Posted on Categories Uncategorized

PBC News & Comment: Dems Fight GOP Sneak Attacks in Must-Pass Spending Package

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