how many MILLIONS of dollars did we pay blackwater

to capture, torture and kill terrorists? many millions. however, according to the nyt article linked to below, they DIDN'T CAPTURE OR KILL ANYONE OF 'IMPORTANCE' (that's MY word)

so our lead spook agency can't even do it's OWN job? hmmmmmmmm

are they lazy OR incompetent or both?

and hey xe peeps, i'll say it again, a rose a steamin' pile o' shite by any other name is still a rose a steamin' pile o' shite


C.I.A. Sought Blackwater’s Help in Plan to Kill Jihadists
By MARK MAZZETTI

WASHINGTON — The Central Intelligence Agency in 2004 hired outside contractors from the private security contractor Blackwater USA as part of a secret program to locate and assassinate top operatives of Al Qaeda, according to current and former government officials.

Executives from Blackwater, which has generated controversy because of its aggressive tactics in Iraq, helped the spy agency with planning, training and surveillance. The C.I.A. spent several million dollars on the program, which did not successfully capture or kill any terrorist suspects.

The fact that the C.I.A. used an outside company for the program was a major reason that Leon E. Panetta, the C.I.A.’s director, became alarmed and called an emergency meeting in June to tell Congress that the agency had withheld details of the program for seven years, the officials said...........

FIRST, do no harm

four words. four words you must swear by. four words you must HONOR. well READ THIS (i have so much more to say, but i sliced my pinkie open and believe it or not, it's WICKED HARD to type with it all wrapped up)

YANK THEIR EFFING LICENSES (if they have them) YANK THEIR RIGHT TO BE HUMAN WHILE YOU'RE AT IT

2 U.S. Architects of Harsh Tactics in 9/11’s Wake
By SCOTT SHANE

WASHINGTON — Jim Mitchell and Bruce Jessen were military retirees and psychologists, on the lookout for business opportunities. They found an excellent customer in the Central Intelligence Agency, where in 2002 they became the architects of the most important interrogation program in the history of American counterterrorism.

blood pressure and family therapy. They had no language skills and no expertise on Al Qaeda.

But they had psychology credentials and an intimate knowledge of a brutal treatment regimen used decades ago by Chinese Communists. For an administration eager to get tough on those who had killed 3,000 Americans, that was enough................

i want our great land to be safe

i want our people to be safe. i want to protect us from terrorists. both foreign AND domestic (and believe me i'm more afraid of and there is a greater threat from DOMESTIC terrorists). i want all of this badly. i want it all within the bounds and confines of the LAW.

i do NOT want our warriors using rape as a weapon of war as they did/are doing in bosnia and columbia and sudan (and a great many MORE areas). i do not want our warriors to start drafting child soldiers as they do in the congo and elsewhere. i do not want us to turn into the beasts that are running rampant through many other countries.

this is the united states of america. WE DO NOT TORTURE.

we ARE now the savages. we MUST stop this. we MUST repair what we've done. WE MUST BRING THOSE RESPONSIBLE TO JUSTICE

Internal Rifts on Road to Torment

Interviews Offer More Nuanced Look At Roles of CIA Contractors, Concerns Of Officials During Interrogations

By Joby Warrick and Peter Finn

Washington Post Staff Writers
In April 2002, as the terrorism suspect known as Abu Zubaida lay in a Bangkok hospital bed, top U.S. counterterrorism officials gathered at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., for a series of meetings on an urgent problem: how to get him to talk.

Put him in a cell filled with cadavers, was one suggestion, according to a former U.S. official with knowledge of the brainstorming sessions. Surround him with naked women, was another. Jolt him with electric shocks to the teeth, was a third.

One man's certitude lanced through the debate, according to a participant in one of the meetings. James E. Mitchell, a retired clinical psychologist for the Air Force, had studied al-Qaeda resistance techniques.........

i don't give a shite, i'm NOT going to be politically correct

at all. i don't care. it's an ugly (i don't mean physically) country full of ugly (not physically) MEN. with ugly rules and ugly laws.

they treat women worse than possessions (they have to have permission from one of their menfolk before they can even have surgery and that's just the TIP of the iceberg). they keep 'slaves'. yes, i believe they do. indentured servants who are slaves. foreigners who are lured there by talk of a better life. once they get there, they're doomed to a life of slavery. and camel jockeys (even though they supposedly OUTLAWED the practice, i think it continues) are yet another whole story.

they are a worse than suppressive/repressive society. they also (and there is NO doubt in my mind about this) fund and/or protect terrorists.

they have oil, that's why they are our buds. well they're NOT MY BUDS. eff 'em

Saudis coerced bombing suspects to blame Iran, shield al Qaeda

By Gareth Porter / IPS

When a truck bomb exploded outside a housing unit in Saudi Arabia in 1996, killing 19 US service members, the Saudis quickly concluded that the plot had been carried out by Hezbollah with the backing of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. FBI Director Louis Freeh was prepared to accept the confessions obtained by the Saudis as proof, but the Department of Justice suspected they had been obtained through torture.

Gareth Porter reports that by 2003, it had become apparent that the Saudis routinely tortured terror suspects and coached them into making confessions that would not implicate al Qaeda. By that time, however, Freeh had embarked on a new career as the chief defender of the Saudis’ response to the Khobar plot.

This is the final installment of a five-part series, “Khobar Towers Investigated: How a Saudi Deception Protected Osama bin Laden”. The work on this series was supported by the Fund for Investigative Journalism.................

what i was saying ALL along

i don't know if this man is innocent or guilty (of anything). what i DO know is, this is the united states of america. we do NOT torture. this is the united states of america. we follow the geneva convention. this is the united states of america. we call those that torture our men and women savages and beasts and worse.

this is the united states of america. WE DO NOT TORTURE.

when one is tortured, one is very likely to say ANYTHING that they think the torturer wants to hear.

THIS IS THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA WE DO NOT TORTURE

Accused 9/11 mastermind: ‘I make up stories’

By Raw Story

In potentially another blow to advocates of torture and harsh interrogation, transcripts released yesterday show that alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed says he made up stories to appease his interrogators.

”I make up stories,” Mohammed is quoted as saying in his 2007 Gitmo hearing. The alleged 9/11 plotter claimed to have taken part in at least 29 terrorist plots.

Mohammed says he told his questioners he didn’t know the location of Osama Bin Laden, and was tortured as a result.

“”Where is he? I don’t know,” Mohammed said. ‘Then he torture me. Then I said, ‘Yes, he is in this area or this is al Qaeda which I don’t know him.’ I said no, they torture me.’”................

he was 88 or 89 (i should say is)

he had a rifle. the police/authorities are refusing to identify him. other sources have said his name is james w. von brunn

Stephen Tyrone Johns is dead. he was shot to death. he was murdered. the alleged killer is a white supremacist. mr johns worked at the holocaust museum for six years. HE WAS MURDERED BY A DOMESTIC TERRORIST. i am way more afraid of them than i am of any al qaeda or militant muslim.

to the family and friends of mr johns, my heart is with you. my thoughts and prayers as well.

we must stop the evil. no more dancing around. it MUST be stopped.
Gunman Shoots, Kills Guard at Holocaust Museum
Suspect Identified as White Supremacist

By William Branigin and Debbi Wilgoren

Washington Post Staff Writers
A lone gunman known to authorities as a white supremacist shot and fatally wounded a private security guard at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in downtown Washington today before being shot and wounded by guards who returned fire, officials said.

The security guard, who police identified as 39-year-old Stephen Tyrone Johns of Temple Hills, and the gunman were both taken to George Washington University Hospital.

Johns died at the hospital, authorities said later, and the gunman, who was not identified, was reported to be in critical condition. A third person sustained minor injuries in the incident, according to police.

Museum officials said in a statement that Johns had worked at the museum for six years. The museum said it would be closed tomorrow, and lower its flags to half-staff, to honor Johns's memory. "There are no words to express our grief," the statement said.

A law enforcement source identified the gunman as James W. von Brunn, 88.............

and why the HELL was this dude loose, read this: (he should have been behind bars FOREVER
Security Guard Is Killed in Shooting at Holocaust Museum in D.C.
............

The police chief, Cathy Lanier, said the gunman walked into the museum’s main entrance and simply began shooting without warning. Within moments, at least one security guard was returning fire, and a total of five or six shots are believed to have been fired.

Mr. von Brunn, whose latest address is believed to be in Eastern Maryland, was convicted in 1983 of trying to kidnap members of the Federal Reserve Board two years earlier. In that incident, he was captured by a guard in the board’s headquarters after running to the second floor, where the board was meeting. He was carrying a revolver, a hunting knife and a sawed-off shotgun in a shoulder bag, the police said..................

wow, two dudes

in the good ol' boy network WITH STONES

Two Bush officials fire back at Cheney ‘fearmongering’

By Agence France-Presse

Two top Bush-era officials on Friday rejected ex-vice president Dick Cheney’s scathing criticism of US President Barack Obama, saying the country’s national security was not in jeopardy.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who served in the same post under former president George W. Bush, and Tom Ridge, the former head of homeland security, both voiced disagreement with Cheney a day after he attacked Obama’s performance as the new commander-in-chief.

Gates said in an interview that opponents of Obama’s decision to close the “war on terror” prison at Guantanamo were engaging in “fear-mongering,” a reference to Cheney’s stance on the issue.

Defending the president’s decision to shut the detention center at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Gates said the prison was damaging America’s image and served as a propaganda tool for Al-Qaeda..........

why isn't anyone else reporting this?

and by anyone else, i mean the msm of course

click on the link below and read the WHOLE article. it's well worth it
Cheney's speech ignored some inconvenient truths

By Jonathan S. Landay and Warren P. Strobel | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — Former Vice President Dick Cheney's defense Thursday of the Bush administration's policies for interrogating suspected terrorists contained omissions, exaggerations and misstatements.

In his address to the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative policy organization in Washington, Cheney said that the techniques the Bush administration approved, including waterboarding — simulated drowning that's considered a form of torture — forced nakedness and sleep deprivation, were "legal" and produced information that "prevented the violent death of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of innocent people."

He quoted the Director of National Intelligence, Adm. Dennis Blair, as saying that the information gave U.S. officials a "deeper understanding of the al Qaida organization that was attacking this country."..........

inhuman

here is the pdf version of the red cross report

and here's mark danner's

article (please click to read his entire piece)

The Red Cross Torture Report: What It Means

By Mark Danner

ICRC Report on the Treatment of Fourteen "High Value Detainees" in CIA Custody

by the International Committee of the Red Cross

43 pp., February 2007

Download the text of the ICRC Report on the Treatment of Fourteen "High Value Detainees" in CIA Custody by The International Committee of the Red Cross, along with the cover letter that accompanied it when it was transmitted to the US government in February 2007. This version, reset by The New York Review, exactly reproduces the original including typographical errors and some omitted words.

When we get people who are more concerned about reading the rights to an Al Qaeda terrorist than they are with protecting the United States against people who are absolutely committed to do anything they can to kill Americans, then I worry.... These are evil people. And we're not going to win this fight by turning the other cheek...............

never thought about it this way

but larisa sure does have one hell of a good point here. think about it. she HAS to be right here (not that they're not terrorists. i'm not saying that)

We are being spoon-fed stupid again...

Can someone explain to me how 5 suspected members of Al Qaeda (although there is no question regarding KSM) suddenly got their own PR machine from inside Gitmo and at the hands of a military judge, not to mention getting a world stage through which to frighten Americans some more? And the media? Well, they are too well versed is stupid to ask any sensible questions:

"Five Guantanamo prisoners accused in the September 11, 2001, terror attacks on the U.S. staunchly defended their actions, calling the operation "blessed" and "great" and the accusations against them "badges of honor."

"You are the last nation that has the right to speak about civilians and killing civilians," the five said in a response this month to the U.S. government's war crimes charges...........................

..................

Okay, now someone explain the following to me:

1. How did 5 alleged Al Qaeda members come together to form this statement, given that they are being held each in isolation at Gitmo? Are they allowed to meet and discuss various topics, including their alleged joy at bombing the United States? Somehow I don't think so. We know that some of their own attorneys were not even aware of this filing or what it said. So was this done telepathically?..........

f**kers

you know we all KNOW they ARE spying on us. however, i figured it was people like me. you know, NOT a terrorist but someone with a big fat mouth. but to f**king SPY ON OUR HEROES IN IRAQ. are we going to sit back and take this one up the ass too (like everything else king george has tried to shove up there)?

i never thought it would happen. never in a million years. never to us and NEVER to them (our enlisted heroes)


ABC: NSA agents admit spying on Americans' private calls
David Edwards and Muriel Kane
The Bush administration has repeatedly defended its warrantless surveillance of Americans as being directed only against "people with known links to al Qaeda and related terrorist organizations."

Now two intercept operators who worked for the National Security Agency at Fort Gordon in Georgia have come forward to tell ABC News that isn't true.

David Murfee Faulk described to ABC's Brian Ross how he had listened to "personal phone calls of American officers, mostly in the Green Zone [in Baghdad], calling home to the United States, talking to their spouses and sometimes their girlfriends."

"Co-workers of mine were ordered to transcribe these calls," Faulk stated. "When one of my co-workers went to a supervisor and said, 'But sir, these are personal calls,' the supervisor said, 'My orders were to transcribe everything.'"
......................

on the coat tails of musharraf's leaving

and king george's dethroning (i have my fingers crossed we don't enter into 100% martial law with the king never planning on leaving) we have THIS ugly story (not that it should be a surprise to anyone mind you)

POLITICS: Bush Covered up Musharraf Ties with Qaeda, Khan
Analysis by Gareth Porter*
WASHINGTON, Aug 19 (IPS) - Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's resignation Monday brings to an end an extraordinarily close relationship between Musharraf and the George W. Bush administration, in which Musharraf was lavished with political and economic benefits from the United States despite policies that were in sharp conflict with U.S. security interests.

It is well known that Bush repeatedly praised Musharraf as the most loyal ally of the United States against terrorism, even though the Pakistani military was deeply compromised by its relationship with the Taliban and Pakistani Islamic militants.

What has not been reported is that the Bush administration covered up the Musharraf regime's involvement in the activities of the A. Q. Khan nuclear technology export programme and its deals with al Qaeda's Pakistani tribal allies.

The problem faced by the Bush administration when it came into office was that the Pakistani military, over which Musharraf presided, was the real terrorist nexus with the Taliban and al Qaeda. As Bruce Riedel, National Security Council (NSC) senior director for South Asia in the Bill Clinton administration, who stayed on the NSC staff under the Bush administration, observed in an interview with this writer last September, al Qaeda "was a creation of the jihadist culture of the Pakistani army".

If there was a state sponsor of al Qaeda, Riedel said, it was the Pakistani military, acting through its Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Directorate. .........

hey da liebs -you GIANT pile o'

steamin' shite THERE NEVER WOULD HAVE BEEN AN AL-QAEDA PROBLEM IN IRAQ IF WE F**KING DIDN'T INVADE THE COUNTRY

when will we learn? when will be boot the steamin' pile (formerly known as joe lieberman) OUT of office? i didn't vote for him and i NEVER will. he is a horrid little king george kissing troll.

Lieberman: Obama prepared to accept defeat in Iraq

Fox's Chris Wallace talked to Sen. Joe Lieberman and Sen. Evan Bayh about Sen. Barack Obama's plan to withdraw troops from Iraq. Lieberman described Obama's plan as "retreat and defeat."

Lieberman said, "If Barack Obama's policy in Iraq had been implemented, he couldn't be in Iraq today, he was prepared to accept retreat and defeat and that would mean today al Qaeda would be in charge of parts of Iraq, Iranian-backed extremists would be in charge of other parts of Iraq. There'd be civil war and maybe even genocide.".....

i got the book yesterday

and i know cv rick is either reading it or going to read it right quick.

i understand it's a hot topic. i understand people are afraid. i'm not. afraid that is. mr bugliosi is dead on. king george is a criminal. he is directly responsible for the senseless deaths of thousands. hundreds of thousands if you include people other than americans (and you should). that's murder to me.

iraq didn't attack america. iraq had NOTHING to do with 9/11. iraq did NOT have weapons of mass destruction. iraq, under saddam had NOTHING to do with al qaeda. iraq, under saddam had NOTHING to do with iran
(note: i am NOT touting the greatness of saddam here. he was an evil murderer as well)

we invaded a foreign country because of oil. plain and simple. there are evil dictators of countries MORE of a threat to us out there and king george hasn't illegally, immorally and unjustly attacked THEM. why?
Bush murder trial book, blacked out by mainstream media, thrives on Internet
David Edwards and Muriel Kane
Former Los Angeles district attorney Vincent Bugliosi became widely known as the prosecutor of Charles Manson and later wrote bestselling books about that case, the O.J. Simpson trial, and other topics. However, Bugliosi's latest effort, The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder, has faced what CNN calls "a virtual media blackout."

Bugliosi says that no one in the mainstream media would review his book, which argues that Bush should be charged with murder for the deaths of over 4000 American soldiers in Iraq if he lied to get the nation into war. "My book was completely rejected across the board by network and cable," Bugliosi told CNN.

Larry King passed up the chance to interview Bugliosi, and neither MSNBC nor Comedy Central's The Daily Show expressed any interest when the book came out in May. (Bugliosi did finally appear on MSNBC's Morning Joe last Friday.) ABC Radio even refused an ad for The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder.

"So how did the book become a bestseller?" asks CNN.............

there have always been radical women

some are heroes and some are indeed martyers. some i admire and call sister. then there are some that are cowards and some that are evil as evil can be. i call them devil

if you don't like what i wear or what i believe or don't believe, leave me the fuck alone. don't blow me (and most likely a bunch of innocents) up.

fuck you forever and ever. you're NO sister of mine
Al Qaeda Warrior Uses Internet to Rally Women
By ELAINE SCIOLINO and SOUAD MEKHENNET
BRUSSELS — On the street, Malika El Aroud is anonymous in an Islamic black veil covering all but her eyes. In her living room, Ms. El Aroud, a 48-year-old Belgian, wears the ordinary look of middle age: a plain black T-shirt and pants and curly brown hair. The only adornment is a pair of powder-blue slippers monogrammed in gold with the letters SEXY.
But it is on the Internet where Ms. El Aroud has distinguished herself. Writing in French under the name “Oum Obeyda,” she has transformed herself into one of the most prominent Internet jihadists in Europe.
She calls herself a female holy warrior for Al Qaeda. She insists that she does not disseminate instructions on bomb-making and has no intention of taking up arms herself. Rather, she bullies Muslim men to go and fight and rallies women to join the cause..............

becuase we can't seem to

mind our OWN bid-nez and protect our OWN country, we've put yet another target on our attack list, sort of that is. we're buds with SOME in pakistan yet enemies of others. ??????????? hmmmmmm. i wonder why pakistan was never held accountable for THEIR role(s) in attacking america and americans. no oil? or no oil YET? we're pouring BILLIONS into that country. i'm f**king pissed. WE need the money for OUR OWN SELVES.


U.S. Commanders Seeking to Widen Pakistan Attacks
By MARK MAZZETTI and ERIC SCHMITT
WASHINGTON — American commanders in Afghanistan have in recent months urged a widening of the war that could include American attacks on indigenous Pakistani militants in the tribal areas inside Pakistan, according to United States officials.
The requests have been rebuffed for now, the officials said, after deliberations in Washington among senior Bush administration officials who fear that attacking Pakistani radicals may anger Pakistan’s new government, which is negotiating with the militants, and destabilize an already fragile security situation.
American commanders would prefer that Pakistani forces attack the militants, but Pakistani military operations in the tribal areas have slowed recently to avoid upsetting the negotiations.
Pakistan’s government has given the Central Intelligence Agency limited authority to kill Arab and other foreign operatives in the tribal areas, using remotely piloted Predator aircraft. But administration officials say the Pakistani government has put far greater restrictions on American operations against indigenous Pakistani militant groups, including one thought to have been behind the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
American intelligence officials say that the threat emanating from Pakistan’s tribal areas is growing, and that Pakistani networks there have taken on an increasingly important role as an ally of Al Qaeda in plotting attacks against American and other allied troops in Afghanistan, and in helping foreign operatives plan attacks on targets in the West. The officials said the American military’s proposals included options for limited cross-border artillery strikes into Pakistan, missile attacks by Predator aircraft or raids by small teams of C.I.A. paramilitary forces or Special Operations forces. ..........

and this from larisa says more than i could ever hope to
"U.S. lacks counterterror plan in Pakistan," no, say it ain't so...
Before we delve into the GAO's report on Bush-Cheney's lack of interest in our national security (otherwise known as the war OF terror FOR profit), just remember these 10 most important facts about Pakistan:
1. Major training center for terrorists2. Gives safe passage to a number of terrorist groups, including al Qaeda and the Taliban3. Was directly involved in financing the attacks of September 114. Its major military intelligence organization, ISI, deeply rooted in support for terrorist activities5. Was directly involved in training the terrorists involved in attacking Britain on July 76. Is the major proliferator of WMD to terrorist groups and countries extremely hostile to the US 7. Is the major supplier of weapons to North Korea, Iran, etc.8. Its ISI assassinates its own political leaders 9. Its ISI is involved in the assassinations of Western journalists, including reporter Danny Pearl.10. Is heavily involved in the drug trade, specifically the heroin trade.........

speaks for itself

(the other day i posted about the study. NOW king george is going to delete the report just like it NEVER was written). and we are letting him
Pentagon Report on Saddam's Iraq Censored?
ABC News' Jonathan Karl Reports: The Bush Administration apparently does not want a U.S. military study that found no direct connection between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda to get any attention. This morning, the Pentagon cancelled plans to send out a press release announcing the report's release and will no longer make the report available online.The report was to be posted on the Joint Forces Command website this afternoon, followed by a background briefing with the authors. No more. The report will be made available only to those who ask for it, and it will be sent via U.S. mail from Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, Virginia. It won't be emailed to reporters and it won't be posted online.
Asked why the report would not be posted online and could not be emailed, the spokesman for Joint Forces Command said: "We're making the report available to anyone who wishes to have it, and we'll send it out via CD in the mail."Another Pentagon official said initial press reports on the study made it "too politically sensitive."ABC News obtained the comprehensive military study of Saddam Hussein's links to terrorism on Tuesday. Read the report's executive summary HERE. ,,,,,,,,,,,

funny

i thought waterboarding was torture and torture was BANNED ALL ALONG! silly me, huh?
doesn't matter, king george LIKES waterboarding. he and big dick and the rest of 'em feel they don't have to obey ANY laws. why waste the time of the senate and congress anyway? they have MORE IMPORTANT things to do such as interrogate pro baseball players (a VERY pressing issue in my mind. f**k our men and women dying in iraq. f**k health care. f**k education. i care about a few KAZILLIONAIRE baseball players use of drugs)

Senate Passes Ban On Waterboarding, Other Techniques

By Dan Eggen Washington Post Staff Writer
The Senate voted yesterday to ban waterboarding and other harsh interrogation tactics used by the CIA, matching a previous House vote and putting Congress on a collision course with the White House over a pivotal national security issue.
In a 51 to 45 vote, the Senate approved an intelligence bill that limits the CIA to using 19 less-aggressive interrogation tactics outlined in a U.S. Army Field Manual. The measure would effectively ban the use of simulated drowning, temperature extremes and other harsh tactics that the CIA used on al-Qaeda prisoners after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
President Bush has vowed to veto the legislation, which the House approved in December, and Congress does not appear to have enough votes to override a veto. ........

if you don't think you are next

you are sadly mistaken my dears

Collateral Damage: Surveillance Aimed at Terrorists Can Easily Go Awry
By Jeff Stein, National Security Editor, CQ Staff
U.S. intelligence tapped the telephone calls of Lawrence Wright, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Looming Tower, starting in 2002.
This may well be news to many people, even though Wright revealed the taps himself in a sprawling, 15,000-word article on electronic surveillance in the Jan. 21 edition of The New Yorker magazine.
Perhaps because the article was not available online it lacked the link-juice to propel it into a frenzy over the “domestic spying” on the Web, the cable news shows and leading American newspapers.
As far as I can tell, only Pam Hess of the Associated Press picked up on Wright’s confrontation with spy chief Michael McConnell over the phone taps, and no major paper ran it. The version of her story that The Washington Post printed recounted McConnell’s telling Wright that water boarding would be “torture” if it were done to him, but dropped the five paragraphs Hess wrote on the eavesdropping. The New York Times and Wall Street Journal skipped Wright’s wiretap account altogether.
But The New Yorker’s Web site did feature an audio interview with Wright in which he described the visit of FBI agents to his Texas home in 2002 to quiz him about the telephone calls intercepted by U.S. intelligence. .........

.....It’s just not true, no matter how many times administration officials say it, that critical operations to find the kidnappers of American soldiers in Iraq and an al Qaeda cell in Germany were held up by FISA regulations. McConnell himself said he was mistaken.But what really troubles me is that so many, many years after the first terrorist attack here (on the World Trade Center in 1993), our spying agencies apparently still haven’t found an effective way to pursue the real bad guys.The huge electronic wires they want to wrap us in are no substitute for good human intelligence work out there — where the bad guys are. As former counterterror agent Michael Tanji put it on Wired magazine’s Danger Room blog: “It’s bad enough that the Director of National Intelligence is trotting out a bogus threat so the government can snoop on all Internet traffic. What’s worse is that this kind of mass surveillance is a pretty lame way to catch the honest-to-God bad guys.”....

and what would YOU do and say if

you happened to be in iran and were waterboarded? if a member of our armed services was in iran and was waterboarded? i know what i'd say. the same thing andrew williams said (and meant)

waterboarding IS torture

Navy JAG Resigns Over Torture Issue
"It was with sadness that I signed my name this grey morning to a letter resigning my commission in the U.S. Navy," wrote Gig Harbor, Wash., resident and attorney-at-law Andrew Williams in a letter to The Peninsula Gateway last week. "There was a time when I served with pride ... Sadly, no more."
Williams' sadness stems from the recent CIA videotape scandal in which tapes showing secret interrogations of two Al Qaeda operatives were destroyed.
The tapes may have contained evidence that the U.S. government used a type of torture known as waterboarding to obtain information from suspected terrorists.
Torture, including water-boarding, is prohibited under the treaties of the Geneva Convention.
It was in the much-publicized interview two weeks ago between Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) and Brig. Gen. Thomas Hartmann, who is the chief legal adviser at the Pentagon's Office of Military Commissions, that led Williams to resign. ...........