Cheat Sheet

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CIA interrogators staged "mock executions" while questioning terror suspects, according to a long-suppressed report by the CIA's inspector general. The report is to be released next week, but sources told Newsweek it contains shocking revelations about "enhanced" interrogations with terror suspects. The suspected bomber of the USS Cole, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, was threatened with a pistol to the head by his interrogators, the report says. (A federal law bans threatening prisoners with "imminent death.") A mock execution was staged in a room next to another detainee in order to scare him into giving information. A gunshot was fired next door so the detainee would think another prisoner had been killed. Bush administration officials confirmed that Nashiri was one of three detainees who underwent waterboarding, though video of his interrogations were ordered destroyed. "Mock executions" were not listed in the document of acceptable "enhanced" interrogation techniques penned by Bush lawyers. Top Bush CIA officials, including directors Porter Goss and Gen. Michael Hayden, argued for the report's secrecy when it came out in 2004 on the grounds that it would damage America's reputation.

A high-level delegation from North Korea has traveled to South Korea to meet President Lee Myung-bak on Sunday, in the first political meeting between the two countries in two years. President Lee will meet with North Korea's intelligence chief and a secretary of the ruling Workers' Party. Just last week, North Korea lifted some of its border restrictions on South Korea, and the country recently released two U.S. journalists and a South Korean worker. The delegation arrived on Friday to pay its respects to the former South Korean president, Kim Dae-jung, a unification advocate who died on Tuesday.

The International Committee of the Red Cross will now know the identities of prisoners kept in secret in Iraq and Afghanistan camps, in a reversal of the Pentagon's policy. The move will begin to dispel some of the secrecy surrounding the government's remaining overseas prisons. The Red Cross has been fighting for access to the information, but the military previously said disclosing prisoners' names would tip off other insurgents. The New York Times reported in 2006 that in one detention camp in Iraq, prisoners were used for "target practice" in jailer paintball games. The military says conditions have improved since then. About 30 to 40 prisoners have been held in the Iraq camp at one time, and there are fewer prisoners in the Afghanistan camp, officials said. The Red Cross has been allowed to track the prisoners since last month, though no formal announcement was made of the decision.

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Iraq's Foreign Minister had a shocking announcement Saturday--he suspects the country's own security forces of being complicit with the coordinated attack on Wednesday that killed more than 100 people, including many of his employees. "The operation was organized and planned for months," Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said. "I don't rule out that there was collaboration by the security forces." Zebari, a Kurd, accused Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's administration of overestimating its ability to protect its citizens out of pride when it removed a line of concrete walls around the Foreign Ministry. Wednesday's attacks on the foreign and finance ministries were the deadliest since the June 30 withdrawal of U.S. troops.

The normally reserved Robert Mueller, director of the FBI, sent a scathing letter to Scotland's justice minister for releasing the Lockerbie bomber on grounds of compassion, which he termed an act that "gives comfort to terrorists" around the world. "Your action," he wrote to Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill, "makes a mockery of the grief of the families who lost their own on December 21, 1988. You could not have spent much time with the families, certainly not as much time as others involved in the investigation and prosecution." Mueller led the investigation into the airplane bombing that killed 270 when he was at the Justice Department. In the letter, which he also sent to the families of the victims, Mueller recounted seeing a teenager's single sneaker and toys in the suitcase of a victim who was heading home to spend Christmas with his children. He ended the letter on a frustrated note: "Where, I ask, is the justice?"

Texas Governor Rick Perry spoke of his love for Sarah Palin and fear of the health-care bill in an extensive interview with the Wall Street Journal. Perry called Palin "the face of America" and said she invigorated the base like no one since Reagan. He also took the time to gesture to the false "death panel" rumors about the health-care bill, popularized by Palin. "Particularly, the aspect of this [bill] that has to do with end-of-life decisions...are pretty cold-hearted in my opinion," he said. "You're a little too old to be spending money on, so we're just going to put you over here in the 'gonna die' category. 'Bye.' That's pretty gruesome and scary to people that are my mom and dad's age." The governor also touted the economic success of Texas, contrasting it with California and Michigan's floundering budgets, and attributed it to a rejection of tax-and-spend governance. Businesses are attracted to Texas because "we haven't spent all the money, the taxes are low, the regulatory climate is fair—they won't be frivolously sued—and they know when they get here that they'll find a skilled work force," he said.

The Taliban reportedly delivered on its threat to chop off the fingers of voters in Afghanistan: Insurgents in Kandahar province, which harbors a significant Taliban presence, attacked two men on election day, cutting off their ink-stained fingers, according to the head of the country's Free and Fair Election Foundation. Aside from this grisly act, international observers say that Thursday's balloting was generally positive and "in accordance with democratic principles," according to the U.S.-based National Democratic Institute. Some observers, however, are noting signs of fraud and irregularities, including stuffed ballot boxes, coersion of illiterate voters, and biased officials. That said, experts say it's too soon to determine whether the elections were a success. President Hamid Karzai's lead challenger is accusing him of rigging the vote.

In the first rendition of Obama's presidency, Lebanese contractor Raymond Azar was hooded, stripped down and photographed naked, and flown to the U.S. for an alleged crime that seems out of whack with his high-security treatment: conspiracy to commit bribery. Azar, 45, pleaded guilty to the charges this week, and he faces a maximum of five years in prison, but will likely get closer to two-and-a-half years or less. The harsh proceedings have baffled human-rights groups—Joanne Mariner, terrorism and counterterrorism director at Human Rights Watch, called the case "bizarre." "He was treated like a high-security terrorist instead of someone accused of a relatively minor white-collar crime," she said. Yet Justice Department lawyers have denied any misconduct in the case. "The FBI followed standard operating procedures when transporting prisoners to the United States," said a spokeswoman. Restraints "were used with the sole purpose of ensuring the safety of the defendants and the agents."

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After its contractors killed civilians in Iraq in 2007, the security firm formerly known as Blackwater was shunned by the U.S.—or so the public thought. Despite publicly breaking with the firm, the State Department has continued to grant the company, now called Xe, more than $400 million in contracts, The New York Times reports. It's still used to fly diplomats around Iraq and protect them in Afghanistan, and to train antiterrorism security forces at its camp in North Carolina—and one of its contracts runs until 2011. The enduring reliance on the firm, given its history, underscores the extent of the U.S.' reliance on private contractors to perform highly sensitive and critical jobs, as the country struggles with an overstretched military and spy service.

Drop the sand trowel and get back in the car if you’re on vacation this weekend: A new study shows that levels of E.coli bacteria are actually higher on the beach than in the ocean. Scientists at the American Journal of Epidemiology interviewed more than 27,000 visitors at seven U.S. beaches and quizzed them about their activities. Ten to 12 days later, participants were contacted by phone and asked about any illnesses they had experienced since their trip to the beach. Those poor souls who dug around in the sand were slightly more likely to develop stomach illnesses and diarrhea than those who had spent more time in the water. But don’t fret, sandcastle-builders: Another study published in the Journal of Water and Health has one simple solution—wash your hands. Rinsing hands once in clean water removed 92 percent of E.coli;  rinsing four times removed nearly 100 percent of the germs.

Audiences were given their first extended taste on Friday night of Avatar, the 3-D film that Titantic and Terminator 2 director James Cameron has been working on for 14 years. Showing at IMAX theaters throughout the world, fans were shown a little more than 15 minutes, and The New York Times reports “the fans were receptive, if not quite blown away.” Tickets to the screenings were available online, and more than 100,000 people were expected to attend.

The World Health Organization says swine flu will continue to spread in an "explosion" of cases in the coming months, jeopardizing the health of many around the world. WHO's Western Pacific director cautions of an “explosion in case numbers” in many countries, which could see H1N1 incidences double every three to four days for several months as temperatures decrease. The virus has already claimed the lives of almost 1,800 people worldwide and will continue to cause deaths internationally, especially in developing countries, which are ill-equipped to battle the strain. Though WHO’s flu chief, Keiji Fukuda, noted that two drug manufacturers have already pledged to donate 150 million doses of the vaccine to poor countries by the end of October, “how we get them to developing countries,” Fukuda said, “is probably the most critical issue.”

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Are Hollywood’s two biggest stars set to feud? When asked by the German magazine Stern what he thought of Tom Cruise’s movie Valkyrie, about a Nazi plot to assassinate Hitler, Brad Pitt replied simply “it was a ridiculous movie.” Pitt took the time, meanwhile, to praise his own Nazi-bashing flick, Inglourious Basterds. "The second World War could still deliver more stories and films, but I believe that Quentin [Tarantino, director] put a cover on that pot. With Basterds, everything than can be said to this genre has been said. The film destroys every symbol. The work is done, end of story."

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has nominated Ahmad Vahidi, a former commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, to head the country’s defense ministry, despite Vahidi's questionable past. Vahidi has been on Interpol’s “red notice” since November 2007 for his alleged involvement in a 1994 car bombing of the Israeli-Argentine Mutual Association building in Buenos Aires, which killed 85 people and injured 150. It became the worst attack on a Jewish target outside Israel since World War II. The red notice is not an arrest warrant, but is occasionally interpreted by the police organization’s member nations as a request to detain the suspect. Argentinean prosecutor Alberto Nisman, who led the investigation into the 1994 bombing, said Vahidi, currently Iran's deputy defense minister, was a “key participant” in planning the attack. “Iran has always protected terrorists, giving them government posts,” Nisman told the Associated Press. “But I think never one as high as this one.”

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Fans of the original Melrose Place, get excited: Heather Locklear is in talks to join the CW's remake of the show, debuting Sept. 8. "It's better-than-even money that she'll do it," a show insider told Us Weekly. "Everyone's optimistic, absolutely." Locklear's character, Amanda, appeared to have been killed off the popular Aaron Spelling drama in 1999, though producers left the door open for a return, when her character was later spotted on a remote beach. Original stars Laura Leighton, Thomas Calabro, Josie Bissett, and Daphne Zuniga have also signed on to reprise their roles.