Brinksmanship, backroom deals, delay tactics, and DeLay’s tactics in budget vote, stark preview of GOP muscle in next Congress....
--modest NSA reforms were secretly deleted from final spending bill
--remarkable, lengthy story in The Guardian reveals that US-run prisons in Iraq were the “factory” where IS was formed—17 of 25 top dogs in IS are former prisoners
--Under fire to resign, CIA director Brennan offers lame excuses, denials
--Obama praises Brennan, resists calls for a purge
--report reveals that after 9/11 CIA initially planned legal, ethical prisons for terrorism suspects, but not for long
--bleak editorial in NY Times predicts no more disclosures
--Brazil issues report on torture and abuses from 1964-85
--at al Jazeera, Naureen Khan asks “will drone warfare” be the next “stain on our values?
--international law expert Richard Falk comments on drones and the killing of Awlaki, from our Processing Distortion podcast
--check out the Rustic Justice project to support indie artists
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