God bless 'em.

There's a good reason to oppose McCain's feel-good legislation. It's vague about what is permitted and what isn't. When he's pressed on this, he'll tell you the anti-torture law simply incorporates the UN's Convention Against Torture -- so, he implies, that settles the vagueness problem. Just check CAT.

But that's disingenuous. Wait, I forgot what political age I was writing in; I mean that's a lying lie lied by a lying liar pants on fire fatty fatty two-by-four liar. CAT is just as vague as McCain's bill:

McCain's amendment refers to the UN Convention Against Torture ("CAT") and U.S. reservations and declarations accompanying our agreement to it. But the U.S. reservations on signing the CAT -- which, by our Constitutional law limit our obligation to abide by it -- simply say that Article 16 of CAT (the one that prohibits cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment) is not self-executing (i.e., has to be implemented by new law.)

Going into CAT, the reader discovers -- as the Congressional Research Service finds in its analysis of U.S. implementation of CAT -- CAT doesn't define those terms either. So what the McCain amendment does is precisely the opposite of what it purportedly intends to do. Instead of defining clearly how prisoners can be treated, it injects undefined terms that leave interrogators completely at the mercy of second-guessers in Congress, the courts and the media. Is waterboarding forbidden? Is taking a prisoner's Koran away for a time as punishment cruel and inhuman? Are sleep deprivation or the use of psychotropic drugs that do no lasting harm -- both of which are permitted by U.S. law absent the McCain amendment -- to be illegal? If the McCain amendment becomes law, no one will know until the first intelligence interrogator is tried and either found innocent or sent to jail.

The only sensible conclusion is that Messrs. Cheney, Rumsfeld and Goss are opposing a law that will hamper -- perhaps fatally -- our ability to gather intelligence from terrorist prisoners. And they are not only correct to do so, they are performing an essential service to our nation in this war. They are not torturers or advocates of torture. They're trying to win the damned war in accordance with our laws and trying to avoid officious intermeddling by those who, though their intentions may be honorable, are entirely unwilling to listen to reason.

McCain's hope seems to be by vaguely defining "torture," he will discourage most if not all coercive techniques as the possible penalty will be jailtime.

This is McCain looking out for our boys? Giving them the vaguest guidance about what they are allowed to do and what they are not allowed to do, with a 10-20 year sentence in case they guess wrong?

So: Why is McCain being vague? Why are all ant-torture Warriors of Conscience unwilling to say precisely what is allowed?

For the same reason the Administration doesn't want to say precisely what is allowed. Because, if you say that Technique X is officially allowed, the world will howl and call you a torture advocate; all of these techniques are, let's face it, kinda bad-sounding.

McCain knows that Technique X should be allowed, but for political reasons, he can't say so. So he writes a vague law to garner the political bonus from the Left for "outlawing torture" while letting the consequences of his cowardice fall upon the military men who, in the course of defending our country, will have to worry about jail or actually be sentenced to jail.

If McCain's serious about this, he should show some actual courage, and actual respect and care for our boys, and state precisely what is allowed and precisely what is not.

But he won't. He's a coward, and he's quite willing, as many are, to let the consequences of his cowardice and contradictions be borne by the grunts serving our country.

John McCain

If a few soldiers have to be court-martialed and sentenced to 10 years at Levenworth for failing to guess precisely what his vague law might mean, well, he's willing to bear that price, if it means that Andrew Sullivan and Chris Mattews will continue saying nice things about him. One must have a sense of priority in a war, and top priority, of course, must be keeping McCain's liberal-media-base happy.

So you're a "straight shooter," Johnny Boy? Well prove it. YOU write a law which specifically and with no ambiguity spells out what coercive measures are in fact permitted. Don't pass the buck to the military or Bush Administration to put the details into the bill which YOU are responsible for, YOU being the guy pushing this.

But you won't. Because your liberal media base won't like you if you do.

Coward. Hypocrite. Liar.

Answering Excitable Andy: The Shrill Shill wants to know why Cheney will only make his case against McCain's bill in private. If his cause is so righteous, the Bipolar Bloviator wants to know, why not do so with public pronouncements?

Well, Andy, for the same reason the new entry in your Crush Book -- John McCain -- won't specify what should be permitted. And for the same reason YOU won't specify what should be permitted. Because even if everyone agrees privately that arm-twisting and wrist-bending should be permitted in interrogating terrorists, no one is willing to take the heat of saying so publicly.

Grow up, asshole. There are some things a country needs to do without broadcasting it to the world. We spy on Britain, for example. Should we alienate the British by publicly declaring "Yeah, we spy on you like crazy"?

Part of diplomacy -- that which is so beloved by the Left -- is keeping quiet about indelicate subjects.

Posted by: Ace at 09:02 AM | Comments (24)
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Republican Senators & Staff Contemplating Full Investigation of CIA Secret Prison Leak?

Congress has the power to jail journalists for contempt, too. I think the Sergeant at Arms can be directed to take recalcitrant witnesses to the local jail:

Intelligence Committee Chairman, Sen. Pat Roberts, to open a full investigation into the leak by CIA staffers of so-called "black sites" overseas. These facilities house captured al Qaeda and other terrorists, and are maintained by the CIA.

...

Although Post withheld the locations of specific "black sites," the London Times quickly followed up. Citing the human rights group as a source, it identified not only the nations where they might be located -- both of which are staunch allies in America's War on Terrorism -- but also the flight plans used by the CIA to transport the prisoners.

"This leak not only put CIA operatives at risk by identifying the locations, including ones that are supposedly no longer being used, it put our national security at risk here at home and put civilian lives in the countries that are helping us at risk. Weigh this leak against the one Democrats are all hopped up about and there is no comparison," says a Republican staffer for a Senator considering making a formal request for the investigation.

...

"This is a very serious matter," says another Senate leadership aide. "Democrats should be looking to join us in this investigation, but they won't because they know where it will end: their side of the aisle."

Democrats engaging in seditious leaking for partisan ends? That's just crazy-talk, that's all that is.

Plame/Wilson Scheme A "Covert Operation" Against the US Government?

The meme spreads. Because it's true:

So why did the CIA let him do it? It sent Wilson on a sensitive mission — but didn't require him to sign the usual confidentiality agreement. Even though his wife was a CIA staffer, it let him go loudly public — violating the most basic precautions, if she truly wanted to protect her identify.

The agency didn't assert a right to vet the New York Times op-ed he wrote about his trip — even though such review is standard, and even though his Times account sharply conflicted with what he'd told the CIA. It was if the agency flashed him a giant green light to blast Bush.

Indeed, the indictment that could send ex-White House aide Scooter Libby to jail for 30 years also holds clear evidence that the CIA should have stopped Wilson from going public.

The indictment notes that on June 9, 2003, Libby got CIA documents about Wilson's trip to Niger that were marked "classified" — even though "they did not mention Wilson by name" and Libby didn't yet know about the role of Wilson's wife. That indicates that the trip itself was classified — so CIA should have ordered Wilson to stop blabbing.

...

For her part Toensing — who was Intelligence Committee counsel when Moynihan was vice-chairman — has no doubt about the answer: "It was a planned CIA covert action against the White House. It was too clever by half."

Islamic Upbringing No Excuse For Rape

An Australian court dismissed appeals on Friday from three Pakistani brothers convicted of gang rape, with a judge describing a defence claim that their Muslim background contributed to the crime as insulting.

New South Wales state appeal court judge Michael Grove refused to reduce the sentences of the three brothers over the July 2002 rapes of two teenage girls at the family home in SydneyÂ’s suburbs.

Appeal lawyers for 27-year-old MSK, one of the brothers, argued that their client’s strict Muslim upbringing in Pakistan meant he had traditional views about women that made him a “cultural time bomb” in Australia and contributed to the rapes.

French Rioters May Soon Break Out The Heavy Artillery

"In the past, when we have cracked down on these criminals in their homes, we found drugs, grenades and heavy weapons such as guns. While they haven't started using these arms yet, there's also no reason to think they wouldn't."

Yeah, they may stop shooting cops and burning down whole neighborhoods and get serious.

Volcker Admits He Changed Language In Report To Protect Kofi Annan

With his report on Iraqi oil deals creating a political storm in India, its author Paul Volcker, in a startling revelation, has said he agreed to change the language that referred to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's son Kojo's business dealings.

...

"...[W]hen it came to the moment when he realized that Annan's job hung on his words, "I felt uncomfortably," he said.

The daily said that the U.N. Chief and his lawyer asked Volcker to change the language about business dealings by Kojo Annan that they thought could force his father's resignation, hours before the publication of the draft forward of the report in September.

Right, that's what he was hired for-- to protect Kofi Annan's job despite being kneedeep in corruption, right?

And, this just in:

Terrell Owens Is An Asshole

Breaking news. Must credit Ace.

Posted by: Ace at 09:19 PM | Comments (102)
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Seriously. Their headline: Rage of French Youth Is a Fight for Recognition.

"It's not a political revolution or a Muslim revolution," said Rezzoug. "There's a lot of rage. Through this burning, they're saying, 'I exist, I'm here.' "

Apparently France was all out of greeting cards, so these youths were well-nigh compelled to substitute molotov cocktails.

In related news, O.J. Simspon just stated he sawed off the head of Niccole Brown in an effort to ask, "How come you don't call me anymore?"

I'll give the liberal media points for consistency. Turns out, they are quite willing use the "root causes of violence" to justify violence in just about every situation, even violence affecting their favorite rogue state, France.

There's very little the media cannot apologize for so long as it's perpetrated by non-caucasians.

Thanks to Knemmon.

Mark Steyn: A New "Dark Ages" of "Permanent Conflict" Sad but probably true.

This time it began with the Jews, but it didn't end there:

The notion that Texas neocon arrogance was responsible for frosting up trans-Atlantic relations was always preposterous, even for someone as complacent and blinkered as John Kerry. If you had millions of seething unassimilated Muslim youths in lawless suburbs ringing every major city, would you be so eager to send your troops into an Arab country fighting alongside the Americans? For half a decade, French Arabs have been carrying on a low-level intifada against synagogues, kosher butchers, Jewish schools, etc. The concern of the political class has been to prevent the spread of these attacks to targets of more, ah, general interest. They seem to have lost that battle. Unlike America's Europhiles, France's Arab street correctly identified Chirac's opposition to the Iraq war for what it was: a sign of weakness.

Chirac has called for "a spirit of dialogue and respect," again putting his faith in the power of diplomacy.

Diplomacy has its virtues, of course, but its efficacy has always by limited by its major flaw: The word "No." You can call for all the dialogue and respect you like, but if your would-be interlocutor simply says "No," that's it for diplomacy.

John Kerry could never seem to understand that with regard to Iraq or our "historic allies."

Is This Really A "Muslim Uprising" Or Just Some Good Old Fashioned Street Violence? There's some debate about this; to me, though, it does seem to look an awful lot like an uprising. If there's no Al Qaeda like ideology behind this, but more of an inchoate desire to hold terriotory Youths of Undetermined Ethnic Extraction can call their own, is that really any better?

Feisty Republican Whore has some quotes about this:

Some are even calling for the areas where Muslims form a majority of the population to be reorganized on the basis of the "millet" system of the Ottoman Empire: Each religious community (millet) would enjoy the right to organize its social, cultural and educational life in accordance with its religious beliefs.

In parts of France, a de facto millet system is already in place. In these areas, all women are obliged to wear the standardized Islamist "hijab" while most men grow their beards to the length prescribed by the sheiks.

The radicals have managed to chase away French shopkeepers selling alcohol and pork products, forced "places of sin," such as dancing halls, cinemas and theaters, to close down, and seized control of much of the local administration.

A reporter who spent last weekend in Clichy and its neighboring towns of Bondy, Aulnay-sous-Bois and Bobigny heard a single overarching message: The French authorities should keep out.

"All we demand is to be left alone," said Mouloud Dahmani, one of the local "emirs" engaged in negotiations to persuade the French to withdraw the police and allow a committee of sheiks, mostly from the Muslim Brotherhood, to negotiate an end to the hostilities.

Is it any better that what motivates many of these Youths of Undetermined Ethnic Extraction is not seizing land from Israel but instead seizing land from France?

The problem that many of these YOUEE's have a loyalty -- first, last, and only -- to their race/culture/religion and none at all to the state they happen to be residing in, and that furthermore the unknown religion in question is read by many to have the political imperative of seizing territory from the Western infidels by whatever means necessary and refusing to be governed by any but their own.

Posted by: Ace at 04:22 PM | Comments (42)
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I don't think I'd have a problem with this formulation from, say, a rat. But when a human urges this particular tradeoff of human lives for rat lives, I have to object:

Jerry Vlasak, spokesman for the Animal Liberation Front, told the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works that killing medical researchers was "morally justified" to save laboratory animals.

He made his comments while defending a similar statement, made to the news media last year: "I don't think you'd have to kill – assassinate – too many vivisectors before you would see a marked decrease in the amount of vivisection going on. And I think for five lives, 10 lives, 15 human lives, we could save a million, 2 million, 10 million non-human lives."

Upside: James Inhofe promises greater emphasis on prosecuting these anti-human thugs.

Posted by: Ace at 04:05 PM | Comments (11)
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Hmmm...

This is too much, stop!" sobbed a woman in Evreux, a normally quiet town in rural Normandy where a shopping mall, 50 vehicles, a post office and two schools were destroyed.

"FRANCE IS NOT BURNING"

Across France, 1,300 vehicles went up in flames overnight. For the first time, more than 30 were destroyed inside the city walls of Paris. Previously quiet towns such as Dreux, to the west, and the city of Nantes were also affected.

Police said 349 people had been arrested, including six youths caught stockpiling 90 Molotov cocktails in a disused police building south of Paris.

Despite the worst destruction since the riots started, a police spokesman called for a sense of proportion: "It's 211 districts out of 36,000, so France is not burning."

I seem to remember military folks and the US Government urging the media to have some sense of proportion with regard to the unrest in Iraq. "It's only four provinces," the military said. The media scoffed.

Somehow I think that they'll be more willing to downplay the violence in France.

Posted by: Ace at 03:48 PM | Comments (10)
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Journalists Stunned By Unprecedented Credulity In Reporting Anti-War Charlatan's Fabrications

How could this have happened, a reporter asks.

He writes for 800 or so words without mentioning the obvious.

Posted by: Ace at 03:40 PM | Comments (6)
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One of the requirements for a patent is the non-obviousness of the thing to be patented. I have to say, this storyline is not really non-obvious -- who hasn't fantasized about this?

Further to a policy of publishing patent applications eighteen months after filing, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is scheduled to publish history’s first “storyline patent” application today. The publication will be based on a utility patent application filed by Andrew Knight in November, 2003, the first such application to claim a fictional storyline.

Knight, a rocket engine inventor, registered patent agent, and graduate of MIT and Georgetown Law, will assert publication-based provisional patent rights against anyone whose activities may fall within the scope of his published claims, including all major motion picture manufacturers and distributors, book publishers and distributors, television studios and broadcasters, and movie theaters.

...

According to Berman, “Non-obviousness probably presents the biggest challenge to patentability” because minor variations on a central theme may generate so many different storylines. Nevertheless, Knight asserts that his claimed storyline meets all statutory requirements, including nonobviousness.

The fictitious story, which Knight dubs “The Zombie Stare,” tells of an ambitious high school senior, consumed by anticipation of college admission, who prays one night to remain unconscious until receiving his MIT admissions letter. He consciously awakes 30 years later when he finally receives the letter, lost in the mail for so many years, and discovers that, to all external observers, he has lived an apparently normal life. He desperately seeks to regain 30 years’ worth of memories lost as an unconscious philosophical zombie.

I'm going to patent my storyline idea, "A man has a dream and strives against a corrupt system to achieve it at great personal cost," as long as a related patent for "Starring Tom Hanks and the chick from that movie where she pretended to have a dick."

Posted by: Ace at 10:41 AM | Comments (18)
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Mayhem Goes National, Hits Outskirts of Capital; 1,295 Cars Burned in Worst Night of Arson Yet

YOUEE's -- Youths of Undetermined Ethnic Extraction, pronounced YOW-ees -- use molotov cocktails and gasoline bombs to burn cars, trucks, nurseries (!), schools, businesses.

And a bomb-making factory has been discovered in Fallujah a suburb of Paris:

Police also found a gasoline bomb-making factory in a rundown building in Evry, a southern Paris suburb that contained 150 explosives, more than 100 bottles, gallons of fuel and hoods for hiding riotersÂ’ faces, Jean-Marie Huet, a senior Justice Ministry official, said Sunday.

Remember when the Europeans suggested that 9/11 was a Muslim reaction American refusal to sign the Kyoto Accords?

Well... 1,295 French cars burned in one night alone (900 last night, thousands altogether). Maybe this is all just a reaction to France's failure to fully implement the Accords.

Just trying to help. Just speculating as to the Kyoto-based "root causes" of this terrorism.

A Grim Milestone... Photoshop at LGF.

Posted by: Ace at 10:25 AM | Comments (32)
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Friday before last, October 28th, Tai Wang Mak, and his wife, both resident aliens and Chinese citizens, sat nervously at LAX, waiting to board a flight to Hong Kong.

IÂ’m sure Hong Kong is lovely this time of year, and a getaway would have been nice, but sadly, they never made it on board.

The reason? A problem with their carry-on baggage.

Apparently, it included several encrypted CDs which Tai Wang had received from his brother, Chi Mak - lead project engineer on our naval “Quiet Electric Drive” system (our real world version of the silent propulsion the Ruskies had in Red October.)

Yes, the disks contained information on the Q.E.D. project which they were intending to pass along to the Chinese military after Tai caught his connecting flight to Guangzhou.

Those are the details that are just emerging now as the arrest warrant's affidavits become public. You can read news accounts here, here and here. (though I wouldn't bother)

To get the full background on what was really happening, youÂ’d have to turn to Bill Gertz, Washington Times reporter/favored intelligence community leakee.

He explains, today, that this wasn’t quite the “Pfew, disaster averted!” moment the other pieces might lead you to believe. In fact, Chi Mak and his brother weren’t just one-time spies we caught at the last moment. No, the engineer and his family had been running an incredibly damaging espionage ring since 1990.

How damaging? Here's a taste:

Key compromises uncovered so far include sensitive data on Aegis battle management systems that are the core of U.S. Navy destroyers and cruisers.

China covertly obtained the Aegis technology and earlier this year deployed its first Aegis warship, code-named Magic Shield, intelligence officials have said.

The Chinese also obtained sensitive data on U.S. submarines, including classified details related to the new Virginia-class attack submarines.

Officials said based on a preliminary assessment, China now will be able to track U.S. submarines, a compromise that potentially could be devastating if the United States enters a conflict with China in defending Taiwan.
...

China also is thought to have obtained information from the spy ring that will assist Chinese military development of electromagnetic pulse weapons -- weapons that simulate the electronic shock caused by a nuclear blast -- that disrupt electronics.

It also is thought to have obtained unmanned aerial vehicle technology from the spy ring.

To put this in context, why these leaks were so harmful, itÂ’s useful to turn to Gertz again.

This longish July article makes clear China has intentions on Taiwan. This is absolutely nothing new (although it explains a little of their strategy in bringing it about), but the piece will help make concrete how these naval leaks will have dire, real world consequences. Military advantages weÂ’d been counting on have been lost. more...

Posted by: Dr. Reo Symes at 12:25 PM | Comments (43)
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Hats off to appeasement!

Bands of youths also burned a nursery school, warehouses and nearly 900 cars overnight as the violence spread from the restive Paris suburbs to towns around France.

An attack this week on a female bus passenger highlighted the savage nature of some of the violence. The woman, in her 50s and on crutches, was doused with an inflammable liquid and set afire after passengers were forced to leave the bus, blocked by burning objects on the road, judicial officials said.

Late Friday in Meaux, east of Paris, youths prevented firefighters from evacuating a sick person from an apartment in a housing project, pelting them with stones and torching the awaiting ambulance, an Interior Ministry officer said.

I guess Al Gore isn't the only one who likes his Blackberry!

A national police spokesman, Patrick Hamon, said there appeared to be no coordination between gangs in the various riot-hit suburbs. He said, however, that neighborhood youths were communicating between themselves using cell phone text messaging or e-mails to arrange meeting points and alert each other to police.

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