Facha!
Have you ever seen the Walt Stillman movie Barcelona?
This got me thinking about it today: "Italian Judge Orders Arrest of 13 CIA Operatives for Kidnapping"
It was the headline on the front page of the New York Times today. I'm certain that every major newspaper in the world had a variation of this headline on their front page as well. In brief, an Italian judge issued warrants for the arrest of not one or two, but thirteen CIA operatives accused of involvement in the kidnapping of a radical Muslim imam, Osama Mustafa Hassan.
The imam in question was under suspicion for some variety of terrorist activity, and was already being investigated by the Italian authorities.
On February 17th, 2003, however, the CIA took matters into their own hands without, I presume, the consent of the Italians. In broad daylight, a van pulled up next to Hassan as he walked to his mosque, and two men masquerading as Italian police officers grabbed him and thrusted him to an unmarked van.
He was not heard from again until sometime in 2004.
The United States calls this "extraordinary rendition." This tactic in the government's fight against terrorism involves plucking people from their homes, places of employment, the street, or anywhere else they wish, and shipping them to sovereign countries whose policies they publicly criticize.
Why? So they can be properly tortured, without having to nod to any kind of convention regarding the ethical treatment of suspects and detainees. Hassan claims to have been repeatedly electrocuted by his Egyptian interrogators.
Scary stuff, don't you agree?
People have become afraid of the U.S. government, and it's 400 different and conflicting national security and intelligence agencies. They should be, it's out very much out of control. And it's humiliating to [at least some of] its citizens that our leaders are sanctioning this kind of behavior in its agencies.
Is the world safer for it?
Anyway, in Barcelona, which is set during the Cold War, one of subplots deals with the younger Spanish generation's preoccupation with things they perceive as fascist (everything is facha), naked American aggression, and the fear that agents of the CIA are skulking around them - plotting, subverting, and assassinating.
It's funny because they were mostly misinformed. What's not funny is that, despite all the silly misinformation, they were absolutely correct about the plotting, subverting, and assassinating.
It's alarming that we've stepped back into a state of affairs in which our government agencies are operating in the same roundly-criticized manner as they did from the 1950's to the 1980's. I'm sure that history will condemn this as well. What's sad is that nothing's being done about it presently.
It's all very facha!
On a lighter note, I'll be attending a real barbeque (not a hibachi on the fire-escape) tomorrow in Nyack, NY, high on the banks of the Hudson River. It's really beautiful there. It's a little bit rustic, and has a small-town feel. It'll be nice.
Then, on Sunday, I'll be going to the beach on Long Island. Yes, I do live the life of Riley.
This got me thinking about it today: "Italian Judge Orders Arrest of 13 CIA Operatives for Kidnapping"
It was the headline on the front page of the New York Times today. I'm certain that every major newspaper in the world had a variation of this headline on their front page as well. In brief, an Italian judge issued warrants for the arrest of not one or two, but thirteen CIA operatives accused of involvement in the kidnapping of a radical Muslim imam, Osama Mustafa Hassan.
The imam in question was under suspicion for some variety of terrorist activity, and was already being investigated by the Italian authorities.
On February 17th, 2003, however, the CIA took matters into their own hands without, I presume, the consent of the Italians. In broad daylight, a van pulled up next to Hassan as he walked to his mosque, and two men masquerading as Italian police officers grabbed him and thrusted him to an unmarked van.
He was not heard from again until sometime in 2004.
The United States calls this "extraordinary rendition." This tactic in the government's fight against terrorism involves plucking people from their homes, places of employment, the street, or anywhere else they wish, and shipping them to sovereign countries whose policies they publicly criticize.
Why? So they can be properly tortured, without having to nod to any kind of convention regarding the ethical treatment of suspects and detainees. Hassan claims to have been repeatedly electrocuted by his Egyptian interrogators.
Scary stuff, don't you agree?
People have become afraid of the U.S. government, and it's 400 different and conflicting national security and intelligence agencies. They should be, it's out very much out of control. And it's humiliating to [at least some of] its citizens that our leaders are sanctioning this kind of behavior in its agencies.
Is the world safer for it?
Anyway, in Barcelona, which is set during the Cold War, one of subplots deals with the younger Spanish generation's preoccupation with things they perceive as fascist (everything is facha), naked American aggression, and the fear that agents of the CIA are skulking around them - plotting, subverting, and assassinating.
It's funny because they were mostly misinformed. What's not funny is that, despite all the silly misinformation, they were absolutely correct about the plotting, subverting, and assassinating.
It's alarming that we've stepped back into a state of affairs in which our government agencies are operating in the same roundly-criticized manner as they did from the 1950's to the 1980's. I'm sure that history will condemn this as well. What's sad is that nothing's being done about it presently.
It's all very facha!
On a lighter note, I'll be attending a real barbeque (not a hibachi on the fire-escape) tomorrow in Nyack, NY, high on the banks of the Hudson River. It's really beautiful there. It's a little bit rustic, and has a small-town feel. It'll be nice.
Then, on Sunday, I'll be going to the beach on Long Island. Yes, I do live the life of Riley.
posted by SD at 4:33 AM
1 Comments:
YOU USE THE TERM "FACHA!". WHAT DOES THIS REFER TO.
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