Hitchens, his head hooded, was subjected to this most terrifying of ordeals by veterans of the US Special Forces. Did the experience feel like torture? The “official lie” about waterboarding, Hitchens says, is that it “simulates the feeling of drowning”. In fact, “you are drowning - or rather, being drowned. Believe me, it's torture.”

So what did it feel like? Hitchens recounts how he was lashed tightly to a sloping board, then, “on top of the hood, three layers of enveloping towel were added. In this pregnant darkness, head downward, I waited until I abruptly felt a slow…

In his 531-page book, the former Fed chairman sharply criticizes President Bush for not vetoing bloated spending bills and for continuing to focus on issues, such as adding prescription drug benefits to Medicare even though the budget surplus of just a few years ago had disappeared and deficits were mounting.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and his colleagues, who meet in Washington Tuesday, have kept their target for short-term interest rates, which influence borrowing costs economywide, at 5.25% for more than a year. Greenspan's assertion that…

Justice Department officials over the last six years illegally used political or ideological? factors to hire new lawyers, a new report found Tuesday.

The shift began in 2002, when advisers to then-Attorney General John Ashcroft restructured the honors program in response to what some officials saw as a liberal tilt in recruiting young lawyers from elite law schools like Harvard and Yale….

Project Checkmate, a successor to the group that planned the 1991 Gulf Wars air campaign, was quietly reestablished at the Pentagon in June.

From firing the Iraqi Army to allowing crooks and incompetents to ruin post war reconstruction efforts, there is no denying that Paul Bremmer will go down as one of the biggest bunglers in history—and so will his…

A survey of 132 cities, released Friday in Miami at a meeting of the United States Conference of Mayors, found that 90 percent were altering operations because of fuel costs.

“There is a strong argument that over the last 10 years there has been a trend of young professionals and empty nesters coming back to downtowns,” said Mayor John Hickenlooper of Denver. “We built 15,000 housing units…

Engineers who run data centers are in high demand as the growth in such facilities struggles to keep up with the increasing demands of Internet-era computing.

There is no letup in the demand for data center computing. Digital Realty Trust, a data center landlord with more than 70 facilities, says that customer demand for new space is running 50 percent ahead of its capacity to build and equip data…

One campaign worker during this past primary season realized what the one thing was that voters everywhere kept coming back to, the economy. And John McCain is not the answer to out food and fuel problems. 16 years later, it’s still the economy, stupid.

In Iowa, when I asked a man who wasnt sure who he was supporting for President what his main concern was he responded, With corn at four and beans at eleven, I dont know what to think.?

They died just as they had lived - following their natural instincts to stick together. Up the muddy river, running inland from Falmouth, the dolphins swam, responding to the distress calls of their fellow animals. It was the worst case of such a mass stranding on British shores for nearly three decades.

The world and nature are wonderful. Is it over-consumption, selfishness and greed that blinds us to the destruction that comes from putting profit before all else? The sea has been used as a dumping ground and war arena - what do we…

Each month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics gathers 84,000 prices in about 200 categories to form the Consumer Price Index, one measure of inflation. Its among the statistics that the Federal Reserve considered when it cut interest rates on Wednesday. The categories are weighted according to an estimate of what the average American spends, as shown

It?s among the statistics that the Federal Reserve considered when it cut interest rates on Wednesday. The categories are weighted according to an estimate of what the average American spends, as shown below.

HR 1955 - The definition of violent radicalization uses vague language to define this term of promoting any belief system that the government considers to be an extremist agenda. Since the bill doesn’t specifically define what an extremist belief system is, it is entirely up to the interpretation of the government.

H.R. 1955 would direct the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to establish a university-based Center of Excellence for the Study of Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism in the United States. The bill also would establish a…

“The power of the Executive to cast a man into prison without formulating any charge known to the law, and particularly to deny him the judgment of his peers, is in the highest degree odious and is the foundation of all totalitarian government whether Nazi or Communist.”
- Winston Churchill, Nov. 21, 1943

A clue as to where Harman's commission might be aiming is the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, a law that labels those who “engage in sit-ins, civil disobedience, trespass, or any other crime in the name of animal rights” as…

The historians have been polled and more than 80% agree, George Bush is the worst president in US history.

Even worse for the president, the general public, having once given Bush the highest approval ratings ever recorded, now appears to be coming around to the dismal view held by most historians. To be sure, the president retains a considerable base…

A former teacher at a Muslim school in Maryland was again sentenced to 15 years in prison Friday for providing support to a Pakistani terrorist group, even though a federal appeals court had ordered the trial judge to reconsider the original sentence.

At Friday's hearing in Alexandria, U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton said Chandia's actions showed a clear intent to help Lashkar advance its terrorist agenda against India. He said the evidence was clear that Chandia, who grew up in…

U.S. intelligence officials will meet with congressional lawmakers about North Korea’s alleged nuclear cooperation with Syria Thursday on Capitol Hill.

High-ranking U.S. officials are telling reporters the lawmakers will be shown video of North Koreans working at a suspected nuclear reactor site in Syria. The video also reportedly shows the reactor's design was identical to the North…

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. ?? Many parts of America, long considered the breadbasket of the world, are now confronting a once unthinkable phenomenon: food rationing. Major retailers in New York, in areas of New England, and on the West Coast are limiting…

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. ? Many parts of America, long considered the breadbasket of the world, are now confronting a once unthinkable phenomenon: food rationing. Major retailers in New York, in areas of New England, and on the West Coast are…

A 48-page report printed by the Pentagon’s premier educational institute and written by a former aide to Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz has called the Iraq war a “major debacle” whose outcome is “in doubt.” “Measured in blood and treasure, the war in Iraq has achieved the status of a major war and a major debacle,” the retired colonel writes.

“Despite impressive progress in security, the outcome of the war is in doubt,” Collins writes. “Strong majorities of both Iraqis and Americans favor some sort of U.S. withdrawal. Intelligence analysts, however, remind us that the…

The US Department of Defense (DoD) is the largest oil consuming government body in the US and in the world.
Military fuel consumption for aircraft, ships, ground vehicles and facilities makes the DoD the single largest consumer of petroleum in the U.S?

How to deceive friends and influence people: Oil crisis lies…

CBS News and the New York Times have released a comprehensive new poll chock-full of fresh insights on the state of the race nationwide. 70% of voters say that Obama is the candidate who most resembles American values?more so than Clinton or McCain. Also: 52% of Republicans think Obama shares American values; only 27% say that of Clinton.

We should caution that these are averages, so they take a variety of polls'new and old'into account. Today, for example, ARG released a survey that has Obama and Clinton tied at 45 percent each. ARG agrees with the average's…

March 20 is destined to be another day of infamy. On this date this year, the US officially declared war on Iran. But it’s not going to be the kind of war many have been expecting.

1. Russia challenges US in the Islamic world2. A sheikha, a queen and a first lady3. September 11 was a third-rate operation4. Tibet, the 'great game' and the CIA5. Inflation in heart-attack territory6. Knives out for…

Could it be that good/bad?
- A new U.S. carrier battle group has been dispatched to the Gulf.
-The U.S. is also sending Patriot anti-missile systems to the region.
….Russians still remember what was done to them in Afghanistan….
well all i can do is which both sides the dumbest of misfortunes if the bloodbath ensuses it won't end in 100yrs.

The USS John C. Stennis, with a crew of 3,200 and around 80 fixed-wing aircraft, including F/A-18 Hornet and Superhornet fighter-bombers, eight support ships and four nuclear submarines are heading for the Gulf, where a similar group…