In an article published Monday by Der Spiegel, we learn that German authorities remain skeptical regarding information being obtained by US interrogation of Ahmad Sidiqi, a German citizen of Afghan heritage currently held at Bagram Air Base. Since there are accusations that US torture continues at this facility (which appears to be under the control of the Defense Intelligence Agency outside normal detention practices) and since it is known that torture produces notoriously unreliable information, then the question must be asked whether the German skepticism is based on a presumption that Sidiqi is being tortured.

In a recent interview with Der Spiegel, General Petraeus reiterated his anti-corruption push, in which he tells his troops to be careful where they spend their money. With the latest stories from DC that show folks like Blackwater/Xe, KBR, and other US contractors getting off the hook, you have to wonder if the strategy of “Do As We Say, Not As We Do” will ever work. And if it won’t, then why do we continue to spend money and lives to keep pursuing it?

The New York Times continues to downplay the human rights abuses, amounting in some instances to war crimes, in its reporting on the classified documents released by Wikileaks. In contrast to the Guardian and Der Spiegel, the NYT’s failed to highlight the many accounts of atrocities committed by U.S. and coalition troops in the papers’ recent coverage.

Historically, the US does not want the American people involved in deciding what the US does in its foreign policy. Contrary to American tradition, Julian Assange and Wikileaks display a belief in the value of citizen participation and interest in the business of governments worldwide. As Assange said of the leak, “People who are around the world who are reading this are able to comment on it and put it in context and understand the full situation.”

Makes the Pentagon Papers leak look like a faucet drip.

Classified information on the war in Afghanistan has been released by three major media sources in the world–the New York Times, The Guardian, and Der Spiegel. Nearly 92,000 documents were provided to the three sources by Wikileaks, and have been published in the form of “war logs.”

Der Spiegel has announced that it will publish details on Monday from a memo it obtained from Xe, formerly Blackwater. The memo will both detail the Cheney-ordered hit squads and rendition flights from Guantanamo to sites where torture could be carried out.