McCain, Pinochet, and torture

Digby relays complaints by anti-torture blog After Downing Street, that the liberal blogosphere is giving McCain a pass on torture. (As Digby points out, its more properly the traditional media that has given the pass. The bloggers have been all over it.)

HoffPost has discovered that McCain met with Pinochet. PINOCHET.

Bush's pet terrorist

From Digby:

Luis Posada Carriles, an admitted terrorist wanted for crimes in Latin America, had a nice dinner the other night.

...the man being honored by 500 fellow Cuban Americans at a sold-out gala was Luis Posada Carriles, the former CIA operative wanted in Venezuela on terrorism charges and under a deportation order for illegally entering the United States three years ago [...]

Venezuela's ambassador in Washington, Bernardo Alvarez Herrera, condemned the celebration of Posada as a mockery of justice and evidence of a Bush administration double standard in fighting terrorism.

...

Analysts speculate that the U.S. government has dodged calls for prosecution of Posada for fear he would disclose details of CIA involvement in coups, assassination plots and scandals, including the Iran-Contra Affair.

Peter Kornbluh, head of the Cuba Documentation Project at George Washington University's National Security Archive, has compiled declassified CIA and FBI documents on Posada that show he remained in close touch with Washington handlers throughout his covert service.

"The spectacle of a wanted international terrorist being publicly feted as a hero in Miami makes a mockery of the Bush administration's commitment to wage a war on terrorism," he said of Posada's coming-out party.

More from Digby on Justice Department's almost purposeful incompotence in managing his hearings.

Useful for 20th century CIA ops part of course.

Who Hates Whom

It's an interesting primer on current ethnic/sectarian conflicts, AND it contains a grammar lesson in its title! What's not to like?

And he's putting up bonus chapters for conflicts that couldn't make the book due to space considerations. Here's the first one, on Senegal. Funny/sad quote to end it:

Finally, Dakar residents also harbor a much more recent resentment -- toward George W. Bush, who made a televised speech from Gorée Island in 2003.

Other high-profile figures ranging from the Pope to President Clinton to Nelson Mandela have made similar stops with minimal incident. However, according to Reuters (in a widely-published article no longer on their own site), before Bush’s arrival, Senegal’s national capital was shut down, over 1000 residents were taken off the streets, and the roads in and out of the capital were closed. (More from a local witness here.) Then, on the morning of Bush’s speech, the residents of Gorée Island itself were rounded up and herded onto a soccer field, out of sight of the cameras, where they were forcibly held for six hours until the event was finished.

The US president then spoke of his deep belief in liberty and equality, with no hint of irony.

The Senegalese president was instructed not to speak.

Taking the Pledge

13-min documentary about sex workers, and how to get US money they need to sign a loyalty pledge rejecting prostitution. Of course, any HIV/AIDS-prevention efforts need to address this demographic, but that would bump up against the oh so moral Bush administration. Also problems with gay communities and similar subjects of HIV education. This has created a whole litany of problems including increased police harassment even.

And did we mention that the guy the Bushies put in charge of this is heavily embroiled in DC Madam-gate? Sexual morality for thee but not for me! Yipee! (Hat tip: FDL)