Month: April 2009

How Bad Is It?

Megan looks at the swine flu mortality numbers:

The mortality in Mexico is shockingly high:  81 cases out of 1300, or about 6%.  The great Spanish Flu pandemic, on the other hand, had a mortality of about 2.5%.  Normal rates for flu are less than a tenth of 1%, with most of those deaths occurring in people who are already weak:  children, the elderly, the immunocompromised.  The Spanish Flu hit hardest the 15-34 age group, who seem to have been done in by their own strong immune response.  It's not clear which pattern this flu follows.

…this seems more worrying than SARS was, and SARS was pretty worrying.  And if it gets much bigger, it will deal a heavy blow to an already struggling world economy, because this will have deep impacts on global trade flows. 

Effect measure, a blog written by health scientists, asks: "What did you expect?" and ScienceInsider wants more details. Both are more sedate than anything you will see on cable.

Bush’s Promise On Torture

From al Arabiya, after Abu Ghraib:

It's important for people to understand that in a democracy, there will be a full investigation. In other words, we want to know the truth. In our country, when there's an allegation of abuse … there will be a full investigation, and justice will be delivered. …  It's very important for people and your listeners to understand that in our country, when an issue is brought to our attention on this magnitude, we act. And we act in a way in which leaders are willing to discuss it with the media. … In other words, people want to know the truth. That stands in contrast to dictatorships. A dictator wouldn't be answering questions about this. A dictator wouldn't be saying that the system will be investigated and the world will see the results of the investigation.

Bush personally authorized every technique revealed at Abu Ghraib. He refused to act upon the International Committee of the Red Cross's report that found that he had personally authorized the torture of prisoners, in violation of the Geneva Conventions and the UN Convention on Torture and domestic law against cruel and inhuman treatment. A refusal to investigate and prosecute Red Cross allegations of torture is itself a violation of the Geneva Accords.

As The Pieces Fall Into Place II

"We didn't kill them. We didn't cut their heads off. We didn't shoot them. We didn't cut them and let them bleed to death. We just did what we were told to soften them up for interrogation, and we were told to do anything short of killing them," – Lynndie England.

"If the detainee dies, you're doing it wrong," – Jonathan Fredman, a lawyer for the CIA's Counterterrorist Center,  October 2002, as per the Senate Armed Services Committee report. Fredman says he did not put it quite like that.

In order to qualify as illegal torture, physical pain "must be equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death," – a legal memo authorizing abuse of prisoners, approved by president George W. Bush, primarily authored by John Yoo.

Random Thoughts On A Hellhole

Phil Zabriskie returns from Afghanistan. He thinks out loud:

Absolutely no faith in this government, and a lingering sense of confusion about what exactly the US and the international community is doing here. Thoughts along the lines of, “the west could defeat the Taliban, but they do not, so they must want the Taliban here.” Dovetails with widespread speculation about who will run against Karzai in the August elections. This coincides with widespread dissatisfaction with Karzai, his administration, the perceived profiteering of his brothers–in construction, property, and other less savory facets of the economy–but little sense of who could prove a viable rival at the ballot.

Newt Punts On Pol Pot

Here is former Speaker Gingrich discussing whether the Khmer Rouge torture technique displayed at the Cambodian museum of torture is against the Geneva Conventions:

VAN SUSTEREN: But you said a minute ago that it was torture, waterboarding…

GINGRICH: No, I said it's not something we should do.

VAN SUSTEREN: OK. Is it torture or not?

GINGRICH: I — I — I think it's — I can't tell you.

VAN SUSTEREN: Does it violate the Geneva Convention?

GINGRICH: I honestly don't know.

How many times in human history do you think Newt Gingrich has said "I honestly don't know"?

As The Pieces Fall Into Place

Joe Wilson unloads:

The disinformation campaign to manipulate public opinion in favor of the invasion, the torture program, and the illegal exposure of a clandestine CIA agent—my wife, Valerie Plame Wilson—were linked events.

In their desperate effort to gather material to whip up public support, Cheney and others resorted to torture, well known in the intelligence craft to elicit inherently unreliable information. Cheney & Co. then pressured the CIA to put its stamp of approval on a series of falsehoods—26 of which were inserted into Secretary of State Colin Powell’s speech before the United Nations Security Council. At the same time, Cheney was furiously attempting to suppress the true information that Saddam Hussein was not seeking yellowcake uranium in Niger. After I published the facts in an article in The New York Times in July 2002, Cheney tried to punish me and discredit the truth by directing the outing of a CIA operative who happened to be my wife.

(hat tip: John Cole)

The Evolution Of John McCain

"But we are not asked to judge the President's character flaws. We are asked to judge whether the President, who swore an oath to faithfully execute his office, deliberately subverted–for whatever purpose–the rule of law," – John McCain arguing for the impeachment of Bill Clinton for perjury in a civil suit, February 1999.

"Anyone who knows what waterboarding is could not be unsure. It is a horrible torture technique used by Pol Pot," – John McCain, October 2007.

"We've got to move on," – John McCain, April 26, 2009, reacting to incontrovertible proof that George W. Bush ordered the waterboarding of a prisoner 183 times, as well as broader treatment that the Red Cross has called "unequivocally torture."