Brief News and Views Post

Able Danger: Captain Ed continues to worry away at that knotty problem, Able Danger- now the FBI reveals that know quite a bit about the program, and the good Captain concludes:

Up to now, we've heard that the FBI knew nothing of AD and its efforts. Now we have the FBI attending high-level briefings on its progress. No one before this, to my knowledge, has shown any operational awareness of the program on the FBI's part prior to the 9/11 attacks. Doesn't that beg the question of why the FBI never followed up on AD and any information it might supply?

Saddam's Trial: Captain Ed also has a good post on Saddam Hussein's latest childish antics in the court- he's now refusing to come to his own trial because it's not fair. Actually, according to on news story I heard on the radio, he claims that the trial is 'terrorism.' Captain Ed explains why the Iraqi people should not be deferential to the mass murderer:

The Iraqis should get tough on Saddam. They've shown him deference; now they
need to show some steel. If he prefers to putter around in his cell and let his
lawyers deal with his trial, so be it. This is an attempt -- an
all-too-successful attempt, in all likelihood -- to get the headlines off of the
testimony of the victims by making himself the center of attention again. In one
sense, it's typical behavior from a sociopath, but in terms of PR in Iraq, it's
the only smart strategy left to him. The court needs to make sure that his
absence winds up backfiring on him by continuing to present witnesses to
Saddam's atrocities, this time without Saddam's running commentary distracting
the global media covering the event.
Let him rot in his cell. I don't need to
hear much from Saddam anyway, and I wouldn't trust anything he says unless it
came accompanied by a video and corroboration from the Archangel Gabriel. The
court should plow ahead and reveal Saddam's foolishness as well as his
ghoulishness.

Of course, the treatment in prison is pretty brutal. Saddam's former intelligence chief and half-brother is also in jail and complaining of his treatment, saying:

he had been denied tea and coffee for a year, lost 18 kg (40 lb) in weight and offered only inferior brand cigarettes.

And Saddam himself must endure absolutely deplorable conditions. He demanded of the judge:

"Are you deliberately hauling defendants before the trial when they are exhausted? We've spent these days in these shirts - no underwear, no chance to take a shower and no chance to smoke a cigarette if some do smoke, no chance to walk a couple of steps outside the small room. This is terrorism."

I'm sure you're all as moved as I am. Right? Right. So how's the weather? Seen any good movies lately? Do you have a schedule to clip your baby's nails, or do you just clip them when they need it? Incidentally, does it strike you that Saddam's complaints are much the same as many a discontented housewife's? You know, not our kind of housewife, but the ones you read about in women's magazines and see on t.v.

If you have a t.v. We don't, but I hear that's the sort of thing people are watching these days. So maybe that's what the future holds for Saddam- a stint on the program 'Desparate Housewives.'