December 18, 2005

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

Hatched by Dafydd

That fellow who just popped up to defend the president -- after several decades of nigh invisibility, during which he learned Esperanto, climbed K2, and took the controls of a Boeing 767 for a two-point landing at Reagan National -- was none other than Secretary Colin Powell, erstwhile Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General of the Army, and Major Pain in the Patootie. A fiery tank with the speed of light, a cloud of glitterati, and a hearty, decaffeinated Kofi Annan... the lone statesman rides again!

Reuters reports that Powell, being interviewed by the BBC, gave a rousing defense of the practice of rendition, whereby terrorist suspects are handed over to a third-party government that is not, perhaps, quite a scrupulous about their "rights" as we're forced to be. Well, "rousing" is relative word, of course; we are still talking about Colin Powell, not Hugh Hewitt:

LONDON (Reuters) - Rendition, the controversial practice of moving terrorism suspects from one country to another, is not new and European governments should not be surprised by it, Colin Powell said on Saturday....

"Most of our European friends cannot be shocked that this kind of thing takes place," Powell told BBC World.

"The fact that we have, over the years, had procedures in place that would deal with people who are responsible for terrorist activities, or suspected of terrorist activities.

"And so the thing that is called rendition is not something that is new or unknown to my European friends."

All of a sudden, the Bush team (present and past) has been galvanized! Bush himself made a powerful speech yesterday, taking full credit for ordering the NSA to eavesdrop on the conversations of foreign temporary residents of the United States who have known connections to al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups. Credit, that is, not blame, as the Democrats evidently anticipated he would play it.

And now Colin Powell drops down from the sky to play CYA for Condoleezza Rice, while twitting his erstwhile allies against Bush -- the Europeans.

Rice also said rendition was a decades-old instrument used by the United States when local governments could not detain or prosecute a suspect, and traditional extradition was not an option.

Of course, being Colin, even his strident defense comes giftwrapped in barbed wire:

Powell also defended the U.S. against charges that it was unilateralist, but acknowledged it did not have a good image around the world at the moment and was going through a period where "public opinion world-wide is against us."

"I think that's a function of some of the policies we have followed in recent years with respect to Iraq and in not solving the Middle East's problem and perhaps the way in which we have communicated our views to the rest of the world," he said.

Darn the luck, we still haven't managed to solve "the Middle East's problem." Still and all, the Dems must be shocked and nonplussed to see Powell defend the honor and integrity of BusHitler: the internationalists may feel how sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless catspaw!

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, December 18, 2005, at the time of 6:08 AM

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Tracked on December 19, 2005 11:50 PM

Comments

The following hissed in response by: hunter

The media here
will simply ignore it.
They are prmoting the lie that rendition was created by this President. The clintons are too corrupt to admit they did it, even though I recall the topic being discussed in the 1990's.
The media is too worthless to give us an actual history of the proactice.
The left wing reactinaries hate this country, and care for the terrorists too much to care.
We are in deep trouble.
I am no longer optimistic about this war or this nation.

The above hissed in response by: hunter [TypeKey Profile Page] at December 18, 2005 7:25 AM

The following hissed in response by: krkrjak

I'm just an ordinary Joe Q. citizen out of this country's 300 million plus population. Like so many of my countrymen I watched in real time with a horror I have never known, the destructive events of 9-11. An enemy attack on the continental United States where the loss of life was greater than that at Pearl Harbor on 12-7-41.Where the economic loss to the country would ultimately run into the 100's of billions of dollars and impact many businesses for years to come. By the 3rd or 4th day of non stop viewing I made an observation that as bad as this event was, in spite of the carnage, in spite of the impact on the economy, in spite of everything that was taking place at that time, it wasn't bad enough for this country's government to take the measures and put into place the necessary policies that would assure that NO event like 9-11 would ever occur on American soil again, ever.
My contention then as now is that this country will not be shaken to its sensibilities until an attack on the country produces a death toll into 10's of thousands, the destruction so severe that the economy will go into free fall and a severe depression will loom for years.
I have also come to the conclusion that as a whole the elected government of this nation is as corrupt as any two bit third world government.
Additionally I've concluded that the Democratic party ranks right up there with the Islamic fascists in their relentless drive to undermine the fabric of this country.
God help us. God Save the USA.

The above hissed in response by: krkrjak [TypeKey Profile Page] at December 18, 2005 4:07 PM

The following hissed in response by: levi from queens

krkrjak -- you are way too pessimistic. Yippie kai Yaaaaah MF.

(Or as WC said, there is a lot of ruin in a country)

The above hissed in response by: levi from queens [TypeKey Profile Page] at December 18, 2005 6:36 PM

The following hissed in response by: krkrjak

levi from queens.

Pessimistic? I think not. I just don't have my head stuck up my a**, MF.

The above hissed in response by: krkrjak [TypeKey Profile Page] at December 18, 2005 7:14 PM

The following hissed in response by: Dafydd ab Hugh

Krkjak:

Come on, no feuding allowed on Big Lizards. I very much enjoy reading your thoughts, but not the attacks.

Why are you so pessimistic? The American people seem to be coming around to the president's side (albeit slowly) on the war, and there is no evidence that the average Joe in the streets thinks that the NSA spying is any big deal.

Thanks,

Dafydd

The above hissed in response by: Dafydd ab Hugh [TypeKey Profile Page] at December 18, 2005 10:21 PM

The following hissed in response by: Bill Faith

Still can't get your trackbacks to work. I linked from Maybe there's Hope for Colin Powell after all.

The above hissed in response by: Bill Faith [TypeKey Profile Page] at December 18, 2005 11:58 PM

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