Political Observations

The New York Times on the Web, at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/03/world/americas/03colombia.html?hp, reports that:

The three Americans, Marc Gonsalves, Keith Stansell and Thomas Howes, were taken captive in 2003 after their surveillance plane went down on an antinarcotics mission for the United States Defense Department.

It seems to me these are unlawful enemy combatants, read: terrorists, who are operating in Colombia.

In Sunday's NYTimes, an Op-Ed piece includes the following line:

So hot is the speculation that war-crimes trials will eventually follow in foreign or international courts that Lawrence Wilkerson, Colin Powell’s former chief of staff, has publicly advised Mr. Feith, Mr. Addington and Alberto Gonzales, among others, to “never travel outside the U.S., except perhaps to Saudi Arabia and Israel.”

The indispensable nation, most powerful of the world and the only surviving superpower, involved in war crimes?  Who could sit in judgment of the mighty, free and just United States of America?

In that same piece, attorney general Ashcroft is quoted as saying that he doesn't want to hear about Al-Qaeda threats in the US anymore.  This is not an opinion; it is a fact that the author of a book uses to state her opinion that torture is being used to cover up failures in intelligence and leadership, such as Ashcroft's.

The same piece also calls it an "absurdity that torture could easily fix the terrorist threat". And yet has that knowledge prevented torture from happening?

The book in which the author makes opinions based on these facts is "The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals,” by Jane Mayer.  See http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/11/washington/11detain.html