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12/28/2008

wtf>Cheney Admits He 'Signed Off' on Waterboarding of 3 Gitmo Prisoners

Author's note: The statements Cheney made this week during an interview with the Washington Times about his role in approving the waterboarding of three Guantanamo detainees and the so-called "enhanced interrogation" of 33 prisoners was, disturbingly, not covered at all by the mainstream media.

Also published at my web magazine, The Public Record.

Vice President Dick Cheney, in another stunning admission during his campaign to burnish the Bush administration’s legacy, said he personally authorized the “enhanced interrogations” of 33 suspected terrorist detainees and approved the waterboarding of three so-called “high-value” prisoners.

“I signed off on it; others did, as well, too,” Cheney said about the waterboarding, a practice of simulated drowning done by strapping a person to a board, covering the face with a cloth and then pouring water over it, a torture technique dating back at least to the Spanish Inquisition. The victim feels as if he is drowning.

Cheney identified the three waterboarded detainees as al-Qaeda figures Abu Zubaydah, Khalid Sheik Mohammed and al Nashiri. “That's it, those three guys,” Cheney said in an interview with the right-wing Washington Times.

Other detainees at secret CIA prisons and at Guantanamo Bay were subjected to harsh treatment, including being stripped naked, forced into painful stress positions, placed in extremes of heat or cold and prevented from sleeping – actions that international human rights organizations, and previously the U.S. government, have denounced as torture and illegal abuse.

“I thought that it was absolutely the right thing to do,” Cheney said of what he called the “enhanced interrogation” of the detainees. “I thought the [administration’s] legal opinions that were rendered [endorsing the harsh treatment] were sound. I think the techniques were reasonable in terms of what they [the CIA interrogators] were asking to be able to do. And I think it produced the desired result.”

Cheney also took issue with the notion that waterboarding was torture.

“Was it torture? I don't believe it was torture,” Cheney said. “The CIA handled itself, I think, very appropriately. They came to us in the administration, talked to me, talked to others in the administration, about what they felt they needed to do in order to obtain the intelligence that we believe these people were in possession of.”

Other experts, including some military and intelligence interrogators, have disputed Cheney’s claims of success in extracting reliable information through waterboarding and other harsh techniques. Much of the confessed information turned out to be dubious or incorrect.

The First Case

Zubaydah was the first “war on terror” detainee to be subjected to the Bush administration’s waterboarding, according to Pentagon and Justice Department documents, news reports and several books written about the Bush administration’s interrogation methods.

However, according to author Ron Suskind who interviewed CIA and other insiders, Abu Zubaydah was not the "high-value detainee" that the Bush administration had claimed. Rather, Zubaydah was a minor player in the al-Qaeda organization, handling travel for associates and their families, Suskind wrote in his book The One Percent Doctrine.

Nevertheless, Suskind said President George W. Bush became obsessed with Zubaydah and the information he might have about pending terrorist plots against the United States.

"Bush was fixated on how to get Zubaydah to tell us the truth," Suskind wrote. Bush questioned one CIA briefer, "Do some of these harsh methods really work?"

Abu Zubaydah's captors soon discovered that their prisoner was mentally ill and knew nothing about terrorist operations or impending plots. That realization was "echoed at the top of CIA and was, of course, briefed to the President and Vice President," Suskind wrote.

But Bush did not want to "lose face" because he had stated Zubaydah’s importance publicly, according to Suskind.

WARONYOU

11/07/2008

Breaking News: Rahm Emanuel Confirmed

Via Politico:

Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), a wily, aggressive West Wing strategist
under President Bill Clinton, has accepted the post of White House
chief of staff for President-elect Barack Obama, Democratic officials
tell Politico.
The selection is the first major public decision by Obama since he was elected in a landslide on Tuesday.
The announcement will send a signal that Obama is eager to work with
Congress and plans a swift launch of an aggressive agenda that will
focus on the economy, taxes, energy, education and health care.

More here...

7/14/2008

Terrorism officers on patrol in Arizona

John Leptich, TribuneTerrorism liaison officers have been getting a lot of attention in the national press lately. But the bottom line of what they do is basically old-fashioned police work, according to the state police coordinating the effort in Arizona.The TLOs, as they are called, keep their eyes and ears open for any suspicious activity.The [...]

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[Source: Breaking News from WarOnYou.com - Posted by The King Of Videos; VIDZ KING]

Barack Obamas civilian national security force ????

Back on July 2, Barack Obama read his “public service” address, and it contained this line that hasn’t received much notice:“We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we’ve set… We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, [...]

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[Source: Breaking News from WarOnYou.com - Posted by The King Of Videos; VIDZ KING]

US school rebuked for ibuprofen strip search

Wow there really getting ridiculous.

A divided US appeals court has ruled an Arizona school violated the constitutional rights of a 13-year-old student by conducting a strip search for ibuprofen.

Suspecting that a student had violated a policy against prescription or over-the-counter drug...

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[Source: Breaking News from WarOnYou.com - Posted by The King Of Videos; VIDZ KING]

Blimp recruited for interdictions at sea

Blimp recruited for interdictions at sea
THE GOVERNMENT LOOKS TO A LUMBERING BLIMP TO BOOST INTERDICTIONS OFF FLORIDA'S COAST

BOCA CHICA --
The Skyship 600 blimp has been a headturning advertisement for Fuji Film, rock band Pink Floyd and Ron Paul..

Now the 197-foot airship that looks like a gigantic white balloon features only an American flag.

The blimp's latest lessee: the U.S. government.

In a $1.6 million collaborative test project conducted by the Navy, Coast Guard and newly created National Office of Global Maritime Situational Awareness, the blimp has been equipped with radar, sensors and electro-optical infrared cameras to provide six weeks of surveillance of the Florida Straits.

The goal is to catch drug smugglers, immigrant smugglers and environmental law breakers, as well as to aid in search-and-rescue missions at sea.

The test is to determine if the blimp can provide the surveillance information efficiently and economically.

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[Source: Breaking News from WarOnYou.com - Posted by The King Of Videos; VIDZ KING]

7/12/2008

Dropping the peg

An Abu Dhabi policy report makes the case for being rid of the Gulf peg to the dollar

The official position of the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) that the fixed peg to the US dollar will remain in place until monetary union is achieved has never looked entirely convincing. It has suffered a further blow to its credibility with publication of a report by a department of the Abu Dhabi government suggesting that the time has come for a serious rethink of GCC monetary policy, including revaluation and a shift to a basket of international currencies as an exchange-rate reference point.

The report, issued by Abu Dhabi's Department of Planning and Economy (DPE), marks the first time that any government body in the GCC has openly advocated ditching the peg since Kuwait went its own way in early 2007 by tying the Kuwaiti dinar to a currency basket. It is unlikely to presage an immediate change in policy, but it suggests that the option of revaluation during the transition to monetary union could be given serious consideration when GCC finance ministers meet in September, ahead of this year's summit in November. ...

McCains Econ Brain: America Has Become A Nation Of Whiners And Is Just In A

McCains Econ Brain: America Has Become A Nation Of Whiners And Is Just In A Mental
Thursday, July 10, 2008 In an interview with the Washington Times today, former senator Phil Gramm, who is Sen. John McCains (R-AZ) econ brain, blamed the state...

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[Source: Breaking News from WarOnYou.com - Posted by Mint Dollar- The Federal Reserves Worst NightMare]

Pentagon Pundits Scandal: Ignored

The The New York Times broke a sensational story about the Pentagon’s involvement in a secret plan to influence Iraq War media coverage through paid military pundits, yet the rest of the media has largely ignored this incredibly important revelation. This video by Free Press helps to expose some of the dishonesty of the cable [...]

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[Source: Breaking News from WarOnYou.com - Posted by Mint Dollar- The Federal Reserves Worst NightMare]

Temple dispute

Relations between Cambodia and Thailand may come under strain

On July 7th Cambodia's Preah Vihear temple was designated a World Heritage Site by the UN Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). This is a major victory for the Cambodian government. The prime minister, Hun Sen, is using the success to build political capital ahead of the general election scheduled for July 27th. However, the issue has also provoked a surge in nationalism in both Cambodia and Thailand, raising serious concerns of another severe breakdown in bilateral ties.

Relations between Cambodia and Thailand have been strained since 2003, when anti-Thai riots erupted in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, after a Thai actress reportedly said that the Angkor Wat temple complex--Cambodia's national symbol--was stolen from Thailand. Now another row is brewing over a different temple. Sovereignty over the Preah Vihear temple, which is located on the two countries' border, has been long been a contentious issue. The core dispute was officially settled in 1962 by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which determined that the temple belongs to Cambodia. Crucially, however, the ICJ did not rule on the overlapping claims to 4.6 sq km of land surrounding the temple, and the two sides have yet to reach any agreement on the matter. ...

Pima County, AZ, Transportation Election Was Rigged, According to Affidavit from

Pima County, AZ, Transportation Election Was Rigged, According to Affidavit from County Employee

Pima County, Arizona, Diebold vote tabulation system was manipulated to "pass" a 2006 ballot initiative when, in fact, the measure was actually vote...

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[Source: Breaking News from WarOnYou.com - Posted by Mint Dollar- The Federal Reserves Worst NightMare]

Kenyan shuffle

Kenya's finance minister quits, at least temporarily

Kenya's finance minister has stepped aside, but insists this is only a temporary measure. A long hiatus could prove politically and economically damaging.

The Kenyan finance minister, Amos Kimunya, stepped aside on July 8th pending an investigation into the sale of the Grand Regency hotel. The hotel was sold to Libyan buyers without a public bidding process and for some US$45m, as against a recorded value of US$115m. The finance minister had insisted that he would not resign unless other politicians--including the prime minister, Raila Odinga--did likewise, but Mr Kimunya's position was judged untenable after he lost a parliamentary vote of no-confidence over the issue and a government inquiry led by the attorney-general recommended his suspension. ...

Federal judges decision renders Bush a felon

Last night on MSNBC’s Coundown, George Washington law professor Jonathan Turley noted that just this week, a federal judge rejected President Bush’s claim that his “constitutional authority as commander in chief trumped” the FISA wiretapping law. Judge Vaughn Walker explicitly stated that the President is bound by FISACongress appears clearly to have intended to [...]

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[Source: Breaking News from WarOnYou.com - Posted by Mint Dollar- The Federal Reserves Worst NightMare]

7/05/2008

McCain on McCain's Lack Of Economic Knowledge

McCain on McCain's Lack Of Economic Knowledge
Source: MSNBC Countdown with Olbermann 07/02/2008
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[Source: Breaking News from WarOnYou.com - Posted by Mint Dollar- The Federal Reserves Worst NightMare]

New Zealand's economy

Rising inflation and fears of a recession

New Zealand's economy contracted in the first quarter of 2008, raising fears of a recession and adding to the general atmosphere of gloom caused by a cooling housing market, high interest rates and rising inflation. The weakening economic outlook increases the problems facing the Labour government as it seeks re-election later in 2008.

Data from Statistics New Zealand, a government agency, published on June 27th show an almost uniformly abysmal economic performance in January-March 2008. On an output basis--the government's preferred measure because it is less volatile than expenditure-based GDP--the economy contracted by 0.3% in real terms from the previous quarter. This was the first contraction since late 2005, made worse by the fact that the previous quarter's growth rate was revised down from 1% to 0.8%. The economy's performance in expenditure terms was even poorer, with real GDP contracting by 0.6% after a gain of 0.5% in the October-December quarter. ...

Upheaval in Mongolia

Allegations of electoral fraud lead to riots in Mongolia and the declaration of a state of emergency

On July 1st Mongolia's president, Nambarin Enkhbayar, declared a four-day state of emergency. Violence broke out after unofficial results showed that the ruling Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP) had won a clear majority in the June 29th elections. Although international observers have reportedly said that the elections were free and fair, the opposition Democratic Party (DP) has accused the MPRP of electoral fraud and rejected the unofficial tally.

It is too early to tell whether the protests will escalate into a full-blown political crisis. It is clear, however, that Mongolia can ill afford a prolonged period of political instability. The government urgently needs to tackle the country's economic problems, especially endemic poverty and a recent spike in inflation, and to approve legislation that is expected to result in huge foreign investments in the mining sector. Meanwhile, political uncertainty could also alienate foreign donors who have been eager to support the fledgling democracy. ...

5 Ways to Unload a Gas-Guzzling SUV

How to quickly unload your gas guzzler without taking too much of a financial hit.

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[Source: Breaking News from WarOnYou.com - Posted by Mint Dollar- The Federal Reserves Worst NightMare]

Cuba's slowing economy

How rising costs are hampering Cuban growth

Rising international prices of food and fuel, which account for around 40% of Cuban import spending, are affecting domestic output. The vice-president, Carlos Lage, reported in June that he expects the food import bill to leap from US$1.47bn in 2007 to US$2.55bn in 2008. Most of the food is distributed by the subsidised ration system, so the burden of higher prices (including a threefold increase in the price of rice) is absorbed mainly by the state budget. This has forced a reduction in public investment, which is likely to constrain GDP growth.

It also explains the urgency of government efforts to increase domestic food production and improve efficiency. Although some domestic food prices have been raised, the impact on consumer spending of the higher cost of importing food will be slight. The fiscal impact of higher fuel prices is cushioned by an oil import agreement with Venezuela, which provides financing on favourable terms. ...

Revolution Begins in Our Hearts and Minds

Revolution Begins in Our Hearts and Minds

by Mary Ruwart
There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come." -- Victor Hugo

On July 4, Americans celebrate their Declaration of Independence from Britain, the official start of the...

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[Source: Breaking News from WarOnYou.com - Posted by Mint Dollar- The Federal Reserves Worst NightMare]

Avoiding blackouts

South Africa puts up the price of power

Power generator Eskom has been given the go-ahead to increase prices by 27.5% in 2008/09, adding to inflationary pressures. However, many users would prefer guaranteed but expensive power to cheap but unpredictable supplies.

On July 1st Statistics South Africa announced plans to reduce the weighting of food in the consumer price index, to reflect changes in national spending patterns over the past five years. The change could lead to a moderation in the South African inflation rate, since food prices are currently rising faster than prices as a whole. However, food is certainly not the only component driving inflation higher--energy prices are also a major factor. This is partly, but not solely, due to the strength of international oil prices: domestic electricity prices have also been pushing up prices, and look set to continue to do so, since the National Electricity Regulatory of South Africa (NERSA) has ruled that state power generator Eskom can increase electricity tariffs by 27.5% in 2008/09 (starting April 1st). Although this is significantly less than the 50-60% rise sought by Eskom, and includes the 14.2% increase already approved for 2008/09, it will still be a burden for hard-pressed consumers. NERSA also gave provisional approval for 20-25% annual price rises over the next three years. This reflects the sharp rise in operating costs, especially purchases of coal and diesel, and the greater-than-expected use of expensive peak-load capacity because of shortages in base-load capacity. ...

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