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We are outraged and shocked at these offensive comments (made by MP David Ward last week) about Jewish victims of the Holocaust and the suggestion that Jews should have learned a lesson from the experience " (Jon Benjamin, chief executive of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, 1/25/2013).

I must apologize for not responding to the lashing given to Lib Dem MP David Ward a week ago as my wife's Mother, 88 years of age, was moved into Hospice care readying her for leaving this vale of tears. Her life, as is true of my own, suffered the horrors of WWII and the Nazi devastation of prisoners including, from 1933, Communists, Socialists, Social Democrats, Roma (Gypsies), Jehovah Witnesses, homosexuals , (and) persons accused of "asocial" or socially deviant behavior, and Jews, between 1938 and 1945 (Holocaust Encyclopedia). Our lives are bookended between depressions and wars. So what have we learned, as David Ward so tellingly asks to the chagrin of many including Mr. Benjamin quoted above. Curiously I found Mr. Ward's comment incomplete. This is what he said:

Having visited Auschwitz twice - once with my family and once with local schools - I am saddened that the Jews, who suffered unbelievable levels of persecution during the Holocaust, could within a few years of liberation from the death camps be inflicting atrocities on Palestinians in the new State of Israel and continue to do so on a daily basis in the West Bank and Gaza.

CIA Chief-in-Waiting John Brennan had detailed knowledge of "enhanced interrogation techniques" used by the agency against suspected terrorists, including waterboarding and other painful torture techniques.

Brennan is expected to be confirmed by the Senate Intelligence Committee on Feb. 7, but he will likely face tough questions about the extent of his knowledge about the CIA's controversial use of torture. Brennan publicly condemned such interrogation techniques when he temporarily left the government in 2005. He claims to have forcefully opposed torture methods while working for the CIA after 9/11, but lawmakers will likely question him to see if he did in fact take a stand against it, Reuters reports.

Brennan regularly received classified CIA reports about the use of "enhanced interrogation techniques". Unnamed sources told Reuters that according to official records, Brennan expressed no opposition to the torture methods at the time. Other former officials said they don't recall hearing any objections from him. Some say Brennan was uncomfortable about the use of physically coercive tactics, but that he did little more than privately express his concern with a few of his colleagues.

MoD faces legal challenge to its refusal to hold public inquiry into alleged human rights violations following 2003 invasion

Fresh investigations have been ordered into the deaths of several prisoners who died in suspicious circumstances while under British military custody in Iraq, the high court has been told.

The disclosure comes as the Ministry of Defence faces a legal challenge to its refusal to hold a public inquiry into a series of alleged human rights violations following the 2003 invasion, including hundreds of claims of unlawful detention, torture, and murder.

An inquiry team established by the MoD is now re-investigating the deaths of two men who had been detained by soldiers of the Black Watch in Basra in May 2003, the department's lawyers told the court.

An initial review by the MoD's Iraq Historic Allegations Team (IHat) had concluded that although inquiries had been made following the deaths of Radhi Nama and Jabbar Kareen Ali, "both investigations had not been sufficiently thorough and were thus incomplete" and would need to be re-investigated.

Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who describes himself as a libertarian, said Wednesday that he opposed the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) because it could unintentionally result in same-sex marriage becoming legal.

"I believe in traditional marriage," he said during an interview with Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association. "I really don't understand any other kind of marriage. Between a man and a woman is what I believe in, and I just don't think it is good for us to change the definition of that."

A New York City woman has threatened to sue the local police department for $250 million for allegedly handcuffing her 7-year-old son and accusing him of beating up another child over $5.

The New York Post reported on Wednesday that, according to Frances Mendez, she found her son, Wilson Reyes, cuffed to a wall at 14th Precinct headquarters, after being mistakenly accused of stealing the money.

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said Wednesday during a Senate committee hearing on gun control that he is a proud owner of an AR-15 assault rifle, and personally hesitant to restrict magazine capacity because such a decision, he said, could give rise to gun-packing mothers running out of bullets when faced by a criminal threat.

"You could find yourself in this country in a lawless environment from a natural disaster or a riot," he said. "I have an AR-15 at home, and I haven't hurt anybody, and I don't intend to do it."

The Republican senator added that he would carry his assault rifle around his neighborhood in the event of "a law and order breakdown," then said that magazine capacity should not be restricted because "there could be a situation where a mother runs out of bullets because of something we do here."

Some women in the military are still receiving inadequate care for sexual assault, a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report published Tuesday found. The report found that "not all first responders had completed the required training," even after a 2005 Department of Defense directive mandated "a comprehensive policy for the prevention of and response to sexual assault." One servicewoman even reported an inability to gain access to yeast infection treatment.

Though GAO found that the military "has not established guidance for the treatment of injuries stemming from sexual assault - a crime that requires a specialized level of care." Often, officers assigned to be "victim advocates" for those who had suffered sexual assault "are not always aware of the specific health care services available to sexual assault victims."

GAO investigated three military installations in the United States and seven Afganistan installations, as well as looking at eight Navy ships. The investigators talked to 92 servicewomen, 60 of whom said they believed they were receiving "generally" adequate care, but 8 reported deficiencies in female-specific health care.

"At one location we visited in Afghanistan," the report said, "a female airman told us that she believed the military was trying to meet the health needs of women, but still had work to do - noting, for example, that a medication she was prescribed had given her yeast infections."

The excuse used to justify Obama's failure to close GITMO is incomplete and misleading. Plus: multiple other items

A few (relatively) brief items worthy of note today:

(1) The New York Times' Charlie Savage reported yesterday that the State Department "reassigned Daniel Fried, the special envoy for closing the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and will not replace him". That move obviously confirms what has long been assumed: that the camp will remain open indefinitely and Obama's flamboyant first-day-in-office vow will go unfulfilled. Dozens of the current camp detainees have long been cleared by Pentagon reviews for release - including Adnan Farhan Abdul Latif, a 36-year-old Yemeni who died at the camp in September after almost 11 years in a cage despite never having been charged with a crime. Like so many of his fellow detainees, his efforts to secure his release were vigorously (and successfully) thwarted by the Obama administration.

Perfectly symbolizing the trajectory of the Obama presidency, this close-Guantánamo envoy will now "become the department's coordinator for sanctions policy". Marcy Wheeler summarizes the shift this way: "Rather than Close Gitmo, We'll Just Intercept More Medical Goods for Iran". She notes that this reflects "how we've changed our human rights priorities". Several days ago, Savage described how the Obama DOJ is ignoring its own military prosecutors' views in order to charge GITMO detainees in its military commissions with crimes that were not even recognized as violations of the laws of war.

Washington state mulls a long-awaited change to how it defines sexual assault

Planning on raping your spouse in Washington state? The consequences are about to get a lot tougher. Maybe. On Tuesday, lawmakers in the Evergreen State began considering House Bill 1108, which would remove the spousal exemption for third-degree rape and for "indecent liberties."

Washington already has partner rape provisions for first- and second-degree sexual assault - rape that includes violence, overt threat of violence, or is perpetrated on someone physically or mentally incapacitated. Yet the state's current legal system means that prosecutors have to pursue "lesser misdemeanor assault charges" in cases that would otherwise qualify as third-degree if the victim and assailant weren't married. Washington law defines third-degree rape as occurring when "that person engages in sexual intercourse, not married to the perpetrator ... where the victim did not consent ... to sexual intercourse and such lack of consent was clearly expressed by the victim's words or conduct." There you go. You can say no, clearly and explicitly, but if you're married and your assailant didn't slap you around, it's not rape.

A jury on Wednesday convicted a priest and a teacher in a pivotal church-abuse case that rocked the Philadelphia archdiocese and sent a church official to prison for child endangerment.

The verdict supports accounts by a 24-year-old policeman's son that he was sexually abused by the Rev. Charles Engelhardt and sixth-grade teacher Bernard Shero in about 1999.

The accuser's 2009 complaint describing abuse by two priests and the teacher led to Monsignor William Lynn's landmark conviction last year for endangerment. Lynn is serving three to six years in prison for his role in transferring an admitted pedophile priest to the accuser's parish in northeast Philadelphia.