Reading the NY Times

Couple of interesting NYT articles caught my eye today.

Interrogation Memos Detail Harsh Tactics by the C.I.A

The documents were released with minimal redactions, indicating that President Obama sided against current and former C.I.A. officials who for weeks had pressed the White House to withhold details about specific interrogation techniques. Leon E. Panetta, the C.I.A. director, had argued that revealing such information set a dangerous precedent for future disclosures of intelligence sources and methods

...In dozens of pages of dispassionate legal prose, the methods approved by the Bush administration for extracting information from senior operatives of Al Qaeda are spelled out in careful detail — like keeping detainees awake for up to 11 straight days, placing them in a dark, cramped box or putting insects into the box to exploit their fears.

Together, the four memos give an extraordinarily detailed account of the C.I.A.’s methods and the Justice Department’s long struggle, in the face of graphic descriptions of brutal tactics, to square them with international and domestic law. Passages describing forced nudity, the slamming of detainees into walls, prolonged sleep deprivation and the dousing of detainees with water as cold as 41 degrees alternate with elaborate legal arguments concerning the international Convention Against Torture.

TOR's Take:
Panetta's agrues that revealing this information sets a dangerous precedent for future methods. What exactly have they revealed in this which is even remotely new or novel.. We have heard about water-boarding, naked head-stands and rabid dogs a hundred times. From what I can tell, the the only new thing I'm seeing is that they sent a few instects into a room.

If this is the best interogation the CIA has we are trouble, what's next they are going to have the terrorits sit on a plane in between those two twins from the Guiness Book of World Records and a screaming baby on his lap?

funny you mention fat people on planes. The NY Times also reported that 'Obese Airline Passengers Must Purchase an Additional Seat'

United Airlines will start bumping obese passengers from sold-out flights and asking them to buy two tickets or upgrade to business class, the airline announced. United says it received more than 700 complaints last year from passengers who were uncomfortable because the person next to them "infringed on their seat," a spokeswoman for the company said.

I am 100% behind this thought and think that if you ahve a size 48 ass you should need two metrocards


An unrelated NY Times report says

Citigroup reports a profit bank’s reported income of $1.6 billion was helped by an accounting adjustment that allowed a one-time gain of $2.5 billion on its derivative positions

I need to figure out how to make one of those one-time accounting adjusments to my savings account