[With apologies to all snakes, everywhere.]

May 19, 1985-NYT prints a review of a new book by Michael Ledeen: GRAVE NEW WORLD, reviewed by WILLIAM E. GRIFFITH, (THE FORD PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL SCIENCE AT THE MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, IS THE AUTHOR OF ''THE SUPERPOWERS AND REGIONAL TENSIONS.'')

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9807EFDF153BF93AA25756C0A963948260&sec=&pagewanted=all

He begins:

“MICHAEL LEDEEN has written a neoconservative foreign policy tract for our times. His three principal theses are: ''The concepts of traditional authority, including the centuries old notion of raison d'etat, have lost their sway in the United States''; ''the courts are trying to claim authority for themselves''; and ''the media have adopted an ideology that serves their own interests and weakens their opponents within the United States [and] on occasion . . . even strengthens opponents of the United States''

Griffith ends by saying:

“The Founding Fathers rightly distrusted the sort of strong executive for which Mr. Ledeen so longs. The Constitution, the Supreme Court, Congress and, yes, even the news media are too robust for Mr. Ledeen to overcome. [ed. note: my how things have changed!]Ours may be a bad form of government, but to paraphrase Churchill, the American people have long since concluded all others are worse.”

September 11, 200l “[Michael] Ledeen had urged regime change in Iraq since 1998, and just four hours after the 9/11 attacks he posted an article on the National Review Web site urging Bush to take "the fight directly to Saddam on his own territory." He wrote: "Creative destruction is our middle name, both within our own society and abroad. We must destroy [our enemies] to advance our historic mission."

Lots more about the serpent and his nefarious manipulations here:

The War They Wanted, The Lies They Needed

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2006/07/yellowcake200607

Boumedienne: “I’m an animal? I’m not a human?”

December 2002-“Dr. Michael Gelles, the chief psychologist at the [Naval Criminal Investigative Service], spoke with Alberto J. Mora, the Navy’s general counsel, saying that, in his professional opinion, “abusive techniques” and “coercive psychological procedures” were being used on Qahtani at Guantánamo. Gelles warned of a phenomenon known as “force drift,” in which interrogators encountering resistance begin to lose the ability to restrain themselves.” [9] Several studies demonstrate once detainees are dehumanized, physically and psychologically, abusing them is more inviting to their guards. This phenomenon is known in psychology as “force drift.” Alberto Mora describes it in his July 2004 memo: “the use of force to extract information that continues to escalate into harsher and hasher methods. “If some force is good, [interrogators] come to believe…the application of more force must be better […] if left unchecked, force levels, to include torture, could be reached.” [92]

December 20, 2002- with Gordon England’s [the Secretary of the Navy, who is now the Deputy Secretary of Defense] authorization, Mora went to William Haynes, the Pentagon’s general counsel. (O) “The same day, interrogation logs of Mohamed al Qahtani note that interrogators, "Began teaching the detainee lessons such as stay, come, and bark to elevate his social status up to that of a dog.

Detainee became very agitated." [16]

*******************

GG: “What kind of person would deny that this is torture?”

No kind of person.

No animal either,

but a beast.

Sources: http://www.webdsi.com/jebbie/tline.html

I am interested. Saw the link yesterday, but haven't gotten to read it yet. Now I will.

Am I mistaken or did I not hear about a national Day Against Torture which is going to take place later this month?Do you have any information about this? -- Jebbie

I had heard something about this, and thought about it again when Northwestwoods commented above about the Clergy Protest...maybe they would be interested in knowing about the activities being planned for 6/26...or could add to them?

[RMP brought this up, pg. 2]

Holder: "With his appearance in federal court today, Ahmed Ghailani is being held accountable for his alleged role in the bombing of U.S. Embassies in Tanzania and Kenya and the murder of 224 people […]”

On 17 March, 2007, at the end of his Tribunal, Ahmed Ghailani said the following:

“I don’t have any questions, any-any statements but I would like to apologize to the United States Government for what I did before. In helping them because I helped but although it wasn’t-it was without my knowledge what they were doing but I helped them. So I apologize to the United States Government for what I did. And I’m sorry for what happened to those families who lost, who lost their friends and their beloved ones. That is all.”

http://projects.nytimes.com/guantanamo/search/Ahmed%20Ghailani [pg.20]

If this quote is accurate, Panetta has actually admitted that the techniques utilized by CIA employees or contractors during "enhanced" interrogation sessions were illegal and in violation of laws and treaties because they did not follow even the guidelines laid down by DOJ (Yoo and ByBee) and described in other memos released earlier.-Jebbie

Too true. And it's not like they didn't know that would happen either.

n/t

for anyone but themselves.

Philip H. says [pg.1]: “Just like FISA, FOIA works”

-and that is precisely why it must be starved until it’s weak enough to waterboard to death.

Wrt: Ahmed Ghailani

[RMP brought this up, pg. 2]

Holder: "With his appearance in federal court today, Ahmed Ghailani is being held accountable for his alleged role in the bombing of U.S. Embassies in Tanzania and Kenya and the murder of 224 people […]”

then it's very meaning is "change".

Love that line.

Only joshing with you...I didn't even catch it. Pedinska sure is quick and witty. ;-)