Month: October 2007

Iraqi political leaders now see national reconciliation not as goal, but as end result of more limited and efficient government run by the best people for the job, not political and sectarian cronyism: Top Iraqis Pull Back From Key U.S. Goal (Washington Post) Play written by local rights activist lampooning state officials for distorting so-called…

As a New York Times editorial asserts that banning torture and reviving the rule of law in Guantánamo Bay would not harm American lives, a federal judge reinstates 16 lawsuits that allow 40 detainees to challenge the legality of their imprisonment: On Torture and American Values (New York Times) Judge Reverses Guantanamo Ruling (Associated Press/MSNBC)…

After an expose by New York Times revealed secret endorsement of torture techniques, battles in Congress erupt over the treatment of terrorism suspects and whether Congress has been properly informed of White House legal policies: Debate Erupts on Techniques Used by C.I.A. (New York Times) In an odd attempt to smear Turkey’s mildly Islamist AKP-led…

The latest details of the Justice Department’s complicity of sanctioning torture reveal secret re-endorsement of brutal interrogation tactics again in 2005 under AG Gonzales after effectively banning it under acting AG Jack Goldsmith in 2004: Secret U.S. Endorsement of Severe Interrogations (New York Times)  While three Anglican bishops go public with a private letter sent to PM Gordon Brown…

As some members of Congress seek to unravel the mystery shrouding invasive NSA and FBI programs by pressing telecoms to disclose more information about their collusion with the government, a former high-level Justice Department official testified that the White House’s secrecy surrounding the NSA wiretapping was so tight that they kept the Attorney General and…

According to the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll, at least 69% of Americans want some sort of cut in the Iraq war funding: Most in Poll Want War Funding Cut (Washington Post) Although the US has tried several different carrot-and-stick approaches to weakening the rebels in Iraq, several Sunni nationalist and Islamist armed groups have…

After effectively crushing Egypt’s weak secular opposition, the government seeks to contain the powerful Muslim Brotherhood through a series of whimsical arrests and military tribunals: Cairo Moving More Aggressively To Cripple Muslim Brotherhood (Washington Post) Reviewer Diane Wertz says the new comedy-drama series focusing on a Muslim teenager’s sojourn with an American family “is too…