A group of 24 mostly Christian protesters, calling itself Witness Against Torture, marched 60 miles in December and then fasted outside the gates of the US Naval Base at Cuba's Guantanamo Bay, while they waited four days for an official response to their request to visit War on Terror prisoners there.

The request was denied, and the protesters went home to publicize and talk up their experiences in Cuba. But this month, seven of the Guantanamo protesters--out of the tens of thousands of Americans who travel to Cuba each year--were served with letters from the Treasury Department demanding information on the trip and protest, and threatening ten years in prison and fines for having violated the embargo banning travel by US citizens to Cuba.

Now, the travel embargo itself is a ridiculous thing, born of Cold War fears that witnesses exposed to Cuba's brand of communist government might be seduced into distrusting Washington's anti-Castro propaganda. (Most are.) But what is interesting about this incident is that the Bush administration is targeting people who are not hesitating to talk about an issue the Bush administration would rather not have discussed: America's detention and torture of prisoners of war.

One of the 24 protesters is a personal friend who went to Cuba, a New York activist and arms trade expert, Frida Berrigan. Growing up with a father (Phil) and uncle (Dan) who were frequently arrested over matters of conscience, Frida is no stranger to government harassment. But the crime that's been committed here has nothing to do with a few protesters, and everything to do with 500 forgotten, tortured souls rotting behind bars in a distant land. It is the architects of this policy--right up to Bush and Rumsfeld themselves--who deserve to be behind bars. --Geov Parrish

Former Democratic governor (1985-93) Booth Gardner has announced his intention to head a drive for an assisted suicide, right-to-die initiative intended for Washington state's fall 2008 ballot. Gardner, 69, suffers from Parkinson's Disease, and Gardner describes the effort as directly related to his personal circumstance. Last month, the US Supreme Court upheld a similar law in Oregon.

Good for Gardner. I'm a survivor of both suicide attempts (three before age 20, the first of which came at age 9) and life-threatening illness (the diabetes that began with a pancreatic infection at age 17, and the end stage renal disease diagnosed at age 31, that led to a then-experimental double organ transplant in 1994; those transplants have already far outlived original expectations). I'm far from suicidal these days; I've survived far too much to turn back now to the bad old days. But I've also lived through dozens of surgeries and an unthinkable amount of pain and dis-ease. I can easily imagine a circumstance where prolonging life would only mean more pain, and expense, for me and my loved ones.

If I ever get to that point, IT'S NONE OF THE GOVERNMENT'S FUCKING BUSINESS how I decide to respond. The right to privacy simply must extend to being able to make the very personal, and very important, decision as to whether to live or die. Nobody makes such decisions lightly, and I m a damned sight more qualified to make that sort of decision about my own life than any sort of doctor, priest, or state authority.

When Gardner's petition starts making the rounds, I'll sign it.

Heck, maybe I'll help circulate it.

You never know when a law like that might make the difference between merciful death and your own miserable, painful, hope-less life. --G.P.

Press release in the ol' inbox leads off with the following:

"Major industrial sites participating in the US Environmental Protection Agency's controversial 'Performance Track' program for supposedly model companies are actually producing MORE toxic pollution now than they were before getting the looser oversight from the EPA, according to a new analysis from the non-profit and non-partisan Environmental Integrity Project (EIP). EIP will release data showing rises in the releases of toxic chemicals to air and water at large manufacturing plants in nine states: Alabama, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Virginia and Washington state..."

In other words, under the brave new world of "voluntary compliance" under the Bush EPA, the release of toxic chemicals has actually gone up in all nine states studied, including Washington state. We're being exposed to ever-greater amounts of this crap, and we directly have Bush to thank for it.

Oh, well. We'll all die of global warming-induced skin cancer first anyway, right? --G.P.

A little-noticed provision in last month's defense appropriations bill for the first time allows the Pentagon to give up to $200 million a year in military aid directly to other countries' militaries. The measure was something Donald Rumsfeld and top Pentagon brass lobbied Congress hard for.

Why is it important? Until now, all US foreign aid (such as it is) has gone through the State Department. As such, it's been subject to State's restrictions--including restrictions on military aid for things like rampant human rights abuses. By bypassing State, Rumsfeld et al. can give money directly to people like the peasant-slaughtering Colombians, or Indonesia's genocidally inclined generals, without fear of restriction. --G.P.

Attentive readers might recall that when America's Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) was ruling Iraq in 2003-04, a lot of money went missing. Something like $9 billion in taxpayer funds, earmarked for Iraqi reconstruction, simply disappeared. (Another reason not to pay your federal taxes.)

Well, this month we got a glimpse into where all that money might have gone. A guy named Robert Stein, a CPA comptroller and funding officer, pled guilty to bribery, conspiracy, money laundering, and other charges in what the New York Times called "a scheme to use sexual favors, jewelry and millions of dollars in cash to steer reconstruction work to a corrupt contractor..."

The contractor in question, one Philip Bloom, allegedly got $8 million in contracts as a result. It's a drop in the desert of what's missing from the CPA vault, but awfully suggestive of where investigators might look for more. Bloom was likely playing the same game as hundreds, if not thousands, of other well-connected (i.e. Republican donor) Americans out for a quick no-bid buck.

Funny thing: the only people in Iraq not making money off this war are the people dying in it. If (and it's a huge if) this sort of corrupt profiteering can make the front pages for a while, it just might sour Americans on that whole "freedom is on the march" bullshit. Just as no one wants to die for a mistake, no one wants to die for someone else's corrupt fortune-seeking, either. --G.P.

Shooting birds....shooting hunting buddies.....shooting A-Rabs.....all in a day's work. What's to report? --G. P.