So not only was McCain's legislation watered-down into a pale, bland version of itself, but Little King George won't even deign to drink it because he's already intoxicated by delusions of imperial power:

After approving the bill last Friday, Bush issued a "signing statement" -- an official document in which a president lays out his interpretation of a new law -- declaring that he will view the interrogation limits in the context of his broader powers to protect national security. This means Bush believes he can waive the restrictions, the White House and legal specialists said.

We have been working with the Akha mountain people of SE Asia for 15 years.

Now we have a book on line.

Has taken a long time, but I think there is some real interesting reading about the Akha that you can find at
Akha Chronicles

The Bush Junta, trying to cover its ass, made an announcement yesterday, the kind that insults the intelligence of anyone exposed to it:

The press is touting a compromise between John McCain and the White House on McCain's torture amendment as a great accomplishment. Let's take a look at this alleged compromise, shall we?

From the New York Times:

The Bush administration based a crucial prewar assertion about ties between Iraq and Al Qaeda on detailed statements made by a prisoner while in Egyptian custody who later said he had fabricated them to escape harsh treatment, according to current and former government officials.

The officials said the captive, Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, provided his most specific and elaborate accounts about ties between Iraq and Al Qaeda only after he was secretly handed over to Egypt by the United States in January 2002, in a process known as rendition.

In other words: After the U.S. turned al-Libi over to Egypt for torture, al-Libi figured out what his tormentors wanted to hear and then lied to them in order to stop being tortured. This is why every military and intelligence expert worth his or her salt say that torture doesn't work.

Of course the Bushites don't care about getting good intel, they just want to manufacture sources who will parrot their propaganda and reinforce their case; if that means sending innocent people to other countries that will perform torture on the Bush Administration's behalf, they're okay with that.

"Condosleeza" Rice said recently that the American government "does not permit, tolerate, or condone torture under any circumstances." Oh really? Then why is the Bush Administration treating John McCain's anti-torture legislation like Lynndie England treated  prisoners at Abu Ghraib?

On the orders of Iraq's Prime Minister Al Jafarri, Interior Minister has  fired the country's chief inspector of human rights abuses.  No reason yet has been given for his dismissal.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Iraq's interior minister dismissed the senior inspector in charge of human rights on Thursday in connection with a scandal involving the torture of dozens of prisoners at a Baghdad prison, an official close to the minister said.

If you recall, it was Iraq's Deputy Human Rights Minister, Aida Ussayran, that revealed wide-spread, government-sanctioned torture:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqi authorities have been torturing and abusing prisoners in jails across the country, current and former Iraqi officials charged.

Deputy Human Rights Minister Aida Ussayran and Gen. Muntadhar Muhi al-Samaraee, a former head of special forces at the Ministry of the Interior, made the allegations two weeks after 169 men who apparently had been tortured were discovered in a south-central Baghdad building run by the Interior Ministry. The men reportedly had been beaten with leather belts and steel rods, crammed into tiny rooms with tens of others and forced to sit in their own excrement.

The Bush Junta continues to claim that America must "stay the course" in Iraq, but fails to mention how royally fucked the country has become as a result of the White House's illegal and unnecessary war.

I am putting this up as is for discussion.

   

  First Periodical Report of Monitoring Net of Human Rights in Iraq (link to full MHRI document)

  MHRI – November 23, 2005  Baghdad

               

                The Monitoring Network for Human Rights (MHRI), which consists   of more than 20 Iraqi organizations for Human Rights, made this report about the crimes and continuous   violations of human rights in Iraq.

               

                1.      Crimes of War and Crimes Against Humanity 

               

                -  First crime:

               

                Some of the ugliest      crimes committed by the occupation forces and by Iraqi military units are the ones committed in the city of      Fallujah in the battles of November 2004, and which we summarize in the following: 
               

On the heels of yesterday's Raw Story exculsive comes a New York Times story about the torture of Iraqi detainees:

Bush has failed to extort Latin American countries into establishing a free trade zone against their own interests:

Leaders from across the Americas ended their two-day summit Saturday without agreeing whether to restart talks on a free trade zone stretching from Alaska to Chile.

...the five dissenting countries stated: "The conditions do not exist to attain a hemispheric free trade accord that is balanced and fair with access to markets that is free of subsidies and distorting practices."

In May of 2004, Sidney Blumenthal revealed that the Bush White House had established a secret network of prisons across the globe, for the purpose of disappearing and "legally" torturing people suspected of wrongdoing as part of the War on (Some) Terror. Few people paid attention to him.

Times have changed.

The LA Times is running a story highlighting the respect they say Judge Alito has from Liberal judges and clerks who worked for him in the past.

This raises a number of possibilities, some good and some bad. The worst-case scenario is that the Bush administration is systematically trying to make him look moderate in an attempt to push through a stealth nominee. The best-case scenario is that he is a fair-minded moderate-conservative judge who will at least display a neutral attitude towards human rights.

Online petitions for your signing pleasure...

From Democrats.com: Should Congress Demand Documents from the White House Iraq Group?

From Ted Kennedy: We Need Answers, Not Cover-ups

From John Kerry: 20,000 Troops Over the Holidays

From PFAW: Reject the Bush Torture Policy