A Question of Human Dignity

"Most Americans, including myself, originally gave President Bush the benefit of the doubt and assumed that the inmates truly were 'the worst of the worst.' But evidence has grown that many are simply the unluckiest of the unluckiest."

He concludes: "To stand against torture and arbitrary detention is not to be squeamish. It is to be civilized."

Self-Selected?

And here's an astonishing way of looking at torture, from none other than Attorney General Michael Mukasey: The three men who were waterboarded, he said yesterday, brought it upon themselves.

NPR's Ari Shapiro spoke to Mukasey yesterday.

Shapiro: "Mukasey quoted CIA director Michael Hayden's statement that out of a large number of terrorism detainees, 100 were subjected to coercive interrogation techniques."

Mukasey: "And of those, three were waterboarded. So these are people who self-select for their ability to resist the technique."

FISA Watch

Might Bush's fearmongering finally have lost its effectiveness?

Eric Lichtblau writes in the New York Times: "Broad spying powers temporarily approved by Congress in August appear likely to lapse this week after a daylong game of chicken on Wednesday between the White House and House Democrats produced no clear resolution. . . .

"House Democratic leaders tried to obtain a 21-day reprieve to allow more time to negotiate before the temporary measure expires on Friday night. But the proposal was defeated in the face of opposition from liberals who are against the surveillance plan and conservatives who favor it.

"House Democrats now say they may simply let the deadline pass without acting on the Senate plan. . . .

"The lapsing of the deadline would have little practical effect on intelligence gathering. Intelligence officials would be able to intercept communications from Qaeda members or other identified terrorist groups for a year after the initial eavesdropping authorization for that particular group.

"If a new terrorist group is identified after Saturday, intelligence officials would not be able to use the broadened eavesdropping authority. They would be able to seek a warrant under the more restrictive standards in place for three decades through the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act."