Contraction in Europe and shrinking wages in US. Bad news.

I see that the geniuses in the US Senate succumbed to the banks and failed to force the banks to adjust existing mortgages to realistic housing prices.

The UAW is told that they have to be realistic and downsize their paychecks in light of the reality of the market. Unions and labor are to take a hair cut as have most investors and anyone with a 401K. Everyone must adjust to the new reality except the banking industry and the US Senate.

Europe is shrinking.

Employment and prices are falling, all of this in the apparent face of massive deficits. 

There is a need to re inflate. 

That requires disposable income in the hands of the American public. A radical and equitable solution would be to force drop every residential mortgage in the US to 3%, regardless of size, location, and term. That would affect a massive tax decrease and permit increased  spending. It would preserve capital as it would not be necessary to reduce the face value of mortgages.

It would stabilize pricing and slow falling wages. 

Give the break to consumers, taxpayers and workers. If some banks fail as a result, hard bread to them.

__________________________________________

E.U. Says Europe Faces Deep Recession
NY Times
Published: May 4, 2009
Filed at 5:19 a.m. ET

BRUSSELS (AP) -- The European Union says Europe faces a "deep and widespread recession" and that unemployment will rise sharply over the coming two years.

It says both the 27-nation EU and the 16 countries that use the euro currency will shrink 4 percent this year, way more than its previous forecasts.

It says some 8.5 million jobs will disappear in the EU in 2009 and 2010, more than wiping out the number of new jobs created in the last two years.

It predicts a subdued recovery next year but only if the banking sector and world trade start to recover.

The EU says Germany's economy will contract 5.5 percent this year, Britain and Italy will shrink by between 4 percent to 4.5 percent, while Spain and France will post a 3-percent drop.

Falling Wage Syndrome

By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: May 3, 2009

Wages are falling all across America.

Some of the wage cuts, like the givebacks by Chrysler workers, are the price of federal aid. Others, like the tentative agreement on a salary cut here at The Times, are the result of discussions between employers and their union employees. Still others reflect the brute fact of a weak labor market: workers don’t dare protest when their wages are cut, because they don’t think they can find other jobs.

Whatever the specifics, however, falling wages are a symptom of a sick economy. And they’re a symptom that can make the economy even sicker.

First things first: anecdotes about falling wages are proliferating, but how broad is the phenomenon? The answer is, very.

It’s true that many workers are still getting pay increases. But there are enough pay cuts out there that, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average cost of employing workers in the private sector rose only two-tenths of a percent in the first quarter of this year — the lowest increase on record. Since the job market is still getting worse, it wouldn’t be at all surprising if overall wages started falling later this year.

But why is that a bad thing? After all, many workers are accepting pay cuts in order to save jobs. What’s wrong with that?

The answer lies in one of those paradoxes that plague our economy right now. We’re suffering from the paradox of thrift: saving is a virtue, but when everyone tries to sharply increase saving at the same time, the effect is a depressed economy. We’re suffering from the paradox of deleveraging: reducing debt and cleaning up balance sheets is good, but when everyone tries to sell off assets and pay down debt at the same time, the result is a financial crisis.

And soon we may be facing the paradox of wages: workers at any one company can help save their jobs by accepting lower wages, but when employers across the economy cut wages at the same time, the result is higher unemployment.

Here’s how the paradox works. Suppose that workers at the XYZ Corporation accept a pay cut. That lets XYZ management cut prices, making its products more competitive. Sales rise, and more workers can keep their jobs. So you might think that wage cuts raise employment — which they do at the level of the individual employer.

But if everyone takes a pay cut, nobody gains a competitive advantage. So there’s no benefit to the economy from lower wages. Meanwhile, the fall in wages can worsen the economy’s problems on other fronts.

In particular, falling wages, and hence falling incomes, worsen the problem of excessive debt: your monthly mortgage payments don’t go down with your paycheck. America came into this crisis with household debt as a percentage of income at its highest level since the 1930s. Families are trying to work that debt down by saving more than they have in a decade — but as wages fall, they’re chasing a moving target. And the rising burden of debt will put downward pressure on consumer spending, keeping the economy depressed.

Things get even worse if businesses and consumers expect wages to fall further in the future. John Maynard Keynes put it clearly, more than 70 years ago: “The effect of an expectation that wages are going to sag by, say, 2 percent in the coming year will be roughly equivalent to the effect of a rise of 2 percent in the amount of interest payable for the same period.” And a rise in the effective interest rate is the last thing this economy needs.

Concern about falling wages isn’t just theory. Japan — where private-sector wages fell an average of more than 1 percent a year from 1997 to 2003 — is an object lesson in how wage deflation can contribute to economic stagnation.

So what should we conclude from the growing evidence of sagging wages in America? Mainly that stabilizing the economy isn’t enough: we need a real recovery.

There has been a lot of talk lately about green shoots and all that, and there are indeed indications that the economic plunge that began last fall may be leveling off. The National Bureau of Economic Research might even declare the recession over later this year.

But the unemployment rate is almost certainly still rising. And all signs point to a terrible job market for many months if not years to come — which is a recipe for continuing wage cuts, which will in turn keep the economy weak.

To break that vicious circle, we basically need more: more stimulus, more decisive action on the banks, more job creation.

Credit where credit is due: President Obama and his economic advisers seem to have steered the economy away from the abyss. But the risk that America will turn into Japan — that we’ll face years of deflation and stagnation — seems, if anything, to be rising.

The first face of European man or woman.

35,000-year-old skull fragments found in Romania are made flesh by scientists

Revealed: the face of the first European. Forensic artist Richard Neave used skull and jawbone fragments found in a cave to build this likeness of an early European

By Steve Connor, Science Editor Independent
Monday, 4 May 2009

This is the face of the first anatomically-modern human to live in Europe. It belonged to a man – or woman – who inhabited the ancient forests of the Carpathian Mountains in what is now Romania about 35,000 years ago.

The artist's reconstruction – a face that could be male or female – is based on the partial skull and jawbone found in a cave where bears were known to hibernate. The facial features indicate the close affinity of these early Europeans to their immediate African ancestors, although it was still not possible to determine the person's sex.

Richard Neave, the forensic artist who reconstructed the facial features in this clay model, based his assessment on a careful measurement of the bone fragments and his long experience of how the soft tissues of the face are built around the bones of the skull.

The reconstruction was made for the forthcoming BBC 2 series The Incredible Human Journey which documents human origins and evolution, from our birthplace in Africa to the long migratory routes that led us to populate the most distant parts of the globe. It is impossible from the bones to determine the skin colour of the individual, although scientists speculate it was probably darker than modern-day Europeans, reflecting a more recent African origin.

Mr Neave's clay head of the "first modern European" now sits on the desk of Alice Roberts, the Bristol University anthropologist who will introduce the BBC series, which is scheduled for screening next Sunday evening on BBC 2. "It's really quite bizarre. I'm a scientist and objective, but I look at that face and think 'Gosh, I'm actually looking at the face of somebody from 40,000 years ago', and there's something weirdly moving about that," Dr Roberts told the Radio Times.

"Richard creates skulls of much more recent humans and he's used to looking at differences between populations. He said the skull doesn't actually look European, or Asian, or African. It looks like a mixture of all of them. And you think, well, that's probably what you'd expect of someone who was among the earliest populations to come to Europe."

Potholers discovered the lower jawbone of the first modern European in 2002 in Pestera cu Oase, the "cave with bones", located in the south-western Carpathians. The remaining fragments of skull were unearthed in 2003.

Scientists have dated the bones using radiocarbon analysis to between 34,000 and 36,000 years ago when Europe was occupied by both Neanderthal man, who had lived in the region for tens of thousands of years, and anatomically-modern humans – Homo sapiens – who had recently arrived on a migratory route from Africa via the Middle East.

Although the skull shares many modern feature of human anatomy, it also displays more archaic traits, such as very large molar teeth, which led some scientists to speculate the skull may belong to a hybrid between Homo sapiens and Neanderthals – an idea discounted by other experts.

Erik Trinkaus, professor of anthropology at Washington University in Missouri, and one of the first specialists to study the bones in detail, said the jaw was the oldest, directly-dated modern human fossil. "Taken together, the material is the first that securely documents what modern humans looked like when they spread into Europe," he said.



Neanderthal man

*Lived in Europe for 300,000 years, surviving a number of ice ages before dying out 25,000 years ago. No one is sure why. Original fossil remains were found in 1856 in the Neander valley, near Dusseldorf, Germany. Socially advanced but left no signs of art, decoration or jewellery. But archaeologists have discovered a flute and have tested their toolmaking skills, suggesting a higher level of sophistication than first thought.

Homo sapiens

*Arrived in Europe some 35,000 years ago, competing with Neanderthal man for 10,000 years. DNA studies suggest the two species did not interbreed. First remains of Homo sapiens – modern humans – found in 1868 in a cave in the Dordogne, France, and known as Cro-Magnon man. Left cave paintings at Chauvet, Lascaux and Altamira, suggesting a sudden development of art.

Russia takes measure of a weak Obama, sets up to take Georgia.

Why is Russia so interested in Georgia? Russia wants to get the price of energy up. It wants to send a message to Ukraine and the feeble energy addicts in Western and Southern Europe. Russia itself is addicted to energy for export. It has little else other than military hardware and that market will soon be eclipsed by the Chinese. Putin needs more money to expand his military. It was reported this week that Moscow had put on hold new uniforms for the army. Where will the money come from?

Create some theater in Georgia. Add in the words, terrorism, security, fraternity and protecting sovereignty. Nato is a farce. Obama has no stomach for a third military involvement while trying to wind down Iraq and Afghanistan. Add instability in Pakistan and who will even notice?

Remember the sudden interest in drones from Israel?

Still not convinced, look at this little clip:




Russia Digs In Alongside Breakaway Territories

By ELLEN BARRY
Published: May 2, 2009

MOSCOW — Russian border guards on Saturday began taking up long-term positions along the boundaries of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, an arrangement that will probably mean sustained tension in the two breakaway Georgian territories.

Security treaties signed on Thursday in Moscow between Russia and the two territories called for joint patrols in South Ossetia and Abkhazia for an unspecified period along the boundaries that separate the enclaves from the rest of Georgia. The State Department expressed “serious concern” over the arrangement, saying it violated Georgia’s territorial integrity and broke commitments made in a cease-fire agreement reached last fall.

The territories were at the heart of a war last August between Russia and Georgia; the conflict raised tensions between Moscow and the West to a level not seen since the end of the cold war. Heavy Russian armor poured into both territories after Georgia attacked Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia. Russia then officially recognized South Ossetia and Abkhazia as sovereign nations, despite protests from Europe and the United States, and promised to guarantee their security.

Russian troops have been at the territories’ border since August, but the security pact signed on Thursday makes their role formal and permanent. It grants Russia’s border guards, a division of the Russian Federal Security Service, or F.S.B., any land or buildings needed to patrol the area. It also grants Russian border guards many of the rights of Abkhaz and South Ossetian citizens.

In an interview, Abkhazia’s president, Sergei Bagapsh, said 500 Russian border guards — not Defense Ministry troops — would perform joint patrols alongside 300 Abkhazians until Abkhazia could train enough personnel to secure the 60-mile border.

He said Abkhazia had negotiated for some changes to the agreement, among them ensuring that guards at the crossing in the Gali region, which has a large ethnic Georgian population, would be Abkhaz rather than Russian.

“People will be going to the markets; you cannot stop life,” he said. “We don’t want to build a Great Wall of China between Abkhazia and Georgia.”

But Georgian authorities said the move to long-term postings was dangerous. Shota Utiashvili, a senior official in Georgia’s Interior Ministry, said that though Russian soldiers had been staffing checkpoints since August, he worried that F.S.B. units “might be more willing to stage operations” along the Georgian border.

He said Georgian authorities were watching to see how heavily fortified the border would be.

In a statement released on Friday, Georgia’s Foreign Ministry said Russia “once more draws a line between itself and the entire international community, and again brutally tramples on fundamental standards and principles of international law.”

Mel Gibson dating Octomom??

"Mother they are going to execute me, please save me."

Delara Darabi knew the end was close when she made a panic-filled call to her mother from prison to say that she could see the hangman's noose from her window

Iran executes woman for alleged murder committed as a juvenile
Telegraph

The Iranian artist was executed on Friday for a murder allegedly committed when she was a juvenile and for which she retracted her brief confession, claiming she was covering up for her boyfriend.

The prison authorities hanged Miss Darabi, 23, even though the head of Iran's judiciary granted her a two-month stay of execution on April 19 amid international outrage over her case. They also did not give her lawyer the required 48 hours notice.

Horrific new details have emerged of her last desperate plea for help from Rasht prison as jail guards came to lead her away.
Miss Darabi made a tearful call early on Friday to her parents to say she could see the gallows and noose, according to media reports from Tehran.

"Mother they are going to execute me, please save me," she pleaded. But a prison official then grabbed the phone and told her distraught mother: "We are going to execute your daughter and there's nothing you can do about it."

The execution of a young woman whose case has become an international cause célèbre is a further damaging blow to President Barack Obama's attempts to thaw US relations with the Islamic regime. Roxana Saberi, an American-Iranian journalist, is on hunger strike in a Tehran prison after being convicted of espionage in a show trial last month.

Miss Darabi's case gained widespread attention after moving paintings and drawings that she made in her prison cell were shown around the world. She developed her talent as a painter behind bars.

Iran, Saudi Arabia and Yemen are the only countries to execute people for crimes committed when they are under 18. Miss Darabi was 17 when she admitted killing her 58-year-old uncle in a burglary in 2003 but she quickly retracted the confession, saying she had taken the blame to save her boyfriend.

Amnesty International, the human rights group that campaigned vigorously to save Miss Darabi, led the condemnation.
"Amnesty International is outraged at the execution and particularly at the news that her lawyer was not informed," said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, deputy chief for the Middle East and North Africa.

"This appears to have been a cynical move on the part of the authorities to avoid domestic and international protests which might have saved Delara Darabi's life.

"This indicates that even decisions by the Head of the Judiciary carry no weight and are disregarded in the provinces."
The Iranian authorities said that Miss Darabi confessed to the murder because she believed she would be pardoned as the crime was committed when she was a minor. But her lawyer said that new forensic evidence and the explanation for her confession cleared her, but the court declined to hear the testimony.

"Amnesty International does not consider her trial to have been fair, as the courts later refused to consider new evidence which the lawyer said would have proved she could not have committed the murder," Mr Sahraoui added.

Iran has executed at least 42 juvenile criminals since 1990, including seven in 2007, according to human rights groups. Iran says it only carries out the death penalty when a prisoner reaches the age of 18.

Iran's existing penal code holds a nine-year-old girl and a 15-year-old boy to be legally responsible if involved in crime.
Capital offences in Iran include murder, rape, armed robbery, apostasy, blasphemy, serious drug trafficking, repeated sodomy, adultery or prostitution, treason and espionage.

Iran stepped up its use of the death penalty last year in what it says is a bid to improve security in society.

The Obama Car-Talk Show Begins.

This will be choice. Obama is proposing that that senior secured lenders will be subordinated to union workers in ownership of the Chrysler company.

Eight US plants are to be closed and sold. These same plants are obviously in areas where the UAW workers live. The factories are at the epicenter of the major problem, which is unsustainable union demands, work rules and ethics.

The workers at these factories are being promised transfers to other Chrysler factories.

Questions

Who is going to buy these factories? To get the highest value, they would have to be used for what they were designed and that is automobiles or trucks. Anyone think that BWM or Toyota is going there?

The machinery equipment will be sold into a worldwide glut of used and obsolete depreciated capital equipment. There is more of that available than there are deserted sub prime houses. Most of it will be bought for scrap and end up being cut up to be used in China. They will not recover more than 5% of the original cost, most of which was spent on setup and installation.

Who is going to buy the cars?

While the bankruptcy case drags on will the Chrysler line up get better?

Will their service and parts be more available?

Will Team Obama allow the payment of retainage bonuses to demoralized but skilled people?

How about affirmative action on hiring and promotion, staffing and suppiers?



Here is what a modern car assembly plant looks like. Where are the workers? Are the UAW and government owners going to allow Chrysler to build a factory such as this?

The UAW workers and future shareholders point of view. They have some legitimate complaints, but how are you going to change this culture to a dynamic and profitable company? At what cost?

__________________________

May 2, 2009

Bankruptcy reality settles in at Chrysler

Automaker warns of likely trouble ahead

BY JUSTIN HYDE and GREG GARDNER
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS

The promise of a surgical bankruptcy turned into a gritty reality for Chrysler LLC and its workers Friday, as the company outlined its immediate hurdles and workers dealt with plant closings and -- in some cases -- canceled pension checks.

The factory shutdown will push the critical launch of the 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee back by up to six months. Replacement parts for repairs on some Chrysler vehicles could run low in the next 60 days. And Chrysler needs court approval to spend $753 million in the same period on incentives for dealers to sell its vehicles.

Lawyers submitted more than 150 separate filings in the first full day since the filing, underlining the complexity that will challenge all parties to complete the process in the desired 30-60 days.

Chrysler is to use $10.5 billion from the U.S. and Canadian governments to consummate a marriage with Fiat SpA, in which Fiat eventually will own 35% of Chrysler while a health care trust fund for UAW retirees owns 55% and the United States and Canada own the rest.

The first day of hearings in the bankruptcy court in New York moved quickly. More serious objections could arise Monday, when Chrysler begins legal moves to seal the Fiat deal.

To bolster its position, Chrysler outlined the lack of options in its bankruptcy case.

Vice Chairman Tom LaSorda said the company had held talks with several automakers -- including General Motors Corp., Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Volkswagen -- that failed to produce a partner.

In recent weeks, Chrysler held what amounted to a five-day bazaar for Chinese companies, offering to sell engines, transmissions and entire vehicle lines.

All of this, LaSorda said, shows that the Fiat deal is the only way out for Chrysler.

"With Fiat, Chrysler has a way forward," he said.

Plant closings

As part of its filing, Chrysler named eight U.S. plants that would be closed by 2010 and sold to settle debts of the old Chrysler.

Three of the plants are in metro Detroit -- Detroit Axle, Conner Avenue Assembly and Sterling Heights Assembly.

Chrysler said Friday that virtually all of the workers at the affected plans would be offered jobs at the new Chrysler.

Frank Ewasyshyn, Chrysler's executive vice president of manufacturing, outlined the delay in the Grand Cherokee and other dangers from the immediate hibernation of its factories.

The government has guaranteed Chrysler's warranties, but Ewasyshyn warns that Chrysler dealers could run short of parts such as oil filters, usually built by the company or its suppliers, within 28 days if payments aren't restored and some production restarted.

"So, four weeks from today, a customer who purchased a Chrysler 300 will pull into his local dealer to have a taillight repaired ... and will be unable to get the parts necessary," he said.

He added, "The longer the sale to Fiat is delayed, the more likely this devastating scenario will occur."

Surprise realizations

Dealers learned Friday that Chrysler Financial, which is independent of Chrysler, no longer would finance their inventories. That work has been turned over to GMAC, also an independent company, as part of the bankruptcy.

About 1,800 Chrysler retirees were shocked to discover that their benefit payments were voided Friday morning.

Lynn Feldhouse of Rochester Hills actually saw the deposit disappear as she checked her bank account online. "This can't be good," Feldhouse said. "I called the bank, and they told me there was nothing they could do because they got a message from Chrysler telling them to reverse the entry."

The problem affected people who have a supplemental pension, which is not insured by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. Because that portion is backed only by Chrysler, it becomes part of Chrysler's asset base in the bankruptcy.

Chrysler is aware of the problem and is telling those affected that they will receive the PBGC-insured portion by May 18.

Contact JUSTIN HYDE: 202-906-8204 or jhyde@freepress.com. Free Press columnist Susan Tompor contributed to this report.

Additional Facts
Chrysler's judge has dealt with big cases before
The judge overseeing Chrysler's bankruptcy filing is no stranger to high-profile cases.

Arthur Gonzalez presided over the closely followed bankruptcy cases of energy company Enron and telecommunications giant WorldCom.

But the Chrysler case presents a new twist for the New York bankruptcy judge: the involvement of the federal government and President Barack Obama. The president describes the case as a "surgical bankruptcy" and hopes for a quick resolution of the case.

Richard Armitage , on Obama, Pakistan and the Taliban

Part of my misspent multi-million dollar military education  was an assignment to  a large TAC base which rotated pilots back and forth to Da Nang, Viet Nam. This was in early 1966. F-4 phantoms were replacing F-104's at Da Nang and it was quite common for multiple temporary duty assignments. Da Nang had both marine and air force fighter squadrons at that time.

The air force had hot showers and the marines did not.

I was always interested in politics and enjoyed the good natured back and forth of political argument. There was one NCO in particular who had served in Korea and was on his second TDY to Viet Nam. In his good natured way and fondness for beer  he explained  to us juniors that the military war in  Viet Nam could be won, but never would be because of the politics.

Many Democratic politicians at the time, would have done well to talk to  men like the good sergeant, who had no political angle but actually experienced the fighting. That included both the pilots and the young marines that fought and beat the NVA at Chu Lai south of Da Nang, late summer in 1965.

Had they done so, a whole lot of things would have been different.

They may have found many non-political but realistic assessments of the immensity and messiness that was before them. Some of the men were very supportive and others just as adamantly opposed with most unsure. One thing they all agreed on and that was the politics were a mess and the South Vietnamese government and military establishment  was corrupt and suspect.  

It amazes me to this day, the ignored wisdom, of those who actually do the fighting.

_________________________

Military solution won't end Afghan war: Veterans

WASHINGTON (AFP) — As fresh US troop reinforcements prepare to deploy to Afghanistan, veterans of the war Thursday decried past mistakes and warned the conflict cannot be solved by military means alone.

"By the time I left Afghanistan, I felt that the US being there was a big mistake," retired US Marines corporal Rick Reyes told the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee.

"I feel strongly that military intervention is not the answer."

His comments echoed congressional testimony given by committee chairman John Kerry as a Vietnam War veteran in 1971, when he had famously asked: "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?"

Now as then, veterans voiced their reservations about the already costly and protracted conflict in Afghanistan, although they argued against a rapid withdrawal of troops.

"If we leave without providing the security, propping up the government, propping the local villages and the people that are there, giving them some sense of structure, some sense of stability and security, then we will be back," said Genevieve Chase, a retired US Army Reserve sergeant.

"If we don't do this now, we will be back."

During the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s, the United States provided financial and military backing to Muhajedeen Islamist fighters, but withdrew its involvement after Soviet forces left the country. The vacuum helped bring the Taliban to power.

Reyes blasted US President Barack Obama's decision to deploy 21,000 additional troops to Afghanistan as "a big mistake." Some 40,000 US troops are already in the country with about 32,000 other foreign allied forces deployed under NATO authority.

"At a minimum, this occupation needs to be rethought," Reyes said.

But three other Afghanistan veterans argued for more US commitment to the conflict.

"We are underfunded and undermanned in Afghanistan," retired US Army captain Westley Moore told the Senate panel.
But he also stressed the importance of more non-military aspects of the US strategy.

"If we increase security aspects ... then we can actually start allocating more resources to make not only Afghanistan not a safe haven for Al-Qaeda, but also provide the security and safety and the future for the Afghan people," he said.

Former army staff sergeant Christopher McGurk recalled the dying moments of 19-year-old Evan O'Neill, who apologized for not completing the mission after being shot near the Pakistani border.

"My own anger and sense of betrayal comes from the possibility that we may not come to a resolution in Afghanistan and that the blood that has been shed by the victims of 9/11, the Afghan people and men like O'Neill would be in vain," McGurk said.
Republican lawmakers expressed skepticism about Obama's strategy for Afghanistan, which focuses on rooting out Al-Qaeda, boosts civilian efforts to rebuild the impoverished country and places nuclear-armed Pakistan at the center of the fight.

"I have no idea what it is, other than sending additional troops," said Republican Senator Bob Corker. "I hope we dig a lot deeper."

Some Democrats also showed concern about the plan.

"The escalation may further destabilize the situation in Afghanistan to the detriment of US security," said Senator Russ Feingold.

"We may be sending our troops in the eye of the storm without addressing the greatest threat to our security, which lies on the Pakistani side of the border."

Kerry acknowledged that "there is much still to be done in Afghanistan and Pakistan."

Kerry drew an analogy between the war in Afghanistan and the Vietnam War.

"Once again, we are fighting an insurgency in a rural country with a weak central government. Our enemy blends in with the local population and easily crosses a long border to find sanctuary in a neighboring country," said Kerry.
"We ignore these similarities at our peril."

The drum beats for US torture trials continue.