Posts by closer2fine

Hersh: Children sodomized at Abu Ghraib, on tape After Donald Rumsfeld testified on the Hill about Abu Ghraib in May, there was talk of more photos and video in the Pentagon's custody more horrific than anything made public so far. "If these are released to the public, obviously it's going to make matters worse," Rumsfeld said. Since then, the Washington Post has disclosed some new details and images of abuse at the prison. But if Seymour Hersh is right, it all gets much worse.

Hersh gave a speech last week to the ACLU making the charge that children were sodomized in front of women in the prison, and the Pentagon has tape of it. The speech was first reported in a New York Sun story last week, which was in turn posted on Jim Romenesko's media blog, and now EdCone.com and other blogs are linking to the video. We transcribed the critical section here (it starts at about 1:31:00 into the ACLU video.) At the start of the transcript here, you can see how Hersh was struggling over what he should say:

"Debating about it, ummm ... Some of the worst things that happened you don't know about, okay? Videos, um, there are women there. Some of you may have read that they were passing letters out, communications out to their men. This is at Abu Ghraib ... The women were passing messages out saying 'Please come and kill me, because of what's happened' and basically what happened is that those women who were arrested with young boys, children in cases that have been recorded. The boys were sodomized with the cameras rolling. And the worst above all of that is the soundtrack of the boys shrieking that your government has. They are in total terror. It's going to come out."

"It's impossible to say to yourself how did we get there? Who are we? Who are these people that sent us there? When I did My Lai I was very troubled like anybody in his right mind would be about what happened. I ended up in something I wrote saying in the end I said that the people who did the killing were as much victims as the people they killed because of the scars they had, I can tell you some of the personal stories by some of the people who were in these units witnessed this. I can also tell you written complaints were made to the highest officers and so we're dealing with a enormous massive amount of criminal wrongdoing that was covered up at the highest command out there and higher, and we have to get to it and we will. We will. You know there's enough out there, they can't (Applause). .... So it's going to be an interesting election year."

Notes from a similar speech Hersh gave in Chicago in June were posted on Brad DeLong's blog. Rick Pearlstein, who watched the speech, wrote: "[Hersh] said that after he broke Abu Ghraib people are coming out of the woodwork to tell him this stuff. He said he had seen all the Abu Ghraib pictures. He said, 'You haven't begun to see evil...' then trailed off. He said, 'horrible things done to children of women prisoners, as the cameras run.' He looked frightened."

So, there are several questions here: Has Hersh actually seen the video he described to the ACLU, and why hasn't he written about it yet? Will he be forced to elaborate in more public venues now that these two speeches are getting so much attention, at least in the blogosphere? And who else has seen the video, if it exists -- will journalists see and report on it? did senators see these images when they had their closed-door sessions with the Abu Ghraib evidence? -- and what is being done about it?

-- Geraldine Sealey

[09:26 PDT, July 15, 2004

]

18

Man loses license after telling doctor about drinking. WTF????

by closer2fine in

jw
friends

anyone else have a problem with this?.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/law/07/13/beer.drinkers.license.ap/man loses license after telling doctor about drinking.

tuesday, july 13, 2004 posted: 6:54 pm edt (2254 gmt).

closer2fine

Anyone else have a problem with this?

http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/07/13/beer.drinkers.license.ap/

Man loses license after telling doctor about drinking

Tuesday, July 13, 2004 Posted: 6:54 PM EDT (2254 GMT)

HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania (AP) -- A man who told his doctors that he drinks more than a six-pack of beer per day is now fighting to get his driver's license back because the physicians apparently reported him to the state.

Keith Emerich, 44, said Tuesday that he disclosed his drinking habit in February to doctors who were treating him at a hospital for an irregular heartbeat.

"I told them it was over a six-pack a day. It wasn't good for me -- I'm not going to lie," Emerich said in a telephone interview from his home in Lebanon, about 30 miles east of Harrisburg.

Emerich received a notice from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation in April that his license was being revoked effective May 6 for medical reasons related to substance abuse.

He has petitioned a judge to restore the license, and a hearing has been set for July 29.

A state law dating to the 1960s requires doctors to report any physical or mental impairments that could compromise a patient's ability to drive safely, PennDOT spokeswoman Joan Nissley said. Nissley said she could not discuss the details of Emerich's case because of confidentiality requirements that also protect the doctor from being identified.

The law requires revocation of the license until the driver can prove he is competent to drive.

Emerich said his heart problem has prompted him to limit his beer drinking to weekends.

Medical privacy vs public safety

Aside from a drunken-driving conviction when he was 21, Emerich, a pressman at a printshop who lives alone, said he has a clean driving record and does not drink and drive.

"What I do in the privacy of my own home is none of PennDOT's business," he said.

Asked if he considered his client to be alcoholic, Horace Ehrgood, Emerich's attorney, said: "It depends on what your definition is."

"He's been able to go to work, and he's got a heck of a nice work record. He's been able to function in all other avenues of life," the lawyer said.

Pennsylvania's transportation agency receives about 40,000 medical reports and revokes 5,000 to 6,000 licenses a year but does not keep any statistics on its reasons for doing so, Nissley said. She also said she did not know how many revocations get appealed.

Pennsylvania is one of six states that require doctors to report motorists with medical conditions that could affect their driving, according to the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators. The other states are California, Delaware, Oregon, Nevada, and New Jersey.

All other states and the District of Columbia allow physicians to submit reports on a voluntary basis.

Beth Givens, director of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a San Diego-based watchdog group, said cases like Emerich's highlight a tension between medical privacy and public safety.

"Certainly, cases like this could lead individuals to refrain from giving their doctors adequate information to treat them," Givens said.

61

I going to picket my parents convention this weekend!

by Atilla in

jw
friends

ok, my parents have pissed me off so much with their denial and their refusal to even acknowledge my complaints against the borg.

they pretend everything is perfect at the kingdom hall and expect me to play nice to their dub friends so as to protect their own reputation.

this weekend in philadelphia, they are going to to their little convention and i have some evil thoughts.

closer2fine

Don't forget, I heard the venue changed the dates this year at this convention. It runs Thursday - Saturday.

closer

53

What Country Are You?

by closer2fine in

jw
friends

for fun: .

http://bluepyramid.org/ia/cquiz.htm.

closer

closer2fine

You're Sweden!

After years of trying to rule the world around you, you've
finally put aside violence in favor of advocating peaceful resolution. There's
still a little Viking in you, but mostly you like Nobel Prize winners and long
nights by the fire. And safe cars. You always read the safety manual
in airplanes, and you're just a little cold.
face="Times New Roman">Take the Country'>http://bluepyramid.org/ia/cquiz.htm">Country
Quiz at the Blue'>http://bluepyramid.org">Blue Pyramid