Domestic implications of drone strikes and the ICC

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For background on the ICC, see Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (Wikipedia).

Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution states:

[The President] shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur;

In practice, President signs UN treaties and submits them to Congress for ratification.  In some cases, the treaty can be left in limbo if the former happens but not the latter, such as the forty-year lag on the ratification of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.   The Rome Statute is an even stranger case because President Clinton signed it in 2000, but chose not to even submit it to the Senate for ratification, stating:

The United States should have the chance to observe and assess the functioning of the court, over time, before choosing to become subject to its jurisdiction. Given these concerns, I will not, and do not recommend that my successor, submit the treaty to the Senate for advice and consent until our fundamental concerns are satisfied.

Concerns about his successor proved unwarranted.  Section 9 of the 2002 National Security Strategy (NSS) went a step further:

We will take the actions necessary to ensure that…[“we”] are not impaired by the potential for investigations, inquiry, or prosecution by the International Criminal Court (ICC), whose jurisdiction does not extend to Americans and which we do not accept.

The curious thing about this is that numerous public opinion polls and surveys have shown that Americans support the ICC by wide margins.  In particular, a 2008 poll (pdf) by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs found that

There is also bipartisan support for the International Criminal Court (ICC), with  68 percent of Americans saying the United States should participate in the agreement on the ICC that can try individuals for war crimes, genocide, or crimes against humanity if their own country won’t try them.

So while its jurisdiction may not extend to Americans, it’s certainly not accurate to say that Americans wouldn’t accept it if given the choice.  Nevertheless, the farcical American Service-Members Protection Act (Hague Invasion Act) was passed in 2002 as well.  The Act finds that

Any American prosecuted by the International Criminal Court will, under the Rome Statute, be denied procedural protections to which all Americans are entitled under the Bill of Rights to the United States Constitution, such as the right to trial by jury.

Which brings us to the drone strikes.  The drone strikes/assassinations are very illegal in Pakistan and the Obama administration has formally declared (the Bush administration did so implicitly) that it will use them on whoever they want, including American citizens without “impairing” itself with the whole procedural protection deal that was the rationale for obstructing the ICC.

More Transparency and Accountability

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NYT: Blackwater Reaches Deal on U.S. Export Violations

A settlement of $42 million over has been reached with the State Department who they’re currently still contracting with, not an actual court.  It almost certainly includes provisions about “admitting to no wrongdoing” so this is really just a whitewash.   The fines were for “export violations” including:

  • Illegal weapons exports to Afghanistan.
  • Making unauthorized proposals to train troops in Sudan.
  • Providing sniper training for Taiwanese police/paramilitaries.

The first is an actual export violation, the others could be if you count them as “services” but that’s kind of a ridiculous way to treat the situation in Sudan in particular.   The story cited anonymous sources and it’s all probably classified so I don’t expect any documents to be released.

Update

On the same day, the NYT has an Op-Ed about how Afghan women will be maimed at a faster rate if foreign contractors are banned.

UNDER orders from President Hamid Karzai, over the next four months Afghanistan will be phasing out almost all foreign private security companies, a move meant to bring the country’s vast security apparatus under tighter government control.

It’s a laudable goal. But it also means that foreign aid workers, government officials and companies will have to rely instead for security on the Afghan National Police and the Afghan National Army — arguably two of the most corrupt and incompetent organizations in the country. Without a more effective replacement for foreign security companies, Mr. Karzai’s order could make the situation in Afghanistan significantly worse.

Who created and trained them in the first place again?  Oh, that’s right, foreign contractors!  And only a year ago it was about putting an “Afghan face” on the war:

There is a new push to dramatically expand the size of the Afghan Army and police, as the military operations now under way in southern Afghanistan is marked by a conspicuous absence of Afghans in the fight.

….

The Helmand offensive points to the need for more Afghans in the battlefield. There are roughly 4,000 US Marines operating in the Helmand region, but only about 650 Afghan soldiers fighting alongside them. There are also 6,500 British troops in the province.

“I’m not going to sugarcoat it,” said Brig. Gen. Lawrence Nicholson, commander of the Marine Expeditionary Brigade running the operation there, in a briefing with reporters earlier this month. “The fact of the matter is, we don’t have enough Afghan forces, and I’d like more.”

There are in fact a total of 5,000 Afghan soldiers in Helmand, and more are said to be on the way, but officials haven’t explained why they’re not involved in the new offensive. The rest of the Afghan army is posted around the country, with many in the north, where violence is reasonably low.

Putting an “Afghan face” on military operations is more than window dressing.

“Building a larger – yet still professional – ANA [Afghan National Army] will be one of the pillars of a successful counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan,” says Carter Malkasian, an analyst with CNA, a think tank in Washington. “The ANA are cheap, good at gathering information, and respected by the population. The more well-trained, well-advised Afghan soldiers, the better.”

Drain Clogs – 08-20-2010

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Alternet has a list of 10 young Right Wingers who are the future of the conservative movement. Read up because they’ll be saying horrible crap on a tv near you soon enough!

A scam company is using a Bill O’Reilly interview to pretend he endorses them to scam more people! Ever wonder why scams are so popular with Right Wing news advertisers? It’s almost if they think the audience is stupid…why could that be? For his part, BillO is pissed. But NewsMax is the group promoting this junk along with scam organizer Bill Spetrino, who turns his 60-day “trial” account for his system into a $99/year payday.

Teabagger Republican Nevada Senate Candidate Sharron Angle – “Black is Evil!”

Professor HM Orly Taitz TE got smacked down by the Supreme Court (again) and is trying to appeal. Expect that to go nowhere fast. Taitz is also claiming she has new evidence Obama is not a citizen because she’s seeing things in videos posted on the WhiteHouse.gov site. Yeah.

So Dr. Laura will be ending her show after her now-legendary N-word rant. Luckily, Sarah Palin supports her and tells her to reload! I guess, yell the n-word even more? And she was against the n-word a few months ago. I’m totally confused, but who would have though Sarah Palin would back racist rants?

Wingnuts go insane on a juror in the Blago trial, blaming her for being the loan holdout that got Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich convicted on only one count. Their evidence? She’s black, worked for the state, and listens to NPR! Shirley Sherrod 2.0

Juror # 106, a black female believed to be in her 60s, is a retired state public health director who has ties to the Chicago Urban League. She has handed out campaign literature for a relative who ran for public office. She listens to National Public Radio and liberal talk radio shows.

Who would have though the Wingnuts would destroy the life of a black woman?

The anti-Mosque hysteria might cost the GOP a big name donor! Who would have though the Wingnuts would be racist against Muslims?

This is a good read about the Tea Party Exchange: One man came up with a scheme for a Tea Party discount card, and the businesses that signed up suddenly had a lot of angry customers that didn’t want to do business with supporters of crazy Teabaggery. Now the whole thing has collapsed and the guy is going to lose all the sweet sweet money he made of the back of hard working local businesses.

Cartoon of the Day:

Mark Williams returns

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In the past few weeks some stories have slipped by due to work leaving me solo, so here we’re catching up on one and using it as an excuse to post more Resistnet caps. Remember Tea Party Express racist Mark Williams? He wrote a fake letter to the NAACP by a “slave” that was denounced by pretty much everyone with a nanogram of common sense. Then the Tea Party Express kicked him out. He disappeared…for a few weeks, and is now back hyping up the new Citizens Reclaiming Constitutional Liberties PAC. So that’s the new scam! Donate today, Mark Williams needs some new white sheets!

As Williams revealed his new plans he also took a swipe at the Tea Party movement for not being able to move beyond “the cheerleading stage.”

Williams revealed, first to CNN, that he is helping to form a political action committee that will channel “Tea Party passion” into electing conservative candidates.

Williams said the effort will be called the “Citizens Reclaiming Constitutional Liberties PAC.” He told CNN that paperwork is currently being filed to establish the group and that it should be up and running by August 16. From there, the PAC will proceed in raising seed money and finding candidates it deems conservative enough, Williams said.

“We’ll be looking for…conservative young people who have something to offer, something to say and don’t identify, in some cases, with either party,” Williams told CNN in an exclusive interview.

Below the fold is some Resistnet screencaps of all their Tea Party Express mentions, because, why not?

Continue reading →

Fake Iraq exit #2

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For fake exit #1, see this and this.

As for the second attempt:

Guardian

The last US combat troops have left Iraq, seven-and-a-half years after the US-led invasion, and two weeks ahead of President Obama’s 31 August deadline for withdrawal from the country.

The final troops to leave, 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, rolled in convoy across the border and into Kuwait this morning, officially ending combat operations which began in March 2003.

The Obama administration had pledged to withdraw troops to 50,000 by 31 August. CNN reported that according to the US military there are now 56,000 US troops in Iraq, meaning another 6,000 must leave if the US president is to meet his own deadline.

….

“By the end of this month, 50,000 troops will be serving in Iraq. As Iraqi security forces take responsibility for securing their country, our troops will move to an advise-and-assist role.

“And, consistent with our agreement with the Iraqi government, all of our troops will be out of Iraq by the end of next year.

Ah, notice that it says combat troops.  The agreement being referenced is the 2008 U.S.-Iraq Status of Forces Agreement, which states:

All the United States Forces shall withdraw from all Iraqi territory no later than December 31, 2011.

AP

KHABARI CROSSING, Kuwait — A line of heavily armored American military vehicles, their headlights twinkling in the pre-dawn desert, lumbered past the barbed wire and metal gates marking the border between Iraq and Kuwait early Thursday and rolled into history.

For the troops of the 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, it was a moment of relief fraught with symbolism but lightened by the whoops and cheers of soldiers one step closer to going home. Seven years and five months after the U.S.-led invasion, the last American combat brigade was leaving Iraq, well ahead of President Barack Obama’s Aug. 31 deadline for ending U.S. combat operations there.

Makes for a nice photo-op.

Reuters

The U.S.-Iraq military pact that came into force in 2009 provides the legal basis for U.S. troops to be in Iraq. Under the agreement, all U.S. troops must be out by 2012. But U.S. negotiators say that even as the pact was being negotiated, it was considered likely it would be quietly revised later to allow a longer-term, although much smaller, force to remain.

There are currently 56,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, down from about 140,000 when Obama took office in January 2009.

With opinion polls showing Americans tired of nearly a decade of war in Afghanistan and Iraq, any decision to extend U.S. military involvement in Iraq would be enormously risky for Obama, who is up for re-election in 2012.

….

Iraq’s military commander, Lieutenant-General Babakir Zebari, caused consternation last week when he said his troops would not be ready to protect the country until 2020, and that the United States should keep its forces there until then.

And then there’s the contractors:

….the State Department is planning to more than double its private security guards, up to as many as 7,000, according to administration officials who disclosed new details of the plan. Defending five fortified compounds across the country, the security contractors would operate radars to warn of enemy rocket attacks, search for roadside bombs, fly reconnaissance drones and even staff quick reaction forces to aid civilians in distress, the officials said.

This isn’t exactly going to fool the Iraqis, so it’s clear who the intended audience is.

2004 Freerepublic Obama thread

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In prep work for the History of Freerepublic.com, I ran across this 2004 era Barack Obama thread. Let’s go through it and find out any similarities to 2010…

The Barack Obama-Alan Keyes Illinois Senate campaign was happening in 2004, here is FreeRepublic and Jim Robinson chatting about Obama, Alan Keyes (back when FR had a hardon for Keyes), and all things Freep:

Vanity: Alan Keyes for Senate
Aug 23, 2004 | Jim Robinson

I’ll make this short and sweet (kinda like this is your brain, this is your brain on crack – any questions?).

a) Alan Keyes is an America loving, Constitution loving, Liberty loving, pro-life ultra conservative. We’d be ^damned lucky to have him in the Senate if we could get him there.

b) Barack Obama is an America hating, pro-abortion socialist communist. It’ll be a dark day for America if he’s elected.

Any questions?

Yeah, how mad will you be if Barack is elected President? I guess we’ll find out…

We were surprised that Keyes got even one vote. (Not really)

To: Jim Robinson
Thanks for your post. While no one has actually made fun of me for suggesting that Mr. Keyes has a chance to win, I’m sure some were just being polite.

I think we may all be surprised. Alan Keyes is an excellent candidate, and he may well take the position away from the annointed liberal Obama.

10 posted on August 23, 2004 11:53:41 PM PDT by Judith Anne (I am almost convinced Kerry will lose his home state. I think Unca Teddy hates him.)

Keyes showed Obama was electable. Thanks, Alan Keyes!

To: Jim Robinson
thanks for the help!Obama is a very smooth and dangerous fellow.
Even if Alan doesen’t win,he will show the people just what Obama is.

23 posted on August 24, 2004 12:45:27 AM PDT by Cheapskate (“We got the Steeley Dan t shirts!”)

2004-era Birthers! And 2004-ere Birther shootdowners!

To: Gelato
Obama….He is likely to run for president in 2008
I thought that he was a “naturalized” citizen, therefore not eligible to run for President.

27 posted on August 24, 2004 1:01:41 AM PDT by sockmonkey

To: sockmonkey
Obama was born in Hawaii.

28 posted on August 24, 2004 1:04:13 AM PDT by Gelato

To: Gelato
Obama was born in Hawaii.
I’m sorry to hear that, but thanks for the info.

31 posted on August 24, 2004 1:21:12 AM PDT by sockmonkey

FreeRepublic…almost too liberal for ApesForEvolution

To: Jim Robinson
God bless you Jim, you and yours, richly, and Go Alan Go!

There is great hope alive at Free Republic! Man…I was this (*) close to writing FRoff…I couldn’t believe how FAR left THE RIGHT supposedly has moved, however, it really hasn’t – the GOP is obviously a centrist Party now.

However, it’s an influx of Liberal Moderates into the GOP precipitating friction against the Reagan Republicans and “American Sovereignty and Constitutional Representation” Conservative movement that seems so extremely wrong at the wrong time .. the Conservatives that brought us the “Contract With America” .. a HUGE, CONSERVATIVE SUCCESS which really made the current WH/House/Senate Republican Leadership ‘monopoly’ a possibility IMO.

Thank you for this post. The GOP better come together, or, yes, I believe that in order for a Civil War to happen in America, the GOP would probably have to have one first, which America can’t afford right now. The tables are tilting precariously on a high fulcrom point and we MUST MOVE RIGHT as a country, BUT WHO WILL LEAD THAT DIRECTION? ?? Someone has to or it’s a continuous drift left, until we are SLAPPED with a Carter or a Kerry…Good LORD…

32 posted on August 24, 2004 2:33:28 AM PDT by ApesForEvolution (DemocRATS are communists and want to destroy America only to replace it with the USSA)

communist crypto-Muhammadan Obamaosama infanticider – the best Obama nicknames are the ones invented years ago!

To: Gelato
Thankfully Alan’s ‘single issue’ position is so much more appealing than the communist crypto-Muhammadan Obamaosama infanticider…no blood on Alan’s hands, lots on Obamaosama’s hands…dead children’s blood.

35 posted on August 24, 2004 2:43:44 AM PDT by ApesForEvolution (DemocRATS are communists and want to destroy America only to replace it with the USSA

Period. And you’ll never hear from Obama again!

To: Jim Robinson
“Barack Obama is an America hating, pro-abortion socialist communist.”
I posted the exact same sentence (almost IIRC) a couple weeks ago on a thread in defense of Keyes. Jim Rob thanks for ‘coming out’ for Alan.

btw, for those here NOT from IL, Obama IS a communist – period. You can dress him up, send him to school and have him talk nice, but he’s still a commie!

Oh, and he’s no ‘rising star’ either. That’s leftist media tripe. Obama’s a 3rd rate back bench state Rep from a 6th rate Chicago south side district. And if the IL senate seat didn’t look like “a given” prior to the RAT convention, you’d have NEVER heard of him.

49 posted on August 24, 2004 5:24:15 AM PDT by Condor51 (May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won’t. — Gen G. Patton Jr)

Obama is a Nazi who needs to get carpetbagged. This is in 2004!

To: Sabertooth; All; Jim Robinson; EternalVigilance; ApesForEvolution; TomasUSMC; unspun; JustPiper; …
Sabertooth, I love you, man. But we really need you on the right side of this one (just as you were on the right side of the Cal Recall).
To all: It’s really this simple. By virtue of the fact that Obama has voted to let babies who were accidentally born be murdered, and by virtue of the fact that Keyes is fighting to prevent such murder, Obama is actually LESS qualified to serve as the Senator from Illinois than Keyes is.

Here’s my greater good analogy: The allied forces had a right, in fact an obligation, to conquer and REPLACE THE LEADERSHIP OF –or engaged in a “carpetbagging” of sorts– the Nazis in Germany.

In like manner, Keyes has a right to try to conquer Obama.

Furthermore, the left has been hypocritical and therefore has undermined any argument they have against carpetbagging, WHETHER OR NOT Keyes has spoken against it.

In short, Keyes is observing a greater good than Federalism, by fightin Obama’s holocaust.

Attention Philosophers and freepers: See “Hierarchicalism”, a.k.a “Graded Absolutism”, a.k.a. “greater good” –Aquinas, etc. Please make yourself familiar with the doctrine before responding.

95 posted on August 24, 2004 9:21:28 AM PDT by tame (Are you willing to do for the truth what leftists are willing to do for a lie?)

George Soros, Osama names, Manchurian Candidate, all from 2004, all the same crazy arguments. Nothing has changed except the volume of crazy, soon it will be over 11.

To: Jim Robinson
Osama Obama is funded by George Soros, the international financial manipulator, destroyer and looter of entire countries, promoter of “gay rights”, Christian-hater, Serb-hater, Israel hater, kigpin of the New World Order, and perhaps the most dangerous man in the world. Obama is nothing more than a Manchurian Candidate, and even liberals in Illinois should refuse to vote for him if they value American independence and freedom even a little bit!
Soros is also behind the Kerry-supporting “MoveOn” organization. So the same applies to Kerry as well!

Don’t let Soros take his “patented” method of destroying Balkan nations and apply it to America!!!!

161 posted on August 24, 2004 1:07:40 PM PDT by Honorary Serb (Kosovo is Serbia! Free Srpska! Abolish ICTY!)

Drain Clogs – 08-17-2010

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Calling their bluff

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It’s really surprising to me that this Muslim cultural center a few blocks away from Ground Zero is still an issue in the media and in the political realms. The project was already unanimously approved by the only people who are authorized to make the decision in New York City, the build commission. It already has found Mayor Bloomberg’s blessing, much of the country believes that the First Amendment deserves to be upheld to American citizens in every aspect it provides, even President Obama commented on the controversy last week. Well, that is to say that he isn’t standing so firmly on his endorsement of the most basic constitutional protections, but any critically thinking person who truly believes in the wisdom of the Founding Fathers and the tenants our nation was built on would agree that it is disgusting that this group of religious believers has been so loudly discriminated against by so many.

The logical conclusion of this debate however, as it has been with almost every issue the Right has brought up in the last year and a half, comes down to siding with an ideology in the Republican mind frame that states that it’s OK to say “fuck you” to a group or an organization or people of a certain ethnicity if those peoples’ values or skin color don’t match that of the Conservative mainstream. The debate gets dressed up in fancy language on television or gets blown so out of proportion you really can’t take the talking heads seriously anymore, but if you were to draw a line way down to the Right’s ultimate conclusion on issues like immigration, healthcare for poor people, the right for a seemingly oppressed minority to practice their faith freely, they would rather entourn/deport/exile/kick out/let die/or possibly, in certain people’s cases, kill with their bare hands than be forced to live another second with these Mexicans, Muslims, Black Panthers, Terrorist Baby rearers, Homos, and other people they flat out don’t like.

You have to let the other side’s words speak for themselves with this mid-term election coming up and with the 2012 election not to far in the distance (my bet is on the media starting serious coverage of the 2012 race the day after the midterm elections are over, by the way). They will try to make their points sound educated and responsible with lots of fancy opinion poll numbers and “facts” about religion and border crossing and so forth in a debate, but since debates are no longer fought over reason or compromise and instead turn straight to emotional appeals, the job of a counterpoint to a Conservative these days is to draw out the other side’s blatant disregard for common decency, law, and humanity.

Where else does a policy of “we can’t have these extra 20 million illegal immigrants in our country anymore taking our jobs” ultimately lead to anyway, or a policy of “we can’t have these Muslims building a YMCA in midtown Manhattan because they creep us out”? Pundits and politicians on the Right are always so vocal about letting us ask them for answers. If you’d just *let* us take the reigns on Healthcare Reform we’ll deliver a solid solution. If the Republicans weren’t the minority party we would have figured out this immigration situation already.

What happened when we let the Republicans circle the wagons in order to produce their clearly laid out plan for Healthcare Reform? We got a 14 page document that certainly has words written on the page, but like the Republican’s current savior-in-Chief Sarah Palin, the long winded positive sounding rhetoric is just political busytalk with no actual figures or actionable solutions for the problem at hand. If this is the best they can come up with we might as well let the Right embarrass themselves by trying to submit the laws they’d really deep down want to pass.

Like laws to strip the Constitution of the 14th Amendment, or bills to cut taxes for the wealthiest people in the nation while we scramble to try and find money to pay off our country’s debts with, or laws that would provide medical care to every person in America, just without the ability get the proper treatment in the event of becoming unhealthy, or laws that ban homosexuals from openly serving in the military, and for that matter, ban them from existing in general society all together!

At the end of the day Newt Gingrich, Sean Hannity, the Tea Party, that crazy lady from Long-Island who wears too much make-up and doesn’t want a Muslim cultural center going up in NYC, they are all basing policy they’d like to see be law off of their value judgement against another human being. There’s no problem with holding an opinion like that (besides how crass it is), we have the First Amendment for a reason and they damn well better be thankful for that, but there is a problem with coaxing the public opinion and making them believe that their opinions are valid because “that’s what the Founding Fathers would have wanted” or “that’s not what the Constitution really means” or some other fantasy world conclusion that would serve to justify their unfounded opinions. Just don’t use that logic for problem solving guys, you’re bothering the smart politicians in the room.

Barack Obama or the Democrats or any other element that identifies with thinking and writing good policy over resorting to faith-based arguments and screaming and yelling at Anderson Cooper over “Terror Babies”, these people should not need to back down off of their arguments just because there’s a contingent of voters out there who are crazy and would probably vote for Rand Paul for president and don’t like Latinos, Muslims, African-Americans, single mothers, or the poor in the first place. Let them rage all over the airwaves for as long as they want, spouting off opinions that make no sense, as long as this yelling and screaming and bawling and crying continues to never have a place in the final legislation of a real law, let them flounder in dust. Oh, and remember to remind voters and the public about this fact during the election season. The American public needs this certain kind of educational experience before 2012 and Sarah Palin is eligible to be voted for as a presidential candidate.

Drain Clogs – 08-13-2010

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TERROR BABIES!!!!

A US politician is seriously discussing this, and a US TV Newschannel is seriously discussing it instead of instantly calling it a giant pile of horse puke. But at least Rep. Louis Gohmert makes a great case….at how freaking crazy he is!

Beck makes sense for once in his life.

Teabaggers hate net neutrality

Here comes the movmentum!

Obama is in Madden 2011? Must be Obama Indoctrination! No one tell this guy about the Socks the Cat video game…

A couple pretended to be immigration and “deported” another woman, and are now arrested.

The US infrastructure is falling apart. All that infrastructure spending that got cut from the stimulus bill would have came in handy…

Dr. Orly Taitz Jr. Esq. PhD is appealing to the Supreme Court, again, and is about to get denied by every justice, again.

Cartoon of the Day: