“In early [February 13] 2008, both houses on Congress passed a bill prohibiting the CIA’s use of harsh interrogation techniques, including waterboarding, which is known to have been used against a number of U.S. prisoners. The bill was promptly vetoed [on March 8, 2008] by President Bush, however, who claimed the bill would have ‘taken […]
3/8/2008
In March 8, 2008, Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) said: “the Bush Administration’s approach [to counterterrorism] was not only unnecessary, it was also undermining the security that it claimed to safeguard. ‘The CIA’s program damages our national security by weakening our legal and moral authority, and by providing al Qaeda and other terrorist groups a recruiting […]
3/7/2008
“In March [7] 2008, after President Bush announced his intention to veto legislation requiring the CIA to abide by the same interrogation rules as the military, Senator Jay Rockefeller [D-WV]…[said:] ‘I have heard nothing to suggest that information obtained from enhanced interrogation techniques has prevented an imminent terrorist attack. And I have heard nothing that […]
2/28/2008
“Fifty-three documented cases of extraordinary rendition took place between September 2001 and February 2008; only one prisoner specifically said he had not been tortured. Of the sixteen men who were released, eight claimed they were tortured and/or mistreated while in foreign custody; one died within weeks of being released. Nineteen of the rendered men have […]
2/25/2008
Senator Joseph Biden (D-DE) said, on February 25, 2008: ” ‘Six years after we’ve ousted the Taliban…Afghanistan is a forgotten war, and that country, in my view, is slipping into failure–or toward failure. The Taliban is back. Al Qaeda is regenerated along the border. Violence is up and drug production is booming, and the Afghan […]
2/23/2008
As reported in The Times (London) on February 23, 2008: “According to one estimate, the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which have now gone on longer than World War II, will eventually reach $3.0 trillion.” – Ahmed Rashid, Descent Into Chaos, Page 414 […]
2/18/2008
“The [U.K.] Government has today [February 18, 2008] been forced to publish the secret first draft of the infamous dodgy dossier which led the country into war with Iraq. Ministers have fought through the courts for three years to prevent the revelation of the draft, written in September 2002 by John Williams, then-head of communications […]
2/15/2008
“In February 2008, the Bush Administration announced its intention to bring capital murder charges against six detainees it said were linked to the September 11 attacks, including [mastermind] Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. …Notably missing from the list of the accused were [al Qaeda operations chief] Abu Zubayda and [al Qaeda operative] Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the two […]
2/15/2008
“In February 2008, the Bush Administration acknowledged publicly for the first time that that it had…used what is often considered the most notorious of the U.S. interrogation tactics–waterboarding.” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes.] – Jane Mayer, The Dark Side, Pages 170-171 […]
2/14/2008
“President George Bush cited the London July 7 [2005] bombings in an interview broadcast last night [February 14, 2008] to justify his support for waterboarding, an interrogation technique widely regarded as torture. In an interview with the BBC he said information obtained from alleged terrorists helped save lives, and the families of the July 7 […]