While the United states Armed Forces (private mercenaries) are in Afghanistan, Djibouti, Iraq, the Philippines and west Africa defending “all freedom-loving people everywhere in the world,” the—ostensibly pro State sovereignty—Republican (fascist/socialist) President George W. Bush signs the Assistance for Orphans and Other Vulnerable Children in Developing Countries Act, further increasing the nation’s foreign aid commitment.

       NOTE: The 2004 Republican Party Platform contained the following passages:

• Our leaders must make sure that the growth of the federal government remains in check.
• We must maintain our commitment to free and fair trade, lower taxes, limited regulation, and a limited, efficient government that keeps up with the new realities of a changing world.
• We endorse creating a commission to evaluate discretionary spending on federal agencies and programs to ensure that taxpayer Funds are being used for the best, most efficient purposes.  Such a commission would determine whether certain programs are duplicative, wasteful or inefficient, outdated or irrelevant, or failed.  It would recommend to Congress programs that could be terminated, moved, or restructured to make the government more efficient.

       [restored 1/27/2024] Thanks to Jim Lorenz for this entry.

       Jose A. Rodriguez, Jr., Chief of the Directorate of Operations for the Central Intelligence Agency, while visiting the CIA’s secret prison in Thailand, orders the destruction of 92 tapes, containing hundreds of hours of torture sessions of high-level al-Qaida (Arabic for “the Base”) suspects Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri.  The torture that was inflicted upon Zubaydah and al-Nashiri, at the Thai prison, included (but was not limited to) extreme noise; prolonged, forced stress positions; solitary confinement with sensory deprivation; and waterboarding (simulated drowning).

       Postscript: Four years later it was revealed that the total number of video tapes that were destroyed was not two, but 92.

       NOTES:

• This was akin to SS Sturmbannführer Richard Baer, commandant of the Auschwitz death camp, ordering the destruction of the gas chambers in the face of the advancing Soviet Red Army, lest any evidence of the Holocaust be leaked to the outside world.
• Not one significant plot was thwarted as a result of Zubayda’s “enhanced interrogations.” All leads he gave led nowhere.  It was only before Zubayda was tortured that significant intelligence was gleaned from him.

      [updated 1/27/2024] Thanks to Freedom’s Phoenix and G. Edward Griffin for this entry.