Jim White

In March, 2003, the US waterboarded Khalid Sheikh Mohammed 183 times. It is now clear that a primary reason for this treatment was to extract a confession of a link between al Qaeda and Saddam just as the evidence for Saddam having WMD's was crumbling. The US invaded anyway, knowing its justifications were false.

Jeremy Scahill blows the lid off "Blackwater's Secret War in Pakistan" in an article just published in The Nation.

As CQPolitics described yesterday, the latest report from Neil Barofsky, the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Assets Relief Program, is leading to calls from both parties for Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner to resign. While that would be good, removing Geithner would not address the real issues raised by Barofsky in his report.

In an article today headlined "U.S. makes debut attendance at Hague war crimes court" Reuters blithely states that the United States "is not a signatory" to the Rome Statute that established the court, without bothering to note that Bill Clinton signed the treaty in December, 2000 only to have George W. Bush withdraw support in May, 2002.

Sarah Palin's book bus tour started yesterday and the spin around it is furious.

In an interview with CBS News, President Obama said that leaks about policy development on the war in Afghanistan are a firing offense. Let's hope that the Leaker in Chief, Rahm Emanuel is the first one fired.

Fighting two wars under the dual myths of an all-volunteer force and a refusal to raise taxes to fund the conflicts is destroying our armed forces, our economy and the fabric of our society.

In China today, President Obama reached a new height in hypocrisy, when he railed against internet censorship there, just a few months after saying he would ban photos of torture at US prisons in Iraq.

We learn today that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other detainees at Guantanamo will now face criminal trials in the Southern District of New York. Because his children are still missing, should any statement made by KSM at the trial be considered to be delivered under duress?

The New York Times published an editorial this morning condemning Iran for its accusation that three Americans captured this summer are spies. Sadly, the examples used by the Times to show Iran's transgressions apply equally to the United States.