Comment Central - Times Online - WBLG

Hitchens's waterboarding experience

I doubt many readers of Comment Central approve of the use of waterboarding on subjects being interrogated by the United States.

But still there may be some who confuse support for the war on terror with support for this technique.

If there are then I urge you to read Christopher Hitchens's article on his own waterboarding experience and his encapsulation of the argument against its use:

1. Waterboarding is a deliberate torture technique and has been prosecuted as such by our judicial arm when perpetrated by others.

2. If we allow it and justify it, we cannot complain if it is employed in the future by other regimes on captive U.S. citizens. It is a method of putting American prisoners in harm’s way.

3. It may be a means of extracting information, but it is also a means of extracting junk information. (Mr. Nance told me that he had heard of someone’s being compelled to confess that he was a hermaphrodite. I later had an awful twinge while wondering if I myself could have been “dunked” this far.) To put it briefly, even the C.I.A. sources for the Washington Post story on waterboarding conceded that the information they got out of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was “not all of it reliable.” Just put a pencil line under that last phrase, or commit it to memory.

4. It opens a door that cannot be closed. Once you have posed the notorious “ticking bomb” question, and once you assume that you are in the right, what will you not do? Waterboarding not getting results fast enough? The terrorist’s clock still ticking? Well, then, bring on the thumbscrews and the pincers and the electrodes and the rack.

I agree completely.

It is moral blindness of the worst kind to think that just because I (and Hitchens, of course) share the desire of the US administration to prosecute the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, we should go along with this dreadful practice.

As for those who claim that it isn't torture, Hitchens has this to say:

I apply the Abraham Lincoln test for moral casuistry: “If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong.” Well, then, if waterboarding does not constitute torture, then there is no such thing as torture.

When prison works...

I do hope you didn't miss this great joke from a Times thumbnail portrait of Nelson Mandela:

Ricky Gervais welcomed the man’s impeccable record since release: “And they say prison doesn’t work.”

The 10 most corrupt elections

Robert Mugabe's "remarkable victory" (© John Simpson) has set a new standard in the conduct of election campaigns.

But he is not, of course, alone. Here is Comment Central's top ten list of rigged elections of the post war era.

Please add your own suggestions and then, using the irony and wit for which this blog is renowned, we will hold an internet vote to determine the most rigged election of the modern era.

Here's our list:

1) Saddam Hussein

In 2002, Hussein's officials proclaimed that the president had won every single one of 11,445,638 votes in a referendum on his rule. In the previous election, he had won some 99.96% of the vote. Polling stations dispensed with curtained booths. Voters were grateful for this innovation - no-one wanted to be suspected of voting 'no.'

2) Kenya election

The victory of President Mwai Kibaki in the 2007 Kenyan elections came as a surprise given that he had fallen behind opponent Raila Odinga in every poll. Accusations of invented results, excluded election observers and systematic fraud were made. Violence escalated until rioting was quelled by a power-sharing agreement in February 2008

3) Islamists in Algeria

In December 1991 elections were held in Algeria. The Islamic Salvation Front won the first round with a large majority but the army refused to acknowledge a religious political party. In 1992 the government annulled the election results. This triggered the Algerian Civil War and more than 160,000 deaths over the next decade.

4) The Orange Revolution

When Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych declared victory in an election run-off in November 2004, accusations of vote rigging broke out. It then emerged that opponent Viktor Yushchenko had been poisoned with dioxin, permanently disfiguring his appearance. His orange-clad supporters held mass protests and Yushchenko won the second contest with 52% of the vote. He was sworn in in January 2005. UPDATE: In response to comments, the Orange Revolution was obviously the response to a corrupt election, not corrupt itself.

5) Milosevic's final hurrah:

Slobodan Milosevic thought he was being clever when he moved to a two round system for Presidential elections in 2000. He systematically stuffed ballots and then refused to accept that he had suffered a first round defeat. The resulting demonstrations caused arrests that quickly snowballed. It wasn't long before President Milosevic had changed his name to ex-President Milosevic.

6) The Polish People's Referendum

After the war the Polish State Council organised a referendum designed to help solidify communist control of the country.  Overwhelming yes votes were organised to confirm various aspects of communist policy. The police organised ballot stuffing, while military votes were cast under command. Documents later published showed that the real result was overwhelming defeat for all the communist proposals. About 10,000 Soviet opponents were killed in the two or three years after the war.

7) Egyptian Presidential Election

President Mubarak won this election in 2005 with 88.6% of the vote. It was the first ever election with mutiple parties but the Muslim Brotherhood were barred from taking part. Other irregularities included a failure to use indelible ink on voters hands (so that they could cast their ballots repeatedly) and intimidation at the polling stations. Protests were ignored.

8) Supreme Soviet Elections

The Soviet era held a sucession of corrupt elections where single candidates stood for a rubber-stamp government. It was not until 1989 that Russians were able to vote for anyone other than the official Communist Party candidates. It was the first open election since 1917.

9) Burma

Following rule by the military for three decades, Burma held free elections in May 1990. Aung San Suu Kyi won a landslide victory with 392 out of 489 seats. But the army-led government refused to acknowledge the victory, annulling the results and placing Suu Kyi under house arrest. She has remained there on and off ever since.

10) Nigeria

The April 2007 elections were denounced for widespread intimidation, violence and fraud. Umaru Yar'Adua supposedly took 70% of the vote amid claims that only 30% of the ballot papers had been distributed. In one polling stations, more than 2000 votes were registered despite the fact that there were only 500 voters. Attempts to petition the courts and invalidate the election failed.

The BBC, Zimbabwe and some disturbing reporting

Am I alone in finding the language of the BBC's John Simpson, filing from Harare, disturbing?

Here's what he had to say:

Morgan Tsvangirai, has been completely outmanoeuvred.

And on the BBC's website they report that Mr Simpson added:

that Mr Mugabe is on course for a remarkable victory, when only three months ago he seemed to be on the ropes.

But Mr Tsvangirai has not, in any sense, been outmanoeuvred. He has been bludgeoned out of the race. And Mr Mugabe's prospective "victory" shouldn't be seen as remotely "remarkable". It isn't a victory - because it isn't a free election, it is a charade - and it isn't remarkable since it was always open to Mugabe to use violence rather than democracy.

By reporting as if the events of the last fortnight represented chess moves in a game of election strategy rather than a fascist carrying out a campaign of mass murder, Mr Simpson is framing the events as Zanu PF would like him to frame them.

I think it is time someone in the BBC had a word with him.

UPDATE: When preparing the above post I was using a BBC story which folded in John Simpson's view. Now I have had a chance to read his entire piece. And it is even more extraordinary. Here is how he finishes:

The moral is clear: never underestimate Robert Mugabe's ferocious determination to stay in power, nor the ability of his political opponents to destroy their own case.

What on earth does he mean? In what way have Mr Mugabe's opponents destroyed their case? What a repulsive thing to say.

Earlier in his piece he calls a piece of dark propaganda "well-made". He seems to think Mugabe has been very clever. He hasn't been. He is a murdering thug.

I am not normally someone who fulminates about the BBC. I admire much of its journalism. But this sort of smug reporting of Mugabe's genius is nauseating and a bizarre misunderstanding of the situation

Worried about the economy? Blame it on the stars

The alignment of the constellations hasn't served ousted PM Thaksin Shinawatra all that well recently.

Yet he's still urging the citizens of Thailand to put their faith in the planets as a remedy for political and economic  hardship.

The man who once cancelled his press conferences due to the unfavourable positioning of Mercury cautioned reporters yesterday:

Be patient with this headache of a situation until July 2. When Mars leaves, the current situation will ease up.

No news yet on planetary predictions for his return to power.

Alice Fishburn

What a turkey! Dustin's take on the Lisbon Treaty

The Irish go to the polls today with the eyes of Europe upon them.

And there's one 'no' voter among them who's happy to be back in the spotlight.

Yes, it's Dustin the Turkey. Here's what he said to the Irish Sun:

Isn't a shame there wasn't a third box we could tick that just said: 'What?'

That way they'd have to go back to the table, work out a proper way of explaining the thing, and people would know what it is that's on offer

Given his woeful Eurovision record, this protest may be the best news that the 'yes' lobby have had in some time.

Alice Fishburn

The scale of the Zimbabwe tragedy

Please don't miss Peter Oborne's magnificent piece on Zimbabwe in today's Daily Mail.

Peter has covered the tragedy of that country with necessary relentlessness and courage. His great fear is that the rest of us are forgetting Zimbabwe:

The world's attention has shifted away.

Now, with the focus no longer on him, Mugabe is free to continue this unprecedented campaign of electoral cleansing.

For the past week, having slipped into Zimbabwe as a businessman, I have seen the relentless increase in intimidation from government forces.

I can report that every day it is reaching a new level of intensity, sweeping like a killer virus through the country.

Even by Mugabe's standards, the scale and brutality is horrifying.

He is right. Our attention mustn't wander until Mugabe and his thugs are gone.

Improve Australia: Suggestions needed

Strewth. Who'd have thought it? Kevin Rudd may be about to change the course of Australian history.

His 2020 Summit is shaping up to be a corker. 1000 of Australia's best minds are descending upon Canberra as I type. And the PM has pulled all the strings. Even Cate Blanchett is signed up, despite doing her bit to boost national birth rates just six days ago.

Rudd issued 10 challenges for every Aussie to think about. As a result one can have hours of fun scrolling through the resulting flood of suggestions on the Summit website.

Haroon Siddique has thoughtfully pulled out some of the best but here's a few he missed:

-- Fit all houses with windmills

-- Restore the Gold Standard

-- Get rid of costly and invasive weeds

-- Enforce a bilingual education

-- More housing for ospreys

-- And my personal favourite. Ensure citizens eat nuts/cheese before each meal and chew on celery straight after (in the name of tooth friendliness)

Can you find any better ones? Or send in your own. Australia needs you.

Alice Fishburn

Jimmy Carter off to meet Hamas

Hat Tip: Tom Gross

The language behind the language

It's always green-inducing to read the Correspondent's Diary featured by The Economist. But this week's will make you particularly jealous.

Read as the writer, who speaks a mere seven languages, takes us inside the fabulous polyglot world of the Foreign Correspondent.

Alice Fishburn

MPs who don't have to worry about expenses

Line up for the trivia question of the afternoon.

Which country has the world's richest government? (Hint: 12 billionaires in parliament and counting...)

Pollution: a great achievement for our country

Another surreal and brilliant "news" video from the folks at The Onion. In this one, China celebrates its status as the world's top air polluter. Watch and you won't know whether to laugh or cry.

Alice Fishburn

What did the Dalai Lama give Jeremy Paxman?

Gordon Brown will be missing out on quite an experience if he decides that in order to avoid upsetting the Chinese, he will not meet with the Dalai Lama.

Some years ago at the Hay on Wye Literary festival I heard Jeremy Paxman describe his own encounter with the spiritual leader. 

First he had the Foreign Office boffins on the phone repeatedly to make extensive preparations for a special edition of Start The Week. Said Paxman:

There were all these complicated orders about how he would arrive two minutes before the programme and how he had to be treated with caution.

So we were somewhat startled when he turned up on his own 25 minutes early. Then he asked for a bacon buttie. I was thinking, 'what? I thought you were a Buddhist'. Around 15 people - who claimed they were from the BBC - turned up after the interview to shake his hand.

He went out but then came back in again saying he had forgotten his treasure. He took something out of his bag and shook my hand again. I was thinking, 'no, no I couldn't possibly', opened my hand and it was a toffee.

Then he burst into fits of Sid James-type giggles.

The media remember Medvedev's name. But who are his rivals?

Hillary Clinton might struggle with his name but the Russian media has no such difficulties.

This Economist chart outlines Medvedev's considerable press presence at home.

As the darling of Putin, his media mentions clock in at six times more than his opponents. One possible explanation? The revelation that Medvedev chairs Gazprom, major stakeholder in most media outlets. As the article notes:

The head of the electoral commission admitted on Friday that coverage had been “fair but not equal”.

Alice Fishburn

Top ten reasons why Castro isn't a hero of the left

In an extraordinary statement Harriet Harman, Deputy leader of the Labour Party, says that she believes Fidel Castro to be a "hero of the left".

Here are the top ten reasons why she is wrong.

1. Hero of the left? In the 1960s, Cuba sent homosexuals to forced labour camps. Raul Castro was particularly active in this policy, reputedly because he looked effeminate at the time and wanted to seem more macho

2. Hero of the left? In 2003, Castro oversaw the execution of three men who had hijacked a ferry in a bid to escape from the island. Sounds pretty left wing to me.

3. Hero of the left? During the Cuban missile crisis, Castro urged Khrushchev to launch a nuclear first strike on the American mainland. This is never mentioned by the anti-war campaigners who admire Castro.

4. Hero of the left?  According to the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, in 2006 there were 316 political prisoners in Cuba.

5. Hero of the left? Independent labour unions are illegal in Cuba. Has Harriet told Jack Dromey?

6. Hero of the left? On January 19, 2003, an election was held for the Cuban National Assembly. There were 609 candidates —all supported by the regime— vying for 609 seats.

7. Hero of the left? The purchase of computers and access to the internet is severely restricted with many citizens using black market sources.

8. Hero of the left? In 2003, state security forces raided 22 independent libraries and sent 14 librarians to jail with terms of up to 26 years.

9. Hero of the left? Castro personally has been one of the most conservative forces in the Cuban government. Castro was fiercely opposed to economic reforms of Gorbachev.  At the 4th Cuban Communist Party Congress in 1991, there was a movement for modest liberalisation of the economy - allowing limited market in agricultural products. Fidel immediately scotched any suggestion of it.

10. Hero of the left? Castro’s admirers talk about how the deployment of troops to Angola in 1975 helped defeat apartheid in South Africa. But they don’t discuss the other aspects of his Africa adventures. Notably, how he supported the despicable Mengistu in Ethiopia, which cost enormous number of lives during the war with Somalia.

Harriet Harman has made a dreadful error. She should apologise.

(Hat Tip: The invaluable Oliver Kamm)

Your Castro Reader

As Fidel Castro resigns as Cuban President, we round up some of the best reporting on his five decades in power.

-- Arthur Miller in The Nation: A visit with Castro

-- Jon Lee Anderson in The New Yorker: Fidel's last battle?

-- James Fallows in The Atlantic: Should we boycott Cuba?

-- Anthony DePalma in The New York Times: For a post-Castro Cuba, Castro Lite

-- Christopher Hitchens in Slate: The eighteenth brumaire of the Castro dynasty

-- Daniel Hannan in The Spectator: Last hours of a monster

-- International Herald Tribune: Profile of Fidel Castro Ruz

Taking the PIS out of Poland

There's a brand new word in Poland - depisacja.

It means taking the PIS out of everything. The PIS being the defeated governing party in Poland and the new word referring to the unpicking of the party's web of political patronage.

Over on Open Democracy, Neal Ascherson provides an excellent analysis of the meaning of the election of the centre-right leader Donald Tusk as Poland's new Prime Minister.

He doesn't like the outgoing Government much:

The PiS regime had become a continental embarrassment. Its domestic policies were bigoted and oppressive, from its anti-gay rhetoric to its ruthless, witch-hunting treatment of opponents as anti-Polish and potentially treacherous. Its style in foreign policy was often farcical in its crude nationalism, alienating both neighbouring states and the European Union.

Hugo, did you know...?

Two web facts about Venezuela caught my eye today. The first is this from The Guardian:

Up to a million people on income support will be eligible for half fares on London's buses under Ken Livingstone's oil deal with Hugo Chávez, Venezuela's president.

And while the people of Venezuela are giving foreign aid to Londoners, I noted this on iPienso (via Marginal Revolution):

Caracas, Venezuela - where despite Chavez's "revolution for the poor" the Gini coefficient has increased from 0.44 in 2000 to 0.48 in 2005.

The Gini coefficient is a measure of income inequality.

Land worth fighting over

After Russia staked its claim on the North Pole last week, Foreign Policy list the world's most valuable disputed turf. Well worth a read.

Murad Ahmed

How to read Brown's foreign policy

On the BBC website, World Affairs Correspondent Paul Reynolds writes of Douglas Alexander's foreign policy speech:

Gordon Brown also stressed to the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon, whom he met in London on Thursday, that Britain would always aim at multilateralism in foreign policy, though holding its options open for independent action in the final analysis.

That was perhaps code for - no more Iraqs.

Or perhaps not. Really - what does the statement to Ban Ki Moon mean? How does it differ from Mr Blair's policy? Didn't he aim at multilateralism while holding his options etc?

Obviously, there won't be another Iraq. There was only one Iraq under Tony Blair and I don't think there's going to be another in a hurry.

Does it mean no more Kosovos? No more Sierra Leones?

I think, on careful reading it means...

Nothing.

The worst countries in the world to live in

This is a fascinating resource: Foreign Policy’s Failed States Index. It's a list (and a map you can see above - red is "critical", dark green is "most stable") of the world’s most unstable and failing nations.

So which country do you think comes top? If you said Iraq, you’re wrong...

Murad Ahmed

This needs no comment

From the Telegraph:

"They're firing at us, firing RPGs, firing mortars. We're not Jews," the brother of Jamal Abu Jediyan, a Fatah commander, pleaded during a live telephone conversation with a Palestinian radio station.

Despite providing this excellent reason not to be killed:

Minutes later both men were dragged into the streets and riddled with bullets.

Oh the irony

If ever there was a story about a Canadian trade union conference you should read, this is it.

Murad Ahmed

A couple of cheap shots at Hilary Benn

Hilary Benn, our International Development Secretary, went to the most developed country in the world on Monday to inform them:

In the UK, we do not use the "War on Terror"

As Hugo Rifkind reported, the Home Office Minister Tony McNulty said in response:

I have never said "War on Terror"... but I don't have to go all the way to America to boast about it

Ouch. Cheap shot. I like it. I liked this bit of faux-shock-jockery from Stephen Colbert better though:

Gee, I wonder how a man called Hilary became so obsessed with names

Double ouch. You can watch the rest of his hilarious rant below.

Murad Ahmed

Names update

Bushmen from the Kalahari desert have won a court case in which they accused Botswana's government of illegally moving them from their land.

Their lawyer was Mr Gordon Bennett.

Should American foreign policy change?

Should American foreign policy now change direction? Will it?

The answer given by Robert Kagan in a fabulous FT op-ed is no to both questions.

Kagan argues that:

Americans have always had this unique spur to global involvement, an ideological righteousness that inclines them to meddle in the affairs of others, to seek change, to insist on imposing their avowed “universal principles” usually through peaceful pressures but sometimes through war.

He continues:

This enduring tradition has led Americans into some disasters where they have done more harm than good, and into triumphs where they have done more good than harm.

Exactly.

Kagan is judging American foreign policy by looking at its overall impact rather than by looking at each individual intervention. I think that this is the only way to make a proper judgment.

Later in the same piece, Kagan also challenges the idea of realism in foreign policy. He suggests that the past in which America was realistic and not ideological is mythical.

And a good thing too, I would add. In his fine book on Henry Kissinger, Walter Isaacson argues that Kissinger's view of national interest was too narrow - American values are part of the national interest too.

If Iraq were to end the long era of American idealism and intervention, that would, for all the mistakes that have been made, be a major disaster for human rights and democracy.

Fortunately, Kagan thinks that America can't change.

(Thanks to Clive Davis for the link)

Should Turkey join the EU?

Well, it appears that Pope Benedict XVI now thinks Turkey should join the EU. But is he right? Here in this Times article Anthony Browne makes the case against. Rosemary Righter in another Times article makes the case for. And Norman Stone, the historian, in a characteristically eccentric intervention says Turkey can have Britain's EU membership.

Unlike the Pope I'm an agnostic on this, so what are your thoughts?

Robbie Millen

Sign of the times

We must make a bonfire of oppressive road signs. That was my conclusion after reading Thomas Catan's fascinating report into modern Spain:

In Fuenlabrada, a commuter town on the outskirts of Madrid, authorities are taking aim at other perceived symbols of male domination. The town council has decreed that half of the street signs should show a recognisably female figure. New signs at pedestrian crossings show a stick figure with a skirt and a pony tail, rather than the traditional striding man. “The idea is to change the male signs for female ones as they deteriorate,” said Rosalina Guijarro, the town’s traffic and safety councillor. “That way we will end the sexism that has existed in traffic signs.”

I wonder, though, whether the stick figure will have a shopping basket too?

Robbie Millen