Harsh Interrogations and the CIA

A senior CIA lawyer advised Pentagon officials about the use of harsh interrogation techniques on detainees at Guantanamo Bay in a meeting in late 2002, defending waterboarding and other methods as permissible despite U.S. and international laws banning torture, according to documents released yesterday by congressional investigators.

Torture "is basically subject to perception," CIA counterterrorism lawyer Jonathan Fredman told a group of military and intelligence officials gathered at the U.S.-run detention camp in Cuba on Oct. 2, 2002, according to minutes of the meeting. "If the detainee dies, you're doing it wrong."

The document, one of two dozen released by a Senate panel investigating how Pentagon officials developed the controversial interrogation program introduced at Guantanamo Bay in late 2002, suggests a larger CIA role in advising Defense Department interrogators than was previously known. By the time of the meeting, the CIA already had used waterboarding, which simulates drowning, on at least one terrorism suspect and was holding high-level al-Qaeda detainees in secret prisons overseas -- actions that Bush administration lawyers had approved.

Lynching Jokes and Noose Displays Are Offensive

Reasons Bush's Relief Plan Is Too Little and Too Late

Jon Markman writes:

Now, the problem for most people reading this...online is that the fattest rebate checks probably wouldn't go to you. Sorry, but you probably have a job and a higher-than-average income. The government fears you might do something stupid with the rebate check, like save it.

But, before he writes this, he says,

That rumbling sound you hear coming from Washington, D.C.? It's Treasury Department helicopters packed with bags full of cash about to be dropped on voters, as the federal government prepares to launch a brazen, desperate election-year effort to rescue the economy.

If you thought the government's delayed response to Hurricane Katrina was a study in out-of-control largesse -- replete with no-strings-attached debit cards handed to anyone with a Cajun accent and a damp shirt -- wait until you see what the government has in mind for the rest of us this year.

The latest is President Bush's just-announced call for $145 billion in tax relief aimed at preventing a recession that is actually already here. The intent of the plan is simple: "Letting Americans keep more of their money should increase consumer spending," the president said. Bush said Congress should take steps to implement a stimulus plan as soon as possible.

As you can see from the stock market's response, the plan suffers from being too little, too late.

$145 Billion Dollar Stimulus Package to Give US Economy a 'Shot in the Arm'

Taxi To The Dark Side

The United States Should Have Bombed Railways Leading to Auschwitz, Says President Bush

Aron Heller of the Associated Press writes:

The issue of bombing the Nazi death camps or the rail lines leading to them has been debated for years — and the lack of action was interpreted by some as a sign of Allied indifference.

The Allies had detailed reports about Auschwitz toward the end of World War II from escaped prisoners. But they chose not to bomb the camp, the rail lines, or any of the other Nazi death camps, preferring instead to focus all resources on the broader military effort.

Some experts note only late in the war did the United States have the capability to bomb the infamous camp in occupied Poland, and also faced a moral dilemma since such an operation could kill thousands of prisoners. Even Jewish leaders at the time struggled with the issue and many concluded that loss of innocent lives under such circumstances was justifiable.

Bush twice had tears in his eyes during an hour-long tour of the museum, said Shalev, who guided Bush through the exhibits.

Upon viewing an aerial shot of Auschwitz, taken during the war by U.S. forces, he said Bush called the decision not to bomb it "complex." He then called over Rice to discuss President Franklin D. Roosevelt's decision, clearly pondering the options before rendering an opinion of his own, Shalev told The Associated Press.

Shalev quoted Bush as asking Rice, "Why didn't Roosevelt bomb it?" He said Rice and Bush discussed the matter further and then the president delivered his verdict.

"We should have bombed it," Shalev, speaking in Hebrew, quoted Bush as saying.

Too Little, Too Late? Where Are the Fuel Efficient Cars?

The fuel-efficiency legislation Bush signed into law today increases the federal standard automakers must meet to an industry wide 35 mpg for passengers cars, SUVs and small trucks (by 2020). The standard for cars today is 27.5 mpg and for trucks and SUVs 22.2 mpg.

It requires refineries to increase the use of ethanol from about 6 billion gallons a year this year to 36 billion gallons by 2022 and mandates that by then at least 21 billion gallons are to come from feedstocks other than corn.

How pathetic! I drive a car presently that gets approximately 35 mpg to 37 mpg on average, and I think this is terrible! So the idea that Americans are going to be allowed to continue to drive SUVs and trucks that are humongous both in size and in gas-guzzling for another 13 years is literally horrifying. On top of that, I found out today that my 2006 Scion XA is the last of its kind. Seems Scion has replaced the smaller, more fuel efficient XA with a larger, more gas-eating XD. D as in "deviant." This is presumably to cater to the young, a customer base that Scion has yet to reach. Look around: Most people drving Scion XA and XB are 50-plus! Americans need to accept that we should be driving smaller, fuel efficient cars.

Hundreds of Government Staffers Evacuate Building as Fire Breaks Out

MSNBC reports:

WASHINGTON - A fire broke out near Vice President Dick Cheney's ceremonial office in a building overlooking the White House Wednesday, forcing hundreds of government staffers to evacuate.

Cheney was in the White House with President Bush receiving their morning intelligence briefings when the blaze began and people were evacuated from the executive office building safely, White House officials said.

Smoke billowed from the second floor of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, a hulking granite structure that is part of the White House complex and faces the West Wing of the presidential mansion. Firefighters arrived and quickly brought the blaze under control within an hour.

Mortgage Interest Rate Freeze

WASHINGTON - Hundreds of thousands of strapped homeowners could get some relief from a plan negotiated by the Bush administration to freeze interest rates on subprime mortgages that are scheduled to rise in the coming months.

“There is no perfect solution,” President Bush said Thursday as he announced an agreement hammered out with the mortgage industry. “The homeowners deserve our help. The steps I’ve outlined today are a sensible response to a serious challenge.”

Bush has been accused of moving too slowly to address a crisis that has spread to the broader financial market. But he also was careful not to sound as if he were imposing a government solution and violating his free-market principles. He billed his plan as a voluntary, private-sector arrangement that involves no government money.

Warning Sign: George W Bush on Iran

MSNBC reports:

WASHINGTON - President Bush said Tuesday that the international community should continue to pressure Iran on its nuclear programs, saying Tehran remains dangerous despite a new intelligence report finding it halted its development of a nuclear bomb.

"I view this report as a warning signal that they had the program, they halted the program," Bush said. "The reason why it's a warning signal is they could restart it."

Iraq is Your Fault

Playing Number Games: The War in Iraq

A post on CNN's anti-war agenda by Bob Parks at Canada Free Press...

But think about it. Listening to the major networks and print pubs war coverage is like listening to a football game...

...In war, the traditional way of gauging who is winning or not is, unfortunately, a count of battlefield casualties. It seems logical, the last man standing wins. But as I’ve always had problems with the media and their portrayal of things in the Middle East, I asked one simple question: how many of the enemy have we killed?

We have everyone from activists to actors to congressmen and women to pundits all telling us how many of our servicemen and women have died in Iraq and Afghanistan. People keep score in blogs and even on the sides of their homes, yet we never hear the one number that may put at ease, for some, the sacrifice made by our sons and daughters.

How many of the enemy have we killed? A simple question.

The beauty of being an online columnist is that when you throw a question out there, sometimes someone who knows something about the topic contacts you and gives you the answer, which I’m happy to pass on to you.

Larry Schweikart, Professor of History at the University of Dayton sent me the following:

"Last August, President Bush invited me and a few other military historians to spend an hour with him in the Oval Office. When I brought up this “enemy dead” issue, he shook his head and said, “I’m afraid since Vietnam and the ‘body counts’ we really can’t even use this as a measuring stick [as far as the public was concerned].” It was a sad commentary on how out of whack things got--especially if you think (as I do) that not all Muslims are terrorists. That means there are a finite number, and we have to be getting pretty close to the bottom of the barrel.

Since then, I’ve updated the numbers with refinements and calculate that a low estimate of 30,000 terrorists have been killed since 9/11, and an upperbound number of 60,000. On top of that, between 120 and 240,000 terrorists have been wounded. This is where it gets tricky. Likely because their medicine isn’t as good as ours, they have a higher death rate among wounded, which probably means that instead of 1 out of 8 dying of wounds, it’s more like 3 out of 8, and that number is in my first set of stats. In addition, we have captured close to 50,000 terrorists in Afghanistan and Iraq since 9/11, and since the beginning of hostilities in Iraq, using traditional desertion rates, I figure at least another 10,000 jihadists have put away the old IED and gone home.

So, a low estimate is that we have removed from the order of battle about 210,000 on the low end to 360,000 on the high end. This is an entire generation of jihadists, and will, if nothing else, significantly feminize Muslim society."

More on Extraordinary Rendition: Signed into Law in 1995 by Bill Clinton

"Outsourcing Torture" from THE NEW YORKER