Do You approve of kidnapping, rendition and detention of children - Yes, you read that correctly.

[understandinglife]

Where Are Khalid Sheikh Mohammad's Children ?
by Chacounne
Sun Aug 10, 2008 at 02:10:22 AM PDT

Once again, I find myself unable to sleep, because once again I am haunted by the image in my mind's eye.

Every day, several times a day, I am haunted by an image of two little boys, the sons of Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, who were kidnapped when they were 7 and 9 years old and turned over to the CIA. They have been gone for almost six years, think about that SIX YEARS. We don't even know if they are alive or dead. They are held in YOUR NAME. There are reports that they have been tortured, using insects and food deprivation. Please, demand of your Congressional Representative and your Senators that they ask publically for an accounting of these two little boys who are now teenagers, having spent almost half their lives in US custody.

<clip>

March 10 2003
By Olga Craig
Kuwait

Two young sons of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of the September 11 attacks, are being used by the CIA to force their father to talk.

Yousef al-Khalid, 9, and his brother, Abed al-Khalid, 7, were donetaken into custody in Pakistan in September when intelligence officers raided a flat in Karachi where their father had been hiding.

Mohammed fled just hours before the raid but his sons and another senior al-Qaeda member were found cowering behind a wardrobe in the apartment.

The boys have been held by the Pakistani authorities but this weekend they were flown to America where they will be questioned about their father. CIA interrogators confirmed that the boys were staying at a secret address where they were being encouraged to talk about their father's activities. "We are handling them with kid gloves," said one official. "After all, they are only little children, but we need to know as much about their father's recent activities as possible. We have child psychologists on hand at all times and they are given the best of care."

<clip>

Also,

and please take whatever action you can to bring this to the attention of the Obama campaign and to your respective Congressional representatives.

Peace,
Bob

[midnight]

1. We only care about children who are important. Now that

application of importance depends. Is this child important because they can be used to further a political agenda. What agenda? That too is fluid. That means it is also dependent on what is needed. So essentially we are using children as tools to further an agenda. And the answer to your question is NO!!!I do not approve of kidnapping, rendition and detention of children.

[understandinglife]

2. I'd suggest that "using" anyone, irrespective of their age, is unethical, at minimum.

At least, that's how I approach others.

I suppose that's your point.

Good to know your answer to my question is, No.

Peace,
Bob

[understandinglife]

26. In case any of you think McShame will behave any better, I urge you to view the following:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdJUCU1UH2w

And, do check all the comments at Terri's dKos post: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/8/10/153314/656/229/565225

At no time in the history of the Republic has the choice been so starkly clear - Obama or more murder, more torture, more children destroyed, more ................... everything horrible that you can possibly imagine, and then some.

Peace,
Bob

[rucognizant]

30. I WILL REMIND YOU ALL!

Dems. COULD have nominated Kucinich in a landslide..............................

[rucognizant]

31. see.............

At 5'7" he is one inch taller than John McCain.

[Tindalos]

3. Do You approve of kidnapping, rendition and detention of children?

Let me go on the record here.

NO!

Never. Under no circumstances. NO!

[Thothmes]

18. We have done it before

How many Japanese American children did we send to concentration camps 1n 1942.

[Tindalos]

20. It was wrong then.

It is wrong now.

Some things never change.

[NNN0LHI]

4. That is why I don't understand why Bush had Khalid Sheikh Mohammed tortured?

He would have admitted to anything while Bush had his children in custody. I would have too.

Was the torture just for someone to get their jollies?

Don

[barbtries]

5. no, no,

a thousand times no. how do these people sleep?!

[MissWaverly]

6. America does not approve of Bush 2000

we have been dragged by the Supreme Court who appointed Bush as president down this road. There has been lies, brutality, war crimes and obstruction of justice at every turn. Do I approve of child abuse in any form, NO. Do I approve of seizing people off the street without a warrant, NO. Do I approve of torture by the US government, NO.

[Zodiak]

7. Remember this question in Congress?

"Does the President have the authority to have a child's testicles crushed?"

Perhaps the question wasn't hypothetical.

[understandinglife]

11. No action, no matter how cruel, is remotely 'hypothetical' for the neconsters.

They leave no reasonable doubt that they will do anything for more $$$ and more control.

That is the Bush, Cheney legacy - despotic, insatiable greed, and mass murder.

Enabled by a population of me-me-me's drug'd on TV and represented by a largely complicit, and often, co-crimial Congress and SCOTUS.

The comeuppance of America is going to be really ugly, harsh and decades long - and that's the optimistic view based on a majority of us spending those decades striving to bring to justice those guilty of the crimes and reparation to those harmed by us.

Peace,
Bob

p.s. Oh, and yes, I remember that "hypothetical" and remember the rush of emesis it induced.

[Hydra]

37. I heard rumors at the time that it wasn't "hypothetical"

And I never doubted it. You don't talk about legal justification for abhorrent acts on an idle basis.

Still, there were here some who insisted that Bushco deserved the benefit of the doubt until hard evidence came to light...they are deserving of no "benefit of the doubt," as the evidence has proven at every point.

[Solly Mack]

8. No but my government does

[EFerrari]

9. I don't believe the change will come through the campaign

through Congress or through the party. It will have to be extra-political and so, harder for lack of network, process or organization.

Reprieve is doing good work. Clive Stafford Smith's group: www.reprieve.org

He testified at this hearing (aka, CSPAN Theatre):

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=3323015

[elehhhhna]

10. it they're not naughty terrorists, they have nothing to fear

riiiiiiiight?

[mod mom]

12. It makes me sick to my stomach. The people behind this atrocity must be forced

to face justice or this will forever tarnish this entire nation. To the Hague with these criminals.

[northamericancitizen]

13. K & R

[file83]

14. Now, I may be giving the CIA the benefit of the doubt here, but think about it...

...these are kids. 7 and 9. As fucked as the CIA is, I don't see them harming these kids. More than likely, the reason nobody knows of their where abouts is because they don't want harm to come to the kids. Kind of like FBI witness protection program stuff.

That's my guess. They are probably in high school now doing fine.

[NNN0LHI]

15. probably in high school now doing fine - SAY WHAT! Yea they are probably at Disneyland

Would you have the same confidence and be giving the same benefit of the doubt if some comparable agency from Iran were holding your children incommunicado for 5 or 6 years?

Don

[understandinglife]

16. Perfect response. Thank you.

Peace,
Bob

[iconicgnom]

28. wow. you dreamer.

[mikehiggins]

32. YOu are too generous in your assesment. THey are likely dead.

Like the princes in the tower, the kids would be an embarrassment to the Powers That Be. How long after they might be released would the stories begin to circulate about torture, physical abuse, sexual abuse, whatever. After the embarrassment of those prisons becoming public knowledge what case officer would want to be responsible for providing "our enemies" with two perfect symbols of the worst that the Bushoids can do.

The kids are probably long dead.

[barbtries]

35. they harmed them

just by taking custody of them and taking them away from their homes. how much love and nurturing you think the CIA gave these kids? i too doubt that they had their testicles crushed, but they were taken and kept for the information they could provide about their father. they harmed them even if they didn't physically torture them. little boys. aaarrrgh

[judasdisney]

17. Spare the rod, spoil the child

Now we see where unchallenged "conservative values" lead. Sick of "conservative values" yet?

I'm going to lay blame for this at the doorstep of Pelosi & Reid, because this alone merits impeachment and beyond.

[understandinglife]

19. I suggest you "knock on their doors" instead ... and deliver your message to them.

They are just as complicit as any who would look the other way in the face of all the evidence we have of Bush and the neoconsters' crimes.

Worse ... they are sworn to protect us from such abuses and they have both failed. And, all their excuses are just that, excuses in the face of vast criminality.

Thank you,
Bob

[slipslidingaway]

21. Kick :( n/t

[puebloknot]

22. K&R " ... and they are given the best of care." Right! nt

[spanone]

23. not in my name.....in the name of george w. bu$h*

[Usrename]

24. What's the difference between Saddam and Dubya?

Dubya is born-again.

[understandinglife]

25. Saddam is dead. Bush continues to kill, daily.

Just for starters.

Peace,
Bob

[jeff30997]

34. I know:

He was born again dumber than the first time.

[jjr5]

27. Whoah, this is HORRIBLE!

Kids? Come on!! This administration has to go

[countryjake]

29. War crime #5638, the list has fallen off the table & rolls across the floor...

I will take this latest one to my friends and neighbors, spread the word, but the total disgust, which I'm sure will be their response, somehow doesn't mean a thing to those who claim to represent us.

Our names, our feelings on this latest atrocity are dirt to our government, just as are the lives of those innocent children, the helplessness of those they've imprisoned, the pain of the tortured, the despair of nations that've been bombed to oblivion and the oppression of countries that the USA "successfully" occupies.

This country is a disgrace and a threat to humanity. And it will remain so come next January, unless we the people stand up and demand accountability, refocus on truth and justice, stop the warmongering, and insist on the end of corporate rule. Nothing less will do and that is the only way any of us can bring about a true "change".

[jeff30997]

33. God bless Murka.

[Time for change]

36. No

I'm almost positive that it is a crime against international law.

The Bush administration has not only kidnapped and detained children, it has also tortured them:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=2547893

Pentagon spokesman told Mr. Hersh that “age is not a determining factor in detention”…

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/11128331/follow_omar_khadr_from_an_al_qaeda_childhood_to_a_gitmo_cell/4

While he was at Guantanamo, Omar was beaten in the head, nearly suffocated, threatened with having his clothes taken indefinitely and, as at Bagram, lunged at by attack dogs while wearing a bag over his head…

When he was not being tortured or held in isolation, Omar spent virtually every waking minute of his captivity at Guantanamo alone in his cell...

After visiting six of the twenty five or so U.S. prisons, the International Committee of the Red Cross reported registering 107 detainees under the age of eighteen, some as young as eight years old…. The international Red Cross, Amnesty International, and the Pentagon have gathered substantial testimony of torture of children, confirmed by soldiers who witnessed or participated in the abuse….

Children like this eleven-year old have been denied the right to see their parents, a lawyer, or anyone else, and were not told why they were detained…

[Liberal Dose]

38. Besides the usual phone calls to my reps

I would like to know what I can do to help hasten the release of these and any other children who have been kidnapped by this nation of "values". Beyond sickening. Beyond outrageous. :cry:

Edited to make "value" "values"

[DutchLiberal]

39. The most terrible thing I've ever read...

I get so angry every time I read about the enormous crimes this administration has committed. Each new crime is more disgusting than the previous.

I get so mad whenever I read on other forums that "this administration has never committed any crime", and when I let those freepers read things like this, they say it's either cooked up by "the left" or they don't care, because it's acceptable in the "war on terror".

And of course no voice in the MSM brings stories like these, which angers me.

[The Stranger]

40. K&R

[countryjake]

41. kick