Wednesday, June 25, 2008

In The Pipeline

If you are a more than occasional reader of my blog, you'll know that normally this space is dedicated to my pointing out how Democrats, and liberals in general, are trying to screw up the country.

However, you probably also know that I recently took a job with Northrop Grumman IT as a BISA System Administrator for the Army in Iraq. So, I am going to start documenting my experiences in Iraq.

Ok, to start, I'm not in Iraq yet. Monday, June 23 was my first day with the company. I spent that day at company headquarters in McLean, VA, learning about the company and benefits, etc. Pretty boring stuff. Tuesday I drove to Camp Dawson, WV, for two days of training on the system I will be working on.

Camp Dawson is located in eastern West Virginia, near the Maryland border, about 100 miles near due south of Pittsburgh. It's an Army National Guard Training Facility. In fact, it's the - wait for it - Robert C. Byrd Army National Guard Training Facility. According to my friend, Dave Manzano, this is where all Army National Guard and Reserve Special Forces units conduct their training.

Today I got my first hands-on with the Biometrics Identification System for Access (BISA). Conceptually, what the Army is doing with biometrics is very similar to what the State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs is doing. The Army is also using very similar or in some cases the same equipment. Obviously, this gives me a leg up in learning about the system.

I have one more day of training then on Friday I'll drive to Pittsburgh, fly to Atlanta and then drive to Ft. Benning, GA in Columbus, GA, on the AL/GA border.

I took some pictures of Camp Dawson which I am going to post in an album on Kodak Gallery. They should be up some time later this evening.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

This just in from Cloud-Cuckooland

I would really like to know why are we taking the word of terrorists over that of our own soldiers.

Today's CNN Homepage features a story declaring that there is no doubt that our soldiers committed torture at Abu Ghraib. Of course, they reprinted the photo of the dog menacing a poor defenseless detainee. (Never mind that there is no evidence the dog's handler ordered his K-9 to attack the subject in question. Minor detail, that.)

What really galled me is this paragraph:

In a 121-page report, the doctors' group said that it uncovered medical evidence of torture, including beatings, electric shock, sleep deprivation, sexual humiliation, sodomy and scores of other abuses.

This report is based on testimony given by former detainees to a Massachusetts-based group, Physicians for Human Rights. The group reached that conclusion after two-day clinical evaluations of 11 former detainees.

What people seem to forget is that all the al-Qaeda training manuals US forces have uncovered so far all instruct detainees to lie about their conditions and claim that they were tortured.

Gee, do you think it's possible that al-Qaeda is trying to manipulate the media?

Nah. Couldn't be.