Latest update on this shameful chapter in USA's post 911
antics
******************************

CIA practice of rendition a black eye for U.S.


America's tarnished inter national image is taking another beating as attention focuses on the U.S. practice of rendering terrorist suspects into the less-than-welcoming arms of third-nation interrogators.

A judge in Milan is weighing whether Italian prosecutors have sufficient evidence to go to trial in a CIA-led abduction of a Muslim cleric in 2003. The cleric was flown to an Egyptian prison, where he claims he was tortured, sexually abused and kept for long periods in an underground cell.

The prosecutors have charged 25 CIA operatives, including the agency's chief of station in Rome, a U.S. Air Force officer, along with five Italian intelligence agents. They are accused of grabbing Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, a militant Egyptian-born cleric known as Abu Omar, as he walked along a Milan street toward the local mosque. He was then taken in a van to the Aviano Air Base, a joint U.S.-Italian installation, and flown to another air force base in Germany before being flown to Cairo.

European prosecutors take seriously their laws protecting national sovereignty and people's civil rights. The United States may be about to pay a price in further loss of prestige should the judge decide to take the matter to trial and expose the details of the CIA's reckless decision to operate in Italy as if it were just another banana republic.

The number of terrorist suspects subjected to rendition has been variously estimated from a few dozen to 3,000. CIA insiders say the practice, which is in violation of international law, has inflicted more damage on the agency than it has delivered valuable intelligence.

Abu Omar, who fled Egypt as a political dissident, has never been charged in Italy or the United States with any crimes. He remains in an Egyptian prison.

The practice of rendition is a black eye for the United States and has inflicted great harm on this country's prestige. President Bush should terminate the use of rendition once and for all.

He also needs to determine what to do with those subjected to rendition, who may or may not be guilty of something, but who have never been charged, never been tried in a proper court and who continue to be held and mistreated in Third World prisons at U.S. instigation.

Elvis Costello may have just written this gorgeous song about
Iraq. What a stupid war and waste of taxpayer money.
Go get him Pelosi. Sick 'em!


Shipbuilding



Is it worth it
A new winter coat and shoes for the wife
And a bicycle on the boys birthday
Its just a rumour that was spread around town
By the women and children
Soon well be shipbuilding
Well I ask you
The boy said dad theyre going to take me to task
But Ill be back by christmas
Its just a rumour that was spread around town
Somebody said that someone got filled in
For saying that people get killed in
The result of this shipbuilding
With all the will in the world
Diving for dear life
When we could be diving for pearls
Its just a rumour that was spread around town
A telegram or a picture postcard
Within weeks theyll be re-opening the shipyards
And notifying the next of kin
Once again
Its all were skilled in
We will be shipbuilding
With all the will in the world
Diving for dear life
When we could be diving for pearls