US_military – Citizen Reporter

Keep Your Face Out of Our Space

This just in: space does not belong to anyone!

Repeat after me: Space; that place way up there surrounding the earth, does not and can not belong to a person, group of people, or a government of any form.
Is this clear to everyone?

Little George.. are you listening?

Oh no.. what’s he doing? He’s…. I think he’s signing some important document. Oh shit, it is about space. George.. what are you doing… whatcha got there little guy? Why don’t you put the pen down and we can go over how it works again. I’ll even explain the solar system and the planets again, I know all that stuff is hard to remember and even harder to pronounce. Now put that pen down.. what are you signing?.. NOOOOO!

Curious George discovers Space

The United States is committed to the exploration and use of outer space by all nations for peaceful purposes, and for the benefit of all humanity. Consistent with this principle, “peaceful purposes” allow U.S. defense and intelligence-related activities in pursuit of national interests;

US Defence and Intellegence…. “Peaceful Purposes”? George… what are you doing?

The United States rejects any claims to sovereignty by any nation over outer space or celestial bodies, or any portion thereof, and rejects any limitations on the fundamental right of the United States to operate in and acquire data from space;

Remember what we talked about? You can’t have it. And you certainly cannot just put your friends in the military in charge of it.

Somebody please take the pen out of his hand.

(shout out to the spacetramp!)

bm150 Direct from Afghanistan

The news reports indicate the that Taliban is alive and well in Afghanistan. Meanwhile life goes on, the militaries of various nations work in the country, and we are left wondering what is going on. In this program I speak with an Afghani translator for the US military, and ask him what changes he has seen.

No Links Today, interview speaks for itself.

Why Admit It?

There are so many ironies and things that just make no sense in this world, obviously we’ve all noticed that at some point in observing how things work. On the one hand the government, any government, but lets just say the American one – can seem very in control, very underhanded, and very capable of anything. But then something will happen that shows the government is incapable, inefficient, and generally a mess. I just noticed the latest one:

The headline on the BBC reads: Triple Suicide at Guantanamo Camp

Three guys hanged themselves at the Guantanamo Concentration Camp. That in itself isn’t surprising, actually a total of 3 deaths is pretty low for a prison where prisoners are subject to all sorts of torture. But what baffles me is why they admit it. Why tell the world? They rarely let any information about the place out. Even photos are pretty controlled. The military has reported that there have been 41 suicide attemps. Why even admit that? I would have assumed they would never release such information, and claim things are perfect at the prison and all is under control.

But they don’t keep secrets very well. Or somehow information gets out that you can’t believe they actually admit. Maybe it’s even too hard to face the truth for tax paying citizens who fund this torture camp. So the military just reports the shameful truth about prisoners who have no rights and may not have committed any crimes and how their killing themselves to escape the horrors they are subjected to.

If there’s a strategy here… I can barely see it.

Even CNN Can’t Hide Reality

I have a tendancy to stay up til 2am. Actually I tend to stay working on things til 2am, and then I flip on the TV and catch up on either BBCnews, France’s TV5, the occasional Dutch NOVA program, or yes.. like last night – CNN.

My excuse for CNN watching is that its low on the channel list and I can only surf channel up or down. Plus I’m mesmorized by the fact that Larry King has a show that people watch, cause he is perhaps the most useless man on television.

So it’s 2h30am last night… and I’m starting to fade, and the good-looking british-thai anchorwoman tells the audience to be careful, as the following report would have images that might disturb us. – I perked up. Disturbing? On CNN? Would could it be?

The segment was spending a “day” (5 minutes) in an Army hospital in Baghdad. And on this day, injured soldiers with bloody hands and feet and yellow skin were being helicoptered in one-after-another. The doctor would talk to the patients and honestly tell them he may not be able to “save the leg”. There was a good amount of pain sounds; moaning, crying, shouting. All the while I kept thinking — this is on CNN?!

Earlier I had read that the Baghdad morgue was reporting 1,000 deaths per day. And as I rode to frisbee practice, Radio Open Source had journalists working in the “green zone” talking about how everynight there are gunbattles and kidnappings, and every morning you see the bodies in the streets.

I know people compare this to vietnam sometimes. I know other people hate comparisons. However you choose to look at it, I watch reports from all over the world, including from inside Iraq, and what’s going on is truely sad and could have been avoided. Like parents so often (at least they used to!) teach their children, violence is not the way to solve problems.