Adm. Dennis C. Blair, Director of National Intelligence

On the CIA "enhanced interrogation techniques" scandal:
"The information gained from these techniques was valuable in some instances, but there is no way of knowing whether the same information could have been obtained through other means. The bottom line is these techniques have hurt our image around the world, the damage they have done to our interests far outweighed whatever benefit they gave us and they are not essential to our national security."

(via First Read)

A Tale of Two Douches

First this report came out yesterday:

A U.N. spokesman says Hamas police in Gaza have seized thousands of blankets and food parcels meant for needy residents. Spokesman Christopher Gunness says Hamas police raided a U.N. warehouse in Gaza City on Tuesday evening. He says police snatched 3,500 blankets and more than 400 food parcels.

Then this report comes out today:

The Israeli Navy intercepted a cargo ship headed for Gaza on Thursday, diverting it to an Israeli port where the people aboard were to be questioned, the military announced. The boat, called The Brotherhood Ship, was carrying what its organizers said was humanitarian aid: food, medicine, and toys. ... Among the nine people aboard was the former Greek Orthodox archbishop of Jerusalem, Monsignor Hilarion Capucci.

That's right, both sides fighting in the recent Hamas-Israel conflict are blocking aid meant for Palestinian civilians. What a bunch of douches!

In the case of the raided U.N. warehouse Hamas might either be stealing those supplies for themselves or planning to redistribute it to garner support from civilians. That's the reason they were running the tunnels between Egypt and Gaza, to bring in weapons and supplies (which Israel invaded to bomb the shit out of). As for the intercepted supply ship, depending on how Israel proceeds those supplies could still get to needy Palestinians as Israel allows a maximum of 200 trucks of aid though their Gaza blockade a day.

Still, Israel diverted, boarded and pointed guns at a ship with only nine crew members including a former archbishop! Meanwhile...

...the Israeli military acknowledged that its soldiers fired two tank shells on Jan. 16 at the house of Izzeldin Abuelaish, a well-known Gaza doctor, killing three of his daughters and a niece. The military said that it was "saddened by the harm caused" to the doctor's family, but that under the circumstances, it considered the decision to fire toward the building "reasonable."

No, it wasn't. And shut up.

See what Israel's invasion of the Gaza Strip is like for the Palestinians

There is so much to say on either side of the issue but this poor family and the actions and thoughts of the Israeli soldiers in this rare video are so very poignant. What good could ever come from all this?

Speaking of hell, we've opened up a new branch there

I wonder if they sell snowballs.

In Iraq, the US has opened its massive new embassy in Baghdad. The $700 million building is the most expensive and largest embassy in the world. The 104-acre compound includes twenty-one buildings, a commissary, cinema, retail and shopping areas, restaurants, schools, a fire station, power and water treatment plants, as well as telecommunications and wastewater treatment facilities. The compound is six times larger than the United Nations in New York.

(via DN!)

The Big Picture's Best Photos of 2008

Boston.com's The Big Picture has posted a three part retrospective of 2008's best in photojournalism. Here are part one, part two and part three. Highly, highly recommended.

Where are Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert when you need them...

International politics is hilarious

Bush sure can dodge though. Maybe it was the baseball in high school... or the cheerleading.

The Daily Show: The Mumbai Attacks

Kudos to Jon Stewart and John Oliver for having the balls to take on this massive act of douchebaggery.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Mumbai Tragedy

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

News of the World!

Four significant bits of international news going on today, 8/8/08:

• The 2008 Olympic Games (or the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, seriously) opened in Beijing, China today. I haven't seen any video of the opening ceremonies yet but I've heard they were orgasmatacular.
  
  
• Russia and Georgia are at each other's throats over the Georgian province of South Ossetia. Russian tanks are being rolled out, Georgia's shooting down Russian planes, it's getting messy. The two countries have been arguing over this area for a few years. There are separatists in South Ossetia that want to break away from Georgia, and since Russia likes to stick it to former parts of the Soviet Union for some godforsaken reason the Russians are supporting the separatists.
  
  A few months ago a Russian MiG-29 shot down a Georgian spy plane over Georgian territory, and the video made it all over the internets. Back in 2005 Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko was poisoned with dioxin most likely while eating dinner with Ukrainian officials, three of which have now fled to Russia. There was the former FSB (KGB) agent in the UK that was poisoned and killed with polonium by another former FSB agent. Russia... well they're kind of a bunch of dicks.
  
  
• The current Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf, is being impeached. The guy is completely unpopular now and was already supposed to have stepped down. He's said he will fight the impeachment. It came out recently that the country's security forces had been infiltrated by Taliban leading to the assassination of Perv's former successor Benazir Bhutto. NATO has been dipping into the northern part of Pakistan (called Waziristan) to fight Taliban/al Quaida, and that's been a whole can of sovereignty worms since Pakistan has been trying to control the province too. This is all an interconnected web of news between Pakistan, Afghanistan, the United States, NATO, India, Benazir Bhutto's political party, terrorists, Iraq, etc. and can affect any players at the drop of a hat.
  
  
• The Large Hadron Collider starts initial testing tomorrow so you might want to prepare for the end of the world. This is one of those Samuel Jackson in Jurassic Park flipping a switch and saying "hold onto your butts" moments. Here's the weather forecast for Europe tomorrow.
  
  Oh wait, scratch that, seems they pushed it back to September 10. Better get cracking on that bucket list, eh?