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Morning headlines brought to you by Carolyn Kay MakeThemAccountable.com Top StoryFormer CIA Interrogator: We Carried Out Torture Because The White House Told Us To (Think Progress)
In an interview (Tuesday) night with ABC News, John Kiriakou — the CIA official who headed the team that interrogated al Qaeda leader Abu Zubaydah — said that Zubaydah was waterboarded, but defended those actions as having prevented “maybe dozens” of planned attacks and “probably saved lives.” But despite his vigorous defense of his past conduct, Kiriakou says he now views what he did as torture and says that he would not recommend those tactics going forward. “We don’t need enhanced techniques to get that nugget of information,” he said in an interview with Matt Lauer this morning on The Today Show.
Click through to watch the video.—Caro The Heretik
The WorldSynchronized bombings in Iraq kill 27
BAGHDAD - Synchronized car bombs devastated a city market district in southern Iraq on Wednesday, killing at least 27 people and injuring 151 in a Shiite region that has largely escaped the country's sectarian bloodshed, authorities said.
Christians in Basra told not to celebrate to protest 2 deaths
BAGHDAD — The Christian archbishop of Basra on Tuesday canceled the celebration of Christmas in that southern city to protest the deaths of a brother and sister, both Christians, as bombings and mayhem struck at cities throughout Iraq.
Vigilantes Kill 40 Women in Iraq's South
BAGHDAD (AP) — Religious vigilantes have killed at least 40 women this year in the southern Iraqi city of Basra because of how they dressed, their mutilated bodies found with notes warning against "violating Islamic teachings," the police chief said Sunday. Maj. Gen. Jalil Khalaf blamed sectarian groups that he said were trying to impose a strict interpretation of Islam. They dispatch patrols of motorbikes or unlicensed cars with tinted windows to accost women not wearing traditional dress and head scarves, he added.
Car bomb kills general in Lebanon
BEIRUT, Lebanon - A car bomb attack killed one of Lebanon's top generals and at least two other people Wednesday, the military and state media said, putting even more pressure on the country's delicate political situation.
Israeli, Palestinians resume peace talks
JERUSALEM - Israeli and Palestinian negotiators on Wednesday began the first peace talks in nearly seven years, trying to reconcile conflicting claims and clashing dreams in a bid to end six decades of conflict.
India working on doubling nuclear strike range: official
NEW DELHI, Dec 12, 2007 (AFP) - India announced Wednesday it was working on a new ballistic missile capable of hitting targets 6,000 kilometres (3,800 miles) away, which would more than double its current nuclear strike range.
NKorea blasts SKorea over sea border
SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea rapped South Korea at high-level military talks Wednesday for refusing to compromise on their disputed sea border, claiming Seoul's position could lead to bloody skirmishes.
Fujimori sentenced for abuse of power
LIMA, Peru - Former President Alberto Fujimori was convicted of abuse of authority and sentenced to six years in prison Tuesday at the end of the first in a series of trials on charges that include murder, kidnapping and corruption.
Al-Qaeda claims deadly Algiers bombs
Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for a double car bomb strike in Algiers that killed dozens of people as rescuers continued to work Wednesday to find survivors.
No risk of civil war in Algeria: foreign minister
PARIS (AFP) - There is no risk of a new civil war in Algeria, Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci told French radio Wednesday, despite the latest in a string of deadly attacks claimed by Al-Qaeda militants. The NationCIA destroyed tapes despite court orders
The Bush administration was under court order not to discard evidence of detainee torture and abuse months before the CIA destroyed videotapes that revealed some of its harshest interrogation tactics. Normally, that would force the government to defend itself against obstruction allegations. But the CIA may have an out: its clandestine network of overseas prisons.
Mukasey ‘undecided’ on whether waterboarding = torture.
In his first public statements regarding the CIA’s destruction of the torture tapes, Attorney General Michael Mukasey said today he “refused to be rushed into deciding whether he considers waterboarding a form of torture… Mukasey said he has not yet concluded a review of Justice Department memos to determine whether waterboarding amounts to torture — which would deem it illegal.” During his confirmation hearing, Mukasey refused to call waterboarding torture.
Guantanamo Legal Adviser Refuses To Say Iranians Waterboarding Americans Would Be Torture
During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on “The Legal Rights of Guantanamo Detainees” this morning, Brigadier General Thomas W. Hartmann, the legal adviser at Guantanamo Bay, repeatedly refused to call the hypothetical waterboarding of an American pilot by the Iranians.
Click through to watch the video.—Caro
No holiday pardon for Libby.
(Tuesday), President Bush pardoned 29 convicts, but not to Scooter Libby, Vice President Cheney’s former top aide who was convicted in the Valerie Plame leak scandal. His pardons went to carjackers, drug dealers, moonshiners, and an official who received kickbacks in defense procurement contracts.
Okay, all you crazed right wingers who slammed President Clinton for pardoning—oh, my God—CRIMINALS, where’s your outrage?—Caro
What A World Dept.: U.S. refuses 'Any Wounded Soldier' mail
Hundreds of thousands of holiday cards and letters thanking wounded American troops for their sacrifice and wishing them well never reach their destination. They are returned to sender or thrown away unopened. Since the Sept. 11 attacks and the anthrax scare, the Pentagon and the Postal Service have refused to deliver mail addressed simply to "Any Wounded Soldier" for fear terrorists or opponents of the war might send toxic substances or demoralizing messages. Mail must be addressed to a specific member of the armed forces — a rule that pains some well-meaning Americans this Christmas season.
Higher base closing costs estimated
WASHINGTON - The Pentagon plans to spend about $10 billion more than originally estimated on base closings and realignments and expects about $200 million less in savings, the Government Accountability Office said in a report Tuesday.
GOP fights energy bill
WASHINGTON - Despite a threatened veto, Senate Democrats decided Tuesday to push ahead with billions of dollars in oil industry taxes as part of an energy bill, but abandoned a requirement for utilities to use wind and other renewable energy to produce electricity.
Paying for tax fix divides Dems, GOP
WASHINGTON - Republicans say it's OK not to cover the $50 billion in revenue losses from Congress' annual alternative minimum tax fix to save millions of families from higher taxes — even as the GOP president counts on revenues from that higher levy to reduce the red ink in his budget.
US court grants motion on Gitmo suspect
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - A federal court on Tuesday ordered the U.S. government to preserve any evidence of torture while it weighs a defense motion in the case of a Guantanamo prisoner who alleges he was abused in overseas CIA prisons.
Spy court won't release US wiretap docs
The nation's spy court said Tuesday that it will not release its documents regarding the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, in a rare on-the-record opinion, said the public has no right right to view the documents because they deal with the clandestine workings of national security agencies.
New Crack Sentencing Rules Will Apply Retroactively
Thousands of offenders who were sentenced under the previous guidelines will now be able to have their case reviewed by a judge.
That is a VERY good thing.—Caro
BreauxLott.com registered weeks before Lott gave notice.
Last month, after Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS) announced that he was retiring before the end of the year, it was widely speculated that Lott may be considering a lobbying partnership with former senator John Breaux. As ThinkProgress noted at the time, any pre-negotiating between Lott and Breaux would violate Senate ethics rules. The Hill reports today Lott’s son, Chet, “secured the rights to the domain name” breauxlott.com “six weeks before his father announced his retirement,” raising further questions about whether Lott broke Senate rules. MediaPermanent link to MTA daily media news
Democrats who refuse to lead (by John Aravosis at AMERICAblog)
The current crop of Democrats don't know how to fight. They're afraid to fight, they're incompetent at fighting, and they're incapable of fighting because they don't know how to fight. They think that issuing a press release with the right talking points is fighting back. They think that holding a simple press conference on the Hill will generate a news story. And they think that a single, or even a week's worth, of news stories is a victory. They simply do not understand what the Republicans all know too well - how to take a story, a theme, and jam it down your opponents' throats for weeks, if not months, if not years, on end. To a Democrat, if you get a blurb in the Washington Post, one day, that's a public relations victory. To a Republican, once that blurb is repeated every day for 30 years then they declare victory.
The current crop of Democrats and their consultants and the non-profit advocacy groups in town have no idea how to fight like a Republican, how to fight to win. It's not just a lack of will, a lack of backbone, they quite literally don't know how to fight, so when they do rarely fight back, and lose because it was done so poorly, the lesson they take away isn't that they need to learn how to fight better, but rather, they think they lost because they fought back. And it will get them nowhere until they realize that they don't know what they're doing, and others do.
Sorry, John, I usually try to post shorter blurbs, but this is just so important that I felt the need to post most of what you wrote on this topic. For those who don’t know, John (biography) worked for a Republican senator, and he knows whereof he speaks.—Caro
Waterboarding and Torture (by Larry Johnson at No Quarter)
The media are woefully ignorant on the subject of waterboarding and torture. Consider the coverage of former CIA officer, John Kiriakou, who is telling his story as an interrogator of Abu Zubaydah and insisting that waterboarding is an effective technique. ABC and CNN are repeating this absurd propaganda. However, if you read the transcript of his interview some key points are obscured in the media propaganda push: … • Kiriakou never witnessed the waterboarding. It was carried out by another group of individuals (nfi). • None of the information provided by Zubaydah concerned threats inside the United States.
Scarborough: That Pesky Liberal Media! (by bluegal at Crooks and Liars)
Another Scarborough quote we couldn’t possibly make up: “When did the liberal media decide…that waterboarding was torture?”
Click through to watch the video.—Caro
New Countdown Segment: Bushed! (by Logan Murphy at Crooks and Liars)
Keith Olbermann has a new segment on Countdown called Bushed! that keeps track of past Bush scandals you may have forgotten about — because of all the new Bush scandals.
Click through to watch the video.—Caro
No More Mr. Nice Guy (FAIR)
A nasty little piece on John Edwards (by Dana Milbank in the Washington Post) points out that the candidate's speeches are short on policy details (as opposed to, say, the imaginary candidate who goes through a detailed PowerPoint presentation on healthcare?). He writes that when Edwards "thumps the lectern and speaks of the need to 'end this war' in Iraq, he omits the fact that he voted to give President Bush the authority to start the war." Given that Edwards' anti-war rhetoric is almost singularly defined by the fact that he's ashamed that he voted for the war, it's unclear how one could conclude that he's trying to fool anyone.
What, Me Worry? WaPo Exec Editor Len Downie Finally Comments On Obama Muslim Piece, Sidesteps Criticism (by Greg Sargent at TPM Muckraker)
Okay, so Washington Post executive editor Leonard Downie, Jr., has finally commented publicly on the paper's disastrous front-page piece recycling the Obama Muslim rumors without declaring them false… Downie's comments came in the form of a letter to Romenesko that he wrote in response to a professor/blogger who had criticized the reporter on the piece, Perry Bacon, Jr. Downie defended the reporter and actually attacked Romenesko for daring to air criticism of him.
The Restroom Referendum: The Ethics Police Still Say Gays Are Less Equal Than Others
Both Sen. Larry Craig and the Senate Ethics Committee may be lying to themselves about the real restroom scandal, observes Margie Burns.
Conservative Households Are Less Likely To Have Internet Access Than Liberal Households
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2006 the percentage of Households with Internet Access in the United States in 2003 was 54.6%. 20 out of 31 Conservative States had a lower than average percentage of Households with Internet Access (65% of Conservative States) versus 4 out of 20 Liberal States that had a lower than average percentage of Households with Internet Access (20% of Liberal States). The lowest percentage of Households with Internet Access in the country is found in Mississippi with 38.9%.
Conservative Truths is a great resource for showing the human misery caused by conservative policies. Other recent examples: “The Number Of Food Insecure Households Is Higher During Conservative Presidencies” and “There Are More Families Living Below The Poverty Level During Conservative Presidencies”.—Caro
French Author Accused of Outing Secrets
PARIS (AP) - A French anti-terrorist judge has filed preliminary charges against an investigative journalist and author accused of publishing defense secrets, judicial officials said Friday. Authorities are investigating articles by Guillaume Dasquie, including one that reported French intelligence had suspected al-Qaida of planning a plane hijacking nine months before the Sept. 11 attacks.
Dasquie is co-author of Forbidden Truth, which claimed that the Bush administration threatened the Taliban in the summer of 2001, at the time when they were the protectors of Osama bin Laden. It was the first book after 9/11 to point out the role that oil imperialism played in the warmongering of the Bush administration.—Caro
Penthouse Buys Group of Social-Networking Sites
The Penthouse Media Group remains so bullish on the sex-related entertainment industry that the company is investing $500 million in a group of social networking sites. Technology & ScienceEee PC's sales success drawing a crowd
San Francisco - Sales of Asustek Computer's Eee PC have soared in its first few months on the market, but success may be its undoing. Rivals are already developing products to compete with the low-cost laptop PC, market researcher Gartner says.
Self-Righting Object
The Gomboc is a roundish piece of clear synthetic material with gently peaked, organic curves. It looks like a piece of modern art. But if you tip it over, something unusual happens: it rights itself. It leans off to one side, rocks to and fro as if gathering strength and then, presto, tips itself back into a “standing” position as if by magic. It doesn’t have a hidden counterweight inside that helps it perform this trick, like an inflatable punching-bag doll that uses ballast to bob upright after you whack it. No, the Gomboc is something new: the world’s first self-righting object.
Coming soon – spider socks (in packs of 8)
Researchers at Shinshu University have succeeded in injecting spider genes into silkworms to create a thread that is stronger, softer and more durable than conventional silk. A Japanese manufacturer is already experimenting with the thread, and spider socks, stockings and even fishing lines are expected to appear on the market within a few years.
Scientists Reverse Sex Roles in Fruit Flies
Scientists have discovered it is surprisingly easy to reverse sex roles in fruit flies. By changing just one gene, they can make a female perform the courtship ritual of the male… The study has no immediate implications for human sexuality, (researcher Barry Dickson of the Austrian Academy of Sciences) told LiveScience. But it does figure into on an ongoing debate about whether a single gene can profoundly affect behavior or if behavior is too complex to be reduced to the influence of any one gene.
DNA Pioneer’s Genome Blurs Race Lines
James D. Watson, the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA and winner of the Nobel prize, raised a storm recently when a British newspaper quoted him saying that black Africans are not as intelligent as whites. But his own brilliant DNA seems to blur the lines. A new analysis of Dr. Watson’s genome shows that he has 16 times the number of genes considered to be of African origin than the average white European does — about the same amount of African DNA that would show up if one great-grandparent were African, said Kari Stefansson, the chief executive of deCODE Genetics of Iceland, which did the analysis.
But don’t forget the study I linked to recently that shows European genes don’t confer more intelligence than African genes, anyway.—Caro
Personal Convictions May Control Both Behavior and Emotions
Distinct brain regions activated by beliefs and human feelings, study shows… The findings suggest that it may one day be possible to use brain scans to reliably detect belief, disbelief and uncertainty in people. "This would have obvious implications for the detection of deception, for the control of a placebo effect during the process of drug design, and for the study of any higher cognitive phenomenon in which the differences between belief, disbelief and uncertainty might be a relevant variable," the researchers concluded.
Natural Human Hormone As The Next Antidepressant?
(N)ew evidence shows that Epo (erythropoietin) also "has neuroprotective and neurotrophic effects in animal models and affects cognitive and associated neural responses in humans," suggesting that it may be a candidate in the treatment of depression."
Archaeologists find 2000 year old Roman glue in Germany
London, Dec 8 (ANI): Archaeologists have reportedly found traces of a glue used by the Romans 2,000 years ago near the town of Xanten in Germany. It had lain on what was once the bed of the Rhine for at least 1,500 years. According to researchers at the Rhineland Historical Museum in Bonn, this ancient glue was used to mount silver laurel leaves on legionnaires' battle helmets, made of iron.
Energy source of Northern Lights found
New data from NASA's Themis mission, a quintet of satellites launched this winter, found the energy comes from a stream of charged particles from the sun flowing like a current through twisted bundles of magnetic fields connecting Earth's upper atmosphere to the sun. The energy is then abruptly released in the form of a shimmering display of lights visible in the upper latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere.
Mars Rover Finding Suggests Once Habitable Environment
The lame wheel on the NASA Mars rover Spirit has proven an invaluable science tool, turning up evidence of a once habitable environment, scientists said Monday. EnvironmentOminous Arctic Melt Worries Experts
WASHINGTON (AP) - An already relentless melting of the Arctic greatly accelerated this summer, a warning sign that some scientists worry could mean global warming has passed an ominous tipping point. One even speculated that summer sea ice would be gone in five years.
U.N.'s Ban urges 2009 deadline for climate deal
NUSA DUA, Indonesia (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the world on Wednesday to agree to work out a new climate treaty by 2009 but said it might be "too ambitious" to set goals for greenhouse gas cuts in Bali.
Gore: US Blocking Climate Talks Progress
STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore on Wednesday accused the U.S. of blocking progress at U.N. climate talks in Bali but said a breakthrough was possible in the final days of the conference.
Skeptical Scientists Urge World To ‘Have the Courage to Do Nothing' At UN Conference
BALI, Indonesia - An international team of scientists skeptical of man-made climate fears promoted by the UN and former Vice President Al Gore, descended on Bali this week to urge the world to "have the courage to do nothing" in response to UN demands.
Out on a limb, for sure. This is posted on the U.S. Senate Environment & Public Works minority (i.e. Republican) website. Everybody in the world is leaving you behind, Republicans.—Caro
World Bank launches forest carbon fund
NUSA DUA, Indonesia (Reuters) - The World Bank on Tuesday launched plans for a $300 million fund to fend off global warming by preserving forests, but protesters said it risked turning homes of indigenous people into an asset for the rich. The new financing mechanism, launched at U.N. talks on tackling climate change, aims to turn better forest management into a tradeable commodity to try to halt destruction so rapid it accounts for around a fifth of annual carbon emissions.
Food versus fuel controversy prompts call for cutting edge research
Singapore - Leveraging on research and development is crucial for biofuels to move forward as a key component in energy diversification, the Asia Biofuels Conference was told on Wednesday. First-generation biofuels derived from food crops have recently raised the controversy of food versus fuel," Singapore's Minister of State for Trade and Industry S Iswaran told delegates from Asia, Europe and the Americas. "In Mexico, the diversion of corn to produce bioethanol has caused tortilla prices to skyrocket," Iswaran said.
British Ag Industry Can Reach Climate Neutrality: Report
LONDON, Dec. 12, 2007 -- The U.K.'s National Farming Union released a study detailing how the agriculture, forestry and land management sectors can adopt strategies to reduce GHG emissions, increase energy efficiency and harness renewable energy to achieve a near-carbon-neutral state.
Marketing Firm Announces Greenwashing Index
BALI, Indonesia, Dec. 12, 2007 -- EnviroMedia plans to rank the best and worst examples of green marketing in a new index next month. The announcement coincides with a survey the company conducted, which found that most delegates at the U.N. Climate Conference believe greenwashing is taking place. For more headlines, visit MakeThemAccountable.com.
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