Good Reputation Sleeping

Your Government At Work

CIA Holds Terror Suspects in Secret Prisons.

"The CIA has been hiding and interrogating some of its most important al Qaeda captives at a Soviet-era compound in Eastern Europe, according to U.S. and foreign officials familiar with the arrangement.

The secret facility is part of a covert prison system set up by the CIA nearly four years ago that at various times has included sites in eight countries, including Thailand, Afghanistan and several democracies in Eastern Europe, as well as a small center at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, according to current and former intelligence officials and diplomats from three continents." - Dana Priest, The Washington Post

A Room With A View

A MOST EXCELLENT news photo by Stephen Crowley of The New York Times. Its tough to make a new picture in a room that has been photographed a thousand times, but he did.

Blogging Life and Death

The New Ernie Pyles: Sgtlizzie and 67cshdocs.

BAGHDAD -- There were no reporters riding shotgun on the highway north of Baghdad when a roadside bomb sent Sgt. Elizabeth Le Bel's Humvee lurching into a concrete barrier. The Army released a three-sentence statement about the incident in which her driver, a fellow soldier, was killed. Most news stories that day noted it briefly.But a vivid account of the attack appeared on the Internet within hours of the Dec. 4 crash. Unable to sleep after arriving at the hospital, Le Bel hobbled to a computer and typed 1,000 words of what she called "my little war story" into her Web log, or blog, titled "Life in this Girl's Army," at http://www.sgtlizzie.blogspot.com."I started to scream bloody murder, and one of the other females on the convoy came over, grabbed my hand and started to calm me down. She held onto me, allowing me to place my leg on her shoulder as it was hanging free," Le Bel wrote. "I thought that my face had been blown off, so I made the remark that I wouldn't be pretty again LOL. Of course the medics all rushed with reassurance which was quite amusing as I know what I look like now and I don't even want to think about what I looked like then." - Jonathan Finer, The Washington Post

Remembering Nagasaki, 1995-2005

Remembering Nagasaki.

Ten years ago, at the birth of the web, this site went up, intended to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki. Initially its creators thought about keeping it online for only a few months, but quickly realized the power of the web to serve as a permanent collective memory.

A Sad Tale For Our Times

Two Women Bound by Sports, War and Injuries.

"For 25 days at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Specialist Danielle Green wondered if anyone could ever understand. But on the 26th day, a nurse told her: "A new female patient came in today. You have a lot in common."

"Really?" Specialist Green said, and the nurse nodded.

Like Specialist Green, the new patient was a 20-something firecracker, a 5-foot-8 former college basketball player, an Army soldier in the military police serving in Iraq.

Like Specialist Green, she also knew how it felt to have a rocket-propelled grenade shoot through her arm. Specialist Green's left hand had been torn off." - Juliet Macur, The New York Times - Photo Gallery

The 'No Account' War President

Bush Says Election Ratified Iraq Policy - The Washington Post.

Reality Distortion Field Set to Stun -

President Bush said the public's decision to reelect him was a ratification of his approach toward Iraq and that there was no reason to hold any administration officials accountable for mistakes or misjudgments in prewar planning or managing the violent aftermath.

"We had an accountability moment, and that's called the 2004 elections," Bush said in an interview with The Washington Post. "The American people listened to different assessments made about what was taking place in Iraq, and they looked at the two candidates, and chose me."

Christmas in Hell

Precision of Base Attack Worries Military Experts - Thomas E. Ricks, The Washington Post.

Dean Hoffmeyer/Richmond Times-Dispatch

"In April 2003, as the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq was ending, the Pentagon projected in a formal planning effort that the U.S. military occupation of the country would end this month.

Instead, December 2004 brought one of the deadliest single incidents of the war for U.S. forces. More than 80 casualties were suffered yesterday by U.S. troops, civilian contractors and Iraqi soldiers when a U.S. base near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul was blasted at lunchtime."

Just Like Old Times

At Guantanamo, a Prison Within a Prison.

"Within the heavily guarded perimeters of the Defense Department's much-discussed Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, the CIA has maintained a detention facility for valuable al Qaeda captives that has never been mentioned in public, according to military officials and several current and former intelligence officers.

The buildings used by the CIA are shrouded by high fences covered with thick green mesh plastic and ringed with floodlights, officials said. They sit within the larger Camp Echo complex, which was erected to house the Defense Department's high-value detainees and those awaiting military trials on terrorism charges." - Dana Priest and Scott Higham, The Washington Post

Reality Distortion Field

The New York Times - War Figures Honored With Medal of Freedom.

"WASHINGTON, Dec. 14 - President Bush on Tuesday bestowed the nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, on three of the central architects and executors of the war in Iraq, one of the president's strongest efforts yet at putting a formal stamp of success on a war whose outcome is still a question." - David Sanger, The New York Times

Cry The Beloved Country

The New York Times - Red Cross Finds Detainee Abuse in Guantánamo.

"The International Committee of the Red Cross has charged in confidential reports to the United States government that the American military has intentionally used psychological and sometimes physical coercion "tantamount to torture" on prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

The finding that the handling of prisoners detained and interrogated at Guantánamo amounted to torture came after a visit by a Red Cross inspection team that spent most of last June in Guantánamo."

The country I loved, The United States of America, has been stolen by torturers, murders, and war mongers. What, in the name of the God of Peace and Justice, can I do?