It is a time of freedom and fear, of Gaia and of borders, of many paths and the widening of a universal toll road, emptying country and swelling cities, of the public bought into privacy and the privacy of the public sold into invisible data banks and knowing algorithms. It is the time of the warrior's peace and the miser's charity, when the planting of a seed is an act of conscientious objection.

These are the times when maps fade and direction is lost. Forwards is backwards now, so we glance sideways at the strange lands through which we are all passing, knowing for certain only that our destination has disappeared. We are unready to meet these times, but we proceed nonetheless, adapting as we wander, reshaping the Earth with every tread.

Behind us we have left the old times, the standard times, the high times. Welcome to the irregular times.


 
Ack Fushcroft indeed.

Today on Capitol Hill, Attorney General John Ashcroft fumbled and tripped his way around the truth in defiance of the authority of members of Congress. Asked about recently revealed memos that indicate that lawyers in the employ of Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld were assembled within the Bush White House in order to concoct legal defenses for a White House decision to allow torture of prisoners by American soldiers, Ashcroft responded that George W. Bush had "made no order that would require or direct the violation" of American and international laws that outlaw the use of any torture.

Well, that may be technically correct. George W. Bush never required anyone in particular to commit acts of torture, and he never personally directed the torture himself, but it now appears that George W. Bush did approve a program of torture, and oversaw efforts to ensure that the torture plot would evade detection and prosecution under American and international law.

John Ashcroft also refused to turn over memos that he and his staff had prepared for George W. Bush, briefing him on the legal loopholes for torture. It doesn't take a genius to figure out why Ashcroft won't turn the memos over. If he did turn them over, he might have to go to prison, and now we know what happens to prisoners...

With his partial truths, John Ashcroft unintentionally reveals that the idea for torture by American soldiers goes all the way to the top of the Bush Administration (that's to George W. Bush himself, tots).

Posted by J. Clifford Cook at 6:00 PM. # (permalink)  




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