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Hello and welcome to Truthloader's Monday show, featuring your comments, as well as
beards, and Banksy. And at the beginning of each story, there'll be a little wee annotation
at the bottom. Click it to go to any of the other stories. But be warned, you might miss
something amazing. Like this.
But first and an independent report has claimed that doctors and nurses at Guantanamo Bay
and other detention centres have been aiding in the torture and interrogation of detainees.
A study by the Institute of Medicine and the George Soros-funded Open Society Foundations
found that the CIA actually changed its own ethical standards to allow medical professionals
to become involved in force feeding and interrogations, violating the standards of the World Medical
Association and the modern Hippocratic oath.
The CIA and Pentagon have both rejected the report outright, unsurprisingly. So let's
see what they have to say...
CIA public affairs chief Dean Boyd said: "It's important to underscore that the CIA does
not have any detainees in its custody and President [Barack] Obama terminated the Rendition,
Detention and Interrogation Program by executive order in 2009."
Hmmm, so where's Abu Anas al-Libi, the supposed al-queda leader snatched in a special forces
operation in Libya in early October? Probably on a beach somewhere sunning himself whilst
drinking pina colladas, probably. Meanwhile, Pentagon spokesman Todd Breasseale
said that none of the critics of prisoner care had access to the detainees, their medical
records, or the procedures at Guantanamo. Yeah, do your research, why don't you go and
visit the detainees? It's as easy as 123, surely? Probably.
He added that prison doctors provided "not only better medical care than any of these
detainees have ever known, but care on par with the very best of the global medical profession".
Now we're not accusing them of lying, maybe the CIA cells are empty, maybe there's nothing
nasty going on in closed off, heavily guarded detention centres around the shadier corners
of the world. They're probably just watching films, playing cluedo doing finger painting.
Probably.
And now it's time for your comments. In our Investigates piece about the hunt for dark
matter, alexLoLization wrote: "Travel through time using dark matter, all you need is a
LUX-Capacitor! Nice back to the future pun. But no LUX capacitor needed, Marty McFly only
travels to 2015, so we'll probably be back to the future before we have dark matter.
And in our are the NSA spying on you quiz, which is awesome if you've not had a play
yet, Joseph Azrak wrote: "I understand that they're trying to protect the US and stuff
but jeeze a little privacy would be nice...." Yeah, it would wouldn't it?
And now to some of the other stories we liked from this last week and it's the fourth of
November, which means four days into Movember. As you can see, I'm growing my moustache out
so it covers the side and bottom of my face. Adam's also getting involved, Grace and Laura
probably not so much.
But these guys have clearly been cheating and growing their beards for at least a week
in advance. In order to belittle your patchy face-badger, this is the world beard championships
in Leinfelder-Echterdingen, Germany. And my god, are their some beards. 200 of them competing,
in fact, and more in the stands. And some jackets. Kaiser-chic seems to be the order
of the day, with competitors piped in by a local band. Apparently their beards follow
the sound of the music.
And the winner was this ecstatic Montgomery impersona... Oh my god look at that thing!
This little chap was jealous, this slightly bigger chap's never been happier, she wishes
her boyfriend was a freak like him, and she's just seen more than his moustache. Do your
flies up man.
And finally to New York, where street artist banksy's altered painting of a Nazi enjoying
a mountain sunset has just sold for $610,000. The auctioned piece, titled "The banality
of the banality of evil," was dropped off by the artist at a Manhatten thrift store,
which then auctioned it to raise money for AIDS and homelessness charities. The stunt
is part of the artist's residency in the big apple, and comes just a couple of weeks after
he ran a street cart selling original works for just $60 dollars apiece.
Considering he just painted a Nazi onto someone elses watercolour, it's arguable that the
10,000% markup over those originals is a little steep, OK, it's a little steep, but at least
it was for a good cause. A really expensive good cause.
Good work, Banksy.