Greetings. I'd like to offer a cheery "Happy Holidays" today, but it's difficult given the sorts of revelations that keep appearing in the news.

While there aren't dramatic photos to capture the public's attention this time around, the content of FBI memos recently made public have exposed as lies Department of Defense denials of widespread abuse and torture of prisoners.

A detailed reading of the materials indicates that FBI agents were not only shocked to see what they believed to be illegal abuse and torture of prisoners at Guantanamo, but also discovered that DoD interrogators/torturers routinely claimed to be FBI agents, apparently attempting to ensure that the FBI would be blamed if the abuses ever came to light. The FBI also expressed quite understandable concerns that the accuracy of information obtained under such conditions could be highly doubtful.

Suddenly, the previous abuse, torture, and coercion claims of Guantanamo prisoners, which had been denied by DoD and even doubted by some of the prisoners' attorneys, have been confirmed by the FBI itself.

No doubt President Bush and Secretary Rumsfeld will attempt to again blame lower level lackeys for what now clearly appears to be institutionally-approved abuses -- the sorts of activities that the U.S. fought for decades to eradicate among our cold war adversaries.

In the name of our great country, what have we allowed ourselves to become?

I wish you all the best for the holiday season.

--Lauren--