Woman f-bombs police and gets rewarded $100K compensationReuters/John Taggart “F*** police” is political speech, a US court ruled. A woman who was arrested for swearing and raising a middle finger at law enforcers has been acquitted and awarded $100,000 in settlement.

Visa, MasterCard sued for blocking donations to WikiLeaks​Lawyers representing the credit card processor used by WikiLeaks are suing Visa and MasterCard in the United States over the 2010 banking blockade that kept the anti-secrecy group from receiving funds.

The Complicity of Psychologists in CIA TortureEarlier this week the Senate Intelligence Committee released the long-awaited executive summary of its 6,000-page classified report on the CIA’s brutal post-9/11 detention and interrogation program. The report provides gruesome details of the abuse that took place in several “black site” prisons – waterboarding, confinement in a coffin-sized box, threatened harm to family members, forced nudity, freezing temperatures, “rectal feeding” without medical need, stress positions, diapering, days of sleep deprivation, and more.

Overseas, Torture Report Prompts Calls for ProsecutionThe release of the Senate report on the graphic torture of terrorism suspects by the Bush-era Central Intelligence Agency led to calls at the United Nations and elsewhere on Tuesday for criminal prosecutions and caused an international explosion on social media, including online jihadist exhortations for retaliation.

New evidence Bush misled Americans into Iraq war – senatorThe chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee has released new information claiming the Bush administration misled the American people in the run-up to the war in Iraq. Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) said on Thursday that a 2003 CIA cable warns the administration of former President George W.

Udall urges CIA chief to resign for stifling torture probe​Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colorado) blasted both the CIA and the White House on Wednesday over what the lawmaker considers to be complicity with regards to propagating long-standing lies about the United States’ use of torture against foreign detainees.

Hush money: CIA paid Poland to host its secret prisons and detaineesThe CIA paid at least a million dollars to Poland for it to host secret prisons, where it incarcerated alleged 9/11 terror suspects, according to the recent US torture report. Warsaw had initially tried to halt the transfer of suspects, but after a generous offer, it suddenly became more “flexible.

Facing justice: UN, HRW, Amnesty call for prosecuting US officials for tortureAFP Photo/Paul J. Richards The UN and prominent human rights groups have demanded justice for CIA torture victims, urging to prosecute the responsible US officials listed in the Senate’s report. The Justice Department says it will not pursue charges, even after seeing the report.

Beyond Money in Politics: Corruption Now “Business as Usual”JANINE WEDEL, jwedel at gmu.edu Wedel, an anthropologist and professor at George Mason University’s School of Policy, Government and International Affairs, is the author of the just-released Unaccountable: How Elite Power Brokers Corrupt our Finances, Freedom and Security. She recently wrote in USA Today: “What do the words ‘dark money’ mean to you?