or Powell's or me• • •
"Mike and Jon, Jon and Mike—I've known them both for years, and, clearly, one of them is very funny. As for the other: truly one of the great hangers-on of our time."—Steve Bodow, head writer, The Daily Show
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"Who can really judge what's funny? If humor is a subjective medium, then can there be something that is really and truly hilarious? Me. This book."—Daniel Handler, author, Adverbs, and personal representative of Lemony Snicket
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"The good news: I thought Our Kampf was consistently hilarious. The bad news: I’m the guy who wrote Monkeybone."—Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Batman, Batman Returns, and Homecoming
March 09, 2009
New Tomdispatch
Obama's Guantanamo?
Bush's Living Legacy at Bagram Prison
By Karen J. GreenbergJust when you think you've woken up from a bad dream…
When it comes to offshore injustice and secret prisons, especially our notorious but little known prison at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, let's hope the Obama years mean never having to complete that sentence.
In the Bush era, those of us who followed his administration's torture, detention, and interrogation policies often felt like we were unwilling participants in a perverse game of hide-and-seek. Whenever one of us stumbled upon a startling new document, a horrific new practice, a dismal new prison environment, or yet another individual implicated in torture policy, the feeling of revelation would soon be superseded by a sneaking suspicion that we were once again looking in the wrong direction, that the Bush administration was playing a Machiavellian game of distraction with us...
Distracted or not, for at least five years some of us have been seeking the hidden outlines of the torture story. Now, President Obama has given it a visible shape by providing a potential endpoint if not to our investigations, then to our focus...
Still, ever since the Oval Office changed hands in January, I've had a nagging feeling that something was amiss. And when I finally focused on it, a single question kept coming to mind: Whatever happened to the U.S. prison at Bagram?
—Jonathan Schwarz
Posted at March 9, 2009 07:56 PMBagram? STILL doing a "land office business", one bright spot in the world's failing economy.
Posted by: Mike Meyer at March 10, 2009 01:34 PMGITMO=losing the GWOT, Abu Ghraib=losing in Iraq, Bagram=losing to the Taliban.
Posted by: Mike Meyer at March 10, 2009 01:39 PMI thought Obama was just another dumb nagger, always complaining. But he obviously ain't that dumb, as he isn't doing much all that fundamentally different from Bush. When I say "Bush," I mean the Bush administration, not the dumbass from Texas. And for an affimrative-action baby, I am mildly impressed with Obama, although since he is AA I had *very* low expectations
Posted by: visitor at March 11, 2009 06:20 PMI think the above post should be deleted for racist language.
Posted by: Susan O at March 12, 2009 12:09 AMWell, Susan O, I think you should be deported for being a dumb bunny. In tough times, we can't afford dumb bunnies : )
Posted by: visitor at March 12, 2009 12:35 AM
