I know it seems I am picking on them, and maybe I am a little, but the cognitive dissonance displayed here astounds me:

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton foresees a "remaining military as well as political mission" in Iraq, and says that if elected president, she would keep a reduced military force there . . .

This stance deserves deep consideration by Democratic primary voters. . . . Hillary Clinton's promise to continue the Iraqi occupation will become the Democratic Party platform if she is the nominee. This is a very dangerous roadmap for the Democrats.

And yet, MYDD whips for the current House proposal on Iraq funding which is identical in principle to the Hillary formulation. Amazing. On the flip what Hillary said.

Back in 2002 and 2003, largely due to their relevance to the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui and their captivity in overseas secret prisons where they likely were tortured, I wrote many, many posts about Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Ramzi Binalshibh.

All of the posts are accessible here:

• Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (60 posts)
• Ramzi Binalshibh (53 posts)

In addition to the alleged torture of Khalid, the CIA also kidnapped his young sons and flew them to America to talk. My criticism of that is here. The U.S. gave a denial, but it didn't fit. The Associated Press reported on Khalid's statements to interrogators back in 2003. Here is the summary of Khalid's debriefing introduced at the Moussaoui trial. (Analysis here.)Time Magazine profiled Khalid in 2003. ABC reported on the torture techniques as described by CIA officers. The New York Times reported on the techniques used on Khalid (described here.) In 2004, the Washington Post reported on the conflicts between what Khalid and Binalshibh were telling them.

There are several references in the Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's enemy combatant hearing transcript Friday to an al-Jazeera interview. Before their arrests, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Ramzi Binalshibh were interviewed by Yosri Fouda, London bureau chief for al-Jazeera.

The interview is listed as part of the evidence against Khalid. Khalid tells the hearing officer he never told the reporter he was the head of al Qaida's military committee. He wanted to call Ramzi Binalshibh as a witness at the hearing to back him up on this. The hearing officer denied the request.

The al-Jazeera interview was described in detail in a September 9, 2002 London Times article by Dominic Kennedy. It's not online that I know of, but is available on Lexis.

"A slip of the tongue by one of Osama bin Laden's top henchmen seems to have betrayed al-Qaeda's most potent secret: its charismatic leader is dead."

"The blunder was made by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who has confessed to being the operational mastermind behind the September 11 attacks. He made his mistake while disclosing many of the secrets behind the atrocities, which were plotted in Kandahar, the religious extremist Taleban movement's Afghan spiritual home."

"The target of the fourth, thwarted hijack attack in Washington was Congress, not the White House; the original plan was to crash aircraft into atomic power stations; and the plotters used simple codes to keep in touch by internet, he disclosed. Mr Mohammed was speaking in a propaganda exercise organised by al-Qaeda in time for the first anniversary of September 11."

David Brooks provides a window on the Politics of Exiting Iraq:

The fact is there are two serious approaches to U.S. policy in Iraq, and the Democratic leaders, for purely political reasons, are caught in the middle, and even people like Carl Levin are beginning to sound silly.

One serious position is heard on the left: that there’s nothing more we can effectively do in Iraq. . . . The second serious option is heard on the right. We have to do everything we can to head off catastrophe, and it’s too soon to give up hope. . . .

Say what you will about President Bush, when he thinks a policy is right, like the surge, he supports it, even if it’s going to be unpopular. The Democratic leaders, accustomed to the irresponsibility of opposition, show no such guts. As a result, nobody loves them. Liberals recognize the cynicism of it all. Republicans know the difference between principled opposition and unprincipled posturing. Independents see just another group of politicians behaving like politicians.

I have repeated this too many times - the political options on Iraq are binary. You are for Bush's Iraq Debacle or you are against it. The "nuance," if it ever existed, is gone. The Blue Dogs and the fools who enable them - to wit, the Dem leaders in the House - live in a political fantasyland. They have to pick a side now. There is no other way, whether they like it or not.

The truth is the Dems need leadership in the House and they are not getting it. In the Senate, Reid seems to have regained his footing. In the House, Pelosi seems stuck in quicksand. And the Netroots seems intent on enabling this failure of political and policy leadership. It is quite disheartening, on all levels. We need new leaders - everywhere.

Bump and Update: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's enemy combatant hearing transcript is here (pdf.) The New York Times analyzes it here.

Update: Binalshibh's hearing transcript is here. Al-Libi's transcript is here.

Binalshibh and al-Libi both declined to attend the hearings. Al-Libi submitted a very interesting and polite letter that was read into the record (page 5 -7) listing his objections.

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The Defense Department today released a 26 page transcript of the Guantanamo hearing of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in which he confesses to planning the 9/11 attacks and many others.

The politics of crime ... as it affects the NCAA tournament:

• Daniel Dillon, an Arizona guard, was suspended today after being arrested for drunk driving. Arizona plays Purdue Thursday.
• Nevada coach Mark Fox is under investigation (at least by the WAC) after using "loud, boisterous and profane language" toward officials after Nevada lost in the WAC semifinals. So who doesn't? He also "appeared ready to use force toward a police officer," a more serious accusation than cursing at a ref. Nevada plays Creighton Friday.
• The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act hasn't put an end to online sports betting. Nice try, Congress. Are office pools next?

To impeach or not to impeach? The question may soon be academic.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., predicted Wednesday that Gonzales would soon be out.

"I think he is gone. I don't think he'll last long," Reid said in an interview with Nevada reporters. Asked how long, Reid responded: "Days."

The first Republican in Congress to make a public demand for Alberto Gonzales' dismissal: Sen. John Sununu.

So much for those who hoped Patrick Fitzgerald would talk to a Congressional Committee about the Valerie Plame leak investigation. He says he'd rather not. Grand jury secrecy still protects those who weren't indicted and evidence beyond what came out at the Scooter Libby trial.

Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., asked Fitzgerald last week to meet with members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which will hold hearings on the Bush administration's handling of CIA operative Valerie Plame's classified employment status.

In a letter to Waxman, Fitzgerald did not refuse to cooperate with the congressional probe but made it clear he had little to say. "I do not believe it would be appropriate for me to offer opinions, as your letter suggests the committee may seek, about the ultimate responsibility of senior White House officials for the disclosure of Ms. Wilson's identity," Fitzgerald wrote.

Martin Anderson's life ended in his 14th year, when he was beaten to death in a Florida boot camp (more here and here). Gov. Crist announced today that Florida will pay $5 million to settle the claims of Martin's family.

Seven guards and a nurse were charged with manslaughter in November over the death of Anderson, whose beating by guards was caught on videotape.

Chiquita Banana has agreed to pay $25 million for paying Colombian terrorists to protect its workers in the field. It will also plead guilty to a criminal Information.

The settlement resolves a lengthy Justice Department investigation into the company's financial dealings with terrorist organizations in Colombia.

In court documents filed Wednesday, federal prosecutors said the Cincinnati-based company and several unnamed high-ranking corporate officers paid about $1.7 million between 1997 and 2004 to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, known as AUC for its Spanish initials. The AUC has been responsible for some of the worst massacres in Colombia's civil conflict and for a sizable percentage of the country's cocaine exports. The right-wing group was designated by the U.S. government as a terrorist organization in September 2001.

Chiquita also paid money to FARC. How did the Justice Department find out?

Via Greg Sargent, one of the best reporters around BTW, Move On privately grumbling to House Dems:

MoveOn is privately demanding that House Dem leaders make key changes to their legislation on Iraq -- a move that could seriously complicate the leadership's efforts to build consensus behind an approach to ending the Iraq war, Election Central has confirmed. MoveOn's Washington director, Tom Matzzie, confirmed in an interview that the group told people in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office this afternoon that they were unhappy with two major components of the bill. He said that the bill lacks tough enough enforcement language -- meaning that the bill doesn't contain strong enough provisions to compel withdrawal after the deadlines set forth in the legislation.

How about a little PUBLIC grumbling Move On?

Via my "mortal enemies" (this is a joke) at MYDD, an analysis of the latest version of the travesty that is the House Leadership/Blue Dog Iraq Supplemental Bill.

What this analysis and all analysis I have seen seems not to understand is once Bush gets the money, he need not comply with provisions that violate the separation of powers. You can agree with that view or not, but practically speaking THAT is what will happen.

You want to stop the Iraq Debacle you can not fund Bush's war. To pretend that there is another way is an insult to the intelligence of the American People. That is why I (And I speak ONLY for me) urge opposition to the House Dem Leadership/Blue Dog proposal, as it is a travesty that does nothing to end the Debacle.