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Report: Abusive tactics were used to find Iraq-al Qaida link — WASHINGTON — The Bush administration put relentless pressure on interrogators to use harsh methods on detainees in part to find evidence of cooperation between al Qaida and the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's regime …
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Banned Techniques Yielded ‘High Value Information,’ Memo Says — WASHINGTON - President Obama's national intelligence director told colleagues in a private memo last week that the harsh interrogation techniques banned by the White House did produce significant information that helped the nation in its struggle with terrorists.
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In Adopting Harsh Tactics, No Inquiry Into Their Past Use — WASHINGTON — The program began with Central Intelligence Agency leaders in the grip of an alluring idea: They could get tough in terrorist interrogations without risking legal trouble by adopting a set of methods used on Americans during military training.
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Harsh Tactics Readied Before Their Approval — Intelligence and military officials under the Bush administration began preparing to conduct harsh interrogations long before they were granted legal approval to use such methods — and weeks before the CIA captured its first high-ranking terrorism suspect …
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The Note, The Volokh Conspiracy, TPMMuckraker, Prairie Weather, AMERICAblog News and The Daily Dish

THE SECOND HALF OF THE ARTICLE.... Adm. Dennis C. Blair, President Obama's national intelligence director, told colleagues in a private memo last week that the Bush administration's detainee abuse did, in fact, produce “high value information” about al Qaeda. — “A ha!” conservatives say.


Torture planning began in 2001, Senate report reveals
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What Obama's Intel Chief Really Believes About Torture...
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Media Matters for America

Report Details Origins of Bush-Era Interrogation Policies

Acting Freddie Mac CFO commits suicide — VIENNA, Va. — David Kellermann, acting chief financial officer of Freddie Mac, committed suicide in his Hunter Mill Estates home Wednesday morning. He hanged himself. — Fairfax County Police spokeswoman Mary Anne Jennings tells WTOP police responded …
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Freddie Mac Official Dead in Apparent Suicide — The acting chief financial officer of troubled mortgage giant Freddie Mac was found dead in his Fairfax County home early this morning after apparently committing suicide, Fairfax police said. — David Kellermann, 41, was a longtime Freddie Mac executive …


Court Debates Strip Search of Student — WASHINGTON — The United States Supreme Court spent an hour on Tuesday debating what middle school students are apt to put in their underwear and what should be done about it. — Justice Stephen G. Breyer, for instance, said it struck him as …
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Search Me — The Supreme Court is neither hot nor bothered by strip searches. — When constitutional historians sit down someday to compile the definitive Supreme Court Concordance of Not Getting It, the entry directly next to Lilly Ledbetter ("Court fails utterly to understand realities …


Israel Puts Iran Issue Ahead of Palestinians — JERUSALEM — The new Israeli government will not move ahead on the core issues of peace talks with the Palestinians until it sees progress in U.S. efforts to stop Iran's suspected pursuit of a nuclear weapon and limit Tehran's rising influence in the region …
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AMBASSADOR OREN. — For those of us with a weird obsession …
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Matthew Yglesias


‘Deeper’ recession ahead says IMF — The global economy is set to decline by 1.3% in 2009, in the first global recession since World War II, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) says. — In January, the IMF had predicted world output would increase by 0.5% in 2009.
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Global economy is expected to shrink this year
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The Page

The Re-Education of Tim Geithner — In his worst moments, when the camera lights are burning and the doubt, the contempt, in the Capitol Hill hearing rooms become palpable, Tim Geithner has a look in his eye—at once wary and alarmed, even as he speaks quickly, sometimes interrupting, sometimes repeating his talking points.
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Geithner Hints at High Bar In Letting Banks Repay Aid
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The Page

A Pentagon Cyber-Command Is in the Works — The Obama administration is finalizing plans for a new Pentagon command to coordinate the security of military computer networks and to develop new offensive cyber-weapons, sources said last night. — Planning for the reorganization of Defense Department …
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PrairiePundit
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How they lie: a case study — Did an Obama judicial nominee really express a preference for Allah over Jesus? No, not by a long shot — From the second I read the sentence, I knew there was something fishy about it. Many years' experience in reading and then looking into rightwing canards set off …


$%^&*!!: Civility and tolerance in the Age of Obama — My syndicated column today looks at the outbreak of Obama-esque discourse across the country. Couldn't even mention some of the misogynist sleaze prompted by the Tea Party movement because newspapers wouln't print it. And they call us an “unhinged mob?”


Quadrangle Facing Questions Over Pension Funds — Two months after Steven Rattner left Wall Street for Washington, his private investment company is facing a widening investigation into corruption in public pension funds — and fighting for its future. — As state and federal authorities examine …
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Fuzzy Math — According to an MIT study, cap and trade could cost the average household more than $3,900 per year. — It's just another inconvenient truth: If Americans want any of the government remedies that would supposedly save a planet allegedly imperiled by global warming, it's going to cost them.

Getting It Right — Trade: Hugo Chavez may have gotten a grinning handshake from President Obama in Trinidad. But it was our authentic friend and ally, Colombia, that got substance. The president got one right. — Read More: Budget & Tax Policy — There was quite a media din …


Pataki Heads to Iowa to Slam Obama's First 100 Days — Former New York Governor's Wednesday Speech Stokes 2012 Speculation — Former Republican New York Gov. George Pataki heads to Iowa Wednesday to deliver a scathing critique of President Obama's first 100 days in office.
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Ben Smith's Blog

Stopping Dem 60 ‘real hard,’ Cornyn fears — The man in charge of electing more Republicans to the Senate said it will be difficult to stop the Democrats from winning a 60-seat majority in 2010. — Sen. John Cornyn (Texas), the new head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee …