Bush famously kept a 'scorecard' of captured or killed senior suspects in the top drawer of his desk - three sheets of paper with small colour photographs and short bios of men he'd wanted 'dead or alive'. When the CIA or military captured or killed one of the men on his scorecard, Bush would put an X through their profile. The growth and continuation of the GST program was a direct result of Bush's personal commitment to it, which has counterbalanced any calls from within and outside the agency to reform the program or change its course.
Torture Taxi.
Write a wise saying and your name will live forever.
Anonymous
What was the matter, what was the strength? Why did they come out of the darkness to so viciously attack? What was there to be gained? He couldn't have been more amused, smirking, triumphant, glad, although he shouldn't have been, to see the demise of others. They had been so pompous, so convinced of their rightness. Softly, softly, treading light, through the forests of the night. Was that it? A startled face, a cry of relief, an engagement.
They were so similar, they had believed so many diverse things, the wounded, ethereal dragon that reared above the people, ghost-like yet roaring in its own dimension, he was certain of the charm. The Dalai Lama is in town. Soon the Pope. We're becoming a spiritual centre, on the far side of the earth. There was nothing left, frozen shadows in the corner of the sports field, frost and ice patterned on the ground. We grow old, we grow old, we shall wear the bottoms of our trousers rolled.
How much we had hope for; and in the infinite bends, how much had been lost. There was a complex story to be told. He was better off with the Falun Gong, sitting in parks, meditating. There were so many millions of deities. This turbulent spirit was created during the 9th century, was fed by your prayers, the spiritual leader said. He wanted to keep the information away from his parents. He wanted to keep the story secret, at least for now. There was an iron clad answer.
All their lives will be stopped, he heard the voice say. He had always sought a higher plane, even as a child when their house was captured by a fundamentalist Christian philosophy, and we waited each week for the broadcast from America, "this is the world tomorrow", how in awe of it all we were. There were the Reader's Digest books, where good was guaranteed to triumph over evil, where he entered other people's lives but there were no guarantees.
He brought the bird cage along with him, and they were delighted by the gift. All the way from America, they would say, in awe of such a far off place, convinced it really was, it causes nothing but trouble, we shouldn't accept them any more, a pattern of unacceptable behaviour, hiding. We had been promised eternal life if only we obeyed. We weren't the only remote house in a far off suburb influenced by those radio talks. His mother discovered others, and built up a small coterie of fervent friends.
Mr Nobody danced on the rocks above. Barbara Mason grew older in her house down the road, and he grew more interested. Everything seemed to quake with fear and trepidation, but he had no idea why. Nothing could happen in this far off place, surely. America was crime riddled and unsafe. There was a sense of belonging, an insular remoteness. Things were disconnected, thought disordered, but he still wanted the days of good and evil back, he still wanted to curl up safe a million miles from anywhere. Why, he used to ask, did the Americans have the market cornered on Christian truths; was it really true that God had chosen that country above all others to bless?
And why, in our infinite, cringing days, fearful of origins, fearful of causes, frightened of the world at large. Why should you be granted a place in the queue for salvation, when so many others wanted to get in. It was a long time ago, they said, when they were asked to nominate the events that had haunted them. And it was not so much one thing as a series of things, radio broadcasts from across time and space and place. The ugly faces of the barmaids meant he couldn't tell them where he came from. It was all out of order, all a long way off; and what he knew more than anything now, there was no way back.
THE BIGGER STORY:
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23838464-661,00.html
KEVIN Rudd has set himself a new quest - to rid the world of nuclear weapons.
The Prime Minister, who says he has no control over petrol prices, interest rates and childcare costs, believes he can do something about reducing nuclear arms.
Mr Rudd used a historic visit to the Hiroshima atomic bomb site to announce his plan for an international commission on nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament.
Former Labor foreign affairs minister Gareth Evans will co-chair the commission.
Mr Rudd said the commission would revitalise the 40- year-old Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty which was under pressure from countries who either worked around it or, like North Korea, ignored it.
He will invite the Japanese Government to appoint a co-chair to the new commission.
"Hiroshima reminds us of the terrible power of these weapons," Mr Rudd said during a lecture at Kyoto University.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/rudd-dishes-up-charm-smorgasbord/2008/06/10/1212863645085.html
KEVIN RUDD arrived in Tokyo late yesterday for the business end of his trip to Japan and an audience with the Emperor Akihito and the Empress Michiko.
The visit to the Imperial Palace today will be the first by an Australian leader since John Howard in 1999.
Tomorrow Mr Rudd will hold talks with his Japanese counterpart, Yasuo Fukuda. It will be the first time the men have met and the Government hopes it will put to rest continuing claims that Mr Rudd had snubbed Japan and damaged the relationship.
Senior figures pointed out that Mr Howard first visited Japan six months and 14 days after taking office. Mr Rudd arrived six months and 15 days after becoming Prime Minister.
Upon his arrival in Tokyo, Mr Rudd visited an outlet of the giant supermarket chain Aeon, which next month will run a large promotion of Australian food at 256 of its outlets.
The chain and its deep links to Australia, food and agriculture is seen as an important in guaranteeing food security for Japan.
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23844375-5000117,00.html
KEVIN Rudd's ministers were starting to worry about his erratic performance even before his latest big announcements.
So how do you feel today, boys?
Truth is, I'm alarmed, too, by the Prime Minister's latest thought bubbles - a new Asian union and a new committee to rid the world of all nuclear weapons. (Yeah, right.)
Can't the man do something I could praise, if only to let me show I'm fair?
Instead, Rudd is tossing off one half-baked scheme after another in what seems an increasingly manic attempt to distract his growing band of critics.
Consider these two latest plans - and Rudd's terrible misjudgment in visiting the Hiroshima shrine...
Why would nationalistic China want to? And why would we surrender any rights to countries not democratic?..
Even more damning, it was only two hours before his announcement that Rudd asked former diplomat Richard Woolcott to be the regional envoy for the plan, and sell it to the rest of Asia...
That means Rudd's plan is just more of what he's now infamous for - more make-busy bureaucracy that will churn out nothing but paper.
But here is the real worry, beyond the complaints by public servants and (privately) Labor politicians that Rudd is frantically busy doing nothing but spin. It's that he's tailoring even our foreign policy for easy applause.
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