The Dish

Almost as damning as Dan Okrent.

This gets weirder and weirder.

Greg Djerejian is back with a vengeance. He’s a mild optimist about the Middle East, and sees the emergence of a real movement toward democracy there as deeply encouraging. And that’s why he’s concerned, as I am, with our self-inflicted wounds. We are engaged in a war of ideas as well as bullets. And we have been hobbling ourselves with misguided decisions.

“BLACK GIRL”: Or whoever. (Hat tip: Boozhy.)

“They’re cliqueish, they’re arrogant, they get things wrong,” – Ana Marie Cox, on political blogs, arguing that some have become like the big media they criticize.

Bo.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “‘Vicious little punks’? Please. I’d say theirs was a healthy response. The only thing they did wrong in my book was kicking him while he was down. They were certainly right to knock this old perv’s block off when he laid his hands on one of them. I’d like to buy those hoods a Coke… To paraphrase the Misfit, the Church would be a better place if there were punks there beating up cruisy clerics every single day of the Church’s life. If a priest or anyone else ever propositioned my kid like this, if my kid wasn’t in a position to break the perv’s nose, I’d go find him and do it.”- Rod Dreher, of the Dallas Morning News.

Maybe these newly declassified affidavits and depositions taken during the official investigation into Abu Ghraib can illuminate the Koran abuse mystery a little more. The following deposition is interesting because it is by a U.S. interrogator, not an inmate, and refers to a technique within the military-approved term “Pride and Ego Down” that was apparently already in use. Here’s the first deposition, dated 5/21/04. It is from someone who was

“part of a five person Mobile Training Team from Fort Huachuca, AZ. The mission of my team was to provide an overall assessment of interrogation operations, training and advice and assistance. My focus was interrogation operations … The Intelligence Rules of Engagement (IROE) was posted and was very similar to that IROE used in Afghanistan. During my observation of interrogation operations, the 519th demonstrated experience and dedication to the mission. Most techniques required a very specific written plan with a schedule and parameters. The MP’s appeared to be in control and professional I did see detainees in various states of undress to include nakedness and detainees wearing towels. The MP’s used segregation and stripping as a way to keep the detainees under control and to keep them from talking. On one occasion, I had a conversation with XXXXX, concerning the IROE and interrogation approaches. I gave him examples of approaches including Pride and Ego Down where an interrogator took a Koran, threw it on the floor and stepped on it and Fear Up Harsh where the interrogator had a dog trained to bark on cue if the interrogator thought the detainee was lying. I also explained sleep deprivation. I told him that in Afghanistan the interrogators could use an adjusted sleep schedule for detainees. The conversation was meant to explain why these activities were prohibited or restricted.

This is a little confusing. The person seems to be conflating approved and unapproved techniques – monitored sleep deprivation (approved) and Koran abuse (barred) respectively – and then saying that she was detailing them to show why they “were prohibited or restricted.” Both? Why? A subsequent deposition, which appears to be by the same person (but might not be) was taken on 06/30/04. Here’s the money quote:

I told him of a story I heard in Afghanistan of a dog used during an interrogation. The dog was trained to bark on cue and would bark any time the interrogator had reason to believe the detainee was lying during the interrogation. I told him this would probably not be allowed but that the presence of barking dogs in the prison might be effective. I told him of a story of an interrogator using and Pride and Ego Down approach. The interrogator took a copy of the Koran and threw it on the ground and stepped on the Koran, which resulted in a detainee riot. .. I never personally witnessed the above incidents, but heard about them from other interrogation facility personnel…

I don’t know what to make of this. The witness seems to be saying that s/he was referring to methods that were not authorized, and then s/he says they had already been used in Afghanistan. We may here be seeing part of the confusion in policy that helped make Bagram, Abu Ghraib and the torture in Basra, Tikrit and elsewhere possible, confusion for which no one has been held accountable.

It’s worrying enough that we find that some Christian fundamentalists have undermined the Air Force Academy. It’s bad enough that some extremists seem to think that this is a good way to win a war of ideas against extremist Islam. But when our own military seems to be advertizing an explicitly Christian identity in Iraq, then it’s time the president took action. Whoever in the marines allowed this tank to be defaced in this way needs to be removed from his post. It’s an outrage – to both the New Testament and to our mission in Iraq.

HIV NOW: Thanks for your emails of concern. I’ll be fine. My point is simply to write more candidly about some of the issues facing gay men two decades after HIV first emerged. A good critique of my points can be found here. A candid elaboration of some of the issues is contained in this email:

First, I’m sorry to hear of your latest numbers. I know all too well what it’s like to pass a week every three months hoping that your labs will confirm that your choices are working and your options are open.
Second, you’re right that HIV care has gotten a helluva lot easier. Since I seroconverted about two years ago, I’ve been on a twice-a-day combo that even comes with the special gift of far-out fabulous dreams, courtesy of Sustiva. I still have worries – any career break that might mean suspending health insurance is a complete non-starter, for example. But on the whole it’s been relatively easy, so much so that my biggest challenge for a while has been convincing myself, and fully internalizing, that I actually have this thing, that I am HIV+.
And that same unreality around HIV drove my sexual choices back when I seroconverted. The scare tactics didn’t do much for me any more; all I had was a vague moral sense that using condoms was the right thing to do. And let’s face it, even the most conservative of us gay men instinctively repels just a little bit at the sense of external moral threats. Unfortunately that instinct was just strong enough to keep me from talking openly with my other gay friends about the disappearance of condoms from my bedside, and I never really had the conversation I needed until after I was diagnosed.
I have a hunch, based purely on anecdotal evidence, that HIV is on the rise among educated, middle-class gay men. The stats don’t reflect that yet, but I’ve seen myself and others similarly situated victimize themselves in the double-bind I just described. In the heat of the moment, the instrumental calculus just isn’t going to inspire you to wrap it up. But the lingering moral tsk-tsk makes any failure to wrap it up all but unsayable. We have to figure out a way to get beyond this impasse. Or we need a working microbicide. Behavior modification has its limits, and I think we’ve met them.

Criticism of people with HIV can only go so far. In consensual private adult sex, after all, no gay man can claim innocence of danger any more. My own modest suggestion is an ad campaign focusing on the possible physical effects of HIV and HIV meds. Appealing to some men’s vanity by portraying people with AIDS as emaciated or suffering from lipodystrophy might help: it’s a more tangible threat than a very distant and vague health menace in a decade or so. I should also add that I don’t want to minimize the negative impact of HIV on my life. I went through hell for a while, and a terror that required all my psychological and spiritual resources to face down. (My memoir of this is contained in “Love Undetectable,” the book I’m proudest of.) The paradox is that if you have marshalled the capacity to face down a life-threatening condition, you have to some extent conquered fear. And conquering fear is contagious. In fact, my very existence as a happy, healthy, productive man with HIV is in itself undermining the safer sex message. Success means failure. But what am I to do? Wear a burka? Pretend I’m close to death?

Here’s a persuasive conservative case in its defense. The fact that so many Republicans and conservative activists are so appalled is a sign, again, of how unconservative they are.

I’ve just refreshed the pieces posted at left. My conservatism essay is now up in full; along with reflections on a year of civil marriage for all in Massachusetts; and a take on the “Toilet Wars” between Bush and the press. Check ’em out.

EMAIL OF THE DAY II: “Re: The Deal. You confirmed for me what I already knew – it’s a raw one for the GOP. The very fact that a bigot like yourself likes it proves to me that Republicans got screwed. AND you got what you really wanted – pIss off the right-wing base in hopes of depressing 2006 turnout so you can gain seats and secularize American culture.
This is far from over. Bush is not going to nominate O’Connor for Chief Justice – get a clue! She will probably retire soon anyway. Scalia for Chief Justice and someone of like mind to succeed him on the Court. You know it, I know it and the left knows it. At that point, the GOP will have to pull the trigger and morons like Lindsey Graham will vote their constituents’ interest or be bludgeoned to political death in the next primary. Conservatives still hold the cards Andrew. Don’t go wetting your “sane” self just yet.” Charming. And accurate.

“We have now had one year of legal same-sex marriage in our state. Despite predictions, we have not witnessed any threat to so-called ‘traditional marriage.’ There has not been an attack on family, and almost all would admit that very little has changed. In fact, however, something has changed. Many of our citizens have experienced the joy of marriage for the first time where the laws of our state have said, ‘You are equal.’ We have seen that joy in our son. To take that away would be an injustice. It would be devastating for our family and the real values we believe family should represent.
After seven years in a committed relationship, our son and his partner exchanged vows in front of 125 friends and family members. It brought home the reality that marriage is about two people who love each other and who desire to commit to a life together. We now realize how far our entire family has come in 12 years. Those hopes and dreams we had for our son prior to June 1993 have, in fact, now been realized. What more could we have wished for than to have our son find happiness and share his life with someone he loves?” – the parents of a gay son, in the Boston Globe.