The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles has denied Troy Davis clemency. The five-member board reviewed pleas for clemency yesterday and did not make a decision until this morning. Davis is scheduled for execution tomorrow, September 21. Clemency or the issuance of a stay of execution was Davis’ last available avenue for avoiding lethal injection.

Without even a hint that they realize the deep irony in their story, the New York Times yields front page space on Thursday to a report that the Obama administration now suddenly is concerned about prisoners who are being held without being charged, possibly subjected to torture or even killed without a judicial pronouncement of guilt. The irony, of course, is that although there is strong documentation that the U.S. engages regularly in these same acts, the U.S. now condemns Pakistan for these injustices.

A senior United Nations official said on Wednesday that the growing use of armed drones by the United States to kill terrorism suspects is undermining global constraints on the use of military force. He warned that the American example will lead to a chaotic world as the new weapons technology inevitably spreads.

What a coincidence! Just as we learn that Philip Alston, the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Killings is about to recommend to the UN Human Rights Commission that the CIA be removed from the drone program, with only the military controlling drones in the future, it suddenly turns out that a CIA-directed drone has killed the number 3 person in al Qaeda.

“The problem with the United States is that it is making an increased use of drones/Predators (which are) particularly prominently used now in relation to Pakistan and Afghanistan,” UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions Philip Alston told a press conference.