via.

People apparently don’t care that our president is a war criminal who authorized torture. How long did your favorite news source spend talking about torture today?

EDIT: I’m glad I’m apparently wrong, at least in part.

Keith Olbermann: If there’s a paper trail regarding this, Jon, is this a War Crimes trial waiting to happen somewhere, someday?

Jonathan Turley: It’s always been a War Crimes trial ready to happen.

What the hell?

Among the disclosures made by Feith in “War and Decision,” scheduled for release next month by HarperCollins, is Bush’s declaration, at a Dec. 18, 2002, National Security Council meeting, that “war is inevitable.” The statement came weeks before U.N. weapons inspectors reported their initial findings on Iraq and months before Bush delivered an ultimatum to Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Feith, who says he took notes at the meeting, registered it as a “momentous comment.”

A refresher for those with short memories: the UNMOVIC inspectors issued a January 2003 report in part critical of the Iraqi government, but indicating progress and asking the Security Council for more time. The U.S. invaded without U.N. authorization (ie. in violation of the U.N. Charter) on the 20th of March, 2003. I wasn’t blogging back then, but I was crazy enough to camp out on Polk Place to demonstrate my opposition to the war.

ITMFA. Via.

Who needs it?

Via.

Looks like slashdot picked up the falafel sales story from the same source jwz used, plus wired, c|net. Rock on, jwz.

I regularly eat a falafel and hummus pita for lunch. The nice folks at the Daily Grind stock a neatly-packaged offering from Med Deli. I was a bit startled, then, to see this news item via jwz:

The idea was that a spike in, say, falafel sales, combined with other data, would lead to Iranian secret agents in the south San Francisco-San Jose area.

The brainchild of top FBI counterterrorism officials Phil Mudd and Willie T. Hulon, according to well-informed sources, the project didn’t last long. It was torpedoed by the head of the FBI’s criminal investigations division, Michael A. Mason, who argued that putting somebody on a terrorist list for what they ate was ridiculous — and possibly illegal.

A check of federal court records in California did not reveal any prosecutions developed from falafel trails.

FBI spokesman Paul Bresson would neither confirm nor deny that the bureau ran such data mining, or forward-leaning “domain management,” experiments, but said he would continue to investigate.

*golf clap*

Here’s an awesome investigative reporting piece that you should take a few minutes to listen to (requires flash). You can also download the piece (mp3).

It’s about a small plane crash in Mexico, Guantanamo Bay, the CIA, over 3 metric tons of cocaine, and why the FAA makes this all possible.

via.

Ouch.

I suggest jumping to the last minute. It gets pretty good. Also good is an exchange at about 2:45 in.