This is so evil. I just honestly don't know what to do in the face of suck evil. It's more than lying about every goddammned thing they do -- it's this arrogance, this belief that they are God Almighty here on earth. I'm just tired of it.

Can't hear ya, Peach!

Personally, I think torture yields bad results in intel, regardless of the reasons used, and for that reason alone shouldn't be used -- not even getting into the numerous ethical and other arguments against it that are valid and long-argued worldwide, including in Israel and other areas where domestic threats are constant and ongoing.

That said, I've been around the block with drug enforcement cases and other undercover domestic criminal matters (in cases I've prosecuted) to know that sometimes a spur of the moment decision has to be made when lives are endangered that might not otherwise be made with additional time and thought on the subject matter.  What I think needs to happen is more public discussion of this -- the cleansing public light of scrutiny --  along with some actual Congressional oversight, not just the lip service crap we've been getting.  All we know now on the policies is the selective leaking we've seen in the papers -- and, frighteningly, that also seems to be all a whole lot of Senators and Congresspeople know.

Torture, under any circumstances, is morally reprehensible, and against everything I think is appropriate in terms of behavior.  But there is a whole lot of gray out there in the world -- some of which I've seen up close and personal in some of the cases I've prosecuted and in some of the people I represented as a criminal defense attorney -- and for that reason, I'm not willing to say that I should be the ultimate arbiter of all things on this, just based on my own understanding that individual cases sometimes require individual solutions.  But should there be some bright line rules on what is and is not gray -- and how far over any individual line anyone is allowed to even consider going -- or not going at all?  Absolutely.  That is the job of Congress and the Administration and, I think everyone can agree, they've been failing miserably at that.
 

And the whole war on terror is, imho, mostly a nasty joke that is used to generate huge contracts for corporations ... and the war in Iraq is simply generating more terrorists.

Richard Sale wrote a seminal piece on the interrogation methods used by the FBI versus the CIA, and the far greater success of the former over the latter in catching and getting suspects to talk.

The only fate for Bush (and all of his henchmen) that is right is to be in the dock at The Hague.

Hickok: "You know the sound of thunder. Can you imagine that sound if I ask you to? Ma'am, listen to the thunder."

Consortium News has an excellent article today about Bush's hyprocrisy.

Asked about the motivation of the hunger strikers, Rumsfeld said: "Well, I suppose that what they're trying to do is to capture press attention, obviously, and they've succeeded.

"There are a number of people who go on a diet where they don't eat for a period and then go off of it at some point. And then they rotate and other people do that,"" he added.

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