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September 29, 2006

It's Official.

The torture bill has passed. The only compromise seems to have been that they compromised and agreed to pretend there was a compromise.

Posted by zeynep at 05:13 AM | Comments (1)

September 22, 2006

Be My Friend or I'll Whack You!

Ok, here's what Musharraf said:

NEW YORK - President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan said that after the Sept. 11 attacks the United States threatened to bomb his country if it did not cooperate with America’s campaign against the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Musharraf, in an interview with CBS news magazine show “60 Minutes” that will air Sunday, said the threat came from Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and was given to Musharraf’s intelligence director.

“The intelligence director told me that (Armitage) said, ‘Be prepared to be bombed. Be prepared to go back to the Stone Age,”’ Musharraf said. “I think it was a very rude remark.”

Here's our spin:

Armitage was not immediately available to comment, and a Bush administration official said there would be no comment on a “reported conversation between Mr. Armitage and a Pakistani official.”

But the official said: “After 9/11, Pakistan made a strategic decision to join the war on terror and has since been a steadfast partner in that effort. Pakistan’s commitment to this important endeavor has not wavered and our partnership has widened as a result.”

Let me get this straight. Be our strategic partner, or we'll bomb you back to the stone age. That's how we treat our putative friends.

No wonder we're so popular.

Posted by zeynep at 07:21 AM | Comments (0)

September 17, 2006

Putting Out Fire With Gasoline

These "apologies" crack me up, almost.


"At this time I wish also to add that I am deeply sorry for the reactions in some countries to a few passages of my address at the University of Regensburg, which were considered offensive to the sensibility of Muslims," the pope told pilgrims at his summer palace outside Rome.

So he's sorry about their reaction? Brilliant. Just what the world needs right now.

Posted by zeynep at 03:33 PM | Comments (3)

September 14, 2006

site back up

The site was down for a bit, but it is now sorted out. (If you can read this post, it means I can post!)

I should be able to continue blogging as of this weekend. (Or maybe I should just gather my old posts, change the q's to n's as in Iraq to Iran, and repost them. Hey, the Washington Post does it, printing last year's A17's as this year's A18's.)

Posted by zeynep at 10:12 PM | Comments (1)