Eric Umansky

Profile

My college alumni magazine has done a profile of me, my preference for procrastination, and my weird work hours. (Warning: It's a PDF file.)

By the way, a correction:  It didn't take me a decade to graduate college--just nine years!

Also, here's my lastest Pajamas podcast. I had a nice chat with  La Shawn Barber and Daniel Drezner about the banking story, Hamas, and that wierd Bus Uncle video.

UPDATE: Still stuck on a deadline, back after  fireworks week...

The Buried Bench Slap

The Supreme Court just ripped the administration a new one on its treatment of detainees. And--contrary to the headlines--the conclusion that the tribunals are illegal may be the least of it.

As SCOTUSblog explains, the court also  held that  the administration must  abide by Geneva  Convention provisions that ban "outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment."

That's a far stricter standard than set by the McCain anti-torture amendment.  and means the Court has just concluded that many of the government's continuing tactics--like say, waterboarding--are illegal.

Who knows how that will play out and what impact if any it will ultimately have on treatment.  But it's a good decision and a good day for America.

P.S. In still in the middle of writing a big piece. So posting is still going to be light for the next few weeks.

Iraqi Casualty Count

From the Iraq Press Monitor:

FOUR DAYS, 262 BODIES
(Al-Taakhi) The Iraqi health ministry has announced that it has received 262 corpses within the last four days as a result of armed operations all over the country. In its casualty report covering the period June 22 to 25 June, the ministry said 262 Iraqi citizens died and 580 were injured.

The report did not count people known to have been abducted and murdered but whose bodies have not been found yet. The ministry received 1,000 corpses in April and 1,500 in May. (Al-Taakhi is issued daily by the Kurdistan Democratic Party.)

It's About Hamas In-fighting

In the latest Bloggingheads, Bob Wright   mentions reports that the Israeli soldier was kidnapped by  Hamas  militants who were trying to head off Hamas politicians joining with President Abbas and signing onto a plan that implicitly recognizes Israel.

And the news this morning:

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- The rival Hamas and Fatah movements agreed on a plan implicitly recognizing Israel, a top Palestinian official said Tuesday after weeks of acrimonious negotiations aiming to lift crippling international aid sanctions.

I've said it before: Hamas is not a monolith. You have militants who are at least nominally controlled by exiled leaders and then you have the more moderate forces who are in government. They're fighting. Understand that and it all begins to make sense.

Chopper Troubles

Back in 1999, I wrote a piece for Mother Jones about how a much-hyped "upgrade" to the Apache attack helicopter that added a big radar,  making the chopper  so darn heavy that as a GAO report put it, the radar will  "decrease the helicopter's ability to evade enemy fire, thereby decreasing survivability."

Fast forward seven years and Apache pilots in Iraq have decided that--surprise!--the upgraded Apaches are so darn heavy, they're de-upgrading them, removing the fancy new radars:

The radar weighs 1,500 pounds and makes the Apache sluggish in hot and high-altitude environments -- really the only places the Army fights anymore. Aviators are cool with flying without their radars since the things were designed for taking out Soviet tanks. "It was designed for a different fight than we're finding ourselves in now," Lt. Col. Mark Patterson told Defense News.

This is part of a larger problem: a weapons proccurment system that puts a premium on big, expensive items that Congress loves (jobs!), regardless of how well suited they are for the kind of wars we're facing.

 

Media Mention

I'll be on NPR's Day to Day today tomorrow talking about "Iraq fatigue" and the media. It's a recorded interview and as of mid-day you should able to hear it here.

Little Noticed Padilla Development

From the AP, last week:

A federal judge ordered prosecutors Tuesday to turn over more detailed evidence to back up allegations that Jose Padilla and two codefendants conspired to kill, injure or kidnap people overseas as part of a global Islamic terrorist network.

U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke said she agreed with many of the claims made by defense attorneys that the federal indictment against Padilla and the others is ''very light on facts'' that would link the defendants to specific acts of terrorism or victims....

The judge's order came despite arguments from Brian Frazier, an assistant U.S. attorney, that most of the specifics were being turned over already, mainly in the form of more than 225 key phone intercepts. And, he contended, there were 80 specific illegal acts alleged in the indictment.

So the judge--who was appointed by President Bush--says the "evidence" against Padilla is so stinky that prosecutors  need more before they can even go to a trial. And the prosecutor suggests..."this is all we got."

Let's see if that really turns out to be the case. Because if it does,  we're in for some fun headlines.

Congress's Helping Hand in Iraq

Amnesty for insurgents is key for any "reconciliation" plan in Iraq. Two weeks ago, Prime Minister Maliki floated just an amnesty (including for those who killed U.S. troops). But when he actually unveiled the plan yesterday, the "amnesty" had super-mushy language that had "gone through several revisions."

What changed in the interim: a congressional vote opposing amnesty.

P.S. I don't think the mushy language is all that bad. After all, who knows who attacked whom. But it's as much about the tone of  message you're sending as the substance.  And to the degree that Congress--via Ambassador Khalilzad--helped make that tone less inclusive, that's bad.

Understanding Pyonyang's Missile Show

First of all, we don't know what the hell is on that missile pad or whether they have any intention of launching it. But they are certainly putting on a big show. Roll a missile out and tons of spy satellites will pick it up. The North Koreans know that. So why would they do it? Here's the little-appreciated part. Mentioned in the NYT:

North Korea's aim for the past five years has been to force the Bush administration into one-on-one talks, something President Bush has always refused to agree to. For the first three years of his administration, he refused to deal with the country at all.

Why, again, won't we sit down mano-a-mano?   

Man at Work: Light Posting Ahead

I have a Slate retreat thing to attend, where, I suspect, blogging during meetings is frowned upon.

I'm also entering the "where's our friggin' story" phase of a big assigmment. Post will probably be light for the...the next....few weeks.