[The following blog is actually, in reality, a column that was printed in Synthesis Weekly on Tuesday, 5/27. It was written by Bob Howard, who can be reached at madbob@madbob.com]

Hearts and Minds

The Incredible Terrible Saga of Sami al-Hajj: During the first phase of Bush’s “War on Terror,” a host of suspected dissidents were rounded up and sent to the US military’s secretive detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Guantanamo Bay is US territory leased from Cuba; though the Cuban government has never cashed the US checks for that land. The reason a military prison was constructed and harbored in that unlikely location is because attorneys for the Bush administration felt that the legal status of Guantanamo Bay was ambiguous and as such prisoners held there would not be subject to the normal regulations that govern the capture, holding and interrogation of foreign POWs. As a result of this legal ambiguity, Guantanamo has been a haven for incredible abuse of both the prisoners and the legal system in general.

One of the early stated goals in the “War on Terror” was to win the “hearts and minds” of the Afghani, Iraqi, and by extension, the citizens of the whole Middle East. Now, I understand perfectly well that when you go to war there is going to be a lot of what they call “collateral damage” — meaning innocent civilians, women and children will be killed. It is an inevitable consequence of dropping bombs and shooting bullets. Collateral damage is one of those calculated risks. The bad guys are so bad that it behooves us in the long run to blow up civilians to get to them. I don’t agree with the logic, but I understand it.
But every so often another story pops up that makes me shake my head and say, “Really? That’s how we’re going about winning the hearts and minds of the people whose countries we are invading?” I just learned the details of one of these stories. It involves a man named Sami al-Hajj who has spent the last six years at Guantanamo Bay. You might ask what al-Hajj’s crime was? It turns out that he was captured because he was a cameraman for Al Jazeera, the most popular Arab-based news outlet in the world. The US at the time was working under the assumption that Al Jazeera was actually in cahoots with Al Qaeda and they interrogated al-Hajj on dozens of separate occasions in order to try and get him to confess this link. He never would because, according to al-Hajj, there is no link between Al Qaeda and Al Jazeera.

[righteous indignation to follow the jump.] (more…)

9/11 Conspiracy Theories ‘Ridiculous,’ Al Qaeda Says

“America’s Finest News Source” certainly lives up to its name. If you have more time to kill, you should check out their world atlas “Our Big Dumb World” if you haven’t already. It’s scathing satire on just about every country in the world. This week’s featured country is Kenya, which is described as a “natural breeding ground for the world’s top long-distance runners, who learn at a very early age the art of running as far away as they possibly can from Kenya.”