PWW Online -- Memo reveals Bush OKd torture: "WASHINGTON During confirmation hearings on Alberto Gonzales nomination as Attorney General, senators should question him about a recently uncovered memo that George W. Bush ordered the torture of detainees at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo and other military prisons around the world, several human rights groups suggested last month.

The groups, who joined in an ACLU Freedom of Information (FOIA) lawsuit, which won release of the memo and other incriminating documents, are describing it as the smoking gun implicating Bush in the torture scandal."

Emphasis mine.

(Via Google News.)

Army Doctors Implicated in Abuse (washingtonpost.com): "U.S. Army doctors violated the Geneva Conventions by helping intelligence officers carry out abusive interrogations at military detention centers, perhaps participating in torture, according to an article in today's edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Medical personnel helped tailor interrogations to the physical and mental conditions of individual detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, according to the article. It says that medical workers gave interrogators access to patient medical files, and that psychiatrists and other physicians collaborated with interrogators and guards who, in turn, deprived detainees of sleep, restricted them to diets of bread and water and exposed them to extreme heat and cold."

(Via AlterNet.)

US News Article | Reuters.com: "WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military has begun an investigation into allegations by FBI agents of torture at the Guantanamo prison, officials said on Wednesday, and newly released documents showed 26 agents saw detainees abused."

(Via Google News.)

At confirmation hearing, Gonzales disavows torture: "Questioned closely by Democrats Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, Gonzales repeatedly pointed out that a Justice Department memo on torture sent to federal agencies in 2002 that has been linked to the mistreatment of terrorist suspects was rescinded late last year.

But he insisted that as Bush's government lawyer, 'I never influenced or pressured' Justice Department lawyers reporting to Attorney General John Ashcroft to approve interrogation techniques that some criticized as torture.

Gonzales said he could 'not recall' conversations with the Justice Department lawyers that have been interpreted as pushing them to approve the techniques."

(Via Google News.)

AlterNet: War on Iraq: Rethinking Iraq: "We can't simply turn our backs on the millions of Iraqis - who lack basic necessities like water, electricity, food or medical care - just because many of us didn't vote for the man who caused their suffering. Is it moral for us to leave them to die in the crossfire of a violent civil war, fueled by extremists that we created? Chaos creates a political vacuum that is almost always filled by the power-hungry and the ruthless. So what will a Taliban-style regime in Iraq mean for Iraqi women? What effects will it have on the rest of the Middle East, which is already a tinderbox waiting for the careless spark of instability? Will an unstable Iraq really improve hopes for a genuine and just peace in the Middle East? These are not questions that we can afford to shrug off in the heat of anti-war rhetoric. Taken together, they constitute a giant question mark about the connection between our politics and our values."

(Via AlterNet.)

The Telegraph - Calcutta : Schumi gives $10m - F1 champion behind tsunami victims: "Jan. 5: One plans to donate $100 to tsunami victims for every ace he serves in his next three tourneys; another has already aced him and everyone else by giving $10 million.

Seven-time Formula One world champion Michael Schumacher today raced to the head of the celebrity list of tsunami donors, pulling way ahead of even the world's richest man, Bill Gates, whose foundation has so far pledged $3 million but promises more."

(Via Google News.)

Xinhua - English: "WASHINGTON, Jan. 5 (Xinhuanet) -- US President George W. Bush has donated 10,000 dollars from his personal funds to the relief effort of tsunami-hit nations"

(Via Google News.)

USATODAY.com - Even some in GOP criticize ethics rule change: "'If you combine a more compliant chairman with the ability of one party to veto even examining an ethics complaint, you will shut down the ethics enforcement process,' said Fred Wertheimer, president of Democracy 21, an ethics watchdog group."

(Via Google News.)

Torture's Bad, Mmmmkay?: "The Justice Department takes a step in the direction of the civilized world by expanding its definition of torture, which (one hopes) may reduce the frequency of 'fraternity pranks' of the sort complained about by FBI agents in these documents. The full memo is here (PDF). Note that it backs away from, but does not explicitly repudiate, the previous assertion that the president may, at his discretion, suspend treaty-based proscriptions on torture."

(Via Reason Online: Hit and Run.)

Outnumbered in Iraq: "The UK's Times reports that General Muhammad Abdullah Shahwani, director of Iraq's new intelligence services, thinks that insurgents in Iraq may outnumber U.S. and coalition forces, with more than 200,000 active fighters and supporters. And many of them are embedded in the Iraqi National Guard"

(Via Reason Online: Hit and Run.)

ABC News: House GOP Reverses Course on Ethics Rules: "House Republicans suddenly reversed course Monday, deciding to retain a tough standard for lawmaker discipline and reinstate a rule that would force Majority Leader Tom DeLay to step aside if indicted by a Texas grand jury.

However, the closed-door GOP meeting made one ethics change that could make it easier for one party to block a House ethics committee investigation of a congressman."

Out one door and in another.

(Via Google News.)

USATODAY.com - FBI: No terror link in lasers aimed at aircraft: "Attorney Gina Mendola Longarzo said David Banach was playing with his daughter on the deck of their home Friday evening when they waved a handheld laser pointer in the air. Longarzo said Banach was aware that a helicopter was in the area but did not think the beam was powerful enough to reach the helicopter. Within minutes, Longarzo said, police and federal agents swarmed Banach's home."

(Via Google News.)

IRAQ THE MODEL: "Most Americans do not realize that Fallujah is celebrated in Iraqi history and poetry for its defiance of the British in the Great Rebellion of 1920. The 1920 revolution against the British is key to modern Iraqi history. One of the guerrilla groups taking hostages named itself the '1920 Revolution Brigades.' Western journalists who don't know Iraqi history have routinely mistranslated the name of this group"

(Via Iraq The Model.)

Prozac Documents Add To Patients Lack Of Trust In Industry: "An article published today in the British Medical Journal alleges officials at the Eli Lilly company suppressed drug safety data on Prozac, one of the most popular antidepressant medications prescribed by physicians.

The documents indicate Lilly knew that Prozac could cause suicidal behavior as far back as the 1980's, but never disclosed the safety data to the US Food and Drug Administration."

(Via Google News.)