Posts Tagged ‘War on Terror’

Arthur Vs Carter: Miranda vs Terrorists

Posted: February 11, 2009 by datechguy in arthur vs carter
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Do you remember during the election Gov Palin talked about Obama worrying about Mirandaing terrorists left called us a bunch of alarmists?

Wellllll lookie here:

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.

The weekly standard opines:

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.

And Jo’s Cafe brings up a great point:

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.

National Review nails it:

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.

Carter 8 Arthur 3

UPDATE: AllahPundit was on this yesterday.

That’s how you do it

Posted: February 8, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news
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There is opinion and reality, a lot of people tend to confuse them. One of those people however is not Tom Switzer:

WHETHER it was worth doing remains highly doubtful, and how it will end remains to be seen. But it looks as if the US is achieving some kind of success in Iraq. That is quite a mouthful from someone who strongly opposed the war from the outset.

But these are the facts: Coalition military and Iraqi civilian casualties are down significantly. The level of violence is the lowest in six years. Iraq’s economic growth levels are today nearly one-third higher than under Saddam Hussein. The Sadrist militia and other Shia militant groups have been halted. The Sunni Arabs who once formed the heart of the Iraqi insurgency are among the most steadfast coalition allies in the battle against al-Qa’ida. The sectarian civil war has ended.

Note that this doesn’t effect his opinion on the war itself:

Now I’ve long believed the Iraq invasion was unnecessary. The incompetence of president George W. Bush, and in particular the neo-conservative architects of this misbegotten venture – which has cost the US dearly in not just blood and treasure but also prestige and credibility – merely adds underlining and an exclamation point. Any threat that Saddam posed could have been dealt with via the tried and tested policy of containment (UN sanctions, naval blockade, no-fly zone).

I think that opinion is dead wrong but it is an opinion that a reasonable person can hold. Yet he doesn’t allow that opinion to change his perception of facts on the ground.

The final line says it all.

… for now, as the largely violence-free weekend elections demonstrated, the situation on the ground has improved dramatically. Too bad many opponents of the war won’t concede that simple fact.

One who can see how things are is worthy of respect.

If they are so blatant why not protest them?

Posted: February 5, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news, war
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Via LGF and Mere Rhetoric we find out why Peres’ speech is so important:

Human rights groups argued Wednesday that a detailed probe into Hamas’s firing of Kassam rockets at Israeli communities is not necessary, because it constitutes such a “blatant” war crime. By contrast, Israel’s actions are more complex, and therefore do require such investigation, they said.

With Israel it is much more complicated apparently;

“With Israel things are more complicated because Israel states it does not deliberately target civilians and that it safeguards them. With Israel, you have to investigate each specific incident because even if a civilian is killed in an attack, it doesn’t mean its necessarily a war crime.”

Hamas however says not so fast:

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum was quoted by AP Wednesday as saying Hamas attacks on southern Israel towns are “a means of self-defense.” “Those are not civilians. They are all soldiers,” Barhoum said of the residents of southern Israel. “We are firing at places that bring us the F-16s, the warplanes and the tanks.”

But Micha’eli dismissed Barhoum’s statements as absurd. “No credible human rights law expert would accept that excuse,” she added.

This explains why they are not investigated but it doesn’t explain why they are not condemned or protested. The less that these guys make of this stuff the more they are ignored and forgotten. If these “blatant” crimes are ignored by the NGO’s then as far as the world community is concerned they don’t exist.

I Can’t see how I could have missed this: Peres in Davos

Posted: February 5, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news, war
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Nordlinger commented on this and lionized it.

Doc’s talk commented on it elegantly:

Only an old man could speak out that way at the WEF in Davos. Peres’ age was like a sacred receptacle containing the heart and soul of Judaism. What in the world did the organizers think they were doing, throwing the old man into the ring with those three guys? Is that their idea of a fair fight? Or was it simply one more international Israel-bashing jamboree? All so smooth in shirts and ties, invited to punch up the old man… for what? To shlurp up some jihadi money and make a giant step in the direction of sharia finance?

Big mistake. They hit the jackpot, a cascade of solid gold divine wrath that knocked them dizzy.

Even Atlas was impressed:

I am not a fan of Shimon Peres, but I am deeply proud of him in this. Don’t sit through the Jew bashing…. fast forward to minute 40 – watch Peres. It is an incredible speech. And please don’t point out to me in the comment section all of Peres’ faults. I know them well. But in this moment, he is magnificent.

If you haven’t seen it here it is:

Update: Redirected Atlas quote to her own blog.

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