It's party time in Colorado. Political party time that is. I was just at the Denver Democratic Party caucus convention. There was a lot more people at this convention then in 2002. Sharron Klein, Denver country chairperson, announced that 1600 party members showed up!
The voting for senate candidates was close. Not a landslide for the heavy weight, Ken Salazar, because Mike Miles gave a rousing speech before the people. There was really no comparison between the two candidates in terms of the speeches because the buzz afterwards was about Mile's speech performance which was great! It had all of the ingredients of bravado of "the underdog against the 'machine'" and humility, humor, and ending with hope. Whereas, I felt, that Salazar's speech was good but not really passionate about the facts and accomplishments of his stewardship of the attorney general post nor did he really seem able to connect with people about his own personal ties with Colorado. The Salazar speech was okay. The outcome was that neither candidate pulled a majority but was almost split down the middle. Great job Mike, and Ken has his work cut out for himself.
In the Denver County District Attorney race I believe there was a bit of a surprise that Beth McCann pulled a majority of votes from the three person race with Mitch Morrissey being the big loser. One of the reasons that I believe that Beth McCann pulled a majority of votes in the race was that she, other then offering a solid track record of accomplishments in public life, is an alternative to a male role in this important area for Denver County residents. I believe that it is time for a woman to take the role of District Attorney and see if there can't be a different way for the whole judicial/law enforcement management and relations to improve between them and the average citizen.
Well, I'm an alternate delegate to both the CD1 convention next Saturday and the state convention on the 22nd of May.
What are my plans for CD1 and State? To have the Colorado Democratic Party platform to contain a plank that in unambiguous terms condemns and calls for a full investigation by Congress into the policies and practices at all American military run, including contracts with civilian contractor managed facilities, prison facilities that are designated for "terrorists", "enemy combatants", and "material witnesses", including all facilities at Guantanamo, Iraq, and Afghanistan. The Commission will have full power of subpoena. The Commission will have adequate staff and budget. The Commission will have adequate time to complete it's investigation and recommendations. The findings of the Commission will then be given to appropriate Congressional committees for impeachment proceedings to begin.
Why?
What was not proposed or discussed during the resolutions phase of the Denver County convention was the Abu Ghraib prison scandal.
More
Reading about the scope and nature of actual war crimes being committed by the men and women of our armed forces at that prison and others, including Bagram and Guantanamo, only shows that there is a systemic problem. International papers, like the Guardian UK, have already shown that the photographs shown from Abu Ghraib are not "just random acts" but part of a known system called "R2I" (Resistance to Interrogation) for SAS and other special forces training.
Other documentation emerging is that "softening up" of prisoners for interrogation was sanctioned by at the highest levels of both civilian and military commanders.
Reading the Taguba report states that it was a system wide problem and that the individuals accused of abuse (read war crimes) was acting on orders and encouragement from their superiors. Terms like "cowboying" and "wild, wild West" was code for the commissioning of war crimes.
The Taguba report is critical of a previous report by MG (major general) Miller. In MG Miller's report there is the recommendation that MP (military police) be used by MI (military intelligence) for "softening up" or "renditions" on prisoners before interrogation. However, this utilitzation of MP for MI activities are forbidden in military regulations. It is against MP guidelines that MP will be used for that purpose and is contrary to the MP mission.
Not only that but there have been two soldiers from Camp Delta that have been disciplined for the use of excessive force that have gained infamy for soldiers of the 800th MP battalion of Abu Ghraib while under the command of the same MG Miller. So, not only is MG Miller not under investigation but he is given the same mission in Iraq and with greater responsibilities for supervision of all prisons in Iraq, which includes Camp Buccha (named in the Tagube Report).
While Mr. Bush stated that he was sorry for such war crimes. It was only a "few bad apples" in the bunch theme that he has sounded before during the accounting and corporate scandals of 18 months ago. If Mr. Bush is going to use the same excuse now as before then he is sadly mistaken because this time it is much more serious and before the world stage.
America is on trial now. Not just the war criminals- Mr. Bush, Mr. Cheney, Mr. Rumsfeld, Ms. Rice, Mr. Powell, Mr. Wolfowitz, Mr. Feith, Gen. Myers, Gen. Franks, Gen. Karpinski, Gen. Sanchez, and Mr. Ashcroft. This election has taken on the dimension of being a referendum on the war crimes committed and are still being committed by the American armed services and its surrogates of cilivian contractors in the gulag system setup by Mr. Bush and his administration.
The voting for senate candidates was close. Not a landslide for the heavy weight, Ken Salazar, because Mike Miles gave a rousing speech before the people. There was really no comparison between the two candidates in terms of the speeches because the buzz afterwards was about Mile's speech performance which was great! It had all of the ingredients of bravado of "the underdog against the 'machine'" and humility, humor, and ending with hope. Whereas, I felt, that Salazar's speech was good but not really passionate about the facts and accomplishments of his stewardship of the attorney general post nor did he really seem able to connect with people about his own personal ties with Colorado. The Salazar speech was okay. The outcome was that neither candidate pulled a majority but was almost split down the middle. Great job Mike, and Ken has his work cut out for himself.
In the Denver County District Attorney race I believe there was a bit of a surprise that Beth McCann pulled a majority of votes from the three person race with Mitch Morrissey being the big loser. One of the reasons that I believe that Beth McCann pulled a majority of votes in the race was that she, other then offering a solid track record of accomplishments in public life, is an alternative to a male role in this important area for Denver County residents. I believe that it is time for a woman to take the role of District Attorney and see if there can't be a different way for the whole judicial/law enforcement management and relations to improve between them and the average citizen.
Well, I'm an alternate delegate to both the CD1 convention next Saturday and the state convention on the 22nd of May.
What are my plans for CD1 and State? To have the Colorado Democratic Party platform to contain a plank that in unambiguous terms condemns and calls for a full investigation by Congress into the policies and practices at all American military run, including contracts with civilian contractor managed facilities, prison facilities that are designated for "terrorists", "enemy combatants", and "material witnesses", including all facilities at Guantanamo, Iraq, and Afghanistan. The Commission will have full power of subpoena. The Commission will have adequate staff and budget. The Commission will have adequate time to complete it's investigation and recommendations. The findings of the Commission will then be given to appropriate Congressional committees for impeachment proceedings to begin.
Why?
What was not proposed or discussed during the resolutions phase of the Denver County convention was the Abu Ghraib prison scandal.
More
Reading about the scope and nature of actual war crimes being committed by the men and women of our armed forces at that prison and others, including Bagram and Guantanamo, only shows that there is a systemic problem. International papers, like the Guardian UK, have already shown that the photographs shown from Abu Ghraib are not "just random acts" but part of a known system called "R2I" (Resistance to Interrogation) for SAS and other special forces training.
Other documentation emerging is that "softening up" of prisoners for interrogation was sanctioned by at the highest levels of both civilian and military commanders.
Reading the Taguba report states that it was a system wide problem and that the individuals accused of abuse (read war crimes) was acting on orders and encouragement from their superiors. Terms like "cowboying" and "wild, wild West" was code for the commissioning of war crimes.
The Taguba report is critical of a previous report by MG (major general) Miller. In MG Miller's report there is the recommendation that MP (military police) be used by MI (military intelligence) for "softening up" or "renditions" on prisoners before interrogation. However, this utilitzation of MP for MI activities are forbidden in military regulations. It is against MP guidelines that MP will be used for that purpose and is contrary to the MP mission.
Not only that but there have been two soldiers from Camp Delta that have been disciplined for the use of excessive force that have gained infamy for soldiers of the 800th MP battalion of Abu Ghraib while under the command of the same MG Miller. So, not only is MG Miller not under investigation but he is given the same mission in Iraq and with greater responsibilities for supervision of all prisons in Iraq, which includes Camp Buccha (named in the Tagube Report).
While Mr. Bush stated that he was sorry for such war crimes. It was only a "few bad apples" in the bunch theme that he has sounded before during the accounting and corporate scandals of 18 months ago. If Mr. Bush is going to use the same excuse now as before then he is sadly mistaken because this time it is much more serious and before the world stage.
America is on trial now. Not just the war criminals- Mr. Bush, Mr. Cheney, Mr. Rumsfeld, Ms. Rice, Mr. Powell, Mr. Wolfowitz, Mr. Feith, Gen. Myers, Gen. Franks, Gen. Karpinski, Gen. Sanchez, and Mr. Ashcroft. This election has taken on the dimension of being a referendum on the war crimes committed and are still being committed by the American armed services and its surrogates of cilivian contractors in the gulag system setup by Mr. Bush and his administration.
posted by Ken at 12:44 PM
<< Home