The Circle of Life

Quote of the Day

He can compress the most words into the smallest ideas of any man I ever met.
- Abraham Lincoln

In the 21st Century, Nations Don't Invade Other Nations

I reccommend making webisodes for John Edwards

Curveball and Haboush.

N'uff said.

Wow John Edwards is way more of a douche-bag than I ever imagined.

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A Real Blog Post for Once: The Hamdan Case

Salim Hamdan, Osama bin Laden's former driver, was convicted of providing material support for terrorism but found not guilty of conspiracy by a panel of six military officers at Guantanamo Bay.

Hamdan, a Yemeni who faces up to a life sentence, held his head in his hands and wept when the verdict was read. A sentencing hearing was scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.

Hamdan, who was captured in November 2001 at a roadblock in Afghanistan with two surface-to-air missiles in his car, was never alleged to be more than a minor figure in al-Qaida, a chauffeur to bin Laden.


Ok, so of all the al qaida 'employees' who get any kind of regular face time with Bin Laden, this guy was about as low level as you can get. I'm happy he wasn't convicted of the conspiracy charges, he obviously wasn't involved in any kind of strategic planning of al qaida operations. And I certainly can't argue that he did not provide material support to al qaida, because he did--he was busted while transporting weapons for them. However, don't call me a terrorist sympathizer yet, because clearly HE IS NOT A TERRORIST. What can they justly charge him with? What did he do that was actually illegal? Why, being employed by the enemies of America of course! Its illegal in America to be employed in another country by an organization hostile to America, even if you break no laws of that country.

But the guy was transporting missiles right? He clearly knew they were to be used to attack US forces, that makes him effectively an enemy soldier right? No, it makes him a convoy driver. The guys that drive around Iraq with trucks full of US missiles are NOT military personel, they are not combatants, the are non-military contractors doing a civilian job. Even if he was doing military stuff, Hamdan is the equivalent of an al qaida Blackwater agent. Blackwater, remember, are immune from prosecution in Iraq or America even if they go on a raping and killing rampage of innocent Iraqis, which as you may know, Blackwater agents HAVE DONE.

They couldn't charge him for the missiles because they couldn't prove that these missiles weren't going to be used "legally." Although its pretty obvious they were not because uniformed soldiers would have had to fire them and there are no uniformed enemies in Afghanistan, but regardless they can't prove it, so the missiles had to be thrown out.

So what is this guy really guilty of? Thought crime? Can anyone reasonable blame some poor Yemeni driver who has never seen anything outside of his dirt patch, for taking a job with al qaida as a driver? I'd say he's about as innocent as a child solider in Africa. Can we seriously expect the guy to have much a choice in this matter? Everything he's ever been exposed to indicated that al qaida are the good guys and America are the bad guys. What do they expect him to be, a conscientious objector?

But there's a more important point I want to make. If America is able to capture and try non-combat support staff of foreign entities that we label terrorist organizations, even if they've broken no law in their own country and are guilty only of doing clerical work for their regional power, don't we then have to round up every secretary and file clerk that works for the Hamas government? And half of the Lebanese parliament for being members of Hizballah? Everyone in the Iranian military? They are all guilty of no crimes other than providing material support for an organization that the US decided to label as "terrorist." And for that matter, the CIA is actually arming and training al qaida affiliated militias in Iran simply because they are Sunnis that want to overthrow the Shiite government. As part of "The Awakening," the US military has been arming and bribing Sunni terrorist groups in Iraq who the week before were shooting RPGs at US convoys. So the CIA and US military are directly providing material support to terrorist groups and even al qaida groups, giving them money, weapons, and training that will surely be used against US interests some time in the future. Why aren't we going after all these people? Because some poor chauffeur makes a much better scapegoat? So we can say, we don't have Bin Laden, but we've got his butler!

Think of it this way, in China its illegal to write publicly about democracy, regime change, or Tibetan independence. Such writings are a threat to Chinese national security in the eyes of the Chinese government. If the Chinese military and a US blogger were to cross paths in a 3rd party country like Sudan where Chinese troops and US aid workers both currently occupy, would the US stand for that American to be captured, thrown in a Chinese dungeon for 7 years, and then convicted in a Chinese military tribunal of seeking to overthrow the Chinese government? What if he was a Halliburton driver transporting missiles to the Tibetan resistance group in Sudan (assuming there is one,) is he an enemy combatant against China? That would be a pretty weak argument.

Perhaps the most ridiculous things are that one, "providing material support to terrorist organizations" wasn't illegal at the time of his arrest, and furthermore, even if Hamdan had been acquitted of all charges, he is still technically an "enemy combatant" and can be held indefinitely at Guantanamo Bay. I wonder if he had not been found with missiles would he still be a "combatant?" The Kafka-esque answer is almost certainly "yes."

My point in all this is not that Hamdan is a saint and should go free, clearly he sees himself as an enemy of the US and no one is disputing his allegiances to al qaida, my point is that there are SO many people on the US side that are equally if not far more guilty of the same charges Hamdan faces.

Monica Goodling