Mid Day Distraction

Up there with the strangest things I've ever seen. Kinda explained here.

AUDIO- A Jewish Soldier Witnesses Nuremberg: "We found it in ourselves to give the worst of men due process"

By GottaLaff

I have posted and re-posted about the injustice and cruelty at Guantanamo Bay, about Fayiz al-Kandari, and his attorney Lt. Col. Barry Wingard.

I have also posted and re-posted about why today's military commissions are inferior to U.S. civilian courts.

Kids often ask why they need to study history in school. After all, it's ancient stuff, stories that have been told, times past that couldn't possibly affect them now.

Wanna bet?

Via NPR:

Sixty years ago, the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg handed down its first verdict against Nazi war criminals. The Nuremberg trials were structured as a blueprint for something new in international law law... "crimes against humanity" and "crimes against peace". [...]

Commentator Clancy Sigal was a sergeant in the American army of occupation in Germany. [...]

Evidence which included the shrunken heads of tortured prisoners and lampshades made of human skin. [...]

The U.S. War Department was determined that Goering and the other Nazis leaders would receive a fair trial. At Nuremberg, there would be no secret evidence or closed proceedings. The Allies believed that would betray their ideal of restoring democracy in Germany. [...]

Today, in the midst of a national debate on how to treat captured terror suspects, my mind flashes back to Room 600 at Furtherstrasse 22. We gave Goering and the other war criminals a chance not only to defend themselves but in some cases, preach hate and violence.

In a ruined Germany, where so many corpses still lay buried in the rubble, and life seemed so very fragile, we found it in ourselves to give the worst of men due process.

Those unfeeling, brutal Nazi beasts were terrorists... terrorists who killed millions of innocents.

It's time the GOP starts trusting our legal system instead of playing politics, playing with lives. Our democracy is at stake, as well as our international standing.

Why is that so hard to grasp? And why on earth would the Obama administration even consider caving to the GOP... again? Maybe they should all give a listen to this audio.

H/t: Dave_von_Ebers

Report: CIA planned to 'rendition' suspects in Germany

By GottaLaff

Report: I'm reporting a report, it's been reported. My sources are confidential because of the sensitive nature of the sensitivity of the as of yet unreported report that I'm reporting.

Reportedly--now I'm not saying this for certain, but it's out there-- this happened, according to unnamed sources, or so it's been reported:

The CIA had 25 agents in Germany after the September 11 attacks and planned to "rendition" illegally al-Qaeda suspects without informing the German government, Spiegel magazine reported Sunday.

"It was about grabbing people without the Germans knowing about it," the German weekly magazine cited an unnamed former CIA agent as saying. "We were planning stuff that was totally illegal."

The plan went so far that other parts of the Central Intelligence Agency were in the loop, but in the end it was scrapped because of objections by the agency's German section, Spiegel cited its source as saying.

As soon as they report more in another report, I'll report it to you, sources say.

Video- Reflecting on the fall of the Berlin Wall

Video- Sen. DeMint Says America Is Becoming Like Iran And Germany

Do they practice making no sense?

Video-President Obama and Chancellor Merkel Of Germany Press Conference

Video- President Obama on Buchenwald: "I won't forget what I saw today."

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Video- Obama visits Buchenwald

Video- Obama in Dresden: U.S. Can't Force MidEast Peace

Obama Will Make Major Speech in Egypt

They also confirm the trip to Germany that I mentioned earlier.

President Obama will make his promised speech to the Muslim world from Egypt, according to the Washington Post.

"Obama pledged during the campaign to address the Muslim world from a Muslim capital within the first few months of taking office. Picking a site proved challenging for a range of reasons -- from diplomacy to security -- and the decision took longer than expected, with Obama commissioning options from a research team."

Obama to visit Nazi concentration camp

I've seen rumblings about this in the German and UK papers but never anything concrete.

BERLIN, May 8 (UPI) -- The White House can't confirm that President Obama will visit the site of the Buchenwald concentration camp this summer but Germany is making preparations.

Almost every senior official in the German states of Thuringa and Saxony already appear to have been informed about Obama's upcoming visit, expected to be on June 5, The Times of London reported Friday.

Thomas Steg, a spokesman for the German government, said Obama might visit "historical places" related to the different aspects of World War II as well as places that have "biographical references" for his family.

Obama's great-uncle, Charlie Payne, was among the American soldiers who liberated a satellite forced labor camp close to Buchenwald in April, 1945.

LIVE- Obama holds press conference with German leader Angela Merkel

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Lots of chit chatting today.

Tender, Juicy Obama Fingers Hit the Shelves

That is the exact headline from Der Speigel. Oy.

A German frozen food company hopes to raise sales with a new product: Obama fingers. The tender, fried chicken bits come with a tasty curry sauce. The company says it was unaware of the possible racist overtones of the product.

(snip)

Many sales executives have drawn the same conclusion: What better poster child for hope than US President Barack Obama? There are Obama dolls, Obama T-shirts, Obama soap-on-a-rope. There is even Obama thong underwear on offer.

Not wanting to miss the boat, a German food company has now gotten into the act. Sprehe, a company that has all manner of frozen delicacies on offer, has come up with a new product it calls "Obama Fingers." Far from being real digits, though, the "fingers" in question are "tender, juicy pieces of chicken breast, coated and fried," as the product packaging claims.

Germany may accept Gitmo prisoners

By GottaLaff

Gitmo II:

Germany says it is considering accepting prisoners released from the US detention camp at Guantanamo Bay. [...]

About 250 men remain at the camp, the closure of which is one of incoming US President Barack Obama's stated aims.

About 50 inmates are said to have been cleared for release, but the US cannot repatriate them due to the risk of mistreatment. [...]

German deputy government spokesman Thomas Steg said that the issue of accepting detainees would be addressed when the US had set out specific plans and a timeline for closing the camp.

"If we begin to review such closure plans and take a stance, then it can only be in a European context based on a discussion with all member states," he said.

No conditions could be placed on any handover, he added.

But, said a foreign ministry spokesman, Foreign Minister Frank Walter Steinmeier had made it clear that he did not want the planned closure to fail because there was no-one willing to take prisoners who could not return home. [...]

But shutting Guantanamo down will be an extremely complicated process, some officials have warned, involving far more than finding countries to take those cleared for release. [...]

Mr Obama, the Department of Justice and perhaps Congress will need to build a whole new legal process for handling the remaining Guantanamo detainees, correspondents say.

The Bush legacy strikes again.

RNC: 'Obama TV ad in Berlin'

Keep up the good work guys!!

Update: Obama's Landstuhl non-visit

By GottaLaff

Paddy posted about this earlier. Now here's an update:

From NBC's Jim Miklaszewski
In his official capacity as a sitting US senator, Obama has every right to stay in touch with America's men and women in uniform. According to Pentagon officials, the problem was that Obama's request to visit Landstuhl included two members of his campaign staff -- retired Major General Jonathan S. Gration and Jeff Kiernan. US military officials in Germany informed the campaign the two political operatives would not be permitted on base.

Pentagon officials say Gration was the campaign's point of contact at Landstuhl in arranging Obama's visit and "got torqued" when he was told he would not be permitted to join Obama. It was Gration who later suggested to reporters that the Pentagon short-circuited Obama's visit.

Are there some in the Pentagon or military resentful because Gration has climbed on board the Obama campaign? Did Gration overreact? As a former policy director for the US European Command, he would surely be disappointed -- if not offended -- by being excluded from the visit. It's also been my experience that even retired generals do not want to hear the word "no."

Whatever the reason, Obama and the troops he would have visited have both missed a unique and historic opportunity. According to one Army lieutenant colonel, "Everyone was excited about Obama's visit. It's a shame."

It sure is. This story still doesn't feel right.

The Berlin Bounce Arrives

I really, really like the fact that 50% have heard or seen the coverage. That means people are paying attention.

55% Rate Obama’s Berlin Speech Good or Excellent

Over half of Americans (55%) rate Barack Obama’s historic speech in Berlin yesterday good or excellent, and the Democratic presidential candidate is experiencing a modest bounce over John McCain nationally in the latest Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll.

In a new Rassmussen Reports national survey, 26% grade the speech, delivered before an enthusiastic crowd of more than 200,000, as Excellent. Twenty-nine percent (29%) say it was good. Nearly as many (23%) feel it was only Fair, and 18% rate it as Poor. These results are based upon the 50% of voters who had heard or seen coverage of the speech last night.

(snip)

Exactly half (50%) acknowledge having read, seen or heard news about the Berlin speech, while 67% have followed at least somewhat news reports of Obama’s overseas trip that began nearly a week ago and has included stops in Afghanistan and Iraq. He now moves on to Paris and London before coming home. The Berlin speech is the only major address Obama planned to deliver on the trip.

(snip)

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Friday morning shows a bounce for Obama. He now leads his GOP opponent 46% to 41%. This is the first time the Democrat has enjoyed a five-point advantage since July 8.

Pentagon Confirms That It Told Obama He Couldn't Visit Army Base With Campaign Staff

Ta da!!! (I also updated the previous post)

But it turns out that the Pentagon did in fact tell Obama that in this case, it was not only "inappropriate," but against DOD rules, for him to conduct the visit with campaign staff.

"We have longstanding Department of Defense policy in regards to political campaigns and elections," Pentagon spokesperson Elizabeth Hibner told me. "We informed the Obama staff that he was more than welcome to visit as Senator Obama, with Senate staff. However, he could not conduct the visit with campaign staff."

After being told this, the Obama campaign announced yesterday that it had decided it was "inappropriate" to make the visit as part of a campaign trip.

It's unclear how Obama could have made the visit at all, given the Pentagon's directives. No Senate staff was on the trip, and the Obama camp says they received the Pentagon's directives on Wednesday, after they were already abroad.

UPDATE- Staying classy.

From NBC's Jim Miklaszewski
Obama made phone calls to wounded soldiers at Landstuhl Germany this morning, in lieu of a personal visit to the forces that was canceled by the Obama campaign**.

Obama was expected to speak to a number of soldiers individually.

**Not quite dumasses.

McCain/Pentagon sabotaged Obama's military hospital visit?

Kudos to karpaty lviv for venturing over to the dark side to find the transcript from this morning on Bully Joe And His Lapdogs. The background is yesterday the wingers started frothing over a report that Obama had cancelled his visit to Ramstein AFB to visit injured troops. Of course, they gnashed their teeth proclaiming that Obama was more interested in German love than our brave soldiers etc etc. (pick your favorite winger meme and insert- they used them all)

When I was talking to Gotta last night I had already read that there was a legit reason-

Obama senior adviser Robert Gibbs told ABC News in a statement, “During his trip as part of the CODEL to Afghanistan and Iraq, Sen. Obama visited the combat support hospital in the Green Zone in Baghdad and had a number of other visits with the troops. For the second part of his trip, the senator wanted to visit the men and women at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center to express his gratitude for their service and sacrifice. The senator decided out of respect for these servicemen and women that it would be inappropriate to make a stop to visit troops at a U.S. military facility as part of a trip funded by the campaign.”

Seemed legit enough, especially since if Obama had gone the wingers would have just attacked from the opposite direction.

But this morning, Andrea Mitchell on BJ&HL said this-

JOE SCARBOROUGH: It's curious, if that's the case, why the campaign didn't make that announcement yesterday, and allowed stories to go like this. I'm sure there's going to be a lot of he said/she said in the days to come about this.

MITCHELL: But they thought that they couldn't win. Yeah. They thought that they were, you know, you know, no-win situation, that the Pentagon, perhaps the military with cooperation from some Republican operatives and, that's the sort of scuttlebutt, that there have been some foreign policy advisers of John McCain with connections in the Pentagon who had something to do with this. But that is, perhaps, just the normal political paranoia of the season.

Video above is from the Today Show this morning, fast forward to 1:55 to hear what Mitchell is saying about the broohaha now.

So, what do you guys think?

UPDATE- Ta da!!

Pentagon Confirms That It Told Obama He Couldn't Visit Army Base With Campaign Staff

McLookAtMe!

By GottaLaff

McCain says he'd prefer to speak in Germany as president

That's the only way he'd get them to pay attention.