Author: R J Adams

Once again blogging pal Al Devito at Vineyard Views has come up trumps with a short item revealing that Amnesty International claims the CIA is holding the sons of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

Yousef al-Khalid and Abed al-Khalid were nine and seven years old respectively when they were initially captured by Pakistani forces in 2002, but were flown to a secret address in the US in September 2003, according to a report of the time in the British newspaper, Daily Telegraph.

According to Amnesty International:

“In September 2002, Yusuf al-Khalid (then nine years old) and Abed al-Khalid (then seven years old) were reportedly apprehended by Pakistani security forces during an attempted capture of their father, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was successfully apprehended several months later, and the U.S. government has acknowledged that he was in the U.S. Secret Detention Program. He is presently held at Guantánamo Bay. In an April 16, 2007 statement, Ali Khan (father of Majid Khan, a detainee who the U.S. government has acknowledged was in the U.S. Secret Detention Program and is presently held at Guantánamo Bay) indicated that Yusef and Abed al-Khalid had been held in the same location in which Majid Khan and Majid’s brother Mohammed were detained in March/April 2003. Mohammed was detained by Pakistani officials for approximately one month after his apprehension on March 5, 2003 ………. Ali Khan’s statement indicates that:

Also according to Mohammed, he and Majid were detained in the same place where two of Khalid Sheik Mohammed’s young children, ages about 6 and 8, were held. The Pakistani guards told my son that the boys were kept in a separate area upstairs, and were denied food and water by other guards. They were also mentally tortured by having ants or other creatures put on their legs to scare them and get them to say where their father was hiding.

After Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s arrest in March 2003, Yusuf and Abed Al Khalid were reportedly transferred out of Pakistan in U.S. custody. The children were allegedly being sent for questioning about their father’s activities and to be used by the United States as leverage to force their father to co-operate with the United States. A press report on March 10, 2003 confirmed that CIA interrogators had detained the children and that one official explained that:

“We are handling them with kid gloves. 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.”

Yusef and Abed are now fourteen and twelve years respectively. Where are they? Are they still being held by the CIA? Have they been returned to their mother in Pakistan?

No-one seems to have answers to those questions. Or, if they have, they’re choosing not to reveal them.

In a so-called “civilized society”, it is unacceptable to use and abuse young children to obtain information about a parent.

In the case of Yusef and Abed Al Khalid it would seem America is happy to conform to Exodus 20:v5 and visit the iniquities of the father upon the children.

Filed under: Child abuse

Unlike many bloggers today, Sparrow Chat refuses to be drawn into the petty furor surrounding Ann Coulter and the Edwards family. This blog is concerned with real issues that should matter to everyone, Americans and non-Americans alike.

The spoiled brats of this world, most of whom appear to originate in this nation, such as Coulter and Limbaugh, have no interest in intellectual discussion. Their sole raison d’etre is to publicize themselves. They are egos desperate for the limelight. Their deepest fear is of being ignored.

Of far greater interest is the case of Mary Lou Robles, an Arizona lady who works in the snack bar of a Californian prison. Last week, Mary Lou Robles sliced a watermelon in two and discovered the Virgin Mary hiding inside.

Mary’s family (not the Virgin’s) immediately recognized who it was when they were shown the watermelon. Her co-workers, however, skeptics to the core, laughed and told her to throw it away.

Close scrutiny of the fruit definitely indicates a figure of some sort embedded in the flesh, although it’s somewhat difficult to recognize the Virgin Mary. Of course, no photographs of the lady being available means her appearance is open to speculation.

But wait! With the help of a magnifying glass and…..yes, I do believe……no, Mary Lou I’m afraid you’re wrong. It’s not the Virgin Mary at all. What threw me was the lack of halo, but it’s definitely no virgin.

If I’m not mistaken, the woman in the watermelon is none other than……Ann Coulter!”

Anyone else out there see the resemblance?

Well, hey! Come on! I have it on good authority that cow’s no virgin either.

For the story of Mary Lou Robles click HERE.

Anyone wishing a reference link to Ann Coulter won’t find it on this blog, but for those who need it, a tale of some other Americans with similarly bad taste is available HERE.

Filed under: Melted assets

Ever since the Iraq war began there has been a cry from the heart of America. It began as a whimper, link but has been steadily growing in volume until today that cry can be heard throughout the nation. It is a cry from the lips of mothers, malady fathers, order wives, sons and daughters. It is a cry from the lips of all who hate the very idea of war; the festering sore that tears at our humanity.

The cry rang out loudly at the last elections when Republicans were trounced in the polls and the Democrats promised Americans the earth, but reneged as soon as they attained office. But the cry can still be heard, and most Americans believe that one day – some day – the politicians will have to listen.

“Bring The Troops Back Home!”

Sparrow Chat has written on more than one occasion of the unlikelihood of that cry ever being acknowledged by those in power. While frequently indicating the desire for an American withdrawal, there have been no illusions on these pages as to the probability. No-one builds an embassy the size of Vatican City only to leave it to the desert sands.

Every article written here, expressing that view, has evoked total silence from commentators not wishing to accept the possibility it might be true. Those who have spent months and years in stressful protestation, endured insult and sometimes physical abuse in the pursuit of peace, have a right to expect their voice will be heard; that, when enough are gathered to the cause in a democratic society, their wishes will be acted on.

Sparrow Chat has always maintained they will be ignored. The troops will not come home from Iraq. They will remain to ensure the safety of the oil men; they will die to keep the pipelines intact.

America is no longer a democracy. It makes little difference who is voted into office, the policies will always be the same.

At times it has seemed a lonely stance, when all around are calling for withdrawal, celebrating political change, dancing to a Democrat tune; to stand, apparently alone, hardly daring to suggest the calls, celebrations, dances were nothing but a wasted effort.

Now, it seems there are others daring to make a similar suggestion. Sparrow Chat is no longer isolated in thinking the unthinkable.

It brings no joy, no welling of an inner satisfaction. Only a dim hope, a forlorn desire to be wrong:

Filed under: Imperial America