PBC News & Comment: Alarming New Case of Torture and Rendition

British man reports torture in Djibouti, CIA interrogation, followed by rendition to US on unreported terrorism charge, jailed in NYC…..As reported by London’s Daily Mail on January 19, 23-year-old Mahdi Hashi is being held in New York, facing terrorism charges. He was reported missing last summer while traveling in Somalia, and reports he was held in Djibouti where he was tortured, and interrogated by CIA agents who coerced him into signing a confession.

–the former CIA agent who is taking a fall for revealing some US torture episodes, John Kiriakou, was sentenced to 30 months today, and got snarky comments from the judge

–David Sirota (who is mentioned in our Carl Wolfson interview today), exposes the “sleight of hand” in Obama’s inauguration speech, for saying he wants to end perpetual war, while he extends it; read it here

–from segment one of today’s in-depth interview, Carl Wolfson, the progressive host from Portland, talks about deregulation’s impact on the radio industry

–UN appoints British lawyer Ben Emmerson to lead investigations of drones, especially attacks that cause civilian deaths

–Emmerson is also representing Libya’s former intelligence chief in a military trial expected to lead to execution

–a recent drone strike in Yemen killed the alleged #2 of the regional al Qaeda franchise, former Guantanamo prisoner al-Shihri

–NY Times runs breezy, upbeat story about unarmed surveillance drones

–spending by Washington lobbyists spiked upward in 2012

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