Why is it that telling the truth can sometime bee so hard and painful? As of late I have had a resurgence of old and new people expressing interest in my life. Which to me comes at a very convenient time, due to the fact that I am single and willing to date?
A few weeks ago, one of my x called and ask If I was going to be free on the week end, it so happen that I had nothing planned so I agreed to see her. The time was finally here! Friday so I got out work about 7 o clock, head to 42nd for happy hour with a few friends. Planet Hollywood had a 2 for 1 drink special so we head over there. While I was there drinking my phone kept going off every five minutes and I did not care to look on it, I was not trying to hear nothing from no one that will cut my happy hour short.
So getting tired of the stupid phone vibrating in my pocket, I finally took it out, 7 miss calls and 4 text from my x which I will call L, one of the text read” are we still seeing each other”
The second one read “am I fucking seeing you tonight”
When I saw this I was utterly pissed, I looked at it for about 5 minutes, took another shot of bloody Mary, and proceeded to respond. Which went something like this” did I not say yes about one million times today alone” trying to keep as calm as possible.
She replied” I know how things are always popping up on your schedule and I am always getting put off, so I want to make sure I don’t get dress for nothing” by this time she totally turned me off. I mean what do females think? Why can’t they understand that family and an opportunity to create income will always higher on the list than they will be if they are merely your x in this case or a friend?
The most fun date in sometime:
Do you guys remember the Real Estate agent I wrote about sometime now? She is my online friend of 2years that I was suppose to meet she lied that she was close and took too long to get there and I left.
We finally met last week Friday, finally she was on time, she also looked stunning; I guess that’s sort of a way to make it up for being late that first time. I took her to this really nice restaurant for dinner. She was the most fun person I have ever met in my life, like we were laughing all night, until one time the people next to us starts laughing also, they must have though we were crazy. Our meeting was very short being that I had to get my mom from work yeah I have to pick my mom up. She really hates driving in the city.
So this Friday I will be meeting another one of my x she moved from New York back home with her parents a few months ago, but now she is back in New York City, I am happy she is a great person to hang out with. I hope I have as much fun as last week, or even more being that we know each other, we will be going to the Sea in Williams Burge, it’s a great place to hung out, super awesome crowd of people, even though you have to wait like 2 hours to get a seat at times, its worth it.
I FINALLY GOT A TWITTER YOU CAN FALLOW ME @JACKOSTAIN
Friday, March 27, 2009
MEMO TO MY READERS:
I have recently changed my blog name from life is a journey to the Views of Jermaine Jackson for personal branding reasons.
In life your personal brand is the most important asset. So I take it that since a have a blog that people actually read that it’s only rig that I put my personal stamp on it which is my name. In this case, I also want to publish my post from my personal website but that has not bin activated as yet, so I will continue to write on BlogSpot. When this however is done I will notify you as fallows.
Thanks for reading
Sorry for any inconvenience caused.
In life your personal brand is the most important asset. So I take it that since a have a blog that people actually read that it’s only rig that I put my personal stamp on it which is my name. In this case, I also want to publish my post from my personal website but that has not bin activated as yet, so I will continue to write on BlogSpot. When this however is done I will notify you as fallows.
Thanks for reading
Sorry for any inconvenience caused.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Ending Torture, Cruel and Inhuman Treatment, and Impunity
On July 20, President Bush issued an executive order governing CIA interrogation techniques that keeps the door open to torture and other cruel and inhuman treatment of detainees in American custody. The order does not clearly and specifically end illegal practices: so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques," which have included water boarding, stress positions, hypothermia, sensory deprivation, sleep deprivation and isolation, and holding prisoners in secret CIA "black sites" in order to keep them outside the reach of the law. The U.S. military is now following a transparent Army Field Manual that prohibits many of the abusive interrogation techniques previously authorized by the administration but, to put an end to abuse, a single standard of conduct for all U.S. interrogations – including interrogations by the CIA and private contractors – regardless of location or who is being interrogated is necessary.
Interrogation Practices and Policies
Relying on information provided by current and former CIA officials and supervisors, in November 2005 ABC News reporters Brian Ross and Richard Esposito provided descriptions of several techniques used in CIA interrogations:
• Water Boarding: The prisoner is bound to an inclined board, cellophane is wrapped over his face and water is poured over him. causing the prisoner to experience a terrifying fear of drowning.
• The Cold Cell: The prisoner is left to stand naked in a cell kept near 50 degrees and is repeatedly doused with cold water.
• Long Time Standing: The prisoner is forced to stand, handcuffed and with their feet shackled to an eye bolt in the floor for more than 40 hours, causing both extreme pain and sleep deprivation.
• Attention Slap: An open-handed strike aimed at causing pain and triggering fear.
• The Belly Slap: A hard open-handed strike to the stomach. The aim is to cause
pain, but not internal injury. Doctors consulted advised against using a punch, which could cause lasting internal damage.
Secret Detentions: Over the last several years, the United States has operated a program in which it has held detainees in secret CIA facilities around the world, without acknowledging, even to the detainees’ families, that it has these individuals in custody. The United States has also held prisoners “off the books” in known detention facilities. These practices violate U.S. and international law.
The U.S. Secret Detention Program in Brief:
• According to a number of reports, including an in-depth report by Human Rights
First, the CIA has operated secret detention facilities in a number of places including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Jordan, Morocco, Diego Garcia, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Kosovo, and Macedonia.
• On September 6, 2006, the President publicly acknowledged the existence of the CIA secret detention program, although he has not released the locations of particular facilities to the public or to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). It appears the program is currently operational, with at least one detainee having been held in the program before being transported to Guantanamo in April 2007.
• There are dozens of individuals who are believed to have been detained in CIA
secret facilities whose current whereabouts are unknown.
• The United States has also held detainees in known detention facilities (such as Abu Ghraib) while keeping their names off the official prison rolls and failing to report their presence in those facilities to the ICRC. These prisoners have been called “ghost detainees.”
• At least one “ghost detainee,” Manadel al Jamadi, was killed in November 2003 while in U.S. custody in Iraq.
Private Contractors
It is now widely recognized that an accountability crisis has arisen with respect to private military contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan. While contractors are supposedly working under the laws of armed conflict, there are no consistent training requirements for contractors on the laws of war, there is no oversight checking their conduct against these standards, and essentially no realistic criminal justice accountability when criminal violations occur. A number of bills have been introduced in Congress aimed at addressing these problems. Some initial hearings have been held; more are anticipated. Here are some of the facts on private military contractors:
• DOD currently acknowledges roughly 30,000 U.S. security contractors operating in Iraq, including substantial numbers of ex-patriots from the U.K., South Africa, the Philippines, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Fiji, Chile, and Honduras.
• In concept, these forces are deployed solely for personnel and facility protection, but in one of his final acts as Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld issued a determination including U.S. security contractors as an integral part of the "total combat force" deployed in Iraq.
Private contractors were involved in some of the most serious abuses at Abu Ghraib, as reported in the Fay-Jones Report. Similarly, they have been tied to a large number of cases involving assaults on detainees, and homicides and assaults on the ground in Iraq. Only one single case has been prosecuted – involving a CIA contractor in Afghanistan. Over a dozen cases coming out of Abu Ghraib were investigated by the US Army Crime Records Center (CID) and referred to the Department of Justice with a recommendation for prosecution. No action has been taken on these cases even though investigations were completed roughly two years ago.
Over the past five years the U.S. has transferred detainees to other countries that are known to torture and otherwise abuse prisoners. This process, where transfers are carried out without any judicial or administrative process, has been referred to as “extraordinary rendition.”
The U.S. Rendition Program in Brief
• A number of reports, including an in-depth report by the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, have concluded that the U.S. rendition program has sent individuals to countries — such as Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Pakistan, and Russia — which United States acknowledges engage in torture. There are well documented reports that some individuals rendered to these countries by the United States have been tortured.
• Some of these renditions appear to be for the express purpose of subjecting the detainee to interrogation by officials from the destination country.
• Renditions have also been used to transfer people into U.S. custody, sometimes in secret detention facilities run by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
• U.S. renditions have often been based on questionable “diplomatic assurances” from the destination country that the individual being rendered will not be tortured. Such assurances have proven to be unreliable, and rendered detainees have been tortured even after such assurances were given.
• One well-publicized case involved a Canadian citizen named Maher Arar. U.S. officials apprehended Arar at J.F.K. airport in New York. He was sent to Syria, after Syria reportedly assured the United States that Arar would not be tortured. In Syrian custody, Arar was tortured for ten months, including being beaten and subjected to electric shocks. He was subsequently released and is now living in Canada.
I has to share this report with you guys, I was taken from http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/us_law/etn/elect08/issue.aspx.
Just though i would share this bit of information with you guys.I know we all dont read the government websites.And we all need to be aware of things we do here in the Unites States
Interrogation Practices and Policies
Relying on information provided by current and former CIA officials and supervisors, in November 2005 ABC News reporters Brian Ross and Richard Esposito provided descriptions of several techniques used in CIA interrogations:
• Water Boarding: The prisoner is bound to an inclined board, cellophane is wrapped over his face and water is poured over him. causing the prisoner to experience a terrifying fear of drowning.
• The Cold Cell: The prisoner is left to stand naked in a cell kept near 50 degrees and is repeatedly doused with cold water.
• Long Time Standing: The prisoner is forced to stand, handcuffed and with their feet shackled to an eye bolt in the floor for more than 40 hours, causing both extreme pain and sleep deprivation.
• Attention Slap: An open-handed strike aimed at causing pain and triggering fear.
• The Belly Slap: A hard open-handed strike to the stomach. The aim is to cause
pain, but not internal injury. Doctors consulted advised against using a punch, which could cause lasting internal damage.
Secret Detentions: Over the last several years, the United States has operated a program in which it has held detainees in secret CIA facilities around the world, without acknowledging, even to the detainees’ families, that it has these individuals in custody. The United States has also held prisoners “off the books” in known detention facilities. These practices violate U.S. and international law.
The U.S. Secret Detention Program in Brief:
• According to a number of reports, including an in-depth report by Human Rights
First, the CIA has operated secret detention facilities in a number of places including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Jordan, Morocco, Diego Garcia, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Kosovo, and Macedonia.
• On September 6, 2006, the President publicly acknowledged the existence of the CIA secret detention program, although he has not released the locations of particular facilities to the public or to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). It appears the program is currently operational, with at least one detainee having been held in the program before being transported to Guantanamo in April 2007.
• There are dozens of individuals who are believed to have been detained in CIA
secret facilities whose current whereabouts are unknown.
• The United States has also held detainees in known detention facilities (such as Abu Ghraib) while keeping their names off the official prison rolls and failing to report their presence in those facilities to the ICRC. These prisoners have been called “ghost detainees.”
• At least one “ghost detainee,” Manadel al Jamadi, was killed in November 2003 while in U.S. custody in Iraq.
Private Contractors
It is now widely recognized that an accountability crisis has arisen with respect to private military contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan. While contractors are supposedly working under the laws of armed conflict, there are no consistent training requirements for contractors on the laws of war, there is no oversight checking their conduct against these standards, and essentially no realistic criminal justice accountability when criminal violations occur. A number of bills have been introduced in Congress aimed at addressing these problems. Some initial hearings have been held; more are anticipated. Here are some of the facts on private military contractors:
• DOD currently acknowledges roughly 30,000 U.S. security contractors operating in Iraq, including substantial numbers of ex-patriots from the U.K., South Africa, the Philippines, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Fiji, Chile, and Honduras.
• In concept, these forces are deployed solely for personnel and facility protection, but in one of his final acts as Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld issued a determination including U.S. security contractors as an integral part of the "total combat force" deployed in Iraq.
Private contractors were involved in some of the most serious abuses at Abu Ghraib, as reported in the Fay-Jones Report. Similarly, they have been tied to a large number of cases involving assaults on detainees, and homicides and assaults on the ground in Iraq. Only one single case has been prosecuted – involving a CIA contractor in Afghanistan. Over a dozen cases coming out of Abu Ghraib were investigated by the US Army Crime Records Center (CID) and referred to the Department of Justice with a recommendation for prosecution. No action has been taken on these cases even though investigations were completed roughly two years ago.
Over the past five years the U.S. has transferred detainees to other countries that are known to torture and otherwise abuse prisoners. This process, where transfers are carried out without any judicial or administrative process, has been referred to as “extraordinary rendition.”
The U.S. Rendition Program in Brief
• A number of reports, including an in-depth report by the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, have concluded that the U.S. rendition program has sent individuals to countries — such as Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Pakistan, and Russia — which United States acknowledges engage in torture. There are well documented reports that some individuals rendered to these countries by the United States have been tortured.
• Some of these renditions appear to be for the express purpose of subjecting the detainee to interrogation by officials from the destination country.
• Renditions have also been used to transfer people into U.S. custody, sometimes in secret detention facilities run by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
• U.S. renditions have often been based on questionable “diplomatic assurances” from the destination country that the individual being rendered will not be tortured. Such assurances have proven to be unreliable, and rendered detainees have been tortured even after such assurances were given.
• One well-publicized case involved a Canadian citizen named Maher Arar. U.S. officials apprehended Arar at J.F.K. airport in New York. He was sent to Syria, after Syria reportedly assured the United States that Arar would not be tortured. In Syrian custody, Arar was tortured for ten months, including being beaten and subjected to electric shocks. He was subsequently released and is now living in Canada.
I has to share this report with you guys, I was taken from http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/us_law/etn/elect08/issue.aspx.
Just though i would share this bit of information with you guys.I know we all dont read the government websites.And we all need to be aware of things we do here in the Unites States
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