Reply #10: Hall of Shame [View All]

[RainDog]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1013789,00.html

"Convicted felons responsible for thousands of deaths are calling the shots at the White House
The announcement that Admiral John Poindexter's latest brainwave - to encourage betting on the likelihood of a terrorist attack - had been terminated was characteristically bland. It began: "The Director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced today that DARPA's participation in the Futures Markets Applied to Prediction (FutureMAP) program has been withdrawn". The language does not betray the repugnant nature of the project, but then Poindexter is expert at disguising repugnant projects in bland language.
He came to prominence in the Reagan administration, where the word "freedom" was used to justify renewed support for Latin American military dictatorships guilty of some of the most egregious human rights abuses on the planet. President Jimmy Carter had frozen them out, but Ronald Reagan's election meant a renewed round of invitations to Pentagon cocktail parties for Latin American torturers...
It would be wrong to argue that convicted felons should not get a second chance. But this usually requires payment of a debt to society and even remorse, something Poindexter has never shown...In Washington, under this administration, the crimes of the past have been the passport to power; the methods, far from being discarded, have merely been refined."