U.S. Rips Off Face/Off, Implements Floating Prisons

From a 2005 article in the Washington Post concerning the legality and post-9/11 implementation of CIA “black sites” around the world:

 

“Among the first steps was to figure out where the CIA could secretly hold the captives. One early idea was to keep them on ships in international waters, but that was discarded for security and logistics reasons.”

 

From an article published today in The Guardian:

 

“The United States is operating “floating prisons” to house those arrested in its war on terror, according to human rights lawyers, who claim there has been an attempt to conceal the numbers and whereabouts of detainees.

Details of ships where detainees have been held and sites allegedly being used in countries across the world have been compiled as the debate over detention without trial intensifies on both sides of the Atlantic. The US government was yesterday urged to list the names and whereabouts of all those detained.

Information about the operation of prison ships has emerged through a number of sources, including statements from the US military, the Council of Europe and related parliamentary bodies, and the testimonies of prisoners.

The analysis, due to be published this year by the human rights organisation Reprieve, also claims there have been more than 200 new cases of rendition since 2006, when President George Bush declared that the practice had stopped. ” 

 

So much for security and logistics.  A spokesman for the US Navy claims that prisoners are only held on the ships during “the initial days of detention,” though it seems safe to say that the number of detainees considered “in transport” has been underreported, which might lead one to believe that those prisoners are on those ships a little bit longer than a few days. 

As a side note, I did a Google News search on this story after reading it on the front page of The Guardian’s web site; there were several international papers that picked up the story, but I could only find one U.S. report, from Fox News, interestingly enough.  Nary a mention in the Washington Post or New York Times.  Here’s hoping that they’re fact-checking…   

If we’re trying to avoid looking like Christian missionaries…

This isn’t helpful. 

The Christianist tilt of the military is hard to dispute.  In an article last October, Jane Lampman of the Christian Science Monitor documented a series of evangelizing instances within the military, this being one of the more egregious:

“In 2006, MRFF (Military Religious Freedom Foundation) learned of a video produced by Christian Embassy, a group that conducts Bible studies at the Pentagon and seeks to evangelize within the armed services. Aimed at fundraising for the group, the video was improperly taped in the Pentagon and involved endorsements by Army and Air Force generals in uniform.”

Another hilarious example from earlier this year – at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, the military paid evangelical Christians portraying themselves as former Muslim terrorists to participate in a conference on terrorism. 

I’ve mentioned Blackwater’s krazy-kristian ties before. 

To round this up, here’s Rod Parsley, one of two hateful preachers that John McCain has embraced, talking about the United States’ obligation to destroy Islam. 

I suppose the counter-argument would be that the military does not endorse Christianity and oppose Islam, that these are isolated incidents and/or mistakes, and that some Christians will necessarily attempt to spread the Word, perhaps unwisely, but certainly without harmful or aggressive intentions.