When Mohammed el Gorani was a boy in Saudi Arabia, he found that he could not find good work or education because his family was from Chad. A friend from Pakistan offered to connect him with relatives there who would help him get educated. He took his work savings and flew to Pakistan, where he was kidnapped by local thugs and sold to the US Army as an Al Qaeda operative. He was tortured by the thugs, then tortured by the Army, then sent to Guantanamo for six years, where he was tortured further.

Helen Thomas, the backbone of the White House Press Corps, is part of a dying breed: a journalist who is simply that — not a shill for a point of view or a cheerleader for a political party. There are almost no  [more...]

From today’s “In The Loop” column by Al Kamen in the Washington Post: At the Conservative Political Action Conference, which featured Vice President Cheney as its opening luncheon speaker yesterday  [more...]

Al Kamen’s column in the Post today points out the incredible increase in secrecy under this administration — something we already know, but he gives an example: Executive branch agencies — mostly the  [more...]