Stumps trimmed, Book about the CIA torture program

Not a bad day, not bad at all, and I didn't even take a nap after getting out of bed at 7 a.m. Instead, I just kept myself busy pretty much all day. I got a stump that had grown several tree-starts over the last couple of summers which made it look like a bush in the summertime, rid of said tree-starts. There was a Spruce tree up front that I had cut down this summer with a hand saw, but because of all the weeds at the time, I couldn't get the very bottom branches taken off (not to mention I was too tired to do it). I was able to get the bottom branches off of it and the aforementioned stump out back today because we got a new chain for the chainsaw last week. *smile*

This morning on the news I saw the guy that wrote the book about Extraordinary Renditions that the U.S government does called “Ghost Plane: The True Story of the CIA Torture Program”. According to what he talked about, it's definitely an expose of the whole program. He even names one of the main companies that is being used for these renditions called Aero Contractors. It’s a company based in North Carolina. The planes they used are also referred to as "torture taxis".One point he brought up was "So it’s quite chilling really when the President stands up and says these jails are empty, because it makes you wonder, what have they done with everyone else? Where have they put them, you know? There are hundreds of people that were captured in Afghanistan, for example, that were not sent to Guantanamo. They were sent elsewhere, either held within Afghanistan or sent to other countries. And when they say the jails are empty, it’s quite frightening, because you think, well, where have they put all these people? And it’s still quite a mystery". I wonder that too!

I was very happy to read the Italy has arrest warrants out for U.S. CIA agents involved in the kidnapping and renditioning of Abu Omar. Excellent! And Germany is also going to, probably, be issuing arrest warrants for those involved in kidnapping a German citizen named Khaled El-Masri. I hope they catch everyone involved with the "extraordinary renditions", from the owners of the plane companies all the way to high-ranking U.S. Government officials and prosecute them "to the full extent of the law". Personally I think they'd learn more if they could be tortured the way the people they rendered were, but I am STRONGLY against ANY torture for ANY reason, no matter what definition they use to justify it.

Okay, tonight's Survivor night! Woo-Hoo. Tah tah for now :-)

Tags: democracy, democracy now, Khaled Ed-Masri, Abu Omar, Italy, Germany, extraordinary rendition, torture, CIA, agents, high-ranking officials, Ghost Plane: The True Story of the CIA Torture Program, Stephen Grey, British, journalist, Maher Arar