THEY AUTHORIZED TORTURE. . .AND THEN WATCHED

Cheney chief of staff David Addington -- author of one of the key "torture memos" -- actually went to Guantanamo to see torture harsh interrogation techniques applied to Guantanamo prisoners.

Accompanying him were Alberto Gonzales and Department of Defense General Counsel Jim Haynes.

All of this is described in a forthcoming book by a friend and colleague Philippe Sands titled Torture Team: Deception, Cruelty and the Compromise of Law.

Phillippe Sands, Lawrence Wilkerson, and Steve Clemons will be speaking on "The Torturers" on Tuesday, 6 May, 3:30-5:00 pm at the New America Foundation in Washington, DC.

SYRIAN NUKES???

In a closed congressional session tomorrow, Israeli intelligence officers will provide Members of Congress with details regarding Israel's air raid last September on an alleged nuclear installation Syria was constructing with North Korean assistance. However, there is no solid evidence to date that Syria was actually building a nuclear facility, according to highly-placed U.S. intelligence officials.

CIA analysts suggest the Syrians might have been building some kind of air missile facility. But the Bush administration is keen on darkening Syria's image, as are the Israelis, so they must promote the nuclear line. President Assad of Syria has joked to Western visitors that his engineers are so incompetent that if they tried to build a nuclear facility it would become another Chernobyl.

Vice-President Dick Cheney continues to tell associates that the Syrians were constructing a chemical weapons plant. At the time of the attack, UN nuclear chief Mohamed ElBaradei accused the Israelis of taking "the law into their own hands" and demanded more information about what was hit. To date, the IAEA chief has received no such briefing.......

NO DNC DEBATE IN NORTH CAROLINA

Clintonistas are furious at DNC chairman Howard Dean for interceding and canceling a planned debate between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama that was scheduled to take place in North Carolina before the May 6th primary there. But the NC state democratic party says that both candidates have agreed to speak at a Jefferson-Jackson Dinner in Raleigh on May 2nd.

LOW ROAD TO VICTORY?

For the New York Times to publish a lead editorial attack on Hillary Clinton for running a "low road" campaign in Pennsylvania, as it did in today's paper, is quite astonishing . But will such an editorial persuade the Clinton or McCain campaigns from doing whatever they can to uncover Obama's "black nationalist roots"? No chance. We have learned that McCain and Clinton investigators are on the ground in Chicago looking into Farrakhanism and any connections to Barack Obama's machine.

TROUBLE IN BOLIVIA?

Bolivia is a big topic in the cafeteria at the CIA these days; specifically regarding the planned referendum that President Evo Morales will hold on May 4th.

The referendum will consist of two questions. It will let voters decide between 5,000 and 10,000 hectares as the maximum size for an estate. Secondly, the referendum will ask voters whether they approve of a newly drafted constitution that says the government should have ownership of all natural resources.

The crisis between the government of Bolivia and the country's wealthiest estates is palpable. In a little covered speech at the UN earlier this week, Morales denounced the rich in his country for trying to stop his social programs and foreign companies which put their products before people's lives. So why is the CIA so interested in what happens in Bolivia on May 4th? Why are there so many American agents scurrying around La Paz these days?

BEIRUT'S EMPTY HOTELS

Beirut is one of the world's great cosmopolitan cities. But the political stand-off between the American-backed government and the Syrian-backed opposition is keeping tourists away. The occupancy rate in Beirut hotels was 35 percent in 2007, down from 50 percent in 2006, according to a recently released annual survey of the Middle East hotel market by Ernst and Young. The occupancy rate in Beirut was the lowest among 19 markets in the region last year.

-- TWN Staff