Letter to my local paper on Condi:

Editor:
Condi Rice is at it again. We now know the official administration response to the EU questions
about secret CIA prisons and extraordinary renditions will be an old rhetorical trick: imply
that Europeans must give implicit approval of US tactics because of some benefit that they have
already received. Never mind international law. Never mind morality. Just shut up and take it
because you have already accepted the fruits of our "labor".

Putting aside the hideous implications of this line of thought for a minute, lets remember who is
advancing this abstraction. Condoleeza Rice is a proven liar who is seldom held to her word and when
she is it is often by accident as in this 2004 exchange with Wolf Blitzer on the question of military
effectiveness against al Qaeda leadership:

CONDOLEEZZA RICE: To be clear, we are after Osama bin Laden. He is being chased
by Pakistani forces and Afghan forces and American and other forces. We have broken
up 75 percent of the al Qaeda known leadership. Pakistan and Saudi Arabia fully...

WOLF BLITZER: Well, when you say 75 percent, of how many leaders are we talking -- 75 percent
of a quantity of what? 30, 25?

RICE: Of its known leadership.

BLITZER: But how many...

RICE: I would suspect that that's in the tens to hundreds -- tens to 100.

So that would be seven or seventy or seven hundred - you pick.

With Condi it's a good idea to NOT TRUST and to definitely VERIFY.