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Open Thread and News

By possum

News of the day comes with many variations and lots to consider.

Republican fearmongering continues with the introduction of a bill forbidding any detainee being brought to American soil.  Rep. John Shadegg (R-Ariz.) thinks Guantanamo is just fine and the detainees should not be brought to America.

Brazil, on the other hand, is considering accepting some of the detainees.Brazil's top human rights official says his country should agree to take in Guantanamo Bay detainees.
Everyone's favorite Bush administration attorney, John Yoo, talks about the torture memos in an interview.These memos I wrote were not for public consumption.And he rambles on with criticism of the Obama administration and justification of his own actions.And sometimes, what's legal and not legal is not the same thing as what you can do or what you should do.

One memo from the Bush administration recently released approves the use of torture on detainees held outside the country.The Torture Convention poses no obstacle to transfer [for the purposes of interrogation under torture] because the treaty does not apply extraterritorially.Although the memo doesn't prove that U.S. officials actually did torture prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Bagram or elsewhere, it appears to give the clear legal authorization to do so.

The right wing support for torture continues.  In spite of all the evidence showing the failure of aggressive interrogation to provide useful information the shouts continue.I do not believe waterboarding Khalid Sheikh Muhammad was torture. Eric Holder does. That's because I approve of it, and he does not.What a shame this continues to be found in print these days.

The U.S. is reaching out a diplomatic hand to Syria for the first time in years.Ending a four-year diplomatic embargo on Damascus, the administration of US President Barack Obama on Tuesday confirmed that it is sending two high-level officials to Syria this week for "preliminary conversations", presumably on improving relations.Talking cannot be a bad thing in today's world.  Even enemies may find common ground in their interactions.

Beauty pic of the day.

Saturn's clouds, NASA, Public Domain

Peace.

Full post as published by Never In Our Names on March 04, 2009 (boomark / email).