The CIA has been operating a series of black prisons around the world to better interrogate the world's worst terrorists while safely hidden from prying eyes.

One prisoner has talked to the Washington Post.

From the NYT:

When a psychology professor at DePauw University (in Greencastle, Ind.) surveyed students, they described one sorority as a group of “daddy’s little princesses” and another as “offbeat hippies.” The sisters of Delta Zeta were seen as “socially awkward.”

Worried that a negative stereotype of the sorority was contributing to a decline in membership that had left its Greek-columned house here half empty, Delta Zeta’s national officers interviewed 35 DePauw members in November, quizzing them about their dedication to recruitment. They judged 23 of the women insufficiently committed and later told them to vacate the sorority house.

The 23 members included every woman who was overweight. They also included the only black, Korean and Vietnamese members. The dozen students allowed to stay were slender and popular with fraternity men -- conventionally pretty women the sorority hoped could attract new recruits. Six of the 12 were so infuriated they quit.

“Virtually everyone who didn’t fit a certain sorority member archetype was told to leave,” said Kate Holloway, a senior who withdrew from the chapter during its reorganization.

Here's hoping the six conventionally pretty white women who stayed will meet like-minded, conventionally handsome, white fraternity men, and that they go on to create the foundations of a master race together -- maybe even come up with a final solution for the socially awkward.

Addendum

In a CNN interview, some of the insufficiently committed women said they were told the nickname of their sorority was "the doghouse."

How much are we to make of the fact that a Taliban suicide bomber blew himself outside the Bagram air base in Afghanistan while U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney was safe inside?

This NYT analysis suggests it may symbolize American worries about a Taliban and al Qaeda resurgence in Afghanistan.

The Kajaki dam, once it gets fully up to speed, could provide electricity for another two million Afghans. Don't think the Taliban don't know that.

From the NYT:

President Bush has decided to send an unusually tough message to one of his most important allies, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, the president of Pakistan, warning him that the newly Democratic Congress could cut aid to his country unless his forces become far more aggressive in hunting down operatives with Al Qaeda, senior administration officials say.

The decision came after the White House concluded that General Musharraf is failing to live up to commitments he made to Mr. Bush during a visit here in September. General Musharraf insisted then, both in private and public, that a peace deal he struck with tribal leaders in one of the country’s most lawless border areas would not diminish the hunt for the leaders of Al Qaeda and the Taliban or their training camps.

Now, American intelligence officials have concluded that the terrorist infrastructure is being rebuilt, and that while Pakistan has attacked some camps, its overall effort has flagged.

“He’s made a number of assurances over the past few months, but the bottom line is that what they are doing now is not working,” one senior administration official who deals often with South Asian issues said late last week. “The message we’re sending to him now is that the only thing that matters is results.”

The Toronto Star's Haroon Siddiqui with Pakistan's side of the story on the current situation in Afghanistan.

With Dubya leaving the stage, and two Republican presidential front-runners who are relatively moderate on religious issues, the U.S. Christian right has some picking to do.

The Globe and Mail's Martin Mittlestaedt on why some experts think food supply might be among the first major casualties of global warming.

I've recently read the Sam Harris book The End of Faith, just finished watching the documentary Jesus Camp and am about one-third the way through Chris Hedges' American Fascists.

They work well as a trilogy (Updated).

From the BBC:

Supporters say future peace depends on the amnesty

Around 25,000 people have rallied in the Afghan capital Kabul, calling for a proposed war crimes amnesty for former military commanders to be made law.

The protesters, who gathered in a stadium, included ex-mujahideen and several top government officials.

The upper house of parliament has passed the controversial bill but it has yet to be signed by the president.

Tens of thousands of people were killed and tortured during decades of war and unrest in the country.

If the bill were to become law, those who led fighting first as leaders of the anti-Soviet resistance during the 1980s and then during the 1992-1996 civil war would be immune to prosecution for war crimes.

International rights groups and the UN have voiced opposition to the proposal, saying justice must be done.

Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature and Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future, offers an analysis of the IPCC report with a view to U.S. domestic politics.

British commentator Timothy Garton Ash asks a question I've wrestled with for some time: Is global capitalism, with its mantra of constant growth driven by manufactured desire, environmentally sustainable over the long term?

But if it isn't, what are we prepared to do about it?

Rising prosperity in India and China means rising demand for air conditioning in those countries (driven by global warming? Shurely not!). And that means more ozone-destroying chemicals making it into the atmosphere, because they're using refrigerants that had been banned elsewhere.

From the BBC:

An international conference is due to open in Norway aimed at banning the use of cluster bombs, despite the non attendance of the US, Russia and China.

The 48-nation meeting has been called by Norway after arms talks in Geneva last November failed to achieve progress towards a ban.

Cluster bombs usually consist of a large shell containing many small bombs that can cover a wide area.

Some fail to explode and endanger civilians years after conflicts end.

The UN estimates that Israel dropped up to four million cluster bomblets in southern Lebanon during last year's war.

The Beeb's Paul Reynolds analyzes the implications.

From the BBC:

The upper house of the Afghan parliament has passed a controversial bill giving amnesty to people accused of war crimes over the past 30 years.

Both houses have now backed the bill. It has yet to be signed by President Hamid Karzai, who could veto it.

Many atrocities were committed under Soviet rule, as well as by mujahideen leaders who fought a civil war and finally by the Taleban.

Many victims have reacted angrily to the idea of an amnesty.

Some MPs in the lower house, which passed the bill last month, now say they did not understand its implications when they voted for it.

Today is deadline day for Iran to suspend the enrichment of uranium, as per a United Nations Security Council resolution.

Since that's probably not going to happen, the BBC's Paul Reynolds tries to analyze what will happen next.