Le Show; 2014-12-14

From deep inside your radio, ladies and gentlemen are very crammed broadcast, so stay close to your radio for the whole next hour, because it's non-stop stuff. First of all, news of nice people, doing nice things. The former features editor of the now-shuttered Sunday tabloid in London owned by NiceCorp, News of the World, he's facing a jail sentence. Imagine that after he admitted overseeing four years of phone hacking. Jewel Stenson pleaded guilty to involvement in what the prosecution is called industrial-scale hacking at the NiceCorp News International newspaper under disgraced editor Andy Coulson between 2003 and 2007. The 48-year-old will be sentenced. Next year, the paper's former deputy editor, 63-year-old Neil Wallace pleaded not guilty to the same allegation, and he gets a trial in June. These were the first to be charged under an investigation into alleged phone hacking at

the features desk of the former Sunday tabloid. Stenson was the boss of a former News of the World journalist who admitted to routine hacking, including eavesdropping on the messages of actor Daniel Craig in an earlier trial. Too bad he wasn't eavesdropping on Scott Rudin, but more about him in a moment. Let us try though, the United States Army Corps of Engineers weighs in with the news that the nation is falling behind and maintaining its aging levies, dams, ports, and harbors and needs the Corps of Engineers to fix it. You know, they fix the Everglades and New Orleans. Now the Corps of Engineers is seeking new ways to pay for the critical projects, according to the Commander General, Lieutenant General Thomas Bostic, one of the green suits that they stand up from time to time. Finishing all the projects that had been authorized would cost about $23.5 billion, he says, but

the Corps's annual budget for the work usually hovers around $1.5 billion. He says that figure doesn't include addressing a maintenance backlog as projects many of them decades old exceed their design life, much like nuclear reactors. It's going to take you decades to finish the work, and then you're going to have new projects here and there. The reality is Congress cannot do this alone. The federal government cannot do this. The message to local towns and communities and businesses is we cannot rely on the federal government to solve this fiscal challenge, really. Now he's an economist, he should talk to Stephanie Kelton, who says the government can solve this fiscal challenge, but the head of the Corps of Engineers says the Corps is looking at alternative means of financing projects, dams, levees, dredging, including public-private partnerships. Will your dam or levee have naming rights?

The question he said is how to monetize the project in such a ways that investors would come in and over a number of years get a return on their investment. Yes, you can come enjoy the Quicken Loan's dam. If the Corps said 16% of the dams it operates are categorized as extremely or very high risk. Since 2009 delays in interruptions have more than doubled on the nation's inland waterways, locks and dams, there has been a 50% increase in hydro power facility downtime since 2000. The American society's civil engineers as you know is given America's overall infrastructure a D plus grade, according to the civil engineer society, 21 billion to repair aging high hazard dams, the cost to repair or rebuild to levees according to the national committee on levee safety, 100 billion. Well that's not national security, is it?

We got plenty of money for that. Hello, welcome to the show and now ladies and gentlemen. Normally at this time of year, middle of December would be time for the year in rebuke, looking back at stuff that's happened on this program during the past year. But this has been a special week and so this is torture week at Hello, Welcome to the show and keep America number one, so water do what we say, we never ever do no way.

Let's go water, water, you, it's A, there is nothing like surfing cause you can't get off if you want to. And it's really hard work, but for us it feels much more like play. The tables were turned, we feel really burned, but let's go water, water, you, it's A, let's go water, it's not torture, if I say it, eat, water, those convention are so old and

it's not torture, if I say it, eat, water, you, it's not torture, if I say it, eat, water, those convention are so old and it's good, water, you, it's A, water, water, it's not torture, if I say it, eat, water, those convention are so old and it's good, it's not torture, if I say it, eat, water, you, it's not torture, if I say it, eat,

water, you, it's not torture, if I say it, eat, water, you, it's not torture, if I say it, eat, water, you, it's not torture, if I say it, Yes, ladies and gentlemen, waterboarding's not just torture, it's fun, from the edge of America,

from the home of the homeless, this is Lesho, and it's torture week because the Senate select committee on intelligence, it's a select committee, it's not prime, but it's select, finally issued it's long awaited, much redacted report on the United States detention and interrogation program, it was a program, the report as you may be aware was prepared by the staff of the Democratic majority of the intelligence committee because the Republican minority bailed out some years ago when it became apparent that the Justice Department under President Obama was investigating the same thing to see whether to prosecute any of the people involved because you know there's a law in the United States against torture and there's an international treaty against torture which were signatories too, and we ratified and were bound by

so the intelligence committee couldn't interview anybody, less they interfere with the investigation by the Justice Department, so the Republican said, well if you're not going to interview anybody, we're not going to participate in the report, well the Justice Department decided not to prosecute anybody because you know impunity, and so we have this report now based only on CIA documents, memos, and emails, you know as if they're Sony or something, and while we knew much of what is in the report as you'll hear in this broadcast, we did learn some things, we learned for example that the contractors who designed and in some cases even operated the detention and interrogation program conducted some interrogations even though they never interrogated anybody and never detained anybody before, they were psychologists, you know like Dr. Phil,

Mitchell and Jessen, doctors Mitchell and Jessen, we learned they had a $180 million contract to do this work, that's some good consultant, now the CIA, they're no dummies, they had options in the contract and they didn't exercise them all, so Mitchell and Jessen walked away only, only with $80 million for designing and running, supervising the detention and interrogation program which was based, they didn't make it up, they reversed engineered the SER program which was run during the 1950s to train US troops in case they ever fell into the hands of the Chinese Communists because you know the Chinese Communists would torture them, so Mitchell and Jessen reverse engineered this, got $80 million for their efforts, I bet you never heard in high school career counseling you could get $80 million for designing a torture program,

did you really? Okay, and what else we learned, we learned as a couple of senators, Senator Wyden from Oregon, Senator Outgoing Senator Udall from Colorado had predicted that there were some techniques among the enhanced techniques that we would be surprised to learn and this week we learned that in addition to the waterboarding and the stress positions and the cold and the light and the noise and the thing, some detainees were treated to process procedures called rectal hydration and rectal feeding. For no medical reason whatsoever, nutrients including nuts and raisins were pureed and then distributed rectally. As I say, no medical reason for it but some of the practitioners said it did give them dominance, total dominance over the detainees. Of course with the release of the report, there were rebuttals, the now director of the CIA, formerly president Obama's counterterrorism advisor,

and a man who Obama has stoutly stood up for. John Brennan this week defended the program even though he said it is unknowable whether the use of these techniques produced any actionable intelligence, unknowable. But you know what the hell, he also called it as some of the practices or procedures abhorrent and hope they would never be used again. Well the hope thing, how's that going? This puts him at odds of course with vice president Cheney, one of the more robust defenders of the program, who said of course we got actionable intelligence. He would know because he was vice president. He called the Senate committee report a lot of hui in an interview with the New York Times and then refined that in a later interview with Fox News to a lot of crap.

I guess hui is New York Times-ish for crap. You know he got to speak the language. He's planning to do some more interviews. I believe he will be on Meet the Press or has been on Meet the Press today. And maybe some more or not? I don't know, we'll have to go underground to find out. Next, intimate tales of America's former underground vice president, the action-packed diary of a man who was just a heartbeat away from history. Dick Cheney, Confidential, Confidential, Confidential. Despite the fact that I had other priorities during the Vietnam experience, I know a little something about torture. To me submitting myself to the tender mercies of the pretty boys of the TV News mob was about as close to torture as a serious person would ever want to get.

And yet, when duty called this week, I didn't let it go to voicemail. A group of partisan Democrat senators had been on a five-year-long witch hunt against enhanced interrogation techniques. And it was clear that I was there witch and chief, despite the proven success record of enhanced interrogation techniques and getting us exactly the information we intended to hear. These so-called legislators had wasted $40 million chasing emails and memos, and that money could have been better spent on more diapers, louder sound systems, and colder dungeons for our guests at the dark side hotels we established across the globe. Someone had to stick up for me, and in a process eerily similar to that of December 2000, I was elected to do the job. Olin groused a little about how the revived media attention would probably mean she'd have to do her Christmas shopping once again on the secure undisclosed computer. But I knew there was only one way through the media crap storm that followed the release of that so-called report.

And that was straight ahead. I'd already signed up to do Fox News and meet the press, and now Bob Schiefer of Face the Nation was next in line. I was running out of patience with even the softest softball questions. And my friend, Mr. Schiefer, was running out of luck. Friday, 10-17 am. Well, Mr. Vice President, I want to thank you for inviting us over to your- this doesn't look exactly like an office, but- It doesn't work exactly like an office, Bob. And thank you for coming. Well, now, as soon as we can get the crew in here, it shouldn't take them more than 10 minutes to set up, and then we- You know what, Bob? Before the crew comes in, maybe you and I can just have a little chat. It's been a long time. It's your highest, Mr. Vice President. Last time we talked to you, we're still on good terms with price-than-bush. Mm-hmm. Water under the bridge, my friend. Oh, speaking of water, can my uniformed assistance here get you a beverage?

Oh, I'm fine, sir. I-I did want to go over some of the areas I'd like to ask you about. This is a courtesy. Oh, of course. In our line of work, courtesy is almost must. Well, I don't think in-in any of your interviews, up to this point, and I've read transcripts of them all. I don't think you've been asked about the treaty against torture that our country signed and ratified, so I'd like to cover that in relation to these enhanced techniques, as you call them. Oh, sure. Bob, you look tense. Well, you'd like to lie down for a few minutes, just take a load off before we start. Well, sir, I think my uniformed assistance will help you up on the massage table. I didn't realize you'd get massages, Mr. Vice President. I don't. They're for girls. Well, I don't really have to be striped in to relax, though, sir. Oh, it's just a courtesy. This is where your hands don't have to grasp the edges to keep you from falling off.

I see. Well, anyway, while I'm relaxing, we could get the crew in here. You know what, Bob? I don't think the crew needs to see this. Gentlemen, would you take care of our guests, trouserings? Yes, sir. Mr. Vice President, I'm going to have to ask you to perhaps let me get my pants back on. It's a little bit embarrassing for me to be lying here, exposing you to my wrinkled old keyster. Oh, Bob, believe me, I've seen much worse. Have you ever noticed Bob how all the movie stars puree their food these days? Well, you know, it's leafy greens, some nuts and raisins. Oh, good stuff. Sure. Now, this is the point where you'll be grateful you don't have to hold on. Maybe you'll be thinking about the questions you want to ask while this procedure takes place. Okay, fella, Slipperian. Just as a courtesy.

What the... You feel like a Hollywood star, Bob? I can't say that I do, Mr. Vice President. Maybe that question about the treaty isn't really that crucial after all. Well... Maybe that's why no one else answers. I'm not really in a position at the moment to consider. Oh! Ah, boy, he's... Yes, sir. Sorry about that, Bob. Well, I should think so. No, I owe you a very sincere apology. Well, I was kind of wondering how in the name of my boys here apparently totally forgot to... puree the nuts. I guess that gave our media friend second thoughts about the interview. His crew got sent home, and I hope to God he didn't just hop into a taxi.

And a partial diary for the beginning of December 2014. Sincerely yours. Dick Cheney. Confidential. Now the... The program, the intent of the detention and interrogation program, was set up by the Bush administration... pretty much right after, pretty soon after 9-11. And it was done by executive order, you know, the kind that the Republicans are bitching about now. The Democrats bitched about a little bit, little, little, little bit, about President Bush's executive order installing this program. So a year or two down the line, he proposed that Congress legislated into existence, regularize the program.

And of course, Congress was more than happy to do so. Anyway, here was the president's speech or some of his remarks at that time proposing that Congress, you know, regularize the torture program. What I'm proposing is that there be clarity in the law so that our professionals will have no doubt that that which they're doing is legal. And so the piece of legislation I sent up there provides our professionals that which is needed to go forward. Now, the court said that you've got to live under Article 3 of the Geneva Convention and the standards are so vague that our professionals won't be able to carry forward the program. It provides more clarity for our professionals. And that's what these people expect. These are decent citizens. And what I'm concerned about is if we don't do that, then it's very conceivable our professionals could be held to account based upon court decisions in other countries.

Now, I've spent a lot of time on this issue as you can imagine. And I've talked to professionals. They're not going forward with the program. They're not going to be professionals. We'll not step up unless there's clarity in the law. That's why I asked Congress to pass legislation so that our professionals can go forward doing the duty we expect them to do. If our professionals don't have clear standards in the law, the program is not going to go forward. You can't ask a young professional on the front line of protecting this country to violate law. And I have the obligation to make sure that our professionals who I would ask to go conduct interrogations to find out what might be happening or who might be coming to this country. I got to give them the tools they need and that is clear law.

The point is that the program is not going to go forward if our professionals do not have clarity in the law. And the best way to provide clarity in the law is to make sure the detainee treatment act is the crux of the law. Wow. He got himself wound up over that, didn't he? I guess he really cared about the professionals. This fall, professionalism has a new name. The professionals, two men, one woman, on the front lines of the dark side. Don Johnson is the veteran operative. I think we need some alternative procedures. Ice tray is the street-wise rookie. Waterboard and stress positions, dogs. It sounds like tortured me. Let's do it. Brittany Street is the improbably attractive woman. Wait a minute. Are we going over the line? Excuse me, Missy. But isn't that what we're here for? Who you calling Missy? Amateurism was never like this. Tuesday is this fall.

Or maybe Thursday is if Tuesday is too tough. The thin blue line has just gotten a lot thinner. Do we just leave him in there, called and screaming? Yeah. I think it's our lunch break. If they didn't do it for the money, they wouldn't be professionals. This fall on television, they interneted you a mobile phone, just like the enemy. You can't escape the professionals. Torture Week continues in a moment, but first news of our friend, the Adam. Clean, safe, too cheap to meet. Safe, cheap, too cheap to meet. Safe, too cheap to meet. Safe, too cheap to meet. Our friend Eddie, the Adam, was creeped out by a torture talk, so it's just me. Federal regulators found a safety violation involving monitoring of workers for radiation exposure.

That's all. At the Palisades Nuclear Power Plant. Early this year, this is in Michigan. Workers at Palisades were performing equipment maintenance during a refueling outage in February and March, but followed an inadequate procedure to measure how much radiation workers received. Said a PR person with a nuclear regulatory commission who said, Victoria Mittling. Mittling said, no workers were overexposed to radiation, no were any workers in danger. The plant did not use proper methodology to measure the radiation levels workers received. Yes, if you put those two sentences together, it leads you to ask, how did she know? They weren't overexposed if they didn't use the proper methodology to measure the radiation levels. Quote, this is more of a control and exposure issue, according to Mittling. All right, then.

Almost 4,000 highly radioactive spent fuel assemblies will have to be stored indefinitely on a narrow strip of land between interstate five in the ocean, where the San anofray nuclear power plant now stands. Southern California Edison, which operates San anofray, has selected a company hold tech international to provide stainless steel canisters that will store the plant spent fuel. The canisters will be encased in a concrete monolith, how 2001, but neighbors worry the stainless steel casks are not robust enough for indefinite long term storage right next to the ocean. The nuclear power industry has used the canisters for three decades, but always with the understanding that the department of energy would take the waste when a permanent long term storage site was established. That's in political limbo with no permanent waste storage site on the horizon. That's right, we're making this stuff creating this stuff with no idea where it's eventually going to go. That's, that's enlightened, isn't it? The nuclear regulatory commission ruled earlier this year radioactive waste can be stored on nuclear plant sites indefinitely.

That means forever. The casks used by most of the nuclear industry in the United States are stainless steel and less than an inch thick. Casks already in use in Europe are cast iron up to 20 inches thick. US companies are going with the thinner casks because they are cheaper according to a neighborhood activist near San anofray. Edison wants a product that's already licensed and ready to go to meet its tight decommissioning schedule, but the maker of the thicker casks doesn't want to go through NRC's rigorous licensing process without a guaranteed contract. This report from public radio station KBBS in San Diego. David Victor, an international relations professor at UC San Diego is chairman of the community engagement panel set up by Edison to engage the public in the decommissioning plan. He says it's time to move on from the debate over the casks.

He says his research has shown in the nuclear industry is aware of the need to find a way to inspect fuel court storage casks over the long term. He said it is report the nuclear industry needs to be more open about its strategies for dealing with future problems, which could be catastrophic. We're dealing with highly radioactive materials. Laguna reached beach residents near San anofray, say they don't want to spend decades living near nuclear waste. So they're asking the federal government to speed up the plan to remove spent fuel rods from the facility. It'll be 35 years right as it stands right now before the last remnants of the nuclear waste are removed from the former power plant. The neighborhood group wants them to move the spent fuel to a new US Navy weapon station such as China Lake in current county. Hey, current county, it's a gift. The group is concerned Southern California Edison is spending money on restoring the state instead of developing a plan to remove the radioactive fuel. Edison spokeswoman said the utility is doing everything it can to ensure the fuel is safely stored but it's up to the federal government to decide when and where to move it.

We have no control of when the Department of Energy does its job, she said. And Edison faced a losing battle once before when it tried to get permission to move a decommissioned reactor in 2003 to a disposal side of the East Coast. Rail companies refused to haul the 950 ton reactor. The Panama Canal Authority said a boat carrying the reactor would be denied passage and rough waters made the voyage around Cape Horn to risky. Clean jeeps to risky to move our friend the atom. This is torture week on Lesho and you know, ladies and gentlemen, many detainees were not sent to either Guantanamo Bay or to the newly closed Bagram prison in just outside on the outskirts of Kabul in Afghanistan. Know the United States outsource them, kidnap them, diaper them, drug them up, put them on a plane, send them to friendly countries, countries like Syria and Egypt where of course we were assured that they would not be tortured.

That's why we sent them there for the non torture, a process known as extraordinary rendition. Thank you very much. It was one by the great Jimmy Webb. Or by Zeyn. But, but I just run an off-trick betting shop. Sure. I'm betting. You'll have a nice trip. He's got only one way. Extruderic rendition.

John Paul Farrell is Jack Limerick. Cheech Marin is the Arab. Limerick, you cannot leave me here. They tortured people here. They swear they're down. Somehow, I believe them. Umeth Thurman is the handler. Jack? I get so hot when you sing. Can I come back tomorrow night? Sure, Tiger. But, just one thing. What's that? Don't let me buy you a ticket. If I do, certain restrictions apply. This January, singing and kidnapping have a new name. Extraordinary rendition. Everything else is just ordinary. From birthmark pictures only in theaters until it's not. Yes, it's torture week here on the show. The the entire legal structure of the interrogation and detention program has outlined in the Senate Intelligence Committee report, but is well known

was set up by a series of memos written by officials in the Bush administration justice department and the White House Council's office, mainly in the justice department. Proved, waved through by the and encouraged and perhaps even persuaded to see things their way by the White House Council's office. The authors of the opinions that said waterboarding and other enhanced techniques were legal. Jay Byby, who is now a federal judge, and John Yu, who surfaced this week as one of the other rebutters of the Senate committee report, John Yu, currently a professor of law at UC Berkeley, isn't that ironic? Who wrote at least one of the torture memos later rescinded

by the Obama administration? But, you know, no harm, no foul. John Yu is still teaching law at Berkeley. Who is he? He just wrote and ran. Who is he? He just wrote and ran. Who is he? The torture memo man. Who is he? He went and banned the ban. Who is he? The torture memo man. You've got you as undetainees. You don't know what to do. Do you read them there, Miranda Rites? Or cover them with food? Are you doing something illegal?

Or proper through and through? There's only one guy to call. The one to ask is you. Who is he? He's in that secret clan. Who is he? The torture memo man. Who is he? He had a clever plan. Who is he? The torture memo man. Oh, you've got some evil doers. And they will not say who. A little pain and torment. You might change their point of view. But before you water, man, you wonder could they sue? The one guy has got the answer. The one to ask is you.

Get your mouth out of talking about God. Who is he? He just wrote and ran. Who is he? The torture memo man. Who is he? He went and banned the ban. Who is he? The torture memo man. All these laws and treaties. You want something new. This war may last forever. You need to turn the screw. He's teaching life, Berkeley. He'll drop the other shoe. The beloved writes expires. The one who knows is you. Who is he? Catch him if you can.

Who is he? The torture memo man. Who is he? He just banned the ban. Who is he? The torture memo man. By the way, John Hughes memos were notable for their definition. To be torture, a technique had to produce paying and suffering equivalent to organ failure. We hope this to use organs are in perfect shape. Now it is in gentlemen, the apologies of the week. I just call the Rodi, if that happens. Around the same time, President Bush opined about the Geneva convention and its definition, which was a little less stringent than John Hughes. This debate is occurring because of the Supreme Court's ruling

that said that we must conduct ourselves under the common article three of the Geneva convention. And that common article three says that there will be no outrageous upon human dignity. It's very vague. What does that mean? Outrage is upon human dignity. A good question. And now ladies and gentlemen, some outrageous upon human dignity apologized for. We're so sorry. The apologies of the week. She was a 19-year-old high school graduate with no skills other than shorthand and typing when she went to work as a personal secretary. Over the years, and that bongeono was given more responsibilities as six-figure salary and big bonuses by her boss. Bernie Madoff. This week, she stood before a federal judge having been convicted of conspiracy securities fraud and other charges. She faced a life sentence.

Her voice could quiver and she broke into tears. As she told the judge, she was also a victim of Mr. Madoffs. She apologized to the people who lost their savings in the $17 billion fraud, saying she was ashamed she'd worked for Madoff for decades and, quote, never figured out the truth. I did what I was told, she said. I didn't know what was going on. Sound familiar? Still, I apologized to the victims for believing in him, she said. I realized my ignorance is no excuse. The judge said Ms. Bongeono should have known Madoff's financial success was a sham, but she said, Bongeono was not fundamentally corrupt. So she gets only six years in prison. Dayline Seoul, Korean air apologized as it faced a media backlash over the daughter of the airline's CEO who had a chief person ejected from a plane in a furious reaction to being incorrectly served. Macadamian UTS. Well, insisting it was reasonable for its executive vice president, Cho Hyun-ah, to have raised a problem with the in-flight service. The airline admitted that forcing the New York to Seoul flight

to return to its gate to remove the senior crew member had caused an unreasonable delay. Korean air apologizes to its passengers for the inconvenience, caused by the excessive behavior of returning the aircraft and ejecting the flight attendant, even though the circumstance was not an emergency. The president of the University of Iowa apologized for the university's response to the sudden appearance last Friday of a seven-foot-tall statue of a Ku Klux Klanzman on the campus. The sculpture made from newspaper clippings chronicling racial violence in America was set up by Sir Hot Tanjolakar, a fellow at the University's School of Art who said it was meant to raise awareness about racism. He took the statue down at the university's request and apologized on Twitter for the confusion it had caused. In a statement circulated in the campus president, Sally Mason said the sculpture had been erected without permission and that the administration's response was not adequate, nor did that response occur soon enough. For failing to meet our goal of providing a respectful all-inclusive educational environment,

the University apologizes. Comedian John Stewart, I think he has a TV show and some cable channel, delivered on a pledge he made on Twitter and apologized to the San Bernardino County District Attorney's Office for an error he made on that show, regarding the circumstances of a man's deadly encounter with sheriff's deputies. He had included 36-year-old Dante Parker on a list of unarmed black men fatally shot by law enforcement, but Parker was tased not shot by deputies and died from an overdose of PCP according to the Riverside County corner. Stewart acknowledged the mistake and argued it didn't negate his larger point. District Attorney Ramos was right, we were wrong, so I'm sorry about that. Stewart said we shouldn't have done that. The health official under fire for misrepresenting and misreporting Obamacare enrollment numbers and tested this week the error was inadvertent and not a scheme to inflate the figures. I do not believe anyone tried to deceive the American people. I do believe the error was inadvertent,

said Marilyn Tavener, Head of Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, hearing held by the House Oversight and Governmental Reform Committee. This was an inadvertent mistake for which I apologize, she said. The agency had inflated the number of enrollments by about 400,000 by counting customers with dental only plans. I'm trying to put some teeth in the law. And Obamacare consultant Jonathan Gruber apologized this week for remarks in which he referred to the stupidity of the American voter and told a congressional committee that the signature health care law of President Obama was not passed in a deceptive manner. Gruber, a health care economist at MIT, said he had not intended to denigrate the Affordable Care Act and played down his role in its development. Quote, I behave badly and I will have to live with that, but my own inexcusable arrogance is not a flaw. In the act, he told the same. Committee, Republicans seized on videos that came to attention in November, in which Gruber says the law was written in a very tortured way to hide new taxes

and that voter's stupidity helped ensure its passage. But he's sorry. Uber apologized this week for the alleged rape of one of its passengers in India, said it was reviewing possible changes to the service like stronger driver background checks, you think? Or any? The fast growing company has been under fire around the world. It's been banned in Spain, Thailand, and India after a driver was accused of sexually assaulting a passenger in New Delhi. Quote, we are sorry and deeply saddened by what happened over the weekend in New Delhi. The company said in a statement on its website, our hearts go out to the victim of this horrible crime. The message strikes a much more conciliatory tone than the company's previous comments on the incident in which CEO Travis Kalinick seemed to blame New Delhi for not performing adequate background checks. Police have said you Uber itself may face charges if an investigation shows officials misled writers about how they background check the drivers. The company says it's conducting an audit

of our verification writer feedback on support processes. We're implementing measures to ensure that critical writer feedback is escalated immediately. We're also re-reviewing writer feedback on every driver partner across India to make sure nothing has been missed. It's also considering more thorough background checks. Yeah, don't wait for the feedback after the rape. You mean? Producer Scott Rudin, well known in show business, as a pussycat among pussycats, has issued a public apology for the racially insensitive comments that surfaced this week in an exchange of hacked private emails between him and Sony Pictures Entertainment Chairman Amy Pascal. Joking references they made to black-themed films that President Obama might like were not meant for public consumption but their hard to defend in the harsh light of a public forum without context. Rudin made the point in The New York Times about the hacking breach. When he was asked about other hacked emails, he said he simply wanted to apologize. Private emails between friends and colleagues written in haste and without much thought or sensitivity even when the content of the best meant to be just.

Again, resulted in offense. We're not with intended, he told Deadline.com. I made a series of marks that were meant only to be funny. But in the cold light of day, there in fact thoughtless and insensitive and not funny at all. To anybody I've offended, I'm profoundly and deeply sorry and I respect and apologize and I regret and apologize for any injury they might have caused. I have a few notes Scott on the emails you might make them funnier. Call me. Best Buy publicly apologized this week for a controversial tweet that referenced serial-a-popular podcast about a homicide that allegedly took place in the parking lot of one of the company's stores. Best Buy has erased the tweet from its Twitter account calling it a lapse in judgment and says, quote, we deeply apologize for our earlier tweet about serial-a-lack good judgment. It doesn't reflect the values of our company. We are sorry. Best Buy in Maryland has mentioned several times in the series. It appears the company was trying to capitalize on the podcast popularity. The podcast explores the killing of a high school student

and best Buy is sorry. And those are the apologies of the week. Ladies and gentlemen, one more note on the nuclear subject this week. If you wrap your new car around a tree beside the Interstate U.S. government values your life at $9 million if you're at risk from a nuclear accident you're priced at just $3 million. Those are the disparity or the disparate figures the U.S. transportation department and the nuclear regulatory commission use when considering safety upgrades for highways or nuclear plants. Their methods compare the cost of improvements with a number of lives potentially saved. The gap between the value they give to each life shows the scale of the task facing officials trying to broker a deal to improve nuclear safety around the world. The NRC has been reviewing its statistical model for a couple of years. The European Union heaps pressure on the U.S. to agree to tighter regulations on nuclear safety. The theoretical value of human life is a key part of the U.S. rule book which effectively caps how much money power companies can be forced to spend on safety upgrades.

Using this low value has a significant effect on nuclear plant license renewals and new reactor approvals. Says a physicist at the Union of Concerned Scientists. The nuclear plants are not required to add safety systems at the NRC deems too expensive for the value of the lives they could save. The U.S. was left as the main dissenter in negotiations over tighter international rules on nuclear safety this month. Russia scaled back its opposition to plans intended to avoid a repeat of fuk. The NRC has not determined whether to revise the figure upward to match the value of a human life as seen by the transportation department. And this is torsional week on Lusho. So when he took office President Obama ended the detention and interrogation program. He ended extraordinary rendition. He replaced them with killing by drone. But he made it clear at the very beginning of his administration

day two or three that he was not going to investigate or prosecute any of the perpetrators, any of the people involved in these programs. We're going to look forward not back where he said everybody remembers that. Nonetheless, as I said, the justice department did open an investigation and found nobody to prosecute. It's a reminder, ladies and gentlemen, that a few years ago a state department official was explaining to the Washington Post White was so difficult to wipe out corruption in Afghanistan. And he said they have over there. They have a culture of impunity. Unquote. Well, guess what? We got one too. Nobody's going to probably go to jail for violating either the domestic law against torture or the international convention against torture

a treaty which we signed and ratified and which makes no exceptions for exceptional circumstances like war or terrorism or terrorist attacks and makes no exceptions as to who can or cannot be tortured legally. So as I say, no one's going to do a perp walk. But at least we have the satisfaction of knowing that President Obama's phrase from earlier this year. We tortured some folks. And that's really accountability enough, don't you think? You got to remember, we were really afraid. We'd ignored the warnings. And then we got played. There was panic in the White House. Panic of state. Panic of the Pentagon.

People working really late. They were patriots. They cared and they fought. But the contractors sold. They bought. So we rendered some errands. But the help of the bloats. Like it or not. We tortured some folks. How we didn't think it was torture for sight. That's what the White House Council said back in the day. Enhanced interrogation. This is how it was known. So we slapped and the water boarded and froze to the bowl. Short violated our values and laws. But we were more scared than when we first saw draws.

Some very good men did some very bad things. But who among us knows why the case bird says? So we tormented some Muslims. Then went out for some smokes. It hurts to say it. But we tortured some folks. Now we can look backwards. We could game the blame. We could point fingers. We could wallow and shame. We could punish the guilty for each little flaw. We're supposed to do under international law. We could say we're sorry. Which we never do. Because we're exceptional.

And so are you. So let's leave it at this. Let's leave it unseen. Let's look through the future. The White House laid clean. You don't want to pursue this. Neither do I. It would be like busting me now because I used to get high. So let's pretend we don't hear. The screams and the croaks. And just tell our grandkids. We tortured some folks. No jokes. We've got the ultra-bother neck. Of getting oil from the deepest crack. So keep the boys. Just a bit of slack. And say a hearty what the frack. What the frack ladies and gentlemen.

We've been told by people involved in hydraulic fracking. Of shale for gas and oil. That the wastewater injected way down there can never make its way back to the surface or get involved with the aquifers. Which are the source of our drinking water. Not so fast as Steve Grassby a federal scientist in Canada with the geological survey. He has found nine thermal springs where natural cracks and faults extend deep underground. We can see right next door to where shale gas development is going on that we do have circulation of surface waters down to five kilometers depth and back to surface again. Not only did we see transmission of water from the crustal levels but we also see transmission of thermogenic gas and the crust up to the surface in these spring systems. He said that's the variety of gas extracted by fracking mixtures of water and sand are injected under immense pressure. The fracking process is so intense.

It can trigger small earthquakes. We all know that. The tracking fracking fluids were told will stay put but as well as proliferate. So to concerns the fluids and gas will migrate through the growing collection of man-made holes, cracks, and fractures beneath the ground. A recent study by a University of Victoria found 41 billion liters enough to fill 16,000 Olympic pools has been injected into a single well in British Columbia. Yet because of laws that are not too robust we don't really know what toxins were in the wastewater much may have leaked into groundwater or surface waters say University of Victoria researchers. The nine thermal springs located by grassby show that where there are cracks water can travel. Maybe water finds travel broadening. I find it fatiguing. I don't know about you. What the frack? 1.

2. 3. 4. 5. 4. 5. 6. 6. 6. 6. 7. 15. 15. 20. 17. 15. 16. 16. 16. 16. 16. 16. 15. 16. 17. 16. 16. 16. Well ladies and gentlemen that's going to conclude. Torture week. Special edition of the show the program. It turns next week at the same time over these same stations over NPR World Wide Threat Europe, the USN 440. Cable system in Japan around the world through the facilities of the American Forces network up and down the east coast of North America via the shortwave giant WBCQ the planet on the mighty 104 in Berlin around the world via two different locations whenever you want it live in archive via the internet. Harry Shearer.com and KCSN.org available for your smartphone through Stitcher.com and available as a free podcast.

Podcasts. They're all the braids again. How did that happen? Through www.no.org, sides to our network SoundCloud and iTunes. And also available through TuneIn Radio is a podcast is everywhere just like torture and it'd be just like Scott Rudin apologizing some more if you'd agree to join with me then. Would you already thank you very much. Uh huh. A bit of a show shoppo to the San Diego Pittsburgh Chicago and exile in Hawaii desks. Thanks as always to Pam Hallstead and to Jenny Lawson at www.no for help with today's broadcast. The email address for this program you still use email and playlist of the music heard here on. You still hear music? It's available. Along with cars I talk t-shirts wow do they make great Christmas gifts at Harry Shearer.com. And me thanks for asking I'm on Twitter at the Harry Shearer. Hey San Francisco and Chicago Christmas without tears.

The annual charity comedy and music gala run by Judith Owen on myself comes to your towns this week San Francisco at the addition. On Tuesday night and space in Evanston on Thursday night. It's um for very good causes and it's a very good time. The show comes to you from sensory progress productions and originates through the facilities of WWW and on New Orleans flagship station of the Change Is Easy Radio Network.