Mr. Gray. That is a different issue from whether he was properly detained and arrested in the first place. Once the police have a suspect in their custody, they have a duty to keep the suspect safe and secure. It seems absurd to me, on the facts as we now understand them, for a prosecutor to charge murder when there appears to be no evidence of intent to kill (a fact the prosecutor implicitly concedes by the contradictory charge that Mr. Gray’s death was a case of involuntary manslaughter or negligence). Yet it is entirely possible, if not probable, that death was caused by criminally culpable police misconduct. There is, however, much more at stake here than finding out exactly what happened to Mr. Gray, as important as that is. If police are now to conclude that they cannot, without fear of being prosecuted, take routine investigative steps based on reasonable suspicion, communities cannot be protected. There can be no security and no commerce. Innocent people will be preyed upon and killed. The unlawful-imprisonment charges filed by prosecutor Marilyn Mosby are not even social justice, much less justice. They are a death sentence for Baltimore.
Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/418018/prosecution-threatens-city-andrew-c-mccarthy
>>>It seems absurd to me, on the facts as we now understand them, for a prosecutor to charge murder when there appears to be no evidence of intent to kill (a fact the prosecutor implicitly concedes by the contradictory charge that Mr. Gray’s death was a case of involuntary manslaughter or negligence).<<<
DeleteDEFIANT SPEECH
ReplyDeleteThe Volokh Conspiracy
Islamo-non-phobia, and the value of defiance
Eugene Volokh
Eugene Volokh teaches free speech law, religious freedom law, church-state relations law, a First Amendment Amicus Brief Clinic, and tort law, at UCLA School of Law, where he has also often taught copyright law, criminal law, and a seminar on firearms regulation policy.