Iraqi detainees walk through shower runoff water while being transferred between compounds
at the Abu Ghraib Prison on the outskirts of Baghdad, today. Soldiers said that many of the
detainees have become sick because of the unhygenic conditions, but within the next week,
they are scheduled to be moved into a new and improved facility within the prison compound.
The CBS newsmagazine 60 Minutes II (8 p.m. Wednesday) has obtained the video diary of a soldier talking about conditions at Camp Bucca and Abu Ghraib in Iraq, where Iraqi prisoners are currently being held.
It was “60 Minutes II” that first aired pictures two weeks ago of prisoners being abused at Abu Ghraib, igniting a political firestorm.
“We’ve already had two prisoners die … but who cares?” the soldier says on the tape. “That’s two less for me to worry about.” The tape reflects the soldier’s ‘dislike’ for the prison camp and the prisoners, according to CBS.
“I hate it here,” she says. “I want to come home. I want to be a civilian again. We actually shot two prisoners today. One got shot in the chest for swinging a pole against our people on the feed team. One got shot in the arm. We don’t know if the one we shot in the chest is dead yet.”
Tech Update: Things You Oughta Know If You Own a Computer
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In this periodic round-up of the latest information on web/tech issues, and how new and wondrous computer facilities will enhance your computing life, we start with …
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A plan by Microsoft to include Windows-based, built-in worm removal tools as a new feature, tentatively called ‘Microsoft Update’, is on schedule for release by year’s end. With the proliferation of destructive worms like Blaster, NetSky and Sasser escalating daily to pose an ever-greater threat to home users, Microsoft will release the new Microsoft Critical Update as part of a larger Windows Update patch yet to come.
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From PC Mag: 68 Tips & Tricks for Windows, ranging from moving the My Documents folder to another partition (or another physical drive) so that in the event of a reformat you won’t lose this valuable information, to Windows keyboard shortcuts to help make your computing life much more efficient. And, as if these salutary hints weren’t enough, PC Mag also offers 106 tips and tricks for your Microsoft Word.
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Do you know what phishing is? Well, it’s a disturbing evolution in a fast-growing wave of e-mail scams that involves an attempt to get you, or others, to reveal a credit-card number, online banking password, or other personal information
Brian Livingston at Brian’s Buzz provides details on how to defeat the nefarious Internet scam artists who have developed a way to make your browser’s address bar say that you’re viewing a legitimate Web site — when you’re actually visiting a malicious site instead.
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As for that nasty Sasser worm that infected millions of computers over the course of the past month, Microsoft’s $5 million fund for rewarding informants for leads on virus attacks snagged its first success with the arrest of an 18-year-old man, Sven Jaschan, in Germany who has confessed to the release of the virus.
And, apparently, he did it all for his mom. A-a-h-h-h.
According to this C|NET News.com story the German whiz kid was simply trying to “drum up business for his mother, Veronika.” We don’t write this stuff, folks; we just report it (with thanks to Michael Klassen for passing along the C|NET story to VanRamblings).
Of course, as always, there’s more to report on the web/tech front. But VanRamblings will leave further reports for another time. See ya next week.
Standing Up For The Little Guy Against The Big Rich Obnoxious Guy
Standing up for the little guy against the big rich obnoxious guy: that’s the mission of blogs, don’t you think? Or, at least it should be.
Three satirical, American-based websites — which have been written about before on VanRamblings — have taken on this ‘class warfare’ task as their raison d’être. The creative forces behind the sites are a self-described collection of misfits, sitting in their underwear in front of their computers, publishing snarky, and timely, commentary — and to date have proved wildly successful in their mission.
Gawker, Wonkette and, the newest West Coast member of the gossip family, Defamer obsessively catalogue the superficial (whether it be about politicians or movie stars); get the scoop on, and take to task, poncy journalists and illiberal celebrities; and comment on American fauna of every variety for “smart consumers, smart readers who still love trash but want to know the real deal.”
Choire Sicha, the creative force behind the blog Gawker.com, says that job one for Defamer is “to cover the industry. We want to know the whole travails of Michael Eisner at Disney, about pilots, (and) box office.”
In the course of his NPR radio interview with Madeleine Brand, Sicha admits that “we say ridiculous, foolish things all the time, and I think that’s the way it should be on the web. It’s moving fast, we want to have breaking news first, and we want to have seat-of-the-pants reactions.”
Rape of Iraqi Women by U.S. Occupation Forces
 Lyin’ bastard: “It’s a stain on our country’s honor and our country’s reputation.” — President George W. Bush on war prisoner abuse. |
The misery of Iraqi men and women — both within and outside of the prison system — continues at the hands of the U.S. occupation forces, and all President Bush can do is tell the world that his Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, is a great man who defends the interests of the American people.
And, even in the face of the photos of Iraqi prisoner abuse which have been all over the media for the past week; a visceral attack on the Bush administration by former counterrorism director Richard A. Clarke, just six weeks ago; chaos and internecine warfare occurring within the senior ranks of the White House; and even as the U.S., and the world, braces itself for new disturbing accounts of Iraqi prisoner abuse, a full 46 per cent of the American people support their President, and the job he is doing.
Maybe the following revelations will cause a few among those 46% to reconsider their opinion of Bush.
From Talk Left: Sydney Australia’s Indy Media has photos allegedly depicting Iraqi women being raped by U.S. Military Intelligence personnel and private U.S. mercenaries in military fatigues.
Update: Although VanRamblings took down the photos alleging rape of Iraqi women by U.S. forces earlier this month, as we are no longer certain that the photos are not, in fact, real, the photos have been reposted. We would ask that you read the note at the top of the photo linking page.