59 years ago today an American warplane dropped the world’s first “operational” atomic weapon. It was designed to detonate some 200 meters above the ground, to maximize fallout on the heavily populated Japanese industrial city of Hiroshima. Some 30 minutes prior to dropping the bomb, other American planes had dropped sensors at various points around the city so they could gauge the radiation and other effects of the big one.
200,000 Japanese people were killed by that bomb. Some fast, in the firestorm that engulfed the city. Some more slowly and agonizingly–from drinking radiation-polluted water, or from developing radiation-induced cancers.
Three days later, the U.S. military was eager to test a different bomb design. So without even giving Japan a chance to surrender, they dropped the second bomb on the equally heavily populated city of Nagasaki.
Let’s not confuse the effects of an atomic bomb–even a “primitive” form of atomic bomb like those 1945 models–with those of other forms of weapons, through too much easy talk of “weapons of ‘mass’ destruction”. Atomic weapons, like the 7,094 nuclear warheads that are in the US arsenal today, are whole orders of magnitude more deadly than the most lethal chemical or biological weapon.
Why does the US ruling elite think the country “needs” to have such a large nuclear arsenal–or indeed, any nuclear arsenal at all?
They claim they are defending “civilization”. What twisted idea of “civilization” is this that would require even one nuclear weapon to defend it?
There is another, more plausible explanation: it is that the ruling elite wants the US–with a total of just 4 percent of the world’s population!–to continue to exercise hegemony over the entire world. Under this explanation, the use of the bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki were the prime example of the doctine of “shock and awe”, otherwise known as terrifying/terrorizing the rest of the world until it bows to Washington’s will.
Enough. Enough. Let’s start working seriously, from here on, for a truly nuclear-weapons-free world.
The Bush administration, need I add, has just about the opposite idea. Far from being ready to start stepping down the USA’s own reliance on nuclear weapons in any way, manner, or form, it is aggressively reserving for itself the right to continue to upgrade and “update” the US nuclear arsenal.
The latest indicator of this is the administration’s refusal to allow any provisions for inspections other verifiaction measures to be included in the terms of the still-under-negotiation Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty…
What a serious mea culpa looks like
… It looks like this. (Thanks to Yankeedoodle for signaling it.)
Hamas on a roll?
Well, guess who’s in Cairo, talking about security issues in Gaza?
According to Reuters, Khaled Mashaal, the head of Hamas, is.
Mashaal is the guy whom the Israelis tried to kill, using poison darts, in Jordan, back in 1997. I’m assuming his security people have gotten some solid-looking commitments from the Egyptians that the israelis won’t be allowed to try the same thing again this time?
The Reuters story, by Nidal Mughrabi, says:
- Sources in Hamas, an Islamist movement behind many suicide attacks on Israelis, said the Cairo talks would seek to clarify Egypt’s offer to send up to 200 security advisers to Gaza.
Egypt, one of only two Arab states to have a peace treaty with Israel, wants to help prevent any collapse into anarchy or an Islamist takeover on its borders after Jewish settlers leave.
A Hamas delegation led by Khaled Meshaal, the exiled Hamas politburo chief who survived an Israeli assassination attempt in 1997, arrived in Cairo Monday to prepare for the talks.
“Each side will seek clarification from the other on a number of Palestinian, regional and international issues,” Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters by telephone from Gaza.
“The discussion will touch on (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon’s Gaza plan, (possible) roles of Arab countries such as Egypt, and the latest crisis in the Palestinian territories.”
There was no immediate comment available from Egyptian officials on the talks.
Of course, all this takes place in the context of the continuing turmoil within the ranks of the (mainly secular) Fateh and allied Palestinian movements.
This would not be the first time that the Egyptian government–or, indeed, the Israeli government–has sought to strengthen the role of Palestinian Islamists as a way to countering the power of Palestinian secular nationalists…
U.S. torture revelations: Gitmo & Abu Ghraib
As I’ve predicted a few times, further revelations about Uncle Sam’s terrifying record of detainee abuse have continued to come out throughout the summer. Today, we had the news about the start of the trial of a visibly pregnant (but still truculent) Lynndie England. There have also been a couple of other tidbits in the major media that give notice of intriguing additional news items to come…
First, Newsweek has this story, by Michael Hirsch and John Barry, telling us that the Schlesinger Commission, appointed by Rumsfeld himself to look into the detainee abuse issue, will be issuing its report in mid-August: and it may assign blame to people high up in the Pentagon, including possibly Bombs-Away Don himself.
They write:
- there is strong sentiment to assign some responsibility up the line to senior civilian officials at the Pentagon, including Rumsfeld, several sources close to the discussions say. The Defense secretary is expected to be criticized, either explicitly or implicitly, for failing to provide adequate numbers of properly trained troops for detaining and interrogating captives in Afghanistan and Iraq. His office may also be rebuked for not setting clear interrogation rules and for neglecting to see that guidelines were followed. The commissioners “are taking an unvarnished look at the issue as a whole,” said a source close to the commission. “A more extensive look than some people had initially thought they might take.”
Certainly worth watching out for. (Hirsh and Barry make clear that former Secdef Jim Schlesinger, who’s heading the four-person commission, may be a hawk, but he’s also a fiercely independent thinker who has already won at least one significant battle with Bombs-Away Don over the scope of the commission’s work.)
Over at ABC News, meanwhile, there’s an exclusive bit of reporting that the three Brit-cits who were freed from Guantanamo in March have produced a “written account” of their time there that details some pretty nasty treatment.
We actually saw this item on ABC Evening (TV) News this evening, and the reporter was holding up some kind of a bound, report-type publication that seemed to be the “account” in question. I even think the reporter (I forget who it was) said it would be presented to someone tomorrow, or soon thereafter.
There’s nothing about that in the ABC web story. But it does say this:
Continue reading “U.S. torture revelations: Gitmo & Abu Ghraib”
Women in Somaliland
Continuing on the theme of the role of women in reform efforts in Muslim countries, Yvette Lopez, the talented, inspirational author of the Taste of Africa blog, has a great post there today on the subject.
Somaliland, in case you didn’t know much about it, is an almost self-governing portion of war-plagued Somalia. (You can read much more about it on Yvette’s blog.) But what she writes in today’s post–as in many previous posts– gives a lot of good info about the vital role of women in rebuilding shattered communities after wars–whether in Muslim countries or elsewhere.
In today’s post, she writes of:
- Daraweyne village where an impending inter-clan conflict was halted by women, they stood in the middle of two warring clans as if saying “kill us first before you kill each other!” This act prevented the clash of male villagers and paved the way for a dialogue facilitated by women.
After the war, women took odd jobs to provide for their families while the men were left unemployed. The male unemployed force come from demobilized liberation fighters and nomads affected by the livestock ban, an industry dominated by men.
“Our men are proud, they don’t want to be seen doing work they consider demeaning” [Zamzam Abdi, the manager of the most successful micro-finance institution that provides loan for women traders] added. More and more women set up small businesses, they sew clothes, manage teashops, clean houses, cook for other people among others. Today, women head more and more households, the sad impact of khat chewing sends their husbands away from their families leaving women to carry the burden of productive and reproductive roles.
The total absence of women in the traditional clan structure is slowly being changed in the arena of the newly formed Somaliland government and civil society movement. “We have gone a long way, now we have 2 women cabinet Ministers, 3 out of 332 local officials are women, stable and strong organizations are well managed and sustained by women, we are now part of the National Electoral Commission (NEC) of political parties and civil society groups that publicly voice out women’s interest,” Sacadia of Pastoral Environmental Network of the Horn of Africa (PENHA) said.
Check the rest of the post out, too!
Country roads, Virginia
I wrote here Friday that I’d been playing hooky from “a residential conference”,
though in fact the gathering in question was the 333rd annual session of
Baltimore Yearly Meeting
of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers).
I shan’t write much here about what went on at the conference. The
business part of the proceedings was largely tied up in lengthy consideration
of a gay-rights/ anti-homophobia issue within the broader Quaker community
that is a hard one to come to unity on. Still, I think some
good progress was made. And meanwhile, it was good to re-connect with
some old friends who are also Friends.
I did, however, want to write a little about the pleasure I got from driving
back on Friday afternoon to Harrisonburg, Virginia–location of the session–from
my hometown here in Charlottesville…
Because Lorna (the youngest) would be home a bit this weekend, I left my
car here for her to drive, and took Bill-the-spouse’s car, known by some
as “the skateboard”. Actually, it’s a 1982 Fiat Spider and it’s considerably
wider than a skateboard, if not very much longer or higher than one.
But the neat thing about it is, in good weather you get to put the top down…
Rolling Stone on Abu Ghraib
Rolling Stone has an article by Osha Gray Davidson that describes some of the info in the 160 “annexes” (6,000 pages) to the US Army’s internal Taguba report into conditions at Abu Ghraib prison. These annexes have been provided to Congressional investigators but not–until now–to the general public.
Thanks to Yankeedoodle for signaling this piece.
Davidson’s piece is definitely worth reading (if you have a strong stomach.) Not many actual new “revelations” apart from numerous apparently credible statements from previous inmates about rapes by guards and other members of the prison staff of male (and apparently also female) prisoners. And quite a lot more details about incidents like the night that Sgt. Graner, Pvt Lynndie England, and their co-workers took so many photos of all their abuses.
And this:
- According to an internal Army investigation contained in the secret files, the civilian-run Coalition Provisional Authority had hired at least five members of Fedayeen Saddam — a paramilitary organization of fanatical Saddam loyalists — to work as guards at the prison. An Iraqi guard, probably one of “Saddam’s martyrs,” had smuggled the gun and two knives into the prison in an inner tube, placed them in a sheet and tossed them up to the second-story window of Cell 35. In May, when Taguba testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen.Wayne Allard asked him a direct question: “Did we have terrorists in the population at this prison?” Taguba answered, “Sir, none that we were made aware of.” His own files make clear, however, that a more accurate response would have been: “Yes, sir — but only among the guards.”
Davidson’s analysis points a finger of responsibility pretty clearly at Maj-Gen. Barbara Fast, the Chief of Military Intelligence in Iraq–at the time, and still today; and also at Maj-Gen. Geoffrey Miller, the man who was sent from Gitmo to Abu Ghraib in October 2003 to try to “Gitmo-ize” the intel-gathering operations there– and who was subsequently named director of all detainee operations in Iraq, a position that he still holds.
If Sen. Warner and all the other Congressional people who’ve been trying to investigate and reform this whole situation want to be taken seriously by us taxpayers, then I suggest they should at the very least require that Generals Fast and Miller be reassigned from their current positions– at the double!
The River bends again
She’s back!
Riverbend, that is.
Read her latest post about the “insurmountable combination of heat and family issues ” that’s kept her from blogging recently. Including, the death of “an older aunt”:
- She had a stroke shortly after the war and has been deteriorating ever since. [snip] The first problems we faced occurred in the graveyard. Upon visiting the graveyard, my uncles discovered that the family plot which had been purchased years ago had very recently been occupied by some strangers who could find very little room elsewhere in the overcrowded cemetery. The grounds keeper apologized profusely but said that they were bringing in an average of almost 100 bodies a month this year to his graveyard alone- where was he supposed to bury the bodies?
After some negotiations, the uncles were directed to some empty spaces on the outer borders of the cemetery and the aunt was resignedly buried there. Immediately after began the 7-day mourning ritual in the deceased aunt’s house. For seven days- from morning until evening- friends, family and neighbors all come to give the family their condolences and mourn the dead. This is called a ‘fatiha’ or a wake. Another wake is simultaneously held at a local mosque and this one is attended by the men- it lasts for only three days. Scheduling the mosque wake was also an issue because so many of the mosques are booked for wakes lately.
Lately, the condolences from neighbors and friends come in the form of, “She was much too young for such a death, but you should thank God- it’s a better death than most these days… ” And while death in general is still regarded as unfortunate, it is preferable to die of a stroke or natural causes than to die, say, of a car bomb, gun shot, beheading or under torture…
You get the drift. Not a happy one. But we, at least, are blessed by having Riverbend there to write about it for us.
Thanks, River. And welcome back!
Al-Libi’s coerced ‘information’ = crud
Douglas Jehl has a piece in today’s NYT about the fact that the information “gleaned” from CIA interrogations of high-ranking Qaeda operative Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi was subsequently recanted by him–and the “information” in question was subsequently “discredited”.
So much for the justifications for torture based on the “necessity” of using it to get information about imminent threats, and the “value” of the information thus obtained.
This is especially significant, because the alleged “info” that al-Libi gave his interrogators was about how Saddam’s Iraq had allegedly “provided training in chemical and biological weapons to members of al-Qaeda”, and was a good part of the purported “evidence” that was used to jerk US and UK citizens into supporting the invasion of Iraq.
Juan Cole has a lengthy post on his blog today, the gist of which is that maybe al-Libi’s “confession” was part of a much bigger, and very fiendish campaign by the Qaeda leadership to jerk the US into the war against Iraq… as part of an even broader campaign that jerked the US into the invasion of Afghanistan and also sought to rupture US-Saudi ties.
It’s a daring theory. Personally, I believe the Iraq and Saudi parts of it are much more persuasive than the Afghan part… After all, Qaeda lost a very valuable safe haven as a result of the US invasion of Afghanistan; whereas the overthrow of Saddam’s regime and the weakening of the House of Saud were very much in its interest…
Be that as it may, the big question about the whole al-Libi interrogation story still remains about that of the notable ineffectiveness of trying to gain useful information from a captive through torture…
Foreign contractors: an Afghan problem, too
The Institute for War and Peace Reporting’s Afghanistan page is always worth a visit. Right now, they have this sad piece of reporting there:
- The sudden collapse of the western part of Kabul’s state-run Jamhoriat hospital on July 26, which was being renovated by the Chinese company, Complant, has heightened concern about the numerous construction projects in the country. At least six Afghans were killed in the collapse and more than 30 others were injured, including 2 Chinese workers. At least 30 people are still reported missing.
Click here for the rest of the story…