News -- November 29, 2005

The Torture Scandal - "What was happening, for example? Well hypothermia was a widespread technique. I haven't heard a lot of people talking about that, and I never saw anything in writing prohibiting it or making it illegal. But almost everyone was using it when they had a chance, when the weather permitted. Or some people, the Navy SEALs, for instance, were using just ice water to lower the body temperature of the prisoner. They would take his rectal temperature to make sure he didn't die; they would keep him hovering on hypothermia. That was a pretty common technique. A lot of other, you know, not as common techniques, and certainly not sanctioned, was just beating people or burning them. Not within the prisons, usually. But when the units would go out into people's homes and do these raids, they would just stay in the house and torture them. Because after the scandal, they couldn't trust that, you know, the interrogators were going to do "as good a job," in their words, as they wanted to. ... Why would they do that? Part of it is, they were trying to get information, but part of it is also just pure sadism. You just kept wanting to push and push and push, and see how far you could go. And it seems like that's just part of human nature. I mean, I'm sure you've read studies conducted in American prisons where you put a group of people in charge of another group of people, and give them control over them, and pretty soon it turns into cruelty and torture, you know? So it's pretty common. And I saw it, every detention facility I went to. If there wasn't really strong, strong leadership that said, "We're not going to tolerate abuse," … in every facility there would have been abuse. And even among people like the MPs who aren't trying to get intel -- they just do it because it's something people do there, if they're not controlled either inwardly or from above. … ... How much harsher? Well, it depends on what you're going to say the rules are. Because as I said, Geneva Conventions for prisoners of war don't allow us to really do anything to these prisoners other than talk to them. So all this other stuff we did with freezing them, starving them, sleep manipulation, isolation -- we're not allowed to do those things. … ... Has it worked? Not that I saw. And that certainly wasn't an approach I would run. And you know, it might have worked on somebody who was guilty, but I so rarely saw guilty people; they were just picking up bummers. …" -- Everyone should read this interview.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/torture/interviews/lagouranis.html

Cheney accused on prisoner abuse - "Col Lawrence Wilkerson accused Mr Cheney of ignoring a decision by President Bush on the treatment of prisoners in the war on terror. Asked by the BBC's Today if Mr Cheney could be accused of war crimes, he said: "It's an interesting question." "Certainly it is a domestic crime to advocate terror," he added. "And I would suspect, for whatever it's worth, it's an international crime as well." This is an extraordinary attack by a man who until earlier in the year was Mr Cheney's colleague in the senior reaches of the Bush team, the BBC's Justin Webb in Washington says. Col Wilkerson has in the past accused the vice-president of responsibility for the conditions which led to the abuse of prisoners. But this time he has gone much further, appearing to suggest Mr Cheney should face war crimes charges, our correspondent adds.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4480638.stm


Miami Police Take New Tack Against Terror - "Miami police announced Monday they will stage random shows of force at hotels, banks and other public places to keep terrorists guessing and remind people to be vigilant. Deputy Police Chief Frank Fernandez said officers might, for example, surround a bank building, check the IDs of everyone going in and out and hand out leaflets about terror threats." -- This doesn't sound like America. In addition, is this tactice being used just to keep the public terrified? Because, as we all know, a scared populace is much easier to control than one that is not.
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/11/28/D8E5RPBO5.html

Fat heinies causing problems for doctors - "That traditional shot in the heinie may be doing less and less good as people become plumper, according to a new study presented Monday. "Our study has demonstrated that a majority of people, especially women, are not getting the proper dosage from injections to the buttocks. There is no question that obesity is the underlying cause," said Dr. Victoria Chan, a researcher at the Adelaide and Meath Hospital in Dublin, Ireland. Her study found that as few as one in 10 women and six in 10 men may be getting proper doses from injections because the needle can't reach the target zone."
http://www.shns.com/shns/g_index2.cfm?action=detail&pk=OBESESHOTS-11-28-05

Storm Clouds Gathering - "Last week's guilty plea by Abramoff's onetime partner, a former top aide to the beleaguered Rep. Tom DeLay, darkened the skies further. Michael Scanlon's admission he had conspired to bribe public officials and defrauded four Indian gaming casinos of millions in fees effectively makes him the government's star witness in a probe that threatens to ensnare officials throughout the nation's capital."
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/051205/5abramoff.htm

6 EASY STEPS to Burying America's Students In Debt - "STEP 4: make education SO EXPENSIVE that in order to LEARN students must BURY themselves in DEBT (Repeat STEP 2)"
http://wakeupfromyourslumber.blogspot.com/2005/11/6-easy-steps-to-burying-americas.html

TV viewers tune out govt control -- study - "Americans overwhelmingly want Big Brother to butt out of their TV watching, according to a new study of U.S. viewing habits set for release Tuesday."
http://channels.netscape.com/news/story.jsp?id=2005112900560002706684&dt=20051129005600&w=RTR&coview

Blu-ray/HD DVD Could Become Irrelevant as HVD Nears - "When it comes to the format war, all the talk has been about Blu-ray and HD DVD, but another more advanced technology could actually replace both before they even really have a chance to make their respective marks. Holographic disks can store a ton of data and can read and write data faster as well..."
http://biz.gamedaily.com/features.asp?article_id=11193&filter




Quote of the Day
"An autopsy of history would show that all great nations commit suicide."
~ Arnold Toynbee