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http://gawker.com/5490866/bush-cheney-inspired-to-torture-by-watching-24?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+gawker%2Ffull+%28Gawker%29&utm_content=My+YahooBush, Cheney, Inspired to Torture by Watching 24
The former head of Britain's intelligence service says that the three-headed monster known as Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld fetishized, and were inspired by, Jack Bauer's torture techniques.
Quoted in British newspaper The Independent, former MI5 chief Dame Eliza said: "Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld certainly watched 24" and that "the Americans were very keen that people like us did not discover what they were doing."
When asked by the reporter if this was true, a senior Pentagon official said, "We are not aware of their television habits." The official was not asked about rumors — that we have just made up — that the three men were involved in some kind of torture-watching circle jerk.
The author of this post can be contacted at tips@gawker.com
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/11/us/politics/11inquire.html?hpMore Messages Link Senator to Job Effort
By ERIC LICHTBLAU and ERIC LIPTON
Published: March 10, 2010
WASHINGTON — Previously undisclosed e-mail messages turned over to the F.B.I. and Senate ethics investigators provide new evidence about Senator John Ensign’s efforts to steer lobbying work to the embittered husband of his former mistress and could deepen his legal and political troubles.
Mr. Ensign, Republican of Nevada, suggested that a Las Vegas development firm hire the husband, Douglas Hampton, after it had sought the senator’s help on several energy projects in 2008, according to e-mail messages and interviews with company executives.
The messages are the first written records from Mr. Ensign documenting his efforts to find clients for Mr. Hampton, a top aide and close friend, after the senator had an affair with his wife, Cynthia Hampton. They appear to undercut the senator’s assertion that he did not know the work might involve Congressional lobbying, which could violate a federal ban on such activities by staff members for a year after leaving government.
The e-mail messages also hint at what Mr. Ensign’s office now says was an effort by the Las Vegas firm, a small energy investment business called P2SA Equity, to improperly link Mr. Ensign’s possible assistance to a promised donation. ....
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