“The Bush administration is bracing for a diplomatic backlash after conceding it used British territory to transport suspected terrorists on secret rendition flights despite repeated earlier assurances the U.S. had not.” Rendition, itself, has been denied. The existence of Black Sites has been denied. The use of European air space for the purposes of Rendition has [...]

The Republicans threw a temper tantrum and walked out of the House today over the vote to hold Josh Bolten and Harriet Miers in contempt of Congress, which passed 223-32. In another Congressional blow, the House of Representatives refused to pass legislation that would have made permanent the Protect America Act – in short, wiretapping. [...]

Not that I have a problem with white collar criminals being punished for their crimes - God knows they tend to do far more harm than your average street corner criminal whose environment has typically placed them in the business of stealing car radios. But when it comes to the law, especially precedents set with [...]

As we’re all aware, Santa Claus doesn’t exist. Neither does the tooth fairy, Frosty the Snowman, the Boogieman, the Easter Bunny, and, of course, Black Sites, nor the illegal seizure and transport of foreign nationals by the United States, a practice known as Rendition. Were one to ask Maher Arar, he would certainly tell you [...]

The overthrow of the ICU in Somalia was AFRICOM’s first challenge. Using Ethiopia as a military proxy, and backing their initial invasion of Somalia with air strikes and the insertion of special forces teams, the United States helped plunge Somalia back into a state of chaos that has resulted in a crisis that is being [...]

It’s been a question in the US for some time now – is waterboarding a form of torture? The Bush administration claims that it isn’t. The former US Attorney General claimed that it wasn’t. The newly confirmed US Attorney General, Michael Mukasey, claimed that he wasn’t even aware of what it was during his confirmation [...]

First, from The Village Voice via Roy. The ‘if and when’ is certainly little more than an extremely hopeful ‘if’, but… “If and when there’s the equivalent of an international Nuremberg trial for the American perpetrators of crimes against humanity in Guantánamo, Iraq, Afghanistan, and the CIA’s secret prisons, there will be mounds of evidence available [...]

Is the Iraqi government buying arms from the Italian mafia? And if they are, one has to look at one of two possibilities. The first is that it’s a deal that the United States knows nothing about and may have been undertaken to supply arms to those ministries that have a vested interest in ensuring [...]

I don’t know how better to present this, so I’m just going to quote the article that appeared in this morning’s Globe & Mail entitled Court lifts lid on secret Arar details… “Newly declassified information shows that that Canadian agencies worked directly with the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and also received information known to be likely [...]

There’s nothing worse than someone you helped into power contradicting you. While President Bush has hailed progress in Afghanistan, it’s leader, President Hamid Karzai, had some choice words about Iran prior to the two meeting that were very interesting. From Agence France Presse… “Afghan President Hamid Karzai, a key US ally, contradicted US assessments of [...]