When the United States's political and military leaders decide to pass a prisoner to a foreign government, why do they do so? Do they do so because, as spokesmen for the United States government claim, foreign governments possess linguistic and cultural skills that enable them to better understand prisoners? Do they do so with confidence in the formal agreement that these prisoners will not be tortured?
When the New York Times quotes Nabil Fahmy, the Egyptian ambassador to the United States, as saying, "We do interrogations based on our understanding of the culture. We're not in the business of torturing anyone," perhaps the New York Times should also quote the following passage found on the United States Department of State website:
The Government [of Egypt] respected human rights in some areas; however, its record was poor, and in many areas serious problems remained. [. . .] The security forces continued to mistreat and torture prisoners, arbitrarily arrest and detain persons, hold detainees in prolonged pretrial detention, and occasionally engage in mass arrests. Local police killed, tortured, and otherwise abused both criminal suspects and other persons. [. . .] (http://tinyurl.com/b4py4)
I have to wonder, when the United States government founds claims about connections between Iraq and international terrorist groups on the testimony of a prisoner remanded to Egyptian custody, whether the government is hoping that a certain kind of material will result from interrogations carried out by a country with a "poor" human rights record.
Please see this excellent article: http://tinyurl.com/dgnoy
Friday, December 09, 2005
Monday, December 05, 2005
Thursday, December 01, 2005
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
Adolescence
A friend told me the other day that I make decisions very quickly and never revisit them. Another friend said that I suffer from insecurities arising out of repeated failures to complete big projects. But what about the little projects I fail to complete? Still, there's hope: my dad says I look good with short hair.
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Hope
Maybe if I read more Thoreau, write the Paris story, finish the first fifty pages of the business book, string Rachel's beads and ride my bike more often things will get better.
I had a thought yesterday: my dissertation.
I had a thought yesterday: my dissertation.
Friday, November 11, 2005
Thursday, November 03, 2005
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
Gallic Truths
Myth: Parisians are fashionable.
Truth: Parisians don't wear shorts and t-shirts.
Myth: Les trottoirs sont crottoirs.
Truth: Les crottes sont dans les egouts et les caniveaux.
Myth: Everyone smokes.
Truth: Guillaume does not, but many do.
Myth: The French are mean and snooty.
Truth: The French are short and have big noses.
Truth: Parisians don't wear shorts and t-shirts.
Myth: Les trottoirs sont crottoirs.
Truth: Les crottes sont dans les egouts et les caniveaux.
Myth: Everyone smokes.
Truth: Guillaume does not, but many do.
Myth: The French are mean and snooty.
Truth: The French are short and have big noses.
Torture and Killing in Afghanistan
I talked to an MP who said that he was in charge of holding detainees and that the CIA would just come and take the detainees away. They would be like, “How many detainees do you have?” and he knew he has seventeen detainees but the OGA would be like, “No, you have sixteen,” so he’d be like “All right. I have sixteen.” And who knows where that detainee went.
-Account of Officer C, 82nd Airborne Division
Human Rights Watch
"Leadership Failure: Firsthand Accounts of Torture of Iraqi Detainees by the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division"
http://hrw.org/reports/2005/us0905/4.htm#_Toc115161403
Note: The soldiers with whom Human Rights Watch spoke had served as guards in Afghanistan and had observed interrogations at FOB Tiger in Iraq, and said that civilian interrogators at those locations had also used coercive methods against prisoners. These interrogators were always referred to by the U.S. military abbreviation OGA, which stands for “Other Government Agencies.” It was assumed that such persons were with the CIA, but because OGA also includes other civilian agencies, the soldiers with whom Human Rights Watch spoke said they could not be sure.
-Account of Officer C, 82nd Airborne Division
Human Rights Watch
"Leadership Failure: Firsthand Accounts of Torture of Iraqi Detainees by the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division"
http://hrw.org/reports/2005/us0905/4.htm#_Toc115161403
Note: The soldiers with whom Human Rights Watch spoke had served as guards in Afghanistan and had observed interrogations at FOB Tiger in Iraq, and said that civilian interrogators at those locations had also used coercive methods against prisoners. These interrogators were always referred to by the U.S. military abbreviation OGA, which stands for “Other Government Agencies.” It was assumed that such persons were with the CIA, but because OGA also includes other civilian agencies, the soldiers with whom Human Rights Watch spoke said they could not be sure.
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
Friday, October 14, 2005
Wednesday, October 05, 2005
A friend replies, number 14
What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
feeling shame
Where would you like to live?
Paris
What is your idea of earthly happiness?
hiking in Central Italy
To what faults do you feel most indulgent?
faults due to generosity
Who are your favorite heroes of fiction?
Julien Sorel
Zeno Cosini (La coscienza di Zeno)
Who are your favorite characters in history?
Socrates
Montaigne
Who are your favorite heroines in real life?
a few witches
Who are your favorite heroines of fiction?
Natascia Rostova (War and Peace)
la Sanseverina (La Chartreuse de Parme)
Your favorite painter?
Piero della Francesca
Your favorite musician?
Mozart
The quality you most admire in a man?
generosity
The quality you most admire in a woman?
generosity
Your favorite virtue?
generosity
Your favorite occupation?
walking
Who would you have liked to be?
myself (with some corrections)
feeling shame
Where would you like to live?
Paris
What is your idea of earthly happiness?
hiking in Central Italy
To what faults do you feel most indulgent?
faults due to generosity
Who are your favorite heroes of fiction?
Julien Sorel
Zeno Cosini (La coscienza di Zeno)
Who are your favorite characters in history?
Socrates
Montaigne
Who are your favorite heroines in real life?
a few witches
Who are your favorite heroines of fiction?
Natascia Rostova (War and Peace)
la Sanseverina (La Chartreuse de Parme)
Your favorite painter?
Piero della Francesca
Your favorite musician?
Mozart
The quality you most admire in a man?
generosity
The quality you most admire in a woman?
generosity
Your favorite virtue?
generosity
Your favorite occupation?
walking
Who would you have liked to be?
myself (with some corrections)
Monday, October 03, 2005
Poem 22
To hear a gong above the sound of wheels
Is impossible. He twitches, a sudden birdlike
Distancing from the city. Hammers of horn
Fall on keys, resonate, are hushed.
From the ocean come orchestras,
To the ocean oil and ash. And from the lip
Of the volcano a faint rumble--then silence.
Is impossible. He twitches, a sudden birdlike
Distancing from the city. Hammers of horn
Fall on keys, resonate, are hushed.
From the ocean come orchestras,
To the ocean oil and ash. And from the lip
Of the volcano a faint rumble--then silence.
Thursday, September 29, 2005
A friend replies, number 13
What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
Besides having failed to have a family or maintain a
love relationship?...A day at work with no chocolate.
Where would you like to live?
At the edge of a lake bordered by trees, where there
is moss, where I can hear the croaking of frogs at
night.
What is your idea of earthly happiness?
That moment when, in the midst of a difficult
conversation, you and your conversational partner
begin to understand each other, when the fear
dissipates and the empathy rises. (That and a swim in
the above lake.)
To what faults do you feel most indulgent?
Sloth, narcissism.
Who are your favorite heroes of fiction?
They are rarely heroes, but I always appreciate Haruki
Murakami’s protagonists, they’re so lost.
Who are your favorite characters in history?
Growing up I had a crush on Albert Einstein, mostly
because his intelligence was questioned when he was
young. It relieved me to know that someone so
brilliant could be thought to be mentally deficient.
Also, there was a soldier during the Bosnian war who
was ordered to shoot a group of civilians standing
over a ditch. When he questioned the order he was
told that he didn’t have to shoot them if he didn’t
want, instead he could put his gun down & go stand by
them. He did so, and he was killed.
Who are your favorite heroines in real life?
Maybe Marian Wright Edelman. Maybe I have to think
about this one more.
Who are your favorite heroines of fiction?
Easily Karana, Island of the Blue Dolphins.
Your favorite painter?
Stanley Spencer, (not the religious or worker
stuff...mostly the nudes & self portraits). But I am
loving Basquiat these days.
Your favorite musician?
Probably Ani DiFranco, yeah, I know. But then, I can
always listen to The Band, & Art Pepper, too, & then
there’s that Les McCann/ Eddie Harris album.
The quality you most admire in a man?
Self-knowledge, compassion.
The quality you most admire in a woman?
Self-knowledge, compassion.
Your favorite virtue?
Virtues are overrated, even the word “virtuous”
irritates me.
Your favorite occupation?
I suppose artist, of any sort.
Who would you have liked to be?
Myself, but much better.
Besides having failed to have a family or maintain a
love relationship?...A day at work with no chocolate.
Where would you like to live?
At the edge of a lake bordered by trees, where there
is moss, where I can hear the croaking of frogs at
night.
What is your idea of earthly happiness?
That moment when, in the midst of a difficult
conversation, you and your conversational partner
begin to understand each other, when the fear
dissipates and the empathy rises. (That and a swim in
the above lake.)
To what faults do you feel most indulgent?
Sloth, narcissism.
Who are your favorite heroes of fiction?
They are rarely heroes, but I always appreciate Haruki
Murakami’s protagonists, they’re so lost.
Who are your favorite characters in history?
Growing up I had a crush on Albert Einstein, mostly
because his intelligence was questioned when he was
young. It relieved me to know that someone so
brilliant could be thought to be mentally deficient.
Also, there was a soldier during the Bosnian war who
was ordered to shoot a group of civilians standing
over a ditch. When he questioned the order he was
told that he didn’t have to shoot them if he didn’t
want, instead he could put his gun down & go stand by
them. He did so, and he was killed.
Who are your favorite heroines in real life?
Maybe Marian Wright Edelman. Maybe I have to think
about this one more.
Who are your favorite heroines of fiction?
Easily Karana, Island of the Blue Dolphins.
Your favorite painter?
Stanley Spencer, (not the religious or worker
stuff...mostly the nudes & self portraits). But I am
loving Basquiat these days.
Your favorite musician?
Probably Ani DiFranco, yeah, I know. But then, I can
always listen to The Band, & Art Pepper, too, & then
there’s that Les McCann/ Eddie Harris album.
The quality you most admire in a man?
Self-knowledge, compassion.
The quality you most admire in a woman?
Self-knowledge, compassion.
Your favorite virtue?
Virtues are overrated, even the word “virtuous”
irritates me.
Your favorite occupation?
I suppose artist, of any sort.
Who would you have liked to be?
Myself, but much better.
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
France
Late next month I will be in France for nine days, staying in Paris's 5th arrondissement, a few blocks south of the Seine, quite close to the city's leading educational institutions. To prepare for my trip I have been reading weather reports, reading "La misere du monde," watching French movies, and worrying about the exchange rate.
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Poem 21
Spliffing and berting the bowl of my swim,
Loose hair a pinwheel of radiant cream,
I'm as big as Tony Alba and Vincent van Gogh
When I surge from the coping and
Burst in the flow.
Loose hair a pinwheel of radiant cream,
I'm as big as Tony Alba and Vincent van Gogh
When I surge from the coping and
Burst in the flow.
Saturday, September 17, 2005
Thursday, September 08, 2005
Poem 19
On the rocks in the water the dipper
bobs and plunges and feeds
under the bridge by the road
Under me a ball of granite
and around me the stream
and the sound of the water
The bird goes on the stream
goes on the road goes on and on
bobs and plunges and feeds
under the bridge by the road
Under me a ball of granite
and around me the stream
and the sound of the water
The bird goes on the stream
goes on the road goes on and on
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
Things we saw at Point Reyes
Tall pines in the mist, a pale nudibranch with a row of circles down its back, a loon chased by a seal, cliffhanging succulents, huckleberry trees heavy with fruit, a herd of multicolored fallow deer, a rubber boa, two garter snakes, mule deer, a dead jellyfish, boys with backpacks toting firewood, a beetle giving another a piggyback ride, the sea, ceanothus bushes, a tall horse, a Japanese woman wearing a Japanese hat, a pelican carcase, a solitary heron, a fallen tree that might serve perfectly as a bench, ferns, trees blackened by the Mount Vision fire with white lichen growing on them, a rock shaped like a face with spectacles, a man who told us we were in Mexico, poison oak.
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