It is getting abundantly clear that this watch might be a waste of time thanks to stories like this:
American officials have privately backed Pakistan’s “Sharia law for peace” deal with Taliban militants in the Swat Valley despite publicly criticising it as a “negative development”.
The deal, under which Sharia law will be introduced in the Malakhand and Kohistan districts of Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province if Taliban militants end their armed campaign in the Swat Valley, has been met with alarm by Nato chiefs and British and American officials.
Nato fears the deal would create a new “safe haven” for extremists, said a spokesman on Tuesday night, while a statement from Britain’s High Commission in Islamabad said: “Previous peace deals have not provided a comprehensive and long-term solution to Swat’s problems. We need to be confident that they will end violence, not create space for further violence.”
Sharia law, well THAT will de-radicalize Islamists.
No particular action for the Arthur vs carter watch at the moment but at Big Hollywood there is an excellent article on the subject comparing the decisions the president will need to make with that of Marshall Will Kane in High Noon:
It’s 11:57 in Hadleyville. The movie is “High Noon.” Marshall Will Kane (Gary Cooper) seals an envelope containing his last will and testament. He writes, “To be opened in the event of my death,” on its front panel. A train carrying a freed murderer, Frank Miller, who wants to gun Kane down will arrive in just three minutes. Marshall Kane has been abandoned by everyone. All that he believed is tarnished. He stands alone without a badge, with only his conscience. His new bride, the church, the state, old friends and allies have all turned their backs…
…Winter, 2009, Washington, D.C. It is 11:57 once again. Our new President, Barack Obama, must now choose how he will lead us in our continued response to the menace of Islamic terror. Will he appease the pacifists who believe the road to peace is paved with inane bumper stickers, humane treatment of savage killers, and good intentions? Will we capitulate to a world view which celebrates terrorist regimes while demanding that our true democratic allies in the war on terror, who have defended themselves, be tried for war crimes? Or, will he lead us to choose darkness and evil? Will he allow his new attorney general, Eric Holder, a man who orchestrated the release of convicted Puerto Rican terrorists, to prosecute the very people who have risked their lives to successfully protect us these last eight years? Or will President Obama lead us to stand tall and fight, choose light and life?
Economy or no this will be the question of this presidency that I care about. To get an idea of the tension the scene below from the movie says it all.
But in a potential problem, Pentagon officials note that most of the evidence against Jawad comes from his own admissions. And neither he nor any other detainee at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was ever told about their rights against self-incrimination under U.S. law.
The Miranda warning, a fixture of American jurisprudence and staple of television cop shows, may also be one of a series of constructional hurdles standing between Obama’s order to close the island prison and court trials on the mainland.
if the Los Angeles Times is to be believed, his administration is considering doing just that. The obvious consequence of such a decision: terrorists would now have the right to remain silent.
You have the right to remain silent. Okay that’s obvious duh! But then jump down to Do you understand the rights I have just read to you? Now law enforcement officers first have to determine what language the terrorist speaks. Arabic? Pharisee? You get the point. So before an officer can even mirandise a suspect, they have to figure out what language they speak.
Then they have to find a translator in that language.
But do they really understand their rights? Language translation can be suspect and can the officer understand if the rights are even being translated with the proper meaning of the warning?
Land minds everywhere.
Our guys are just going to end up shooting these people in the field instead. So much for information. This is madness. I predict that this is going to destroy Army recruitment over the next couple of years.
Some of our enemies can be convicted in federal court. Most of them can’t—at least not until after they’ve carried out the kind of attacks that it is the aim of this war to prevent. We can have the war, in all its imperfections, or we can have those attacks. We can take four months to study it, but there is no avoiding that choice.
If this stuff keeps up we won’t need to have an Arthur Carter watch the hoping for Arthur is going to be done.
Russia flexes its muscle and suddenly Kyrgyzstan carries Russia’s water giving us notice to scoot. Russia finances the closing and then “consents” to help us.
Pakastan releases Kahn from house arrest no word from the white house.
Da Techguy's (no longer backup) Blog 