“On May 24 [2005], Irene Khan, the Secretary General of Amnesty International, denounced Guantanamo as ‘the gulag of our times.’ [President] Bush called the accusation ‘absurd.’ ” – Jane Mayer, The Dark Side, Page 312 […]
5/18/2005
“It is no wonder that initially even bin Laden was reluctant to agree to a merger between [militant Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s organization] al-Tawhid wa al-Jihad in Iraq and Al Qaeda because of Zarqawi’s excessive sectarianism and bloodletting; Zarqawi not only excommunicates believers but also justifies collateral killing of Muslims ‘in order to ward off […]
5/18/2005
Al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi justified the deaths of Iraqi civilians in insurgency attacks “in an audio recording on 18 May 2005: ‘The shedding of Muslim blood…is allowed in order to avoid the greater evil of disrupting jihad.’ “ – Abdel Bari Atwan, The Secret History of al Qaeda, Page 286 […]
5/18/2005
Al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab “al-Zarqawi’s agenda was to prove even more radical than that of the al Qaeda leadership; in May [18] 2005, firmly under the al Qaeda banner, al-Zarqawi declared that ‘collateral killing (of Muslims) is justified under dharura [overriding necessity].’ He can also be ‘credited’ with bringing a new level […]
5/16/2005
“In May 2005 Newsweek had published an article accusing U.S. soldiers at Guantanamo of desecrating a copy of the Koran by flushing it down a toilet. The story had turned out to be false, and Newsweek had subsequently retracted it [on May 16, 2005]–but not before it sparked violent protests against the United States in […]
5/16/2005
” ‘Our dependence on foreign oil is like a foreign tax on the American dream,’ said [President] George Bush in May [16] 2005, declaring that the US urgently needs to find alternative energy sources.” – Abdel Bari Atwan, The Secret History of al Qaeda, Page 217 […]
5/15/2005
“In May [15] 2005, James Bennet of the New York Times observed, ‘The insurgents in Iraq are showing little interest in winning hearts and minds among the majority of Iraqis, in building international legitimacy, or in articulating a governing program or even a unified ideology or cause beyond expelling the Americans. …This surge in the […]
5/15/2005
“In the [Assistant Attorney General Jay] Bybee memo [of August 1, 2002], and in three others from May 2005 signed by the OLC’s [Office of Legal Counsel’s] Steven G. Bradbury, the lawyers argue that none of these enhanced interrogation techniques…amount to torture as CIA advocates have attested to them. The reasoning turns on the parsing […]
5/15/2005
“In May 2005, Newsweek magazine reported that guards in Guantanamo had thrown a Koran in a toilet, sparking riots in the Muslim world.” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.] – Jane Mayer, The Dark Side, Page 312 […]
5/12/2005
“Col. Thomas Pappas, head of the Military Intelligence brigade at Abu Ghraib [prison in Iraq], was ultimately relieved of his command after receiving [on May 12, 2005] an administrative punishment of a fine of $8,000 under Art. 15 of the UCMJ [Uniform Code of Military Justice] for two instances of dereliction of duty. He also […]