ANYONE who has watched the military analysts hired by TV networks has heard rosy assessments of the war in Iraq. The similarities between their judgments and the Pentagon’s are not coincidental. As The New York Times demonstrated by suing the Pentagon to obtain 8,000 pages of documents, those analysts were enlisted by the Defense Department in a psychological warfare operation targeting the domestic audience. And, as the newspaper reported Sunday, many of the retired military officers appearing on news shows were using their access to the Pentagon and the airwaves to procure lucrative contracts for some 150 defense contractors, which employed them as consultants, board members, lobbyists, or executives.

Propaganda at home - The Boston Globe

In dozens of top-secret talks and meetings in the White House, the most senior Bush administration officials discussed and approved specific details of how high-value al Qaeda suspects would be interrogated by the Central Intelligence Agency, sources tell ABC News.

The so-called Principals who participated in the meetings also approved the use of “combined” interrogation techniques — using different techniques during interrogations, instead of using one method at a time — on terrorist suspects who proved difficult to break, sources said.

Highly placed sources said a handful of top advisers signed off on how the CIA would interrogate top al Qaeda suspects — whether they would be slapped, pushed, deprived of sleep or subjected to simulated drowning, called waterboarding.

The high-level discussions about these “enhanced interrogation techniques” were so detailed, these sources said, some of the interrogation sessions were almost choreographed — down to the number of times CIA agents could use a specific tactic.

The advisers were members of the National Security Council’s Principals Committee, a select group of senior officials who met frequently to advise President Bush on issues of national security policy.

At the time, the Principals Committee included Vice President Cheney, former National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell, as well as CIA Director George Tenet and Attorney General John Ashcroft.

Sources: Top Bush Advisors Approved Enhanced Interrogation

Jimmy Hall for msnbc.com

U.S. troops in Afghanistan this month will receive a new tool that the Pentagon says will help them root out potential terrorists — a hand-held lie detector.

New U.S. weapon: Hand-held lie detector - Terrorism- msnbc.com

Natalie Guillen/The New Mexican Rupert Sheldrake was taken to St. Vincent Regional Medical Center Wednesday after being stabbed in the leg while speaking at a conference at La Fonda. Police arrested Hirano Kazuki, 33, of Yokohama, Japan, in the incident.

Police arrest suspect after attack at lecture - SantaFeNewMexican.com

“I may be open-minded about Sasquatch, but I’m without mercy, no matter what the excuses, about molestation,” says Loren Coleman at Cryptomundo.com.

A man who claims that he was molested by Bigfoot as a child was ordered to serve 20 years in prison yesterday for his own molestation-related activities.

Read all about it at: Cryptomundo.com » Molester Blames Bigfoot

www.WJLA.com/news/stories/0308/506664.html (w/video)

Murder, or a man possessed?

By MARSHA DORGAN / Napa Valley Register

The trial of a young Napa man accused of shooting an elderly male acquaintance in 2007 got under way Monday with opening statements from defense attorney Jess Raphael and Napa County Deputy District Attorney Gary Van Camp.Van Camp told the jury of 12 that Alex Taylor, 26, deliberately and intentionally shot George Davis, 62, on April 22, 2007, at Davis’ home in a retirement apartment complex on Redwood Road.

Cult figure killed by Napa man, defense says | Napa Valley Register

Primary school children should be eligible for the DNA database if they exhibit behaviour indicating they may become criminals in later life, according to Britain’s most senior police forensics expert.

Gary Pugh, director of forensic sciences at Scotland Yard and the new DNA spokesman for the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), said a debate was needed on how far Britain should go in identifying potential offenders, given that some experts believe it is possible to identify future offending traits in children as young as five.

Put young children on DNA list, urge police | Society | The Observer