Why Does Bush Hate The Republican Party?

Tough election coming up. Republicans desperately need to turn out their base. So what do we get from this administration? They go all out to lynch a couple of Border Patrol guys who got into a shoot out with a drug smuggler. Then this.

From the Washington Times:

Inside the Camp Pendleton 8
TODAY'S COLUMNIST
By Rick Amato
August 30, 2006


They've been shackled in chains and held in solitary confinement, their defense attorneys have been denied access to key evidence of the case and now their right to request a waiver of a pre-trial hearing — known as an article 32 — has also been denied. Such has been the treatment of the men known as the Pendleton 8 in their quest to receive a fair, impartial hearing with a true presumption of innocence.
The Pendleton 8 are seven Marines and a naval corpsman being held in a brig at Camp Pendleton while waiting trial on charges of kidnapping and murder. On April 26, they were on an ambush mission in Hamdania, Iraq, designed to snare known local insurgents. The men are charged with allegedly taking an Iraqi villager, 52-year-old Hashim Ibrahim Awad, from his home, kidnapping him, placing him in a hole, shooting him repeatedly and staging the scene to make it appear he was an insurgent planting a bomb. The defendants deny the charges and claim they followed the rules of engagement. The federal government thus far has denied their defense attorneys access to evidence of the crime scene. Allegations are based upon witness accounts of Mr. Awad's neighbors. This case is separate from Haditha, Iraq, case.
"The Article 32 hearing is a sham," said defense attorney Jane Siegal, who represents PFC. John Jodka III. "Because the government has denied our opportunity to waive the 32, it is costing the Jodka family tens of thousands of additional dollars in legal fees. All this so the government can parade its coerced statements in front of the media. Coerced statements paraded in front of the media which will potentially pollute the jury pool."
Ms. Siegal's strategy to waive the article 32 hearing and go directly to trial was based upon her belief that the case is certain to go to trial anyway, so why waste time and money with a pre-trial.
As to the allegation of coerced statements, Pfc. Jodka's father, John Jr., described to me the psychological torture he believes his 20-year-old son has endured: "Immediately after my son was removed from the war zone, literally moments after his rifle was removed from his hands, he was placed in a room for 7 to 7.5 hours — no food, no water, no sleep — and he was told that he was a murderer. They hammered away at him to give statements of what it was they wanted to hear."
Mr. Jodka visits his son every Saturday at the Camp Pendleton brig while balancing his career and family obligations. "JJ has looked me straight in the eye and told me his 100 percent innocent. He continues to maintain his faith in the system and believes the truth will eventually come out."
Said Ms. Seigel of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service: "NCIS was on a mission to place blame and not find the truth. They wanted to make sure that Hamdania did not mimic Haditha. America needs to know that 'there are all kinds of rubber hoses' in the offices at NCIS, and that statements can be extracted from prisoners by using intimidation tactics other than physical force. Ask NCIS why they keep rubber hoses in their offices, and why they think it's funny?"
I did. I called NCIS and asked if rubber hoses were located in their offices and if so, why? NCIS at Camp Pendleton referred me to NCIS headquarters in Washington. NCIS headquarters in Washington told me I would receive an e-mail statement over the weekend. I have yet to receive it. Meanwhile, Ms. Siegal will enter in to evidence a photograph taken at NCIS-Camp Pendleton of a rubber hose on a white board, with the words "my psychological friend" written underneath.
Public perception has been another problem for the imprisoned Marines. First off, with the busy lives we live these days how many people know a Haditha from a Hamdania? Secondly, there is the steady rhetoric of Rep. John Murtha, Pennsylvania Democrat, and the New York Times along with the absolute deafening silence of Republican members of Congress. If it weren't for conservative radio talk-show host Michael Savage and journalist Michelle Malkin there would be no other high-profile voices to counter Mr. Murtha and the NYT.
The government has just completed the construction of a brand new $800k media center at Camp Pendleton. Will this be the scene of a fair, impartial hearing with a true presumption of innocence? Or will this be the scene of a government bent on proving to the world it has the ability to police its own internal affairs? A lot is at stake here. The lives of eight young men are at stake.
Possibly too is the morale of our military. As former marine Leo Chapinsky wrote in this e-mail to me: They recruit you. They train you. They teach you to kill. You kill the enemy and you get treated like the Pendleton 8? Is it any wonder the Marine Corps needs to call up reservists to active duty?

Rick Amato is a San Diego-based radio talk-show host and frequent guest on cable TV news programs.


*********************

Stories like this almost make me wish the Democrats take over congress and impeach Bush.

 

Weird, how they always leap to the "it's for morale" defense, straight off the bat.

This post is about an $800,000 "media centre. "


Pretty cheap spin, imo.

 

American troops in shackles

By Michelle Malkin



http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Did you know there are seven young Marines and a Navy Corpsman sitting in a military brig right now in leg and wrist shackles — despite the fact that they've not been charged with any crime?


The men are in solitary confinement, locked in 8'x8' cells at San Diego's Camp Pendleton, as investigators probe an April 26 incident involving the 3rd Battalion, 5th Regiment, 1st Marine Division. They are behind bars 23 hours a day; family members can only see them through inch-thick Plexiglass. Military blabbermouths have told the press that the service members are suspected of kidnapping and shooting a man in the Iraqi town of Hamandiya. The Iraqi man's family reportedly came forward seeking payment for his death as media hysteria set in over the separate alleged atrocity in Haditha.


These men — our men — may be innocent. They may be guilty. Charges may or may not be filed this week. But this much is certain: The media leaks and the Murtha-fication of the case are already taking a heavy toll on the troops and their families. The headlines have already convicted them: "Iraqi's slaying planned by Marines, official says" and "Marines Planned to Kill Iraqi Civilian, Then Planted Evidence".


The national media ignored a protest by supporters outside Camp Pendletonover the weekend. "I want the Marines to know that they are not forgotten, that people are out here thinking of them," said one attendee. The father of one of the men in custody, Pfc. John J. Jodka, worried: "It appears to me that this is the reaction of some senior people to show 'We're in charge, we're cleaning up our act."


Not a peep heard yet from the American Civil Liberties Union. The website of the self-anointed crusaders for individual rights contains hundreds of articles on the rights of al Qaeda suspects and an indignant press release on the suicides of Guantanamo Bay detainees. But no mention of the Camp Pendleton 8. For their part, human rights groups were too busy shedding tears for the Gitmo terrorist suicide squad and lionizing them as "heroes" in the words of William Goodman of the Center for Constitutional Rights. Editorial cartoonists have been preoccupied desecrating the Marine Corps logo and tarring troops as baby-killers.


A clarion voice stepped into the fray this week to push back against the global rush to judgment against our troops. Ilario Pantano, a Desert Storm vet-turned Wall Street banker and new media entrepreneur-turned reenlisted Marine from Hell's Kitchen, launched his gripping book "Warlord: No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy" this week, which recounts his harrowing ordeal as a Marine smeared and cleared. Last spring, he faced the death penalty for defending himself and his men in the heat of battle and killing two Iraqi insurgents. He was accused then, as Marines are being accused now, of wantonly executing Iraqis to send a message. His family and friends' defense of Pantano was met, as those of Marines are being met now, with incredulity or apathy.


There were no pleas to withhold judgment against Pantano from the New York Times then. No Oprah sitdowns now with the wives and children of accused troops.




As an agitated, condescending Ann Curry of NBC's Today Show tried to paint Pantano Monday as a callous thug, he replied with quiet dignity: "I don't think it's helpful to national security to have this kind of self-flagellation before the facts are actually disclosed."


Innocent until proven guilty? Justice for all? Benefit of the doubt? These are apparently foreign concepts when it comes to Americans in uniform being held on American soil. Perhaps if they proclaimed themselves "conscientious objectors" and converted to Islam they might start getting some sympathy.

 

I think this administration has a penchant for locking up people without charging them... from gitmo to Camp Pendleton. They want to be the judge, the jury, the prosecution, the defense and the executioneer.

 

Typical sophmoric thought process from Malkin.

The military is handling this...

Who is she to now question the military, the same military that she has been blindly supporting at nearly every occasion?

Of course, she would blame the press and the liberals, but the press and liberals have had no effect on how Rumsy conducts the war, nor Bush, nor are they having any effect on how the military goes about their justice system.

If anything at all, and I doubt it, the liberals and the press have tried to give the military some degree of conscience, but after what we saw from the exploitative use of Jessica Lynch, the silence of Abu Gharib until the press did their job, to the lies and then use of Pat Tillman to promote recruiting efforts, etc.

What a crock of shit form the mouth of
Bush shit eater, Malkin...

 

Excellent article by Malkin.

It throws the moonbats' arguments in their faces that Malkin and other conservatives blindly support the military and, by extension, the Bush administration.

Of course some moonbats will come up with ad hominems because they now have to eat their words, but such is to be expected from the lunatic fringe.

 

Liberals' total silence on the deplorable way these soldiers have been treated shows what a lie their "we support the troops" claims are. It also shows once again how their loathing of all things military hurts them politically. Here is a perfect issue to connect with a group they desperately want to garner, the so-called NASCAR dads, white middle class men in red states. Basically the kind of guy who would think that these young soldiers are getting a raw deal. I guess these sodiers would have to be al qaeda terrorists to get any sympathy or concern for their treatment from liberals.

 

Deplorable? Are they being treated like detainees at Gitmo, or like prisoners at Abh Gahrib?

LOL...

Clearly, you have not served in the Armed Forces, and don't understand that their rules are not the same as civillians.

Tell me AAA, frequently hear of soldiers getting out on bail from the brig or being held for questioning, etc?