My heart today goes out to the Pakistani people. I hope and pray that all those responsible for the heinous crime that has been committed today will be brought to justice.

Good journey, Benazir Bhutto. Good journey.

A German citizen who said he was kidnapped by the Central Intelligence Agency and tortured in a prison in Afghanistan lost his last chance to seek redress in court today when the Supreme Court declined to consider his case. The justices’ refusal to take the case of Khaled el-Masri let stand a March 2 ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, in Richmond, Va. That court upheld a 2006 decision by a federal district judge, who dismissed Mr. Masri’s lawsuit on grounds that trying the case could expose state secrets. ... Mr. Masri contended in his suit that he was seized by local law enforcement officials while vacationing in Macedonia on New Year’s Eve 2003. At the time, he was 41 years old and an unemployed car salesman. “They asked a lot of questions — if I have relations with Al Qaeda, Al Haramain, the Islamic Brotherhood,” Mr. Masri said in a 2005 interview with The New York Times. “I kept saying no, but they did not believe me.” After 23 days, he said, he was turned over to C.I.A. operatives, who flew him to a secret C.I.A. prison in Kabul. There, Mr. Masri said, he was kept in a small, filthy cell and shackled, drugged and beaten while being interrogated about his supposed ties to terrorist organizations. At the end of May 2004, Mr. Masri said, he was released in a remote part of Albania without ever having been charged with a crime. full story

This is outrageous. The blocking of a trial with spurious claims of "state secrets" is, in my opinion, tantamount to an admission of guilt. This crime is even more blatant by the fact that this German citizen was flown to Kabul — an occupied territory of the United States. Does anyone really doubt who's in charge in Afghanistan or Iraq? The crimes of puppet governments are crimes of the puppeteer. It is a further crime that Khaled el-Masri cannot peruse justice in an American court and it is likely that neither those who kidnapped and tortured him nor those that ordered the kidnapping and torture will ever be extradited to stand trial in Germany.

Just for fun, I decided to look at the edits made from the United States Department of state using wikiscanner. I only looked at a fraction of the over 2,500 edits, but here are the ones I thought were interesting:

Laura Bush thinks Condi would be a great president

We're being invaded by Mexicans!!

"...the World Bank is one of the most highly-regarded financial institutions in the world..."

Tiawan is a pseudostate

"The statements about events in 2007 are clearly written by a Russian."

State Department predicts what issues will be contentious at the next Intergovernmental Conference of the European Union

The Department of State knows a lot about science and technology in China.

Somewhere in the world, humans can marry non-human animals

Delete – Who said the 2003 invasion of Iraq was illegal? No one said that

Delete – You can't say that the U.S. officials should have know that Bin Laden would turn his attention to the west after the Soviets were out of the way

Delete – Text on the United States Interests Section in Havana

Delete – A large chunk of the Missouri United States Senate election, 2006 article

Delete – Part of the discussion on the Agent Orange talk page

The Bush administration has decided it has too much credibility and is planning on listing the Iranian Revolutionary Guards as terrorist organization based on classified "irrefutable evidence" that they've been supplying the Taliban - the first time an organization controlled by a foreign government has been listed as such. The evidence is irrefutable, no one can refute it if they can't see it. Even so, it still seems unlikely that Iran would be supplying weapons to a group they've consistently and openly opposed throughout the 90's up to today. Even the U.S. backed Afghan government of Hamid Karzai rejects the idea that Iran is supplying the Taliban.

There is still the classified evidence that Iran is supplying the Iraqi insurgents. More irrefutable stuff no one can see. At the very least, Iran is interfering in Iraqi affairs and as Paul Wolfowitz stated so eloquently a few months after the fall of Baghdad, "I think all foreigners should stop interfering in the internal affairs of Iraq". I guess Americans don't count as foreigners in Iraq.

Bush and his cronies like to claim Reagan's legacy. Bush is no Reagan. Bush sent 10,000 troops to Afghanistan (gradually increased to a now 25,000) to fight Al Qaeda and the Taliban. A year and a half later, he sent 100,000 troops to Iraq (gradually increased to a now 150,000) to fight a tin-pot dictator who was neither a tangible military threat to the United States nor involved in the September 11^th attacks at all.

If Ronald Reagan were in office, after September 11^th he would have sent those 175,000 troops to Afghanistan and Osama Bin Laden's head would have been sitting on a pike in front of the White House by the end 2001. He would have rhetorically asked "Anyone else?" and brought the troops home. The war in Afghanistan would be long over and the war in Iraq would never have started.

found through recoiling:

When radio host Jerry Klein suggested that all Muslims in the United States should be identified with a crescent-shape tattoo or a distinctive arm band, the phone lines jammed instantly. The first caller to the station in Washington said that Klein must be "off his rocker." The second congratulated him and added: "Not only do you tattoo them in the middle of their forehead but you ship them out of this country ... they are here to kill us." Another said that tattoos, armbands and other identifying markers such as crescent marks on driver's licenses, passports and birth certificates did not go far enough. "What good is identifying them?" he asked. "You have to set up encampments like during World War Two with the Japanese and Germans." At the end of the one-hour show, rich with arguments on why visual identification of "the threat in our midst" would alleviate the public's fears, Klein revealed that he had staged a hoax. It drew out reactions that are not uncommon in post-9/11 America. "I can't believe any of you are sick enough to have agreed for one second with anything I said," he told his audience on the AM station 630 WMAL, which covers Washington, Northern Virginia and Maryland ... "Because basically what you just did was show me how the German people allowed what happened to the Jews to happen ... We need to separate them, we need to tattoo their arms, we need to make them wear the yellow Star of David, we need to put them in concentration camps, we basically just need to kill them all because they are dangerous." ... Those in agreement are not a fringe minority: A Gallup poll this summer of more than 1,000 Americans showed that 39 percent were in favor of requiring Muslims in the United States, including American citizens, to carry special identification. full article

39% percent is a scary number. The Nazi Party never got 39% of the German vote before Hitler became Chancellor. In fact, in the election just prior to his becoming Chancellor, the Nazi Party received only 31% of the vote. The 39% of the American public supporting the marking and separation of Muslims does not necessarily mean we will have a repeat of the Nazi atrocities, but it does mean that we are closer to the edge of that precipice than we'd like to believe.

I thought that I could not be any more disgusted by the Bush administration, but his response to the Israeli assault on Lebanon has proved me wrong. While the numbers killed vary widely depending on what source you use, but by any count the vast majority of the Israelis killed by the Hizbullah "terrorists" have been soldiers while the vast majority of those killed by Israel have been civilians. The word "terrorist" has become a term simply meaning "Muslim enemy", it no longer has any connection whatsoever to action.

As if on cue, Bush is rolling out the 9/11 bandwagon, that somehow a Southern Lebanese resistance movement is responsible for the attack on the World Trade Center. Bush cannot be a peace broker, he is only interested in lies and war.

According to BushCo anything Israel does is okay. Anything. They can murder and bomb and kidnap and hold hostages and assassinate anyone they deem appropriate. No condemnation ever. However, if a group of Palestinians kidnap a soldier, a soldier and not a civilian, it is terrorism. It is proof of every muslim is evil, and every non-US supporting country supports terrorism and probably was behind the 9/11 plot just like Saddam Hussein wasn't. Bush can't condemn Israel of course, Israel's actions in Gaza and Lebanon follow the same sort of "logic" he used to attack Iraq. He can't condemn the Israeli government's actions without condemn the actions of the United States.

I talk a lot about why United States foreign policy sucks, and why Bush is evil and just pissing everyone off around the globe. However, Bush isn't the only one pissing the world off. Al Qaeda and associated Islamic extremist groups are doing just as good a job at getting everyone to hate them as Bush is. Al Qaeda isn't just against the United States. Al Qaeda isn't just against the West. As today horrendous bombings in Mumbai reiterate, al Qaeda is against the world. Not only are all non-muslins their enemy, many muslins are as well. One of Bush's key failures has been not treating al Qaeda as a world problem that requires a world solution. Instead of concentrating on stopping terrorists, Bush and Company have turned the "war on terror" into an excuse to further U.S. imperialism. The enemy of your enemy is not always your friend; and no one, not Bush, not al Qaeda, can take on the world.

The recent bust of a large terrorist cell in Ontario is being used as "proof" that the United States government needs to further crack down on security and become even more invasive. However, it actually proves just the opposite. While Canada's legal system might not be perfect in regards to civil liberties, Canada does not have anything as Orwellian as the PATRIOT Act. Yet, Canadian law enforcement was still able to break apart a major terrorist plot. The bust shows that civil liberties do not have to be sacrificed to combat terrorism.

Imagine: you are a foot soldier in a paramilitary group whose purpose is to remake America as a Christian theocracy, and establish its worldly vision of the dominion of Christ over all aspects of life. You are issued high-tech military weaponry, and instructed to engage the infidel on the streets of New York City. You are on a mission - both a religious mission and a military mission -- to convert or kill Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, gays, and anyone who advocates the separation of church and state - especially moderate, mainstream Christians. Your mission is "to conduct physical and spiritual warfare"; all who resist must be taken out with extreme prejudice. You have never felt so powerful, so driven by a purpose: you are 13 years old. You are playing a real-time strategy video game whose creators are linked to the empire of mega-church pastor Rick Warren, best selling author of The Purpose Driven Life. The game, slated for release by October 2006 in advance of the Christmas shopping rush, has been previewed at video game exhibitions, and reviewed by major newspapers and magazines. But until now, no fan or critic has pointed out the controversial game's connection to Mr. Warren or his dominionist agenda. ... According to Mr. Warren, the establishment of this earthly kingdom requires "foot soldiers." As part of his plan, Mr. Warren said he would encourage laypeople to "adopt" needy villages overseas in order to plant churches, expand business opportunities, educate children, influence governments, and overthrow corrupt political leaders, whom he described as "little Saddams." Mr. Warren said his purpose is to enlist "one billion foot soldiers for the Kingdom of God" in the developing world. And the stadium crowd roared its approval. Celebrants included Paul Kagame, the president of Rwanda, a tiny east African country that lost hundreds of thousands of people when it suffered genocide in 1994. Catholic and Protestant clergy have been convicted in connection with that genocide. Yet Mr. Kagame announced that he would allow Mr. Warren to turn his country into the first purpose driven nation. The following month, 16 Rwandan religious leaders arrived in Orange County to begin religious training at Saddleback Church. Mr. Warren has said that his global initiative was developed "underground" and in "stealth". Presumably, this was done with the assistance of Mr. Carver, who directs the Purpose Driven Church in all its activities outside North America. full article

I hear time and time again the Islam is the religion of violence. Islam is the religion that endangers the world. The only reason the fundamentalist Christians have not resorted to terrorism more then they have (and, yes there have been plenty of terrorist attacks by fundamentalist Christians) is that they often have access to more "acceptable" avenues to pursue their agenda, as carpet bombing civilian populations with white phosphorus is deemed more acceptable than a suicide attack. If fundamentalist Christians lose their political prestige you can expect a series of terrorist attacks from their ranks. "Last Days Crusade" would be a likely organizational name.

I'm not saying all Christian are violent, the same as not all Muslims are violent. What I am saying is that Christianity holds no moral high ground over Islam. Both have factions that want to kill all the infidels. Fundamentalism is the problem, not any particular religion.

I've heard a lot of talk around about the hatefulness of Zacarias Moussaoui's testimony at his death penalty trial. It angers and upsets many Americans, especially families of the September 11 victims. And rightfully so.

Us Americans, however, should turn that mirror on ourselves and see that the often equally hateful rhetoric spewed by American politicians and media personalities and even web critics might make people in the Arab world react similarly to how we react to Moussaoui, especially given the orders of magnitude more civilians that have died as a result of the Iraq conflict than died in the September 11 attacks.

Perhaps us Americans should reflect about ourselves what one CNN talking head did about Zacarias Moussaoui, "What motivates such hatred?". The cycle of violence must end. Blood for blood only leads to blood for the blood that was taken for blood.

A friend pointed this article out:

Can we say McCarthy? I think we can. Let's say it together: M-C-C-A-R-T-H-Y

Forgiveness is a powerful thing. So powerful that it can truly startle people. The bombings and attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq were expected. While they may have scared some into submission and angered others to fight, they did not surprise anyone. If instead of attacking, the Christians in charge of the United States instead followed Jesus's advice and said "We forgive you.", it would have utterly shocked supporters of Al-Qaeda and other like-minded groups. Forgiveness would have completely baffled them, and made it very difficult for them to motivate others to kill themselves in a similar attack. September 11^th was intended to motivate the wrath of the United States, and was only made successful by the providing of that wrath.

This does not mean that if persons who aided the act are caught in the course of law enforcement that they should not be brought to justice. Rule of law must still exist, but invasion of other countries is not in the course of law enforcement. Forgiveness of the transgressions upon us by those outside our laws would keep us far safer than all the weapons in the United States arsenal.

If a person opposed to animal testing were to walk into an animal testing lab with a hatchet and a gun and proceed to attack the people there with those weapons, that person would instantly be labeled a terrorist by the media and the government, and rightly so.

Why won't the media or the government call Jacob D. Robida a terrorist? I don't know, but I'm sure it has something to do with political agendas. Let us say what they will not: LAST NIGHT there was a TERRORIST ATTACK on a GAY BAR in MASSACHUSETTS.

It is the criminals responsibility not to be criminals. People should not be telling us that we need a police force, airport security, or anti-virus software. What they need to be doing is telling the criminals this:

If you're walking by an unlocked car, don't steal it.
If someone leaves their front door unlocked, don't rob them.
If someone leaves their notebook computer unattended, don't steal it.
If someone has an nice watch, don't rob them.
If someone is stopped at a red light, don't carjack them.
If you are on a airplane, don't blow it up.
If you are riding the subway, don't blow it up.
If you are riding the bus, don't blow it up.
If you write computer programs, don't write a virus.
If you've hacked into a system, don't delete any files.
If you work for a bank, don't steal people's account numbers.
If you are near a school, don't sell drugs to kids.
If you are in the mob, don't kill people.
If you are a serial killer, don't kill people.
If someone annoys you, don't beat the crap out of them
If your partner dumps you, don't murder them and their family before you kill yourself.
If you are the head of a large corporation, don't raid your employees pension fund.
If someone looks like an easy mark, don't defraud them.
If you can't afford your next fix, don't mug someone in an alley.
If you are driving, don't speed.
If you make money, don't evade taxes.
If you are a criminal, don't break the law.

Once this meme gets sufficiently passed around LiveJournal, we will have no more crime.

A senior White House official has denied that the US president, George Bush, said God ordered him to invade Afghanistan and Iraq. A spokesman for Mr Bush, Scott McClellan, said the claims, to be broadcast in a TV documentary later this month, were "absurd". In the BBC film, a former Palestinian foreign minister, Nabil Shaath, says that Mr Bush told a Palestinian delegation in 2003 that God spoke to him and said: "George, go and fight these terrorists in Afghanistan" and also "George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq". full story

It wasn't God. Karl Rove was standing hiding behind the curtains messing with his head.