1.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
2.
Kurds
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The Kurds are culturally and linguistically closely related to the Iranian peoples and, as a result, are often themselves classified as an Iranian people. A recent Kurdish diaspora has also developed in Western countries, primarily in Germany, the Kurdish language refers collectively to the related dialects spoken by the Kurds. It is mainly spoken in parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria. Kurdish holds official status in Iraq as a national language alongside Arabic, is recognized in Iran as a regional language, the Kurdish languages belong to the northwestern sub‑group of the Iranian languages, which in turn belongs to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European family. According to Mackenzie, there are few features that all Kurdish dialects have in common. And the fact that this reflects the sense of ethnic identity and unity of the Kurds. The number of Kurds living in Southwest Asia is estimated at close to 30 million, Kurds comprise anywhere from 18% to 20% of the population in Turkey, possibly as high as 25%,15 to 20% in Iraq, 10% in Iran, and 9% in Syria. Kurds form regional majorities in all four of these countries, viz. in Turkish Kurdistan, the Kurds are the fourth largest ethnic group in West Asia after the Arabs, Persians, and Turks. The total number of Kurds in 1991 was placed at 22.5 million, with 48% of this number living in Turkey, 18% in Iraq, 24% in Iran, and 4% in Syria. Recent emigration accounts for a population of close to 1.5 million in Western countries and this groups population was estimated at close to 0.4 million in 1990. The land of Karda is mentioned on a Sumerian clay-tablet dated to the 3rd millennium B. C. This land was inhabited by the people of Su who dwelt in the regions of Lake Van. Other Sumerian clay-tables referred the people, who lived in the land of Karda, as the Qarduchi and the Qurti. Many Kurds consider themselves descended from the Medes, an ancient Iranian people, the claimed Median descent is reflected in the words of the Kurdish national anthem, We are the children of the Medes and Kai Khosrow. The Kurdish languages form a subgroup of the Northwestern Iranian languages like Median, some researchers consider the independent Kardouchoi as the ancestors of the Kurds. The term Kurd, however, is first encountered in Arabic sources of the seventh century, the Kurds have ethnically diverse origins. During the Sassanid era, in Kar-Namag i Ardashir i Pabagan, after initially sustaining a heavy defeat, Ardashir I was successful in subjugating the Kurds. In a letter Ardashir I received from his foe, Ardavan V, the usage of the term Kurd during this time period most likely was a social term, designating Northwestern Iranian nomads, rather than a concrete ethnic group
3.
Iraq
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The capital, and largest city, is Baghdad. The main ethnic groups are Arabs and Kurds, others include Assyrians, Turkmen, Shabakis, Yazidis, Armenians, Mandeans, Circassians, around 95% of the countrys 36 million citizens are Muslims, with Christianity, Yarsan, Yezidism, and Mandeanism also present. The official languages of Iraq are Arabic and Kurdish, two major rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, run south through Iraq and into the Shatt al-Arab near the Persian Gulf. These rivers provide Iraq with significant amounts of fertile land, the region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, historically known as Mesopotamia, is often referred to as the cradle of civilisation. It was here that mankind first began to read, write, create laws, the area has been home to successive civilisations since the 6th millennium BC. Iraq was the centre of the Akkadian, Sumerian, Assyrian and it was also part of the Median, Achaemenid, Hellenistic, Parthian, Sassanid, Roman, Rashidun, Umayyad, Abbasid, Ayyubid, Mongol, Safavid, Afsharid, and Ottoman empires. Iraqs modern borders were mostly demarcated in 1920 by the League of Nations when the Ottoman Empire was divided by the Treaty of Sèvres, Iraq was placed under the authority of the United Kingdom as the British Mandate of Mesopotamia. A monarchy was established in 1921 and the Kingdom of Iraq gained independence from Britain in 1932, in 1958, the monarchy was overthrown and the Iraqi Republic created. Iraq was controlled by the Arab Socialist Baath Party from 1968 until 2003, after an invasion by the United States and its allies in 2003, Saddam Husseins Baath Party was removed from power and multi-party parliamentary elections were held in 2005. The American presence in Iraq ended in 2011, but the Iraqi insurgency continued and intensified as fighters from the Syrian Civil War spilled into the country, the Arabic name العراق al-ʿIrāq has been in use since before the 6th century. There are several suggested origins for the name, one dates to the Sumerian city of Uruk and is thus ultimately of Sumerian origin, as Uruk was the Akkadian name for the Sumerian city of Urug, containing the Sumerian word for city, UR. An Arabic folk etymology for the name is rooted, well-watered. During the medieval period, there was a region called ʿIrāq ʿArabī for Lower Mesopotamia and ʿIrāq ʿajamī, for the region now situated in Central and Western Iran. The term historically included the south of the Hamrin Mountains. The term Sawad was also used in early Islamic times for the region of the plain of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. In English, it is either /ɪˈrɑːk/ or /ɪˈræk/, the American Heritage Dictionary, the pronunciation /aɪˈræk/ is frequently heard in U. S. media. Since approximately 10,000 BC, Iraq was one of centres of a Caucasoid Neolithic culture where agriculture, the following Neolithic period is represented by rectangular houses. At the time of the pre-pottery Neolithic, people used vessels made of stone, gypsum, finds of obsidian tools from Anatolia are evidences of early trade relations
4.
Central Intelligence Agency
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As one of the principal members of the U. S. Intelligence Community, the CIA reports to the Director of National Intelligence and is focused on providing intelligence for the President. Though it is not the only U. S. government agency specializing in HUMINT and it exerts foreign political influence through its tactical divisions, such as the Special Activities Division. Despite transferring some of its powers to the DNI, the CIA has grown in size as a result of the September 11 attacks. In 2013, The Washington Post reported that in fiscal year 2010, the CIA has increasingly expanded its roles, including covert paramilitary operations. One of its largest divisions, the Information Operations Center, has shifted focus from counter-terrorism to offensive cyber-operations, when the CIA was created, its purpose was to create a clearinghouse for foreign policy intelligence and analysis. Today its primary purpose is to collect, analyze, evaluate, and disseminate foreign intelligence, warning/informing American leaders of important overseas events, with Pakistan described as an intractable target. Counterintelligence, with China, Russia, Iran, Cuba, the Executive Office also supports the U. S. military by providing it with information it gathers, receiving information from military intelligence organizations, and cooperates on field activities. The Executive Director is in charge of the day to day operation of the CIA, each branch of the military service has its own Director. The Directorate has four regional groups, six groups for transnational issues. There is a dedicated to Iraq, regional analytical offices covering the Near East and South Asia, Russia and Europe, and the Asian Pacific, Latin American. The Directorate of Operations is responsible for collecting intelligence. The name reflects its role as the coordinator of intelligence activities between other elements of the wider U. S. intelligence community with their own HUMINT operations. This Directorate was created in an attempt to end years of rivalry over influence, philosophy, in spite of this, the Department of Defense recently organized its own global clandestine intelligence service, the Defense Clandestine Service, under the Defense Intelligence Agency. This Directorate is known to be organized by regions and issues. The Directorate of Science & Technology was established to research, create, many of its innovations were transferred to other intelligence organizations, or, as they became more overt, to the military services. For example, the development of the U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft was done in cooperation with the United States Air Force, the U-2s original mission was clandestine imagery intelligence over denied areas such as the Soviet Union. It was subsequently provided with signals intelligence and measurement and signature intelligence capabilities, subsequently, NPIC was transferred to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
5.
Donald Rumsfeld
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Donald Henry Don Rumsfeld is an American politician and businessman. Rumsfeld served as the 13th Secretary of Defense from 1975 to 1977 under President Gerald Ford and he is both the youngest and the second oldest person to have served as Secretary of Defense. Additionally, Rumsfeld was a three-term U. S, Congressman from Illinois, Director of the Office of Economic Opportunity, Counsellor to the President, the United States Permanent Representative to NATO, and White House Chief of Staff. Born in Illinois, Rumsfeld attended Princeton University, graduating in 1954 with a degree in political science, after serving in the Navy for three years, he mounted a campaign for Congress in Illinois 13th Congressional District, winning in 1962 at the age of 30. He was a leading co-sponsor of the Freedom of Information Act, called back to Washington in August 1974, Rumsfeld was appointed Chief of Staff by President Ford. Rumsfeld recruited a young one-time staffer of his, Dick Cheney, when Ford lost the 1976 election, Rumsfeld returned to private business life, and was named president and CEO of the pharmaceutical corporation G. D. Searle & Company. He was later named CEO of General Instrument from 1990 to 1993, Rumsfeld was appointed Secretary of Defense for a second time in January 2001 by President George W. Bush. During his tenure he was one of the key responsible for the restructuring of the military in the new 21st century. Rumsfeld was crucial in planning the United States response to the September 11 attacks, Known in media circles for his outspokenness and candor, he gradually lost political support as the wars continued, and he resigned in late 2006. In his retirement years, he published an autobiography Known and Unknown, A Memoir as well as Rumsfelds Rules, Leadership Lessons in Business, Politics, War, and Life. He is involved with the Rumsfeld Foundations Fellowship program, which has advisors at dozens of universities across the United States, Donald Henry Rumsfeld was born on July 9,1932, in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Jeannette Kearsley and George Donald Rumsfeld. His father came from a German-American family that had emigrated in the 1870s, Living in Winnetka, his family attended a Congregational Church. From 1943–1945, Rumsfeld lived in Coronado, California while his father was stationed on a carrier in the Pacific in World War II. He was a ranger at Philmont Scout Ranch in 1949, Rumsfeld attended Baker Demonstration School, and later graduated from New Trier High School. He attended Princeton University on academic and NROTC partial scholarships and he graduated in 1954 with an A. B. in Political Science. During his time at Princeton, he was an amateur wrestler, becoming captain of the varsity wrestling team. His Princeton University senior thesis was titled The Steel Seizure Case of 1952, while at Princeton he was friends with another future Secretary of Defense, Frank Carlucci. Rumsfeld married Joyce P. Pierson on December 27,1954 and they have three children, six grandchildren, and one great grandchild
6.
Director of Central Intelligence
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The DCI then ran the Central Intelligence Group, a predecessor of the CIA. The office of DCI thus predates the establishment of the Central Intelligence Agency, the CIA was created by the National Security Act of 1947, which formally defined the duties of the Director of Central Intelligence. This 1947 Act also created the National Security Council, until April 2005, the DCI was often referred to colloquially as the CIA Director, even though he was head of both the CIA and the broader Intelligence Community. After the September 11,2001, terrorist attacks on the United States and the subsequent investigation by the 9/11 Commission and that movement prompted the passage of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act in December 2004, which split the DCIs duties among two new offices. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence would serve as head of the Intelligence Community, the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency would serve as chief administrator of the CIA. The reorganization took effect on April 21,2005, the 19th and last DCI, Porter J. Goss became the first director of the CIA, while John Negroponte became the first DNI. Status Rear Admiral Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter was the first Director of Central Intelligence who served as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency and those operations, however, were initially conducted by other agencies such as the Office of Policy Coordination. During the first years of its existence, other branches of the U. S. Federal government did not exercise very much supervision over the Central Intelligence Agency and those Soviet organizations also had domestic responsibilities. The rapid expansion of the CIA, and a sense of independence under the Director of Central Intelligence Allen Dulles exacerbated the problem of the U. S. Intelligence Communitys freedom from independent review, after the armed landing of Cuban exiles in the Bay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba in 1961, President Kennedy discharged and replaced Dulles. His autobiography is more noteworthy for giving insight into the mindset of key people in the field than it is in giving a description of the CIA. President John F. Kennedy exercised greater supervision, and he appointed a Republican with an engineering background. McCone, despite a lack of intelligence agency background, is considered one of the most competent DCIs. The agency stepped up its activity in Southeast Asia under President Lyndon Johnson, McCone resigned from his position of DCI in April 1965, believing himself to have been unappreciated by President Johnson. McCones final policy memorandum to Johnson argued that expansion of the War in Vietnam would arouse national and world discontent over the war, before it defeated the North Vietnamese regime. Raborn, a naval officer who directed the design and development of the entire Polaris ballistic missile submarine system, had a somewhat short. His background included no foreign relations experience, and intelligence experience only concerning naval operations, CIA historians have said Raborn did not take to the DCI job, in their opinion. Raborn resigned as the DCI on June 30,1966, having served for fourteen months
7.
CNN
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The Cable News Network is an American basic cable and satellite television news channel owned by the Turner Broadcasting System division of Time Warner. It was founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner as a 24-hour cable news channel, upon its launch, CNN was the first television channel to provide 24-hour news coverage, and was the first all-news television channel in the United States. While the news channel has numerous affiliates, CNN primarily broadcasts from the Time Warner Center in New York City and its headquarters at the CNN Center in Atlanta is only used for weekend programming. CNN is sometimes referred to as CNN/U. S. to distinguish the American channel from its sister network. As of August 2010, CNN is available in over 100 million U. S. households, broadcast coverage of the U. S. channel extends to over 890,000 American hotel rooms, as well as carriage on cable and satellite providers throughout Canada. Globally, CNN programming airs through CNN International, which can be seen by viewers in over 212 countries and territories, as of February 2015, CNN is available to about 96,289,000 cable, satellite, and telco television households in the United States. The Cable News Network was launched at 5,00 p. m. Eastern Time on June 1,1980, after an introduction by Ted Turner, the husband and wife team of David Walker and Lois Hart anchored the channels first newscast. Burt Reinhardt, the vice president of CNN at its launch, hired most of the channels first 200 employees, including the networks first news anchor. Since its debut, CNN has expanded its reach to a number of cable and satellite providers, several websites. The company has 36 bureaus, more than 900 affiliated local stations, the channels success made a bona-fide mogul of founder Ted Turner and set the stage for conglomerate Time Warners eventual acquisition of the Turner Broadcasting System in 1996. A companion channel, CNN2, was launched on January 1,1982, on January 28,1986, CNN carried the only live television coverage of the launch and subsequent break-up of Space Shuttle Challenger, which killed all seven crew members on board. On October 14,1987, Jessica McClure, an 18-month-old toddler, fell down a well in Midland, CNN quickly reported on the story, and the event helped make its name. This was before correspondents reported live from the capital while American bombs were falling. Before Saddam Hussein held a press conference with a few of the hundreds of Americans he was holding hostage. Before the nation watched, riveted but powerless, as Los Angeles was looted and burned, before O. J. Simpson took a slow ride in a white Bronco, and before everyone close to his case had an agent and a book contract. This was uncharted territory just a time ago. The moment when bombing began was announced on CNN by Bernard Shaw on January 16,1991, as follows, lets describe to our viewers what were seeing. The skies over Baghdad have been illuminated, were seeing bright flashes going off all over the sky
8.
The Guardian
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The Guardian is a British daily newspaper, known from 1821 until 1959 as the Manchester Guardian. Along with its sister papers The Observer and The Guardian Weekly, The Guardian is part of the Guardian Media Group, the Scott Trust became a limited company in 2008, with a constitution to maintain the same protections for The Guardian. Profits are reinvested in journalism rather than to the benefit of an owner or shareholders, the Guardian is edited by Katharine Viner, who succeeded Alan Rusbridger in 2015. In 2016, The Guardians print edition had a daily circulation of roughly 162,000 copies in the country, behind The Daily Telegraph. The newspaper has an online UK edition as well as two international websites, Guardian Australia and Guardian US, the newspapers online edition was the fifth most widely read in the world in October 2014, with over 42.6 million readers. Its combined print and online editions reach nearly 9 million British readers, notable scoops include the 2011 News International phone hacking scandal, in particular the hacking of murdered English teenager Milly Dowlers phone. The investigation led to the closure of the UKs biggest selling Sunday newspaper, and one of the highest circulation newspapers in the world, in 2016, it led the investigation into the Panama Papers, exposing the then British Prime Minister David Camerons links to offshore bank accounts. The Guardian has been named Newspaper of the Year four times at the annual British Press Awards, the paper is still occasionally referred to by its nickname of The Grauniad, given originally for the purported frequency of its typographical errors. The Manchester Guardian was founded in Manchester in 1821 by cotton merchant John Edward Taylor with backing from the Little Circle and they launched their paper after the police closure of the more radical Manchester Observer, a paper that had championed the cause of the Peterloo Massacre protesters. They do not toil, neither do they spin, but they better than those that do. When the government closed down the Manchester Observer, the champions had the upper hand. The influential journalist Jeremiah Garnett joined Taylor during the establishment of the paper, the prospectus announcing the new publication proclaimed that it would zealously enforce the principles of civil and religious Liberty. Warmly advocate the cause of Reform, endeavour to assist in the diffusion of just principles of Political Economy and. Support, without reference to the party from which they emanate, in 1825 the paper merged with the British Volunteer and was known as The Manchester Guardian and British Volunteer until 1828. The working-class Manchester and Salford Advertiser called the Manchester Guardian the foul prostitute, the Manchester Guardian was generally hostile to labours claims. The Manchester Guardian dismissed strikes as the work of outside agitators –, if an accommodation can be effected, the occupation of the agents of the Union is gone. CP Scott made the newspaper nationally recognised and he was editor for 57 years from 1872, and became its owner when he bought the paper from the estate of Taylors son in 1907. Under Scott, the moderate editorial line became more radical, supporting William Gladstone when the Liberals split in 1886
9.
The Washington Post
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The Washington Post is an American daily newspaper. It is the most widely circulated newspaper published in Washington, D. C. and was founded on December 6,1877 and its current slogan is Democracy Dies in Darkness. Located in the city of the United States, the newspaper has a particular emphasis on national politics. Daily editions are printed for the District of Columbia, Maryland, the newspaper is published as a broadsheet, with photographs printed both in color and in black and white. The newspaper has won 47 Pulitzer Prizes and this includes six separate Pulitzers awarded in 2008, the second-highest number ever awarded to a single newspaper in one year, second only to The New York Times seven awards in 2002. Post journalists have also received 18 Nieman Fellowships and 368 White House News Photographers Association awards, in years since, its investigations have led to increased review of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. In 2013, its owners, the Graham family, sold the newspaper to billionaire entrepreneur. The newspaper is owned by Nash Holdings LLC, a holding company Bezos created for the acquisition, the Washington Post is generally regarded as one of the leading daily American newspapers, along with The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. The Post has distinguished itself through its reporting on the workings of the White House, Congress. It is one of the two daily broadsheets published in Washington D. C. the other being its smaller rival The Washington Times, unlike The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post does not print an edition for distribution away from the East Coast. In 2009, the newspaper ceased publication of its National Weekly Edition, the majority of its newsprint readership is in District of Columbia and its suburbs in Maryland and Northern Virginia. The Sunday Style section differs slightly from the weekday Style section, it is in a tabloid format, and it houses the reader-written humor contest The Style Invitational. Additional weekly sections appear on weekdays, Health & Science on Tuesday, Food on Wednesday, Local Living on Thursday, the latter two are in a tabloid format. In November 2009, it announced the closure of its U. S. regional bureaus—Chicago, Los Angeles and New York—as part of a focus on. political stories. The newspaper has bureaus in Maryland and Virginia. While its circulation has been slipping, it has one of the highest market-penetration rates of any metropolitan news daily, for many decades, the Post had its main office at 1150 15th Street NW. This real estate remained with Graham Holdings when the newspaper was sold to Jeff Bezos Nash Holdings in 2013, Graham Holdings sold 1150 15th Street for US$159 million in November 2013. The Washington Post continued to lease space at 1150 L Street NW, in May 2014, The Washington Post leased the west tower of One Franklin Square, a high-rise building at 1301 K Street NW in Washington, D. C
10.
Diego Garcia
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Diego Garcia is an atoll just south of the equator in the central Indian Ocean, and the largest of 60 small islands comprising the Chagos Archipelago. It was settled by the French in the 1790s and was transferred to British rule after the Napoleonic Wars and it was one of the Dependencies of the British Colony of Mauritius until it was detached for inclusion in the newly created British Indian Ocean Territory in 1965. Between 1968 and 1973, the population was removed by the United Kingdom through intimidation of locals. Many were deported to Mauritius and Seychelles, following which the United States built a naval and military base on Diego Garcia. As of March 2015, Diego Garcia is the inhabited island of the BIOT. The atoll is located 3,535 km east of Tanzanias coast,1,796 km south-southwest of the tip of India and 4,723 km west-northwest of the west coast of Australia. According to Southern Maldivian oral tradition, traders and fishermen were occasionally lost at sea, eventually, they were rescued and brought back home. However, the different atolls of the Chagos have no names in the Maldivian oral tradition. Nothing is known of pre-European contact history of Diego Garcia, speculations include visits during the Austronesian diaspora around 700 AD, as some say the old Maldivian name for the islands originated from Malagasy. Arabs, who reached Lakshadweep and Maldives around 900 AD, may have visited the Chagos, another Portuguese expedition with a Spanish explorer of Andalusian origin, Diego García de Moguer, rediscovered the island in 1544 and named it after himself. Garcia de Moguer died the year on the return trip to Portugal in the Indian Ocean. The misnomer Diego could have been made unwittingly by the British ever since and it is assumed that the island was named after one of its first two discoverers—the one by the name of Garcia, the other with name Diego. Also, a cacography of the saying Deo Gracias is eligible for the attribution of the atoll, the Sebastian Cabot map shows a number of islands to the south which may be the Mascarene Islands. The first map which identifies and names Los Chagos is that of Pierre Desceliers, an island called Don Garcia appears on the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum of Abraham Ortelius, together with Dos Compagnos, slightly to the north. It may be the case that Don Garcia was named after Garcia de Noronha, the island is also labelled Don Garcia on Mercators Nova et Aucta Orbis Terrae Descriptio ad Usum Navigatium Emendate. However, on the Vera Totius Expeditionis Nauticae Description of Jodocus Hondius, Don Garcia mysteriously changes its name to I. de Dio Gratia, while the I. de Chagues appears close by. The first map to delineate the island under its present name, Diego Garcia, is the World Map of Edward Wright, possibly as a result of misreading Dio as Diego, and Gratia as Garcia. The Nova Totius Terrarum Orbis Geographica of Hendrik Hondius II repeats Wrights use of the name, which is then proliferated on all subsequent Dutch maps of the period, Diego Garcia and the rest of the Chagos islands were uninhabited until the late 18th century
11.
Waterboarding
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Adverse physical consequences can manifest themselves months after the event, while psychological effects can last for years. In the most common method of waterboarding, the face is covered with cloth or some other thin material. Torturers pour water onto the face over the passages, causing an almost immediate gag reflex. The term water board torture appeared in press reports as early as 1976, the CIA confirmed having waterboarded three Al-Qaeda suspects, Abu Zubaydah, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, in 2002 and 2003. These legal opinions argued for a definition of torture under US law. The first three were addressed to the CIA, which took them as authority to use the enhanced interrogation techniques on detainees classified as enemy combatants. The legal opinions were withdrawn by Jack Goldsmith of the OLC in June 2004, US government officials at various times said they did not believe waterboarding to be a form of torture. In 2006, the Bush administration banned torture including waterboarding on detainees, in January 2009, U. S. President Barack Obama issued a similar ban on the use of waterboarding and other forms of torture in interrogations of detainees. In April 2009, the U. S. Department of Defense refused to say whether waterboarding is still used for training US military personnel in resistance to interrogation. The report concluded that the CIAs use of enhanced interrogation techniques was not effective for acquiring intelligence or gaining cooperation from detainees, there was no evidence that information obtained from the detainees through EIT was not or could not have been obtained through conventional interrogation methods. In 2015, various Republican presidential candidates indicated their willingness to bring back waterboarding as an interrogation technique, donald Trump stated he believed in the effectiveness of the technique. Trump also stated that it is a form of torture. Ben Carson had not ruled out approving its use, nor did Jeb Bush, carly Fiorina endorsed its use, as did Rick Perry and Rick Santorum. Interrogators used graduated levels of force, including a known as water boarding, in which a prisoner is strapped down, forcibly pushed under water. U. S. Dershowitz later told the New York Times columnist William Safire that, techniques using forcible drowning to extract information had hitherto been referred to as water torture, water treatment, water cure or simply torture. Professor Darius Rejali of Reed College, author of Torture and Democracy, there is a special vocabulary for torture. When people use tortures that are old, they rename them and they invent slightly new words to mask the similarities. This creates an inside club, especially important in work where secrecy matters, Waterboarding is clearly a jailhouse joke
