Michael Scanlon, a Republican political operative, publicist and former press spokesman for House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, pled guilty November 21 to conspiring with lobbyist Jack Abramoff to bribe a Republican congressman and cheat several American Indian tribes out of tens of millions of dollars.

http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=9359


From Information Clearing House

HRW has strong evidence Romania was involved in CIA secret prisons case:

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has indirect, but strong evidence that Romania and Poland were involved "some time ago" in the case of the CIA alleged secret prisons, together with several Middle East countries.

http://www.daily-news.ro/article_detail.php?idarticle=19891



Rewards for torture?

Romania to sign US military bases deal next week:

Romania and the United States will sign a deal on Tuesday to set up U.S. military bases in the Black Sea country, the Foreign Ministry said on Friday.

http://tinyurl.com/937q8



US holding 26 ‘ghost detainees’, says HRW:

A leading human rights monitor accused the United States on Wednesday of holding and possibly torturing at least 26 ‘ghost detainees’ in secret overseas locations.

http://www.dawn.com/2005/12/02/int6.htm



Report: Two CIA Flights Stopped in France:

Two flights chartered by the CIA made stopovers in France in 2002 and 2005, French newspaper Le Figaro said Friday, adding to likely questions facing U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice when she visits Europe next week.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5452451,00.html



Blair faces allegations of complicity in torture:

There are growing calls at Westminster for Mr Blair to block the CIA flights. The Labour MP Harry Cohen said: "It is not for the UK Government to connive in and facilitate people disappearance. The Government's blind-eye approach to enforcing the law is not acceptable."

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article330660.ece



It is time for Britain to come clean on its part in rendition:

The UK is a party to the Convention against Torture which imposes an absolute prohibition on torture, with no exceptions. So is the US. The ban on torture applies not just to the act itself but also prohibits sending people to countries where there are substantial grounds for believing that they would be in danger of being tortured.

http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/article330653.ece



95 per cent US dailies ignored report on torture of Iraqi prisoners:

Military autopsy reports provide indisputable proof that detainees are being tortured to death while in US military custody. Yet the corporate media of the United States (US) is covering it with the seriousness of a garage sale for the local Baptist Church.

http://www.newswatch.in/index.php?itemid=2326


From Information Clearing House

U.S. Is Force Feeding Hunger Strikers In Guantanamo:

"Some, because of their character and temperament, they would be less than cooperative and would need to be restrained," Gong said
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Dec2005/20051201_3504.html



Guantanamo is just an aside:

14,500 of those remain in detention and 108 people are known to have died in US custody.

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/771/in6.htm


From Information Clearing House

It would be hard to find a U.S. war or expansionist enterprise that was not accompanied by enthusiastic rhetoric about supporting democracy.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11199.htm


From Information Clearing House

While the United States spends billions on troop support in Iraq, the people serving the meals, scooping the ice cream, and washing the dishes make as little as 50 cents an hour.

http://www.upi.com/SecurityTerrorism/view.php?StoryID=20051201-030751-2473r


From Information Clearing House

The hawks in the Bush administration had initially hoped that a conquered Iraq would form the launching pad for a further American war on Iran. The Shiites of Iraq foiled that plan.

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/how_bush_created_a_theocracy_in_iraq/


From Information Clearing House

TIME Magazine reporter Michael Ware, who is embedded with the U.S. troops in Iraq who participated in the Tal Afar battle, appeared on Anderson Cooper yesterday. He said Bush’s description was completely untrue.

http://thinkprogress.org/2005/12/01/embedded-time-reporter/


From Information Clearing House

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11203.htm
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495;article=96628;show_parent=1
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495;article=96629;show_parent=1
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495;article=96630;show_parent=1

By Mike Ferner

Nixon decided to change the color of the corpses in Viet Nam by replacing U.S. ground troops with U.S. bombers…that in just six months of 1972, U.S. warplanes dropped 702,000 500-pound bombs on Viet Nam…or that 15 giant B-52’s would be shot down during the “Christmas Bombings” that year, with nearly 100 crewmembers killed or captured.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11202.htm

Pressure is mounting on the White House to answer claims that the CIA is using UK airports to fly terrorist suspects to secret prisons in Europe for torture.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/120205M.shtml