MILAN — An Italian judge found 23 Americans and two Italians guilty Wednesday in the kidnapping of an Egyptian terror suspect, delivering the first legal convictions anywhere in the world against people involved in the CIA's extraordinary renditions program.

Human rights groups hailed the decision and pressed President Barack Obama to repudiate the Bush administration's practice of abducting terror suspects and transferring them to third countries where torture was permitted. The American Civil Liberties Union said the verdicts were the first convictions stemming from the rendition program.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/04/italy-convicts-23-america_n_345274.html

Longtime counterintel official acknowledges evidence behind key aspect of allegations against Marc Grossman made by former FBI translator turned whistleblower Sibel Edmonds

George W. Bush's third-highest ranking State Department official, Marc Grossman, who became the Under Secretary of State after previously serving as Ambassador to Turkey, was targeted as part of a "decade-long investigation" by the FBI, according to an 18-year veteran manager of the agency's Counterintelligence and Counterespionage departments.

For still-unknown reasons, the investigation, which also involved a multitude of cases involving Israeli espionage, was ultimately "buried and covered up," according to the official.

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7439

see also:

http://totalwarfiles.com/?p=80

It's worse than a conspiracy. It's a war. They're very open about it–it's a War on Sex." It's a war that threatens the very fabric of our secular democracy. The American Taliban, our own sexual jihadists, want to replace our government with laws based on the Bible, creating a country in which "normal sex" is narrowly defined and no one has the right to alternative sexual information, health care, or personal expression. America is fighting a war on terror to prevent the overthrow of our way of life by fanatics who want to base all law on their strict religious beliefs. It is completely unacceptable that a group of conservative Americans is trying to accomplish the same thing right here.

http://freestudents.blogspot.com/2009/09/there-is-fury-and-and-sadness-inside.html

http://www.lfb.org/product_info.php?cPath=56&products_id=46

Update: President Obama axes abstinence-only programs

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/07/obama-eliminates-abstinen_n_199205.html

The Spanish newspaper Público reported exclusively on Saturday that Judge Baltasar Garzón is pressing ahead with a case against six senior Bush administration lawyers for implementing torture at Guantánamo.

Back in March, Judge Garzón announced that he was planning to investigate the six prime architects of the Bush administration's torture policies — former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales; John Yoo, a former lawyer in the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, who played a major role in the preparation of the OLC's notorious "torture memos"; Douglas Feith, the former undersecretary of defense for policy; William J. Haynes II, the Defense Department's former general counsel; Jay S. Bybee, Yoo's superior in the OLC, who signed off on the August 2002 "torture memos"; and David Addington, former Vice President Dick Cheney's Chief of Staff.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andy-worthington/spanish-judge-resumes-tor_b_279451.html

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators Russ Feingold (D-WI), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Jon Tester (D-MT), Tom Udall (D-NM), Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Daniel Akaka (D-HI) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) have introduced legislation to fix problems with surveillance laws that threaten the rights and liberties of American citizens.  The Judicious Use of Surveillance Tools In Counterterrorism Efforts (JUSTICE) Act would reform the USA PATRIOT Act, the FISA Amendments Act and other surveillance authorities to protect Americans’ constitutional rights, while preserving the powers of our government to fight terrorism.

http://feingold.senate.gov/record.cfm?id=317927

Is the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 working? At the time of the act's passage last February, this question was hotly debated. Administration economists cited Keynesian models that predicted that the $787 billion stimulus package would increase GDP by enough to create 3.6 million jobs. Our own research showed that more modern macroeconomic models predicted only one-sixth of that GDP impact. Estimates by economist Robert Barro of Harvard predicted the impact would not be significantly different from zero.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204731804574385233867030644.html

The Obama administration supports extending three key provisions of the Patriot Act that are due to expire at the end of the year, the Justice Department told Congress in a letter made public Tuesday.

Lawmakers and civil rights groups had been pressing the Democratic administration to say whether it wants to preserve the post-Sept. 11 law's authority to access business records, as well as monitor so-called "lone wolf" terrorists and conduct roving wiretaps.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i9LLhtcanBcNhniDqSpnQljdFVogD9ANTS1O4

Everybody knows that GWB made debts like no president before him – as you can see to the right.  War spending – to get what? To bring Osama Bin Laden to justice? A bullet would have been cheaper.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/14/us/14intel.html

I think Mr. Greenspan has given us the real answer to that already.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article2461214.ece

But what spawned the early 80's hike in debt? Oil again, I think:

Quote: Saudis flood market with inexpensive oil in 1981, forcing unprecedented price cuts by OPEC members.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980-1989_world_oil_market_chronology

The American economy is addicted to oil, and until that changes, foreign policy will just follow meekly.

At the end of that 'rally' of debt, the Soviet Union was on its knees, and the Berlin Wall came tumbling down.

They couldn't keep up the Arms Race, obviously.

As I predicted, the enormous damage done in US vs. Rest-of-the-Planet relations by GWB has been turned around by what is known as the  Good cop/Bad cop routine.

Under George W. Bush, only 17% had a positive view of the US, now under Obama it's back to 71%.

Congrats, Mr. President – they all fell for it, and you didn't even have to change a thing in your foreign policies, only had to make a few promises you silently have been back-pedaling on, until nothing of essence remains. What a bunch of suckers, indeed. And when you have done your job, anyone can guess what's next.