At a certain point . . . I'm not sure
what point, but there is a point . . . you just have to say, "Well, it was fun, but the Good Ship Lollypop is sailing, and I plan to be on board."
What are you supposed to do when the Real World puts George Orwell to shame? I'm almost out of outrage. I'm outraged-out. I want to out-Herod Herod; but there's no more gas in my tank.
Want to see me mix my metaphors even more? Colorless Green Ideas Sleep Furiously. Okay, I didn't even make that one up.
This diary will commence making sense after the flip.
Guess what "NLEC" stands for. I dare you.
At DailyKos, we're pretty good at making up acronyms. In fact, a lot of you are much better than I am. It took me days to figure out what "IOIYAR" meant. Heck, I even had trouble with "IMHO."
But none of us is responsible for this murder of the English language, decency, and basic humanity. "NLEC." As I suggested, George Orwell would blush at the very idea of this one.
Washington Post:
4 Men Cleared of Terrorism Links but Still Detained
No Explanation Or Timetable for Release Given
By Josh White and Julie Tate
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, May 20, 2006; Page A18
The May 5 release of Chinese Muslims from the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, leaves four men there who have been cleared of all connections to terrorism but continue to live in a legal limbo, with no indication of when they will be freed, according to the captives' attorneys and military documents.
The government considers the men ready for outright release -- "no longer enemy combatants" (NLECs) in military jargon. In fact, 38 detainees, 5 percent of the 759 prisoners ever held at Guantanamo Bay, have officially earned NLEC status since the island prison opened in early 2002.
They are men such as Zakirjan Hassam, an Uzbek refugee who was sold to U.S. forces in Afghanistan for $5,000 in May 2002 by people he mistakenly believed would shelter him. He ended up in Guantanamo Bay the following month and is still there today.
According to the U.S. military, Hassam is not an enemy, and a military tribunal decided in 2004 that his stay at Guantanamo Bay had been based on inaccurate information. There is no evidence that Hassam took up arms against anyone or that he ever supported terrorism, and his only apparent link to alleged terrorist groups were conversations with fellow detainees during his imprisonment at Guantanamo Bay, according to testimony by Hassam that is not disputed by the government.
"He's lost four years of his life for being in the wrong place at the wrong time and for being sold to U.S. forces," said Christopher Moore, a New York lawyer who represents Hassam.
Oh, I'm not done.
See, when an NLEC attempts suicide, it's a fake suicide attempt.
AP:
Prisoners Attack Guards at Guantanamo Bay
By BEN FOX, AP
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (May 19) - Prisoners with makeshift weapons battled guards trying to save a detainee pretending to commit suicide at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in what military officials said Friday was a coordinated attack that left six prisoners injured.
Ok, ok, ok. I don't actually know whether the non-person who did not attempt to kill himself is an NLEC or an EC. And of course I have no reason to doubt military officials when they tell me what the non-actions of non-people who might or might not be NLEC's in non-armies whom we, somehow, are at war with (but not really, the non-people are not POWs) are*.
*"Are" refers to "non-actions" in that last sentence, not people. There are no people here.
Or rather, there are non-people here. Who are not trying to kill themselves. Non-selves.
Mr. Orwell, meet Mr. Suess.
God, it's early on a Saturday morning.
Could e.e. cummings make this shit up?
And all I'm doing is relaying some non-news.
