Read All About It in the Sunday Papers-April 26 Edition

LEAD STORY-The (UK) Independent: US Major Claims US Torture Has Caused More American Deaths than 9-11

Patrick Cockburn, winner of the 2009 Orwell Prize for Journalism, shows the counterproductivity of torture through the experienced lens of US Major Matthew Alexander. Alexander’s interrogation team located the hideout of al-Zarqawi without the use of torture.

The use of torture by the US has proved so counter-productive that it may have led to the death of as many US soldiers as civilians killed in 9/11, says the leader of a crack US interrogation team in Iraq.

“The reason why foreign fighters joined al-Qa’ida in Iraq was overwhelmingly because of abuses at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib and not Islamic ideology,” says Major Matthew Alexander, who personally conducted 300 interrogations of prisoners in Iraq. It was the team led by Major Alexander [a named assumed for security reasons] that obtained the information that led to the US military being able to locate Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the head of al-Qa’ida in Iraq. Zarqawi was then killed by bombs dropped by two US aircraft on the farm where he was hiding outside Baghdad on 7 June 2006. Major Alexander said that he learnt where Zarqawi was during a six-hour interrogation of a prisoner with whom he established relations of trust.

This military interrogator needs to go on every talk show to tell the truth and cut through the Cheney BS that has been abetted by a press that now realizes its own complicity in all of this, and desperately wants to keep its failings hidden.

Los Angeles Times: Bush Administation Refused to Determine Efficacy of Waterboarding/Other Torture Techniques

Guess everybody who doesn’t read today’s lead story will have to take Dick Cheney’s word for it that torture works. Or not. LA Times’ Greg Miller provides another depressing, but essential, window into the most lawless Administration in American history:

The failure to conduct a comprehensive examination occurred despite calls to do so as early as 2003. That year, the agency’s inspector general circulated drafts of a report that raised deep concerns about waterboarding and other methods, and recommended a study by outside experts on whether they worked.

…”Nobody with expertise or experience in interrogation ever took a rigorous, systematic review of the various techniques — enhanced or otherwise — to see what resulted in the best information,” said a senior U.S. intelligence official involved in overseeing the interrogation program. 

As a result, there was never a determination of “what you could do without the use of enhanced techniques,” said the official, who like others described internal discussions on condition of anonymity.

The Defense Department, Justice Department and CIA “all insisted on sticking with their original policies and were not open to revisiting them, even as the damage of these policies became apparent,” said John B. Bellinger III, who was legal advisor to former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, referring to burgeoning international outrage.   

The limited resources spent examining whether the interrogation measures worked were in stark contrast to the energy the CIA devoted to collecting memos declaring the program legal.

Justice Department memos released this month show that the CIA repeatedly sought new opinions on the legality of depriving prisoners of sleep for up to seven days, throwing them against walls, forcing them into tiny boxes and subjecting them to the simulated drowning technique known as waterboarding.

New York Times: Ethically-Challenged House Heavyweight Feeling the Heat

Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Defense Contractors) is going down, the only question is when. And he’s not getting any help from Obama:

While past presidents often courted Mr. Murtha with phone calls and private meetings, President Obama has extended to him no such courtesies. On a visit to the White House, the lawmaker told senior defense officials that it would be “foolish” and “ridiculous” to cancel all of a $13 billion contract to buy new presidential helicopters, as he later recounted to a defense industry newsletter. But Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has insisted on scrapping the deal as a symbol of waste.

And in a recent meeting with the secretary, Mr. Murtha pushed a plan to divide a $35 billion contract to build a new airborne refueling tanker between two rival contractors — a compromise that pleases both but would cost the government much more. Mr. Gates listened with little response, several people briefed on their conversation said, but he later dismissed it.

“I’ve had conversations with Congressman Murtha,” Mr. Gates said in a briefing at the Pentagon this month. “I still believe that it is not the best deal for the taxpayer, to go with a split buy.”

The term ‘ethically-challenged’ doesn’t begin to describe the naked quid pro quos (no, not literally, as far as ‘bulo knows, although when there are corrupt congressmen and multibillion dollar contracts, can hot tubs be far behind?) he worked out with defense contractors to provide big bucks for his campaigns. This excellent piece by David D. Kirkpatrick deserves your attention.

Chicago Tribune: Blago Hired Haberdasher for $92K State Job

An unemployed haberdasher at that, but the haberdasher (some words ‘bulo just can’t get enough of…) who satisfied Blago’s taste for fine suits,  anywhere from $2K to 13K per.

Blagojevich became a well-known visitor to Oxxford beginning about 2000, when the then-congressman launched his run for governor.

Because Blagojevich promoted himself as a man of the people, aides worked hard to make sure the public didn’t learn about his taste for expensive clothing. Blagojevich would often dash into the seven-story factory building on Van Buren Street to examine swatches of fabric or get fitted, according to former aides who asked to not be identified.

Blago and Sarah Palin are the gifts that keep on giving. Memo to judges: If they promise not to leave the country, can they PLEASE have their own reality shows? The American people deserve these bread and circuses in such troubled times.

The (UK) Guardian: Police Bragged About Beating Protesters at G-20 Economic Summit

For those who think that the 60’s are over, and that hooliganism is confined to soccer stadiums:

A Scotland Yard officer boasted about “the unwashed getting a good kicking” at the G20 protests in a police blog entry posted a day after the death of Ian Tomlinson.

The Met said last night it was attempting to identify the author of the comments, which were left on the Policeman’s Blog site following the death of Mr Tomlinson, a newspaper vendor, on 1 April.

The latest inflammatory remarks from serving policemen over the treatment of G20 protesters surfaced after it emerged that PC Rob Ward, 27, had allegedly bragged on Facebook how he was going to “bash some long-haired hippies” at the G20 demonstrations. On Friday, Met commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson responded to rising anti-police sentiment following Mr Tomlinson’s death by announcing a new regime of “intrusive supervision” to root out rogue officers.

Meanwhile, the prospect of more Met officers facing criminal investigation for assaulting G20 protesters appears to be increasing, after lawyers revealed they had accumulated evidence indicating that more than 25 people may have sustained head injuries in the protests.

London law firm has collated material indicating that 14 protesters sustained wounds to the head caused directly by police violence. Another 15 cases are being examined in which people were punched or struck in the face by police riot shields or batons and suffered injury or trauma wounds.

While there was some glass broken, the G20 was a legitimate and largely peaceful protest. Too bad a police riot broke out.

The Times of London: Cyberspace to Experience Gridlock Starting…Next Year?

The Internet to become an ‘unreliable toy’? Spouses forced to talk to each other again? Say it ain’t so!

It will initially lead to computers being disrupted and going offline for several minutes at a time. From 2012, however, PCs and laptops are likely to operate at a much reduced speed, rendering the internet an “unreliable toy”.

When Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the British scientist, wrote the code that transformed a private computer network into the world wide web in 1989, the internet appeared to be a limitless resource. However, a report being compiled by Nemertes Research, a respected American think-tank, will warn that the web has reached a critical point and that even the recession has failed to stave off impending problems.

‘Bulo says, forget global warming, save the internets. Build more tubes if necessary! Come back, Senator Stevens, all is forgiven.