By Dave Lindorff

Attorney General Michael Mukasey has caught some flak for
proposing, in an address to the American Enterprise Institute, that
Congress should declare war on Al Qaeda.

Instead, he should be applauded for his brilliant idea.

First of all, Mukasey is admitting, whether he wants to admit it or
not, that the Bush/Cheney program of capturing alleged terrorists and
holding them for years as enemy combatants without charge in detention
centers in Afghanistan, Iraq, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and various
undisclosed locations around the globe, and of torturing many of them,
are illegal actions that violate US law and International Law. So let’s
give him credit for that.

On Monday, a House Committee finally impeached George Bush for torture. The only problem is that the House Committee is in the British Parliament, not the United States Congress.

In a damning criticism of US integrity, the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee said ministers should no longer take at face value statements from senior politicians, including George Bush, that America does not resort to torture in the light of the CIA admitting it used "waterboarding". The interrogation technique was unreservedly condemned by Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who said it amounted to torture...

By Steve Clemons

JANE MAYER, Washington correspondent for The New Yorker, has an important book that will officially hit the stands on Monday, 14 July. I have signed a contract forbidding me to share any of the blockbuster findings and reporting that she has done on the internal Bush administration debates
about torture policy and the other post-9/11 war decisions, but I can say that she has done the nation a great service by further illuminating the important and often defining roles that Vice President Cheney and his staff have played in these policies. In particular, Mayer takes her groundbreaking profile of David Addington -- Cheney's current chief of staff and the man David Ignatius referred to as "Cheney's Cheney" -- an order of magnitude higher.

The book is titled, The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How The War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals. We will have copies for sale on Tuesday morning.

By Dave Lindorff

Double standards when it comes to children are pretty
appalling—especially when it comes to “our” kids vs. “their” kids, but
here in America they aren’t limited to just right-wingers.

Take reaction to the US Supreme Court’s latest ruling that you
cannot execute rapists—even those who rape children—on the theory that
only killing someone justifies execution.

Politicians who make their careers by promoting state sponsored
murder have been quick to condemn this latest “liberal outrage” by
calling for more laws that would make execution the punishment for
raping a child (admittedly a monstrous crime).

Born in 1963 in Parkersburg, West Virginia, Rebecca Schneider grew up in rural western Pennsylvania in a middle class neighborhood.  Rebecca graduated from Mars High School in 1982 and Slippery Rock University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology.  During the course of attending College and working two, sometimes three jobs to pay her way, she set the course of her career when she began working in the library and currently works as a Library Supervisor for Arizona State University.

By Dave Lindorff

Is anyone surprised that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says that the Bush/Cheney administration’s authorization of torture of captives has been consistently legal and in compliance with all treaties the US has signed, including the Geneva Conventions?

After all, she was at the meetings in the White House in 2001 at which various acts of torture, ranging from waterboarding to exposure to extreme heat and cold, to enforced long periods in stress positions, and to treatments which have not been disclosed (no doubt because they are so outrageous and offensive to common decency) were dreamed up, proposed and approved for use—meetings that were manifestly criminal in nature and in violation of international and US law.

The Vast Right Wing Conspiracy played its "ace in the hole" against Obama - Rev. Jeremiah Wright - and it failed miserably, because Americans are sick and tired of Karl Rove's politics of personal destruction.

So now what are they going to do to keep the White House? It looks like we're back to "wag the dog." Cue up McCain's old Beach Boys song: "Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran."

Our friends at the American Freedom Campaign think it's long past time for Conyers to subpoena Ashcroft and Yoo over torture - and if they refuse to appear, begin impeachment hearings. We couldn't agree more. 

American Freedom Campaign Urges Chairman Conyers to Subpoena John Ashcroft and John Yoo

Call for action follows FBI Director Mueller’s testimony that Justice Department prevented investigation of CIA torture

Contact:  Steve Fox, American Freedom Campaign, 202-822-5200

FBI Director Robert Muller went before the House Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Robert Wexler challenged the FBI's failure to stop torture by the CIA and the Pentagon. Muller essentially accused the Attorney General of participating in a coverup. Of course Alberto Gonzales personally approved torture in advance, so it's no surprise he later blocked prosecution of the torturers. Isn't it time for a Special Prosecutor?