America’s ongoing saga with torture continues as Senators give Mukasey the green light despite his failure to give a definite opinion on whether or not waterboarding constituted torture and against the concerns of 24 former intelligence and national security officials, meanwhile the ACLU finds out that three, not two torture memos under Gonzales’ DoJ exist:
- Senate Panel Advances Mukasey Nomination (Christian Science Monitor)
- Former Intel Officers on Mukasey and Torture (Antiwar.com)
- ACLU Learns of Third ‘Secret’ Torture Memo From Gonzales Justice Department (Raw Story)
Congress approves a voracious $460 billion budget for the Pentagon that does not include funds for fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, but provides for expensive weapons systems irrelevant to fighting the war on terrorism:
- War Funds Absent From Pentagon Budget (San Francisco Chronicle/Associated Press)
Ominous signs of civil war loom over Lebanon’s horizon as different parties are beginning to rearm themselves due to the ongoing political deadlock preventing the elections of the country’s next president:
- Lebanon’s Militias Rearm Before Vote (Christian Science Monitor)
In the ongoing battle over Pakistan’s tattered democracy, opposition leader Benazir Bhutto’s recent calls for protests, her demands to immediately lift emergency rule and her supporters’ physical clashes with the police now answer the question of whether or not she was going to choose confrontation or negotiation with Musharraf:
- Bhutto Call for Protest Sets Up Confrontation (New York Times)
Seeking to continue on its path to EU entry, Turkey is set to vote on whether or not it wants to repeal an infamous law penalizing statements deemed overly critical of the country’s institutions and its Turkish identity:
- Turkey To Change Controversial Law (Al-Jazeera International)
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