...and Cheney gives his two cents worth.

CIA director Michael Hayden also jumps in and relates the idea that "waterboarding is necessary though probably not legal..." (?) My goodness. The CIA recently officially admitted to having used waterboarding as an interrogation technique for three terrorism suspects, but claims that the technique has not been used since 2003. Attorney General Mukasey, as a result, has flatly stated that he does NOT plan to launch a criminal investigation into the CIA's use of waterboarding.....

In other news outside of our country's Guantanamo debacle, the state of Nebraska has finally forbidden the use of the electric chair. At this point, Nebraska was the only state to rely on electrocution as the sole method of execution for the death penalty, so this essentially suspends any potential executions in the state in the near future -- mostly because of an ongoing debate in the Supreme Court over the three-chemical combination in a typical lethal injection, which is known to cause extreme pain.

Nebraska's Supreme Court did thankfully rule that electrocution was cruel and unusual punishment, saying that it causes “unnecessary pain, suffering and torture.” But they are also, of course, looking for "new methods" of execution, so, as a person who is avidly against the death penalty, I'm not quite sure what to make of their "progress" just yet. It is interesting to note that last year, Nebraska's unicameral legislature was one vote away from abolishing the death penalty entirely in their state...

UPDATE: U.S. Said to Seek Death Penalty for the 6 Detainees

Read: the Bush administration's rush to enact their ultimate reforms officially sets in...

From William Glaberson, the New York Times main columnist on issues in Guantanamo:

Military prosecutors are in the final phases of preparing the first sweeping case against suspected conspirators in the plot that led to the deaths of nearly 3,000 Americans on Sept. 11, 2001, and drew the United States into war, people who have been briefed on the case said.

The charges, to be filed in the military commission system at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, would involve as many as six detainees held at the detention camp, including Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the former senior aide to Osama bin Laden, who has said he was the principal planner of the plot.

The case could begin to fulfill a longtime goal of the Bush administration: establishing culpability for the terrorist attacks of 2001. It could also help the administration make its case that some detainees at Guantánamo, where 275 men remain, would pose a threat if they are not held at Guantánamo or elsewhere. Officials have long said that a half-dozen men held at Guantánamo played essential roles in the plot directed by Mr. Mohammed, from would-be hijackers to financiers.

A day after the Senate voted to expand the executive branch's spy powers EVEN MORE and irritated me to no end, they are in my good graces again after their decision today to ban waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques used by the CIA...albeit with a very slim majority. Of course, the entire world is fairly sure Bush will just veto the bill, but I think we can take any small victory at this point.

Find the full New York Times article here: Senate Passes Interrogation Ban

US Rejects Race Link to Rendition
Associated Press

GENEVA (AP) -- The United States on Friday rejected any link between racial discrimination and the U.S. practice of sending terrorism suspects to countries where they may be tortured.

''Anything that would be done in this area would not be done on the basis of racial discrimination,'' Robert Harris, assistant legal adviser with the Department of State, told a U.N. panel on racism.

The independent experts on the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racism told Harris and other members of the U.S. delegation that they had received claims that American authorities were being racist in the way they are conducting the so-called war on terror.

Countries ''should ensure that non-citizens detained or arrested in the fight against terrorism are properly protected by domestic law that complies with international human rights,'' said Morten Kjaerum, a Danish member of the panel.

''It seems there is a problem in relation to those who are being involved in the rendition program,'' said Kjaerum. He referred to ''extraordinary rendition'' the expression used by the U.S. for such transport of terror suspects.

''The moment the U.S. authorities take into custody a person wherever in the world, you have the responsibility for this person,'' he added.