Drift: How This Ship Became a Floating Gitmo

Drift: How This Ship Became a Floating Gitmo: "

This is the U.S.S. Boxer. A big-deck amphibious assault ship, the “Golden Gator” displaces about 40,500 tons and provides a working home for more than 2,000 troops. Recently, its brig held a less likely passenger, Danger Room has confirmed: Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame, a Somali whom the United States just charged with supporting al-Shabaab and al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.

But if Warsame’s case is the future of terrorism detentions, that’s going to be a problem. The Navy simply doesn’t have enough ships with the brig space to serve as a floating Guantanamo Bay.

Out of the Navy’s 286 ships, only its 11 aircraft carriers and 10 big-deck amphibious assault ships really have brigs to lock up potential dangerous detainees. Its destroyers, cruisers, subs, frigates and littoral combat ships lack the space necessary to operate more than a makeshift brig. They also lack the guards and medical support personnel to detain someone for months, as in Warsame’s case.

“When someone is confined on surface ships,” explains retired Rear Adm. Ronald Christenson, a former commander of the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt, “they’ll transfer him almost immediately to a big ship that does have a brig, or shore facilities that have those qualifications.” And an aircraft carrier’s brig is only big enough for about “six to ten” detainees, Christenson adds.

Of course, in a pinch, the Navy has workarounds. In February 2009, the Navy placed 16 captured pirates aboard the supply ship Lewis and Clark, where about 20 Marines were tasked with guarding the mostly docile buccaneers. The Navy called the arrangement a “temporary holding facility” en route to depositing the detainees at a Kenyan pirate court. Ironically, after the Lewis and Clark ceased holding its detainees, pirates chased it in May 2009.

“Even though [smaller] ships have this ability, if you want to have a real prison, you need a larger ship,” says Eric Wertheim, who edits the authoritative Combat Fleets of The World for the U.S. Naval Institute. “Also, you have to look at what ships are need for other duties, and how it affects the main mission of the ship. If it’s a small ship, and you’ve got a lot of [detainees], it’s gonna have a big impact.”

Problem is, the way the Obama administration is drifting, the fleet is shaping up to be default jailers in the war on terrorism.

Last week, Vice Adm. William McRaven, the next head of the U.S. Special Operations Command, testified that ever since the Obama team effectively barred detainee transfers to Guantanamo Bay, terrorist suspects taken captive outside Afghanistan or Iraq would be briefly held aboard “a naval vessel.”

As it turned out, McRaven secretly already had Warsame detained in precisely that manner, according to Warsame’s indictment in federal court. Warsame, intercepted in the Gulf of Aden, had been floating out there for more than two months; Danger Room isn’t sure how much time he spent on the Boxer, whose crew did not return an e-mail seeking comment. (The Boxer’s involvement was first asserted by Danger Room pal Raymond Pritchett, but we confirmed it independently.)

McRaven wasn’t exactly happy about it. He urged the Senate Armed Services Committee to keep some long-term terrorism detention facility open, Gitmo or no Gitmo.

It’s not hard to see why McRaven wouldn’t be pleased. It’s not just that most of the fleet isn’t equipped for the detention mission. It’s that the whole enterprise is an improvised, stopgap measure. Since special operations forces snatch missions are classified, they surely involve keeping most of a ship’s crew in the dark, all while diverting resources from its main mission. Then there’s the complexity of getting experienced interrogators flown out to see to pry information out of the detainee.

And hovering over everything is the legal ambiguity and the potential for a PR or human-rights disaster. Obama administration lawyers couldn’t tell reporters why detaining Warsame was legal. The Joint Special Operations Command is still smarting from its detainee abuse scandal at Iraq’s brutal Camp Nama, and there are reports it runs secret jails in Afghanistan, too. Uncertain legal authorities, inappropriate facilities and seat-of-the-pants planning for detentions is a recipe for something going very, very wrong.

There’s reason to suspect that Warsame isn’t the last detainee held on a ship. After a U.S. drone strike on Shebaab targets in Somalia on Friday, the country’s defense minister said that commandos “retrieve[d] the bodies of dead or wounded militants.” Obama officials deny it, but there could be other Warsames in Navy brigs.

It’s either ironic or tragic: Obama’s opposition to Guantanamo Bay has led to precisely the kind of ad hoc, legally murky detentions that created so many problems at Guantanamo. Now the Navy and special operations forces are effectively holding the bag.

Even on the large ships that have brig space for detainees, Christenson says, “extended” detentions — “a month or something” — are very rare. “They’ll transfer them to shore, get them in a big facility,” he says. “They don’t want to keep someone in a ship’s brig for a long time.” Unless Obama can reverse the drift of his detentions policy, they might have to.

Laughing at the UN, not with it: North Korea chosen to chair UN disarmament conference

Laughing at the UN, not with it: North Korea chosen to chair UN disarmament conference: "

The UN is so daffy it would make news the day it didn’t say or do something stupid. Unfortunately, today is not that day. The Weekly Standard relates another “dog bites man” UN story:

"Slap me naked," Kim Jong Il said, "if the U.N. ever takes my country seriously."

… the United Nations again made itself an international laughing stock… by appointing North Korea chair of the U.N. Conference on Disarmament. Senator John Kerry [has said North Korea]…has “twice tested nuclear weapons…is developing missiles to carry them…has built facilities capable of producing highly enriched uranium for more nuclear weapons” and has defied a U.N. arms embargo by exporting weapons and sensitive technologies to rogue regimes. 

A UN idea so stupid even John Kerry noticed? Not quite.

Alas, Senator Kerry is also one of the lead champions of the United Nations in the Senate. According to the U.N., “The Conference is funded from the UN regular budget, reports to the General Assembly and receives guidance from it.”

If North Korea uses that kind of guidance in their missles, they’ll end up hitting Pyongyang.

The UN is composed of folks with funny names who eat expensive food, basically a bunch of Barack Obamas. There’s gotta be some fancy thinkin’ behind this, right?

North Korea assumes the Conference chairmanship by being the next state in the alphabetical rotation of the 65 members, which include five nuclear weapons states and 60 other countries such as Iran and Syria.

Great, stupidity is on auto-pilot at the UN. What else can go wrong?

…American taxpayers… foot 22 percent of the [UN’s] bill…

Budget hawks, here’s some dead meat to feed on.

- Written by Bonfire of the Absurdities

Theory adjustment time: The same Chinese pollution that causes global warming also causes global cooling

Theory adjustment time: The same Chinese pollution that causes global warming also causes global cooling: "

It’s almost funny. No, it is funny. Very damn funny, in fact. One might even say uproarious.

The same global warming fanatics who told us that burning coal is one of the main causes of global warming are now explaining away a decade of cooler temperatures by blaming it on – you guessed it – burning coal.

Better get yourself a sweater. The Chinese are burning more coal.

The BBC manages to explain it all without even cracking a smile:

The lull in global warming from 1998 to 2008 was mainly caused by a sharp rise in China’s coal use, a study suggests.

The absence of a temperature rise over that decade is often used by “climate sceptics” as grounds for denying the existence of man-made global warming.

But the new study, in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, concludes that smog from the extra coal acted to mask greenhouse warming.

Aha! It must be true because it says so in a study. A study presented in a journal with a very long name. That’s good enough for us and we’re confident that it’s good enough for any reasonable person.

China’s coal use doubled 2002-2007, according to US government figures.

Although burning the coal produced more warming carbon dioxide, it also put more tiny sulphate aerosol particles into the atmosphere which cool the planet by reflecting solar energy back into space.

In other words, the problem is also the solution. If it’s warmer, it’s the result of burning coal. If it’s getting cooler, it’s the result of burning coal.

Global warming theory is like one of those Snuggies you see advertised on late night TV – one size fits all.

Source: BBC

First (Commercially Available, Street & Sky Legal) Flying Car Is Cleared For Takeoff!!!1

First (Commercially Available, Street & Sky Legal) Flying Car Is Cleared For Takeoff!!!1: "

Cleared for takeoff -- get it?! Because that's what they do to planes at the airport or whatever SHIT I DON'T KNOW, I'M NOT A TERRORIST. So yeah, the Terrafugia Transition flying car -- literally, a car with folding wings than can fly, has received the last approval necessary to be delivered to pre-orderers sometime next year. *considers moving to a 1st floor apartment*

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recently granted special exemptions for the Transition 'roadable aircraft.'


The NHTSA stipulations involve the type of tires and windscreen the Transition will use as a land vehicle. The tires are rated for highway speeds and the windshield will be made of polycarbonate materials instead of automotive safety glass to save weight and prevent shattering in a bird strike.

Terrafugia says the Transition, which notched its maiden flight in 2009, is 'the first (light airplane) to incorporate automotive safety features such as a purpose-built energy absorbing crumple zone, a rigid carbon fiber occupant safety cage, and automotive-style driver and passenger airbags.'

Sure it's a step in the right direction, it's just not a very big one. It's like baby stepping up to a crack to avoid breaking your mother's back when you should be leaping over that shit with gusto. So, yeah, a crappy car when you're driving it, and a crappy plane when you're flying it. The future, ladies and gentlemen -- the future!

Buckle up! Terrafugia flying car approved for roads [cnet]

Thanks to Becca and Pat, who are all 'George Jetson or GTFO'. Hey I'm with you."

Reverend Wright tells church youth that all whites are liars. Or maybe we’re just lying.

Reverend Wright tells church youth that all whites are liars. Or maybe we’re just lying.: "

Here’s how this one’s going to work: Reverend Wright, Barack Obama’s spiritual mentor, stands behind the podium and says, “All whites are liars.”

Then, when a video of the speech goes public, the Reverend will say, “I never said that. So that just goes to prove that all whites are liars.”

Here’s step one: Rev. Wright telling church youth over and over again that all whites are liars.

Spiritual mentor, indeed.

"

Awesome 80s Casting Photos For Weather Forecaster Job (22 pics)

Awesome 80s Casting Photos For Weather Forecaster Job (22 pics): "

Believe it or not these people submitted these actual photos for consideration as a TV weather forecaster. Some of their facial expressions look as if someone had put them up to it. Unfortunately some of these haircuts might be making a comeback, but lets hope some of the clothes stay on the rack.

 

"

the “T” party

the “T” party: "

The Obama administration chose the eve of the holiday marking our Nation’s birth to acknowledge publicly behavior in which it has long been stealthily engaged to the United States’ extreme detriment: Its officials now admit that they are embracing the Muslim Brotherhood (MB or Ikhwan in Arabic). That would be the same international Islamist organization that has the destruction of the United States … as its explicit objective.

Team Obama’s official, open legitimation of the Brotherhood marks a dramatic break from the U.S. government’s historical refusal to deal formally with the Ikhwan.

To understand why the Obama administration’s embrace of the Muslim Brotherhood is so ominous, consider three insights into the organization’s nature and ambitions:

First, here’s the MB’s creed: “Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. The Qur’an is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.” (Source: Husain Haqqani and Hillel Fradkin, “Islamist Parties: Going Back to the Origins.”)

Second, here’s the Ikwhan’s mission in America:

“A kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within, sabotaging its miserable house with their [i.e., Americans'] hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.” (Source: Muslim Brotherhood’s “Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goals of the Group,” entered into evidence by the Department of Justice in the 2008 Holy Land Foundation terrorism-finance trial. Archived at the NEFA Foundation.)

Third, here are excerpts from the Muslim Brotherhood’s “phased plan” for accomplishing that mission:

Phase One: Discreet and secret establishment of leadership.

Phase Two: Phase of gradual appearance on the public scene and exercising and utilizing various public activities. It greatly succeeded in implementing this stage. It also succeeded in achieving a great deal of its important goals, such as infiltrating various sectors of the Government.

Phase Three: Escalation phase, prior to conflict and confrontation with the rulers, through utilizing mass media. Currently in progress.

Phase Four: Open public confrontation with the Government through exercising the political pressure approach. It is aggressively implementing the above-mentioned approach. Training on the use of weapons domestically and overseas in anticipation of zero-hour. It has noticeable activities in this regard.

Phase Five: Seizing power to establish their Islamic Nation under which all parties and Islamic groups are united. (Source: Undated Muslim Brotherhood Paper entitled, “Phases of the World Underground Movement Plan.” Archived at Shariah: The Threat to America.) [more]

… and the other Mr “T”.

"

Southern Ocean Sky

Southern Ocean Sky: "

Clouds and sky both show illuminating changes during this time lapse video from the south of Australia.

"

Please sit down before you read this: NBC reveals shocking news about Michele Bachmann

Please sit down before you read this: NBC reveals shocking news about Michele Bachmann: "

Please attempt not to recoil in horror when you read this news: Michele Bachmann’s husband, who runs a mental health clinic in Minnesota, has accepted Medicaid payments totaling “$137,000 for the treatment of patients since 2005.” According to our calculator that amounts to $22,000 and change a year.

Michele Bachmann and her husband getting all giddy over the big Medicaid bucks they're raking in

Despite that meager total, NBC’s Investigative Reporter – excuse us, National Investigative Correspondent – Michael Isikoff breathlessly reports that the clinic “describes itself on its website as offering ‘quality Christian counseling’ for a large number of mental health problems ranging from ‘anger management’ to addictions and eating disorders.” (Note that Isikoff manages to make “quality Christian counseling” sound akin to “blood letting and leeching.”)

So what’s the problem? Well, Isikoff points out the clinic has been accepting these funds “while Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., has forcefully denounced the Medicaid program for swelling the “welfare rolls.”

Nothing so shocking has been reported regarding the Congresswoman since Joy Behar fecklessly reported that Bachmann,  mother of 5 children and foster mother of 23, “hates children” and is “anti-children”.

But back to Bachmann’s more  recent crimes. “She’s giving hypocrisy a bad name,” said Ron Pollock, executive director of Families USA, a consumer health care advocacy group, when asked about the Medicaid payments to Bachmann & Associates. “It’s clear when it feathers her nest she’s happy for Medicaid expenditures. But people that really need it — folks with disabilities and seniors — she’s turning their backs on them.”

It would have been nice if NBC had provided a little insight into Ron Pollock since he’s quoted in their article as if he speaks with something akin to the voice of God. Apparently, though, NBC could not afford to investigate Mr. Pollock as thoroughly as they investigate those he damns as people “giving hypocrisy a bad name.”

24thState.com asks and answers the question “…who is Ron Pollack? And what is Families USA? Just how big are they and who funds them? Well, you’re not going to get an answer on funding. Families USA is tight-lipped about who gives them money, but it’s no bootstrap organization. The 990′s for 2008, the last year they are available until after the 2010 election, show an organization worth tens of millions of dollars.”

The article also asks the question “Who funds them, and who builds up their assets to such a large degree?” and reveals that “We aren’t allowed to know, but we can guess. Let’s take a look at their board of directors, and who do we see on it, but Mary Kay Henry, the new president of SEIU.”

The article goes on to say that “This group gets favorable media attention, but not one reporter ever stops to ask how they are funded, who they are allied with, or just what exactly $45 million will buy?” and summarizes that “In front of you, you have evidence of a foundation with unknown funding that is clearly allied with the healthcare unions who stand to benefit greatly from Obamacare.”

But apparently these salient facts were not as impressive to NBC as the meager $22,000 and change in income that Bachmann’s clinic averaged from Medicare over the last six years.

It appears that Bachmann’s real crimes are three fold: (1) She is a woman. (2) She is a conservative woman. And (3) She is a conservative woman who opposes the leadership of the most glorious president of the ages.

- Written by Patrick Michael

Source: MSNBC, 24thState.com

"

Alan Greenspan speaks: Obama’s stimulus was a giant waste of money

Alan Greenspan speaks: Obama’s stimulus was a giant waste of money: "

Alan Greenspan says you’re wrong if you think President Obama’s massive $timulu$ had absolutely no impact on the economy. To the contrary, the former head of the Fed says it weakened the dollar and made everything from food to commodities cost more.

Far be it from us to speak for Greenspan, though, so let’s let CNBC deliver the details:

In a blunt critique of his successor, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, Greenspan said the $2 trillion in quantative easing over the past two years had done little to loosen credit and boost the economy.

“There is no evidence that huge inflow of money into the system basically worked,” Greenspan said in a live interview.

“It obviously had some effect on the exchange rate and the exchange rate was a critical issue in export expansion,” he said. “Aside from that, I am ill-aware of anything that really worked. Not only QE2 but QE1.”

That’s quite a little legacy Ben Bernanke and Barack Obama are leaving: Massive debt, a weaker dollar and a crippled economy.

And to paraphrase President Obama, “It worked so well the first time, let’s do it again.”

Watch the entire video, he has a lot more to say on what we’ve done and where we’re going, and it ain’t pretty.

Source: CNBC

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