{"id":2659,"date":"2004-07-09T01:59:55","date_gmt":"2004-07-09T15:59:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2004\/07\/09\/two-from-this-modern-world\/"},"modified":"2019-12-10T16:41:22","modified_gmt":"2019-12-11T00:41:22","slug":"two-from-this-modern-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2004\/07\/09\/two-from-this-modern-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Two from This Modern World"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='__iawmlf-post-loop-links' style='display:none;' data-iawmlf-post-links='[{&quot;id&quot;:10619,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.thismodernworld.com&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20260304125314\\\/http:\\\/\\\/thismodernworld.com\\\/&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-11 06:42:21&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:503},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-17 00:11:29&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:503},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-29 17:48:18&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-02 23:13:47&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-02 23:13:47&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:10620,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.thismodernworld.com\\\/weblog\\\/mtarchives\\\/week_2004_07_04.html#001636&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/thismodernworld.com\\\/weblog\\\/mtarchives\\\/week_2004_07_04.html&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:10621,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.tnr.com\\\/doc.mhtml?i=20040719&amp;s=aaj071904&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/newrepublic.com\\\/doc.mhtml?i=20040719&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:10622,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.thismodernworld.com\\\/weblog\\\/mtarchives\\\/week_2004_07_04.html#001637&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/thismodernworld.com\\\/weblog\\\/mtarchives\\\/week_2004_07_04.html&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;}]'><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thismodernworld.com\/\" title=\"This Modern World\">This Modern World<\/a>, currently under the stewardship of Bob Harris as Tom Tomorrow moves, kicks today off with two equally incindiary articles (though each for different reasons).<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thismodernworld.com\/weblog\/mtarchives\/week_2004_07_04.html#001636\" title=\"arrest of Bin Laden requested for late July -- to disrupt the Democratic convention\">Item one<\/a>: According to The New Republic, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tnr.com\/doc.mhtml?i=20040719&amp;s=aaj071904\" title=\"July Surprise?\">Bush requests Bin Laden&#8217;s capture in time for elections<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Okay, this one isn&#8217;t a surprise in the &#8220;gee, I didn&#8217;t see that coming&#8221; category&#8230;more in the &#8220;I can&#8217;t believe they&#8217;re this blatant about it&#8221; category.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\n  This spring, the administration significantly increased its pressure on Pakistan to kill or capture Osama bin Laden, his deputy, Ayman Al Zawahiri, or the Taliban&#8217;s Mullah Mohammed Omar, all of whom are believed to be hiding in the lawless tribal areas of Pakistan.<\/p>\n<p>  &#91;&#8230;&#93;<\/p>\n<p>  This public pressure would be appropriate, even laudable, had it not been accompanied by an unseemly private insistence that the Pakistanis deliver these high-value targets (HVTs) before Americans go to the polls in November. &#8230;The New Republic has learned that Pakistani security officials have been told they must produce HVTs by the election. According to one source in Pakistan&#8217;s powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), &#8220;The Pakistani government is really desperate and wants to flush out bin Laden and his associates after the latest pressures from the U.S. administration to deliver before the &#91;upcoming&#93; U.S. elections.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>  &#91;&#8230;&#93;<\/p>\n<p>  A third source, an official who works under ISI&#8217;s director, Lieutenant General Ehsan ul-Haq, informed tnr that the Pakistanis &#8220;have been told at every level that apprehension or killing of HVTs before &#91;the&#93; election is &#91;an&#93; absolute must.&#8221; What&#8217;s more, this source claims that Bush administration officials have told their Pakistani counterparts they have a date in mind for announcing this achievement: &#8220;The last ten days of July deadline has been given repeatedly by visitors to Islamabad and during &#91;ul-Haq&#8217;s&#93; meetings in Washington.&#8221; &#8230;according to this ISI official, a White House aide told ul-Haq last spring that &#8220;it would be best if the arrest or killing of &#91;any&#93; HVT were announced on twenty-six, twenty-seven, or twenty-eight July&#8221;&#8211;the first three days of the Democratic National Convention in Boston.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thismodernworld.com\/weblog\/mtarchives\/week_2004_07_04.html#001637\" title=\"German TV news report (and take a deep breath, folks): Children at Abu Ghraib\">Item Two<\/a>: Children held and possibly tortured or abused in Abu Gahraib?<\/p>\n<p>This one started with a German news report, and has started to find its way around the world&#8217;s news sites &#8212; at least, those not in the U.S. &#8212; and may potentially threaten Norway&#8217;s relations with the U.S.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\n  Three days ago, a German TV newsmagazine called Report Mainz broadcast an eight-minute segment reporting that the International Red Cross found at least 107 children in coaliton-administered detention centers in Iraq.<\/p>\n<p>  The report also quotes from a yet-unpublished June 2004 UNICEF report, which (as near as I can tell through my crappy German) confirms that children were routinely arrested and &#8220;interned&#8221; in a camp in Um-Qasr. UNICEF seems particularly vexed with the &#8220;internment&#8221; status, since that means indefinite detention.<\/p>\n<p>  Another storm seems about to begin. Possibly a large one.<\/p>\n<p>  &#91;&#8230;&#93;<\/p>\n<p>  Hit the Norwegian links, and you&#8217;ll find that the local Amnesty International has stated that &#8220;Norway can not continue its military collaboration with the US in light of the alleged torture of children.&#8221; Norway actually listens to its activists; you&#8217;ll find that the Prime Minister&#8217;s office says it plans to address the situation with the U.S. &#8220;in a very severe and direct way.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>  If this ain&#8217;t news, I don&#8217;t know what the hell is.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Okay, so maybe these aren&#8217;t the cheeriest stories to start your day with. Sorry about that. I&#8217;ll see if I can do better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This Modern World kicks today off with two equally incindiary articles. Item one: According to The New Republic, Bush requests Bin Laden&#8217;s capture in time for elections. Item Two: Children held and possibly tortured or abused in Abu Gahraib?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2042],"tags":[14],"class_list":["post-2659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2659\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}