One Dream Come True

Come visit us in the Triphammer Mall, Ithaca, NY.

Oh, the Colors You'll See!

Fresh paint and flowers for Abu Ghraib prison

The prison's outer walls were painted in a bright cream color, and Iraqi flags fluttered at the entrance. The driveway to the main gate was spruced up and lined with colorful lampposts, flowers and plants.

Large billboards identified the prison compound by its new name, Baghdad Central Jailers were dressed in their finest navy uniforms and hats and made to stand frozen in formation along a red carpet laid down for the occasion.

Inside, the hallways reeked of fresh paint: lavender, cream and light blue. Glittering party decorations hung on the walls, and pots of plastic flowers lined the corridors. Slogans in ornate Arabic calligraphy filled the walls.

There were no prisoners to be seen. All 400 of them...were moved to a section beyond the sight of reporters behind a heavily guarded gate covered with blue sheets.

The cellblocks that had once been the scene of prisoner torture, abuse and humiliation by U.S. soldiers and contractors in 2003 and 2004 were newly painted in glossy cream. Freshly painted Arabic numbers identified the individual cells, which were empty except for neatly made bunk beds. Large TV screens were placed in the corridors outside the cells; one was showing a popular cooking program on a government channel. Posters with the words "No to Torture" above close-up photos of bodies battered with bruises and cuts hung on the wall.

The Horror

If you have any doubt left in you as to whether George W. Bush & friends are guilty of war crimes for the tortures conducted at Guantanamo, you might want to take a few moments to read some testimonials given by people who were there. In 2005, the Center for the Study of Human Rights in the Americas at UC Davis launched the Guantanamo Testimonials Project, "a long term research project to assess the effects of the U.S. war on terror on human rights in the Americas."

Testimonials have been collected not only from prisoners, but also from FBI agents, military guards, interrogators, foreign intelligence officials, the Red Cross, even a chaplain. Some testimonials have been given in violation of non-disclosure agreements and with possible consequences to those who told their stories.

The CSHRA states: "We take no position as to whether the Guantánamo prisoners are guilty or innocent. Yet we recognize that these individuals are, in either case, entitled to a set of fundamental rights (a) as individuals held during an armed conflict, (b) as prisoners in general, and (c) as ordinary human beings."

It's time for the people who ordered the torture of the prisoners at Guantanamo to be prosecuted for their crimes, the details of which you can read for yourself, if you can stomach it.

Handlebars

This Flobots song is pretty cool, right up until it becomes needlessly melodramatic. Mostly it makes me wish Cake would put out a new album.

Sail away with me, to another world.

This one goes out to lou and her guy.

February 3, 1959

The day the music died.