Wednesday, June 09, 2004



No writer ever truly succeeds. The disparity between the work conceived and the work completed is always too great and the writer merely achieves an acceptable level of failure.
Phillip Caputo, A Rumor of War

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Lawyers Decided Bans on Torture Didn't Bind Bush
A team of administration lawyers concluded in a March 2003 legal memorandum that President Bush was not bound by either an international treaty prohibiting torture or by a federal antitorture law because he had the authority as commander in chief to approve any technique needed to protect the nation's security.
The memo, prepared for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, also said that any executive branch officials, including those in the military, could be immune from domestic and international prohibitions against torture for a variety of reasons.

· Legal Memorundum [ via A bizarre set of circumstances: The Government will censor intelligence whistleblower Andrew Wilkie's insider account of the spy services ]
· · See Also Mikhail Gorbachev: A President Who Listened [link first seen at UK Parliament, the finest advocacy web-app in the world www.theyworkforyou.com]
· · · See Also It was Mr. Reagan's good fortune that during his time in office the Soviet Union was undergoing profound change, eventually to collapse [Reagan May Replace Hamilton on $10 Bill]
· · · · See Also Cigarettes Will Kill You -- Twice: Cigarette Smuggling Linked to Terrorism as not only do terrorists kill people, but they cheat on their taxes, too
· · · · · See Also Mosul Car Bomb Explosion Kills Five Troops in Iraq - Polish Army [ via Anatomy of (Another) ‘Un-newsworthy’ Story ]
· · · · · · See Also The rich have been warned to leave Baghdad. But for the poor, there is no escape from crime