Alphonse van Worden

Shameless Self Promotion

2006-01-05T21:09:00.000-08:00

Captain van Worden promoted himself to Colonel.

Scarpia! Davanti a dio!

2005-10-15T00:38:00.000-07:00

The Reign Of Terror....

2005-10-14T15:47:00.000-07:00

continues in Haiti:

Haiti To Delay Elections
In Haiti, interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue said that "technical problems" have forced the government to delay elections set for Nov. 20 by three weeks. If confirmed, the delay would be the second time the elections have been postponed. The elections will be the first since the elected government of President Jean Bertrand-Aristide was overthrown in February 2004.

U.S. Millionaire to Run in Haiti, But Not Jean-Juste
Meanwhile, Haiti’s Supreme Court has ruled a Haitian-born U.S. millionaire may run in the presidential elections. Dumarsais Simeus, owner of a Texas food services company, had been barred from the race because he is a U.S. citizen. Simeus called the decision “a victory for the Haitian people.” Another prominent candidate, jailed priest Gerard Jean-Juste remains out of the race. Representatives of the Fanmi Lavalas, the party of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, tried to register him last month but were rejected on grounds he wasn’t present himself. Amnesty International calls him a “prisoner of conscience.” - DemocracyNow

Pinter

2005-10-14T15:25:00.000-07:00

via warszawa at Persistence of Vision:

Harold Pinter:

The great poet Wilfred Owen articulated the tragedy, the horror - and indeed the pity - of war in a way no other poet has. Yet we have learnt nothing. Nearly 100 years after his death the world has become more savage, more brutal, more pitiless.

But the "free world" we are told, as embodied in the United States and Great Britain, is different to the rest of the world since our actions are dictated and sanctioned by a moral authority and a moral passion condoned by someone called God. Some people may find this difficult to comprehend but Osama Bin Laden finds it easy.

What would Wilfred Owen make of the invasion of Iraq? A bandit act, an act of blatant state terrorism, demonstrating absolute contempt for the concept of International Law. An arbitrary military action inspired by a series of lies upon lies and gross manipulation of the media and therefore of the public. An act intended to consolidate American military and economic control of the Middle East masquerading - as a last resort (all other justifications having failed to justify themselves) - as liberation. A formidable assertion of military force responsible for the death and mutilation of thousands upon thousands of innocent people.

War On Terra

2005-10-13T21:19:00.000-07:00

MARGARET MONTOYA: Sister, today we have seen the photographs from Abu Ghraib. I'm wondering, when you saw those photographs, what was your reaction?

SISTER DIANNA ORTIZ: I could not even stand to look at those photographs; neither could many of the other torture survivors, especially those of us from Latin America.

MARGARET MONTOYA: Can you tell us why it was difficult to look at those photographs?

SISTER DIANNA ORTIZ: Because so many of the things in the photographs had also been done to me.

AMY GOODMAN: At that point, Sister Dianna Ortiz broke down, but she continued to testify in this mock trial in Washington. Sister Dianna Ortiz, an American nun who went to Guatemala to work with women and children. The human rights attorney, Margaret Montoya, then asked Dianna Ortiz what things she saw in the photos of torture at Abu Ghraib that were done to her. Dianna Ortiz composed herself after breaking down and answered the question.

SISTER DIANNA ORTIZ: I was tortured with a frightening dog and also rats. And they were always filming – filming parts of the torture that occurred, parts of the torture that I was forced to participate in.

MARGARET MONTOYA: So why did they film you, Sister?

SISTER DIANNA ORTIZ: They were laughing while they were filming these horrible things and threatening that later they would show them to my friends and family or even publish them.

MARGARET MONTOYA: And what were your feelings about that?

SISTER DIANNA ORTIZ: It was unbearable. No matter what you tell yourself rationally, those threats haunt you for a lifetime. It's part of the psychological torture of making you feel that it's all somehow your fault, that you are to blame for it all, also that they can still find you and hurt you later on.

MARGARET MONTOYA: Is there more that you can tell us about?

SISTER DIANNA ORTIZ: There were other people in the clandestine cell, the clandestine prison, as well, and I could hear terrible screams. Many were killed. I saw some bodies. There were children, as well.

People

2005-10-12T16:59:00.000-07:00

are such a burden on Society.are such a burden on Society.