Put on your Fisking caps, kids. This AP dispatch is just plain goofy:
The United States has detained more than 83,000 foreigners in the four years of the war on terror, enough to nearly fill the NFL’s largest stadium.
Split infinitive aside, what’s with that comparison? Why use a football stadium? Why not say "laid end to end, they would reach from New York to Mecca" or "Ground into a fine paste, they could pave 450 acres of parking lots?"
The number has steadily grown since the first CIA paramilitary officers touched down in Afghanistan in the fall of 2001, setting up more than 20 facilities including the "Salt Pit," an abandoned factory outside Kabul used for CIA detention and interrogation.
What’s the matter, AP? You won’t give us the freakin’ address of the formerly-secret national security facility? And that’s just the beginning of this story, which apparently seeks to prove the monkey/typewriter hypothesis.
Some 82,400 people have been detained by the military alone in Afghanistan and Iraq, according to figures from officials in Baghdad and Washington.
Earlier, the story attributes the increase to CIA involvement. Now the reporterette is saying that the CIA is only responsible for about 600 of the 83,000 detainees. It’s likely that neither one of those explanations is correct, and they’re both symptomatic of lazy reporting and unfamiliarity with arithmetic.
The detentions and interrogations have brought complaints from Congress and human-rights groups about how the detainees - often Arab and male - are treated.
Often male and Arab? Since when do AP writers stand up for the rights of the ruling majority?
Some 82,400 people have been detained by the military alone in Afghanistan and Iraq, according to figures from officials in Baghdad and Washington. Many are freed shortly after initial questioning.
To put that in context, the capacity of the Washington Redskins’ FedEx Field, the NFL’s largest, is 91,704. The second largest, Giants Stadium, holds 80,242.
To put that in further context, these guys want to blow up EVERY NFL stadium.
In Iraq, the Defense Department says 5,569 detainees have been held for more than six months, and 3,801 have been held more than a year. Some 229 have been locked up for more than two years.
I have no idea why that passage was buried deeper in the story than the capacity of Giants Stadium.
Pentagon officials say those mistreated are relatively few when the sheer numbers are considered.
Last week, Senate Armed Services Chairman John Warner, R-Va., said that more than 400 criminal investigations have been conducted and 95 military personnel have been charged with misconduct.
400 investigations out of 83,000 prisoners. That’s not "relatively few." That’s less than one-half of one percent.
Through the CIA, a much smaller prison population is maintained secretly by the agency and friendly governments.
Was. WAS maintained secretly. Thanks, AP!
The agency consistently declines to comment.
That’s because it’s the CIA. Unlike the AP, intelligence agencies are there to protect national secrets, not spray them all over the newspapers.
Among them, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, an alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks.
That one isn’t even a complete sentence.
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I am offended at the term “Detainee” WTF is a “Detainee”? Oh, Mohamed, you look like a guy who shot at us the other day. Stay here in this dungeon till we sort things out.Oh,BTW put on this dress. See you in 10 years.
This one has “Chronicle” written all over it. Have they picked it up yet?
The Sunnis want a probe into torture. How about you Sunnis having a probe in mass murder by Saddam, and cutting peoples heads off and wholesale executions of people working for the new elected Iraqi government and the Coalition Forces? How about you probe that? Until you do that, you can take your probe flush it right along with the Chronicles circulation numbers!
Big45Iron #3,
I don’t get it (and it’s not just you…I hear it a lot). How is the fact that Sadaam did terrible things a justification for torture?
I remember when I was young, I used to always start with “but so-and-so…” whenever I got in trouble. And my parents’ response was always “You should know better.”
Sadaam did horrid things. That’s not a free pass, though, for anything that anyone else does that’s not quite as bad. Certainly, we should hold ourselves and the new government of Iraq to a substantially higher standard.
#4) Tim: truer words were never typed, although the truth won’t protect you around here. Prepare your liberal, pinko, heathen a$$ for the onslaught that is surely to follow, my fair friend.
Willie was this really necessary? I fail to see how this adds to the discussion.
Squawkbox
Moderator
Willie, all we are saying is the Sunnis treated the other Iraqis very badly. Now the shoe is on the other foot and they are crying like babies. Poor little torturers, cant take a little of you own medicine.
I say we give them all a pile of stones, good quality mind you, and let them have at each other. Then we deal with the winner.
I think all conservatives should have some liberal, pinko, heathen a$$ to add to the trophy wall. Buwahahahahahahahah
Seriously though, with a few exceptions, I think most conservatives around these parts are pretty reasonable in their arguments. Speaking for myself, I wouldn’t argue that torture is an acceptable practice. An article implying that our military is a bunch of torture happy thugs when the facts don’t support that notion isn’t acceptable to me either.
As I hear the ranting and raving from the right over this issue, two thoughts come to mind.
1) The Senators are doing nothing but responding to the will of the people. this war is turning into a quagmire. Five more of our finest were killed today. We have no direction from the Bush administration and no idea of how we are going to end this war. It is the height of arrogance for the administration to not think they are accountable for their inept handling of the war.
2) As far the proponents of the war, it doesn’t talke any courage or fortitude to buy a ribbon for your car and claim you are standing behind our troops. Can you honestly say you are for the war when we are fighting it on the cheap because you don’t want to be taxed to pay for it? Can you honestly say you are for the war when you don’t want to institute a draft so we can have sufficent numbers of troops? We have sacrificed nothing so you have no right to beat your chest and proclaim yourself patriots
Dale oh sorry gadboy
#8
Rereading your past posts you are obviously against this war. Why do you care that someone considers themselves a patriot or not? If the draft was instituted would you think it is the right thing to do? Would it make you change your mind about the war if spending met your expectations?
I don’t believe I have seen anyone post they are against a draft, I don’t think I have seen anyone complain if taxes were raised to pay for the war. So what is your point besides the fact you want to flame anyone that SUPPORTS our troops in their own humble fashion?
#5) Squawk:
I apologize. That was unnecessary. I need to learn not to write when under the effects of a raging fever.
Willie
#10
It’s cool man. We all have bad days. Hope you get well amigo. Hey and don’t stay away so long. We missed you around here when you were gone.
Thanks Squawk. I think I’ll call it a night.
The reason the war wasn’t concluded as fast as the President planned is that Saddam is still around. He still scares the hell out of the Iraqi population and the Shiites haven’t forgot how the bleeding heart liberal press made us stop Dessert Storm prematurely, with tens of thousands of them dying while thinking the U.S. wasn’t going to leave them. Well , they were dead wrong and until Saddam is in heaven with his 40 virgins the Iraqi population with not be satiated.
I must have missed the post extorting the gasing or beheadings or shooting of “detainees” What torture?
My point is we have become a soft and selfish nation. I don’t know how old you are, but I remember my parents talking about gas rationing and sugar rationing during W.W. 2. I remember reading that all Government spending was cut by 25% one year during the Korean War to help pay for the effort. I remember many families having sons jerked up in the draft and being sent to Vietnam. None of this is happening now. Would we support the war if any of these measures were instituted? Conservatives wanted their tax cuts, even though taxes have never before been cut during wartime Any one calling for a draft if shouted down if they talk about a draft and I hate to see what would happen if we had to institute gas rationing.
Squawbox- Do I kmow you?