Snippets
Today’s Denver Post newspaper contained an extraordinary rendition of the news. Scattered through Section A were these stories, all of which are somewhat bemusing when read in isolation, but make a bizarre picture when read in one sitting.
1. The Transportation Safety Agency is testing missle defense systems for commercial airliners. TSA has invested $120 million in the test program, aimed at protecting the nation’s 6,800 commercial airliners. A proponent of the system, Republican Congressman John Mica (FL) says “we are long overdue for a passenger aircraft to be taken down by a shoulder-launched missle…. We have been extremely, extremely lucky.” Homeland Security officials have repeatedly cautioned that no credible evidence exists of a planned missle attack in the US. And apparently there are studies showing that missle attacks are less of a threat than truck-bombs and luggage-bombs. A spokesman for Boeing said that “the cost versus the benefit here just does not play out.” Presumably the government would pay for installation of the system on existing aircraft, but the operating costs could be $1 million per year, per aircraft. (NY Times)
2. A military judge in Texas has issued an arrest warrant for a civilian therapist in Colorado Springs, orderiring US Marshals to detain her and confiscate records relating to treatment of a rape victim. The victim was a cadet at the Air Force Academy when she was allegedly raped by another cadet in 2000; his defense lawyers are demanding the therapist’s records. (Denver Post Staff)
3. Canada is protesting the treatment of Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen who was arrested by US officials when he was changing planes in New York. He was shipped to Syria where he alleges that he was tortured during repeated interrogations over a period of 10 months. The process, euphemistically called “extraodinary rendition,” involves US officials detaining or arresting a citizen of some other country and sending him to a third country for interrogation. US officials said that the decision to “deport” Arar was made by the Justice Department “in consultation with” the FBI, the CIA, and the National Security Council, based on “secret information from Candian security agencies.” But the Canadians are saying that they did not have any persuasive information linking Arar to Al-Qaeda or any other terrorist organization. (NY Times)
4. President Bush praised veterans’ “sacrifices for freedom.” In his weekly radio address, Bush said “Today a new generation of Americans is making its own sacrifice on behalf of peace and freedom, and some have given their lives.” (Associated Press)
5. North Carolina native Junior Allen was set free on Friday after serving 35 years in prison. For stealing a black and white TV set. (Associated Press)
These stories and more in today’s Denver Post.
–SG
What do you think? Please enter a comment below.
May 31st, 2005 at 11:38 am
They are all kind of alarming, but you are just repeating the story– what are your comments on them?
May 31st, 2005 at 4:15 pm
Our comment was supposed to be contained in the selection and reprinting of these five items, all of which appeared in the same section of one newspaper. The theme would seem to be “that’s not MY America” or how things that would have been considered inconceivable in our America of 10 years ago are cropping up with alarming regularity and are accepted as “ordinary.”
The Bush quote is not so good a fit, maybe, but it strikes us as a bit unseemly for a president to politicize Memorial Day, to get it flat wrong, and to trivialize the deaths of 1600 military personnel in Iraq (”some have given their lives”). Memorial Day’s sole purpose is to memorialize those who gave their lives in service to their country, going back to the Revolutionary War. It has nothing to do with living veterans or serving personnel (both of which have their own holidays).