Wednesday, June 09, 2004
Building a Koan
"Uranium no threat" trumpets the AP headline. "Its radioactivity deemed harmless compared with other materials" is the sub-header. What are they talking about?
Well, it seems some are trying to give the DOJ a hard time about its charges against Jose Padilla, the man arrested in 2002 returning from Afghanistan and Pakistan following receiving instructions from al-Queda leaders. He is a poster boy among some, because the DOJ picked him up outside the US and has been holding him as an enemy combatant without access to legal counsel. In support of the case that Ashcroft and the DOJ are abusing their authority there are certainly those who are trying to make hay while the sun shines by demonstrating how this poor fellow, who really was no threat, is being mistreated. Let us ignore that he posesses nefarious intentions and was a victim of his own incompetence and failure to do a five minute web search to determine a suitable radioisotope, after all, this is a chance to show the DOJ at their most duplicitous and misleading.
"I used a 20-pound brick of uranium as a doorstop in my office"
"There is just no significant radiation hazard"
"It’s the equivalent of blowing up lead"
Let's just see if they remember these quotes the next time somone tries to roll out a DU = WMD story.
Well, it seems some are trying to give the DOJ a hard time about its charges against Jose Padilla, the man arrested in 2002 returning from Afghanistan and Pakistan following receiving instructions from al-Queda leaders. He is a poster boy among some, because the DOJ picked him up outside the US and has been holding him as an enemy combatant without access to legal counsel. In support of the case that Ashcroft and the DOJ are abusing their authority there are certainly those who are trying to make hay while the sun shines by demonstrating how this poor fellow, who really was no threat, is being mistreated. Let us ignore that he posesses nefarious intentions and was a victim of his own incompetence and failure to do a five minute web search to determine a suitable radioisotope, after all, this is a chance to show the DOJ at their most duplicitous and misleading.
"I used a 20-pound brick of uranium as a doorstop in my office"
"There is just no significant radiation hazard"
"It’s the equivalent of blowing up lead"
Let's just see if they remember these quotes the next time somone tries to roll out a DU = WMD story.
