Crossposted at Empire Burlesque

by Chris Floyd,

The only defense for the indefensible is to be offensive, it seems. The Bush Faction has obviously decided to stop refuting allegations about torture and just openly embrace the heinous practice instead. You've got Bush vowing to veto torture restrictions, you've got Cheney twisting arms on Capitol Hill to preserve the Faction's inalienable right to beat people to death -- and now you've got Condi Rice traipsing off to Europe to tell America's allies to stop all their whining about extraordinary rendition, secret prisons and the CIA kidnapping people in their countries.

In a remarkable display of brass, Rice tried to have it both ways, both denying that the U.S. tortures anyone then saying that American "interrogation techniques" have saved European lives by thwarting terrorist plots.

[cross-posted at And, yes, I DO take it personally]

in two news articles and one editorial, the nyt today looks at the rapid erosion of the precious little that's left of the bush administration's credibility...

quick, quick... we better DO something like REALLY FAST...

(abc news has the exclusive story...)

   Two CIA secret prisons were operating in Eastern Europe until last month when they were shut down following Human Rights Watch reports of their existence in Poland and Romania.

    Current and former CIA officers speaking to ABC News on the condition of confidentiality say the United States scrambled to get all the suspects off European soil before Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived there today.

    The officers say 11 top al Qaeda suspects have now been moved to a new CIA facility in the North African desert.

    CIA officials asked ABC News not the name the specific countries where the prisons were located, citing security concerns.

so, if the sources are "current and former CIA officers," one would tend to believe them... ~shakes head, rolls eyes~ u.s. credibility in the world community just dropped another 15 points...

And, yes, I DO take it personally

Being reporting on JURIST, the ever-watchful folk @ U. Pitt Law School:

Secret CIA flights landed in Germany, magazine reports  

Jaime Jansen at 4:04 PM ET

[JURIST] German magazine Der Spiegel has reported that the German government has a list of at least 437 flights [Der Speigel report, in German] it suspects the US CIA [official website; JURIST news archive] operated in German airspace, landing in Berlin, Frankfurt, and US Air Base at Ramstein. The list, however, does not indicate what the CIA-operated planes carried.

Bad CIA.  Go to your room.