- F.A.A. Official Scrapped Tape of 9/11 Controllers’ Statements – wtf?!?!
The taping began before noon on Sept. 11 at the New York Air Route Traffic Control Center, in Ronkonkoma, on Long Island, but it was later destroyed by an F.A.A. quality-assurance manager, who crushed the cassette in his hand, cut the tape into little pieces and dropped them in different trash cans around the building, according to a report made public today by the inspector general of the Transportation Department.
- A leash to shake the White House – abuse reports continue; form of flying media circus
- New Prison Images Emerge – digital cameras changing reporting? almost impossible to believe that all these photographs weren’t taken on purpose
- Le Monde has posted some hand-written letters home from Sergeant Ivan L. “Chip” Frederick II. – the military is trying to pin this on low-level soldiers — sorry, it needs to follow the chain of command (if they were taking orders, shouldn’t we know?); also, Rafe is right, ultimate responsibility leads to one person, and it’s not Rumsfeld. Related: no apology?
- Calpundit’s been following this (from breaking the contractor story at the beginning of the week)
- The Red Cross Accuses: “The Photos are Shocking, but Our Reports are Worse”
- Oh, remember that other war? Thousands of Afghani POWs brutally executed, CBC alleges US military complicity
- From reporter to relief worker in Afghanistan… – life after war
- Powell aides go public on rift with Bush – Chief of staff says secretary of state is fed up with apologising for the administration and is disdainful of ‘ideological’ hawks
- GQ: Casualty of War – Four years into an embattled Bush administration, Colin Powell is hard at work at something he’s never had to worry about before: salvaging his legacy.
(warning, incoherent ranting follows) For fun, lets see how this is being treated by the idealogues:
- O’Reilly Factor, May 3 (edited for clarity) – O’Reilly has a weak apologist stance — from a pure pragmatic standpoint, I don’t think it’s sunk in yet how many Americans are going to die because of this. From a moral standpoint, well, what can I say. It’s not like half the country and three quarters of the world hasn’t been screaming about this for years. A complete aversion to truth and principaled actions will lead nowhere good. (O’Reilly is currently going off on Rumsfeld. Is he forgetting that there’s someone that Rumsfeld directly reports to every single day? — oh yeah, the Bush Admin’s motto for personal responsibility: “The buck stop at the desk over there.”)
- Rush Limbaugh, May 4 – look, no two ways about it. This guy is a moron and a monster, as is everyone else who 1) believes that this behavior is justifiable or is 2) willing to ignore how significantly this affects our chances of success, or that blowing it off is going to make things better.
CALLER: It was like a college fraternity prank that stacked up naked
men —LIMBAUGH: Exactly. Exactly my point! This is no different than
what happens at the Skull and Bones initiation and we’re going to ruin
people’s lives over it and we’re going to hamper our military effort,
and then we are going to really hammer them because they had a good
time. You know, these people are being fired at every day. I’m talking
about people having a good time, these people, you ever heard of
emotional release? You of heard of need to blow some steam off?