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    20080618
    NOTEWORTHY News.
    WAR CRIMES News.War CrimesCRIMINAL INVESTIGATION News.CriminalPOLITICIANS News. POLITICS News.PoliticiansUS AMERICAN News.USIRAQ News.IraqAFGHANISTAN News.AfghanistanGUANTANAMO News. Guantanamo Bay Cuba News.Guantanamo BayCUBA News.CubaMILITARY News.MilitaryINTELLIGENCE News.IntelligencePRISONER News. PRISON News. DETAINEE News.PrisonTORTURE News.TortureHUMAN News.HumanHUMAN RIGHTS News.Human RightsLAW News. LAWYERS News.LawMEDICAL News. PHYSICIANS News.MedicalPSYCHOLOGICAL News.PsychologicalSCIENCE News.Science
    "General who probed Abu Ghraib says [Republican President] Bush officials committed war crimes." ... "The Army general who led the investigation into prisoner abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison accused the [Republican President] Bush administration Wednesday of committing "war crimes" and called for those responsible to be held to account." ... "The remarks by [Major General] Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba, who's now retired, came in a new report that found that [United States] U.S. personnel tortured and abused detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, using beatings, electrical shocks, sexual humiliation and other cruel practices." ... ""After years of disclosures by government investigations, media accounts and reports from human rights organizations, there is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes," Taguba wrote. "The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account."" ... "Taguba, whose 2004 investigation documented chilling abuses at Abu Ghraib, is thought to be the most senior official to have accused the administration of war crimes. "The commander in chief and those under him authorized a systematic regime of torture," he wrote." ... "The group Physicians for Human Rights, which compiled the new report, described it as the most in-depth medical and psychological examination of former detainees to date." ... "Also this week, a probe by the Senate Armed Services Committee revealed how senior Pentagon officials pushed for harsher interrogation methods over the objections of top military lawyers. Those methods later surfaced in Afghanistan and Iraq." -By Warren P. Strobel -McClatchyDC.com
    FOCUS: SPECIAL REPORTS: NEWS SPECIALS: In Depth Information.
    SPECIAL REPORT- In Depth News Reports - News Focus Special Report.Special ReportNOTEWORTHY News.NoteworthyUS AMERICAN News.USGUANTANAMO News. Guantanamo Bay Cuba News.Guantanamo BayCUBA News.CubaMILITARY News.MilitaryINTELLIGENCE News.IntelligenceTORTURE News.TortureWAR CRIMES News.War CrimesPRISON News. DETENTION News.PrisonINVESTIGATION News.InvestigationLEGAL News.LegalHUMAN RIGHTS News.RightsRELIGIOUS News. ISLAMIC News.ReligiousTERRORISM News.TerrorismSCHOOL News.SchoolPOLITICIANS News. POLITICS News.Politics
    "Guantanamo Bay detainees investigation." ... "An eight-month McClatchy investigation of the detention system created after the [September] Sept. 11 terrorist attacks has found that the [United States] U.S. imprisoned innocent men, subjected them to abuse, stripped them of their legal rights and allowed Islamic militants to turn the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba into a school for jihad." " -McClatchyDC.com
    OPINION News.
    TORTURE News.TortureCRIME News.CrimesLAW News.UnlawfulUS AMERICAN News.USIRAQ News.IraqAFGHANISTAN News.AfghanistanGUANTANAMO News. Guantanamo Bay Cuba News.Guantanamo BayCUBA News.CubaMILITARY News.MilitaryINTELLIGENCE News.IntelligencePRISONER News. PRISON News. DETAINEE News.PrisonTERRORISM News.TerrorismWAR CRIMES News.War CrimesPOLITICIANS News. POLITICS News.PoliticsHUMAN News.HumanHUMAN RIGHTS News.RightsMEDICAL News. PHYSICIANS News.MedicalPSYCHOLOGICAL News.PsychologicalSCIENCE News.Science
    "Broken Laws, Broken Lives: Medical Evidence of Torture by the US." ... "About: Broken Laws, Broken Lives shows the human consequences of harsh and unlawful US interrogation practices. This landmark report reveals the excruciating pain and continued suffering of men who, never charged with any crime, endured torture at US detention facilities in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantánamo Bay [Cuba]. Based on internationally accepted standards for clinical assessment of torture claims, the report documents practices used to bring about long-lasting pain, terror, humiliation, and shame for months on end." -Physicians for Human Rights -BrokenLives.info
    20080605
    NOTEWORTHY News.
    MCCAIN News. JOHN MCCAIN News.John McCainCORPORATE News. COMPANIES News.CorporateMILITARY News.MilitaryGOVERNMENT News. FEDERAL News.GovernmentTELECOMMUNICATIONS News. TELECOS News.TelecommunicationsWIRETAPPING News. SURVEILLANCE News. SPYING News. PRIVACY News.SurveillanceAMNESTY News. LEGISLATION News. IMMUNITY News. LAW News.AmnestyPOLITICS News. POLITICIAN News.PoliticsINTELLIGENCE News.IntelligenceJOHN YOO News. Republican Politician Lawyer JOHN CHOO YOO NEWS.John YooTORTURE News.TortureDETAINEE News.DetaineeHUMAN RIGHTS News.Human RightsLAW ENFORCEMENT News.EnforcementFLORIDA News.Florida2008 ELECTION News2008 Election
    "McCain tangled in flip-flop flap over wiretapping immunity." ... "A series of statements about immunizing telecommunications companies that violated federal wiretapping laws have become something of an embarrassment, and perhaps even a problem, for [2008 Election Republican] John McCain's presidential campaign." ... "The statements revolve around whether McCain, like [Republican] President Bush, supports legislation that could be voted on this month extending retroactive immunity to those companies and perhaps many more." ... "In 2005, at least, McCain was in favor of letting the courts decide whether AT&T and other telecos violated the law." ... "... [Late December 2007] McCain told the Boston Globe this: "I think that presidents have the obligation to obey and enforce laws that are passed by Congress and signed into law by the president, no matter what the situation is."" ... "But after McCain became the all-but-official nominee, his political principles appear to have become more malleable. He voted in February for retroactive immunity -- even though there were no explicit statements telling AT&T and other telecommunications companies that this is not a "blessing." There were no deals providing for "oversight hearings." And there certainly were no "provisions" to ensure this won't happen again." ... "Our story may have ended there. Except that campaign representative Chuck Fish (not an actual campaign lawyer, as has been incorrectly reported, but a surrogate) subsequently suggested that his candidate still wanted "hearings," which The Washington Post picked up on last week. McCain's campaign fired off a nastygram to the Post saying that their candidate's "position on immunity has not changed."" ... "Meanwhile, McCain was questioned about his position at a town hall meeting the next day -- he replied that Congress needs to "have hearings" -- which The Wall Street Journal dutifully reported. The fuss became enough to prompt the conservative National Review to begin questioning McCain's the-executive-can-wiretap-as-it-pleases credentials. Salon entered the fray too." ... "[Florida Democratic Representative] Rep. Robert Wexler of Florida, who is a member of the House Judiciary committee, sent us this statement on Wednesday:"
    "I am appalled by Senator John McCain's reaffirmation of support for the use of warrantless wiretapping on American citizens. Senator McCain has once again chosen to align himself with President George Bush, whose reprehensible spying program on Americans is a grave threat to our Constitutions guarantees of privacy and limited executive power. It is clear that Senator McCain, President Bush, and their Republican allies in Congress will continue to use scare tactics and fear mongering to claim that a president can simply chose to ignore America's laws... Senator McCain opposes a bipartisan House compromise bill that preserves appropriate court review of all surveillance of US citizens and gives judges the discretion to review all the necessary documents related to telecom lawsuits without offering blanket immunity."
    "Yet there's a more important issue here, which is why the neo-cons are pressing McCain to adhere to the Bush administration's line. And that's the administration's theory of the so-called unitary executive, which says that the president's use of military force cannot be reviewed by courts." ... "McCain's earlier statements -- especially where he says presidents must "obey and enforce laws that are passed by Congress" -- seem to question the administration's interpretation. Beyond wiretapping, that touches on topics such as John Yoo's so-called torture memos, the applicability of the Geneva Convention to detainees, Bush's signing statements, and military commissions. Questioning the justifications for Bush's warrantless wiretapping means questioning the rest; no wonder McCain seems a little worried about where this may lead." -By Declan McCullagh -CNET
    [note: The conservative/Republican opinion magazine National Review supports lawless surveillance.]
    20080602
    NOTEWORTHY News.
    US AMERICAN News.USMILITARY News.MilitaryINTELLIGENCE News.IntelligenceGOVERNMENT News.GovernmentPOLITICAL News. POLITICIAN News.PoliticsUNLAWFUL News. LAW News.UnlawfulIRAQ News.IraqAFGHANISTAN News.AfghanistanTORTURE News. Torturing News.TorturePRISONS News. PRISONERS News.PrisonsHISTORIC News.HistoryBOOK News.Book
    "Lt. Gen Sanchez: [Republican President] Bush Administration Guilty of "Gross Incompetence and Dereliction of Duty"." ... "In [retired Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez's book] "Wiser in Battle: A Soldier's Story," [General] Gen. Sanchez goes into detail about various military blunders that led to where we are today." ... "In one excerpt, published by TIME, Sanchez explains why there were inadequate troop levels in Iraq for a time:"
    [From retired Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez's book, "Wiser in Battle: A Soldier's Story:]
    ""CENTCOM had originally called for twelve to eighteen months of Phase IV activity with active troop deployments. But then CENTCOM had completely walked away by simply stating that the war was over and Phase IV was not their job."" ... ""That decision set up the United States for a failed first year in Iraq. There is no question about it. And I was supposed to believe that neither the Secretary of Defense nor anybody above him knew anything about it? Impossible! Rumsfeld knew about it. Everybody on the NSC [National Security Council] knew about it, including Condoleezza Rice, George Tenet, and Colin Powell. [Republican] Vice President Cheney knew about it. And [Republican] President Bush knew about it."" ... ""There's not a doubt in my mind that they all embraced this decision to some degree. And if it had not been for the moral courage of [General] Gen. John Abizaid to stand up to them all and reverse Franks's troop drawdown order, there's no telling how much more damage would have been done."" ... ""In the meantime, hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars were unnecessarily spent, and worse yet, too many of our most precious military resource, our American soldiers, were unnecessarily wounded, maimed, and killed as a result. In my mind, this action by the Bush administration amounts to gross incompetence and dereliction of duty.""
    "In an excerpt published on NPR's website, Sanchez writes[:]"
    [From retired Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez's book, "Wiser in Battle: A Soldier's Story:]
    ""In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, I watched helplessly as the [Republican President] Bush administration led America into a strategic blunder of historic proportions. It became painfully obvious that the executive branch of our government did not trust its military. It relied instead on a neoconservative ideology developed by men and women with little, if any, military experience. Some senior military leaders did not challenge civilian decision makers at the appropriate times, and the courageous few who did take a stand were subsequently forced out of the service...I saw the cynical use of war for political gains by elected officials and acquiescent military leaders. I learned how the pressure of a round-­the-­clock news cycle could drive crucial decisions. I witnessed those resulting political decisions override military requirements and judgments and, in turn, create conditions that caused unnecessary harm to our soldiers on the ground..."" ... ""Over the fourteen months of my command in Iraq, I witnessed a blatant disregard for the lives of our young soldiers in uniform. It is an issue that constantly eats away at me.["]"
    "And regarding Abu Ghraib, Sanchez writes -- according to Eli Lake of the New York Sun -- that the [United States] U.S. was torturing prisoners." ... "A remarkable admission."
    [From retired Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez's book, "Wiser in Battle: A Soldier's Story:]
    "During the last few months of 2002, while the highest levels of the U.S. government were sparring with Saddam Hussein and setting up the case for an invasion of Iraq, there is irrefutable evidence that America was torturing and killing prisoners in Afghanistan...In retrospect, the Bush administration's new policy triggered a sequence of events that led to the use of harsh interrogation tactics against not only al Qaeda prisoners, but also eventually prisoners in Iraq—in spite of our best efforts to restrain such unlawful conduct.""
    -By Jake Tapper -ABCNEWS.com
    20080527
    POLITICIAN News. POLITICAL News.
  • BARACK OBAMA News. 2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Obama News.Barack ObamaHISTORY News.HistoryAUTHOR News.AuthorFOREIGN News. GLOBAL News. INTERNATIONAL News. WORLD News.ForeignMILITARY News.MilitaryTERRORISM News.TerrorismTORTURE News.TortureGUANTANAMO News.GuantanamoCUBA News.CubaIRAQ News.IraqUS AMERICAN News.US2008 ELECTION News2008 Election - "Fukuyama backs Obama for US presidency." ... "He is one of America's most famous neo-conservatives and his ideas on the spread of democracy have informed the [Republican President] Bush administration's foreign policy." ... "But Francis Fukuyama, the author of The End of History and Professor of International Political Economy at Johns Hopkins University, is now a sharp critic of US President George W Bush and has even come out as a supporter of [2008 Election] Democrat frontrunner Barack Obama for president." ... "ELEANOR HALL: So what advice do you have for the next president of the United States on foreign policy?" ... "FRANCIS FUKUYAMA: I think that the US as a result of Iraq has really alienated itself from a good deal of the global public. Not just people in the Middle East where anti-Americanism is at an all-time high but from its European allies, from a lot of publics in places where there ought to be a lot of sympathy." ... "So I think the United States needs to reconnect with the world. It needs to do some symbolic things like, we shouldn't torture people, so as a first symbolic gesture I think the new president ought to close Guantanamo [Cuba] and I think in general what you need is a shift." ... "There needs to be great downplaying of the whole war on terrorism. To call it a war I think has over-militarised our objectives and the means that we have used to prosecute it, and I think there has to be a greater shift to the use of soft power in projecting American influence and then there are large areas of the world where we have kind of neglected thinking about things like east Asia where you have obviously got some very big changes going off. " -By Eleanor Hall -Yahoo 
  • 20080520
    NOTEWORTHY News.
  • US AMERICAN NewsUSCHINESE News. CHINA News.ChineseTORTURE News.TortureINTELLIGENCE News.IntelligencePOLITICS News.PoliticsGUANTANAMO News. GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA News.Guantanamo BayCUBA News.CubaMILITARY News.MilitaryGOVERNMENT News.GovernmentPRISON News. Detainee News.PrisonINVESTIGATION News. Federal Bureau of Investigation News.InvestigationLAW News. LAWYER News. Department of Justice News.Law - "Report: U.S. Soldiers Did 'Dirty Work' for Chinese Interrogators: Alleges Guantanamo Personnel Softened Up Detainees at Request of Chinese Intelligence." ... "U.S. [United States] military personnel at Guantanamo Bay [Cuba] allegedly softened up detainees at the request of Chinese intelligence officials who had come to the island facility to interrogate the men -- or they allowed the Chinese to dole out the treatment themselves, according to claims in a new government report." ... "Buried in a Department of Justice report released Tuesday are new allegations about a 2002 arrangement between the United States and China, which allowed Chinese intelligence to visit Guantanamo and interrogate Chinese Uighurs held there." ... "According to the report by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine, an FBI [Federal Bureau of Investigation] agent reported a detainee belonging to China's ethnic Uighur minority and a Uighur translator told him Uighur detainees were kept awake for long periods, deprived of food and forced to endure cold for hours on end, just prior to questioning by Chinese interrogators." ... "Susan Manning, a lawyer who represents several Uighurs still held at Guantanamo, said Tuesday the allegations are all too familiar." ... "U.S. personnel "are engaging in abusive tactics on behalf of the Chinese," she said Tuesday. When Uighur detainees refused to talk to Chinese interrogators in 2002, U.S. military personnel put them in solitary confinement as punishment, she said." ... ""Why are we doing China's dirty work?" Manning said. "Surely we're better than that." " (1, 2) -By Justin Rood -ABCNEWS.com
  • 20080424
    NOTEWORTHY News.
  • CRIMINAL News. INVESTIGATIONS News.CriminalTORTURE News.TortureCLASSIFIED SECRET News.SecretMILITARY News.MilitaryPRISON News.PrisonCENSORSHIP News.CensoredINTELLIGENCE News.IntelligenceLAW News. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT News. ATTORNEYS News. COURT News. LEGAL News.LawPOLITICS News. POLITICIAN News.PoliticsFEDERAL News.FederalNEW YORK News.New York - "CIA Foresaw Interrogation Issues: Agency Considered Investigations 'Virtually Inevitable'." ... "The CIA [Central Intelligence Agency] concluded that criminal, administrative or civil investigations stemming from harsh interrogation tactics were "virtually inevitable," leading the agency to seek legal support from the Justice Department, according to a CIA official's statement in court documents filed yesterday." ... "The CIA said it had identified more than 7,000 pages of classified memos, e-mails and other records relating to its secret prison and interrogation program, but maintained that the materials cannot be released because they relate to, in part, communications between CIA and Justice Department attorneys or discussions with the [Republican President Bush] White House." ... "Nineteen of those documents were withheld from disclosure specifically because the Bush administration decided they are covered by a "presidential communications privilege," according to the filings, made in federal court in Manhattan [New York]. Some were "authored or solicited and received by the President's senior advisors in connection with a decision, or potential decision, to be made by the president."" ... "Although the precise content of the documents is unknown, the agency's statements illustrate the extent to which senior White House officials were involved in decision-making on CIA detentions, interrogations, and renditions, a term for forced transfers of prisoners." -By Dan Eggen with contributions by Julie Tate -WashingtonPost 
  • 20080417
    OPINION News.
  • BARACK OBAMA News. 2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Obama News.HILLARY CLINTON News. 2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton News.MEDIA News.MediaPOLITICS News. POLITICIAN News.PoliticsCORPORATE News. MONEY News. INDUSTRY News.CorporateNETWORK News. TV NETWORK News.Network2008 ELECTION News2008 ElectionPa News: PENNSYLVANIA News.US AMERICAN News.IRAQ News.MILITARY News.TORTURE News.TortureCHINA NewsHUMAN RIGHTS News.Human RightsHOME News.CONSUMER NewsConsumerFOOD News.AIRLINE News.SAFETY News.SafetyOIL PRICES News. GALLON GAS News.JOHN MCCAIN News. 2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate John Sidney McCain III News.EDUCATION News.DEATH PENALTY News.Death Penalty - "Okay, Now I'm Bitter." [Mary Mapes on what DISNEY/ABC didn't cover in the 2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate debate in Pennsylvania with Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama] ... "In Iraq, we've seen a rebound in suicide bombings and gotten the disquieting information that Iraqi soldiers have been fleeing the battlefield in frightening numbers." ... "Americans learned that detailed discussions of torture techniques had been held in the [Republican President] White House -- our White House -- and President Bush revealed that he knew this and approved." ... "[Home] Foreclosure rates have spiked to frightening levels." ... "U.S. [United States] shoppers were told that food prices in this country are rising at a higher pace than at any time in the past 17 years." ... "The airline industry floundered through dreadful days of groundings, amidst safety concerns, economic ailments and passenger anger." ... "Oil prices are setting new records almost every day and $4 a gallon gas is coming soon to a service station near you." ... "The anguish over China's human rights record and its handling of Tibet turned the Olympic torch relay into a cross between Spain's Running of the Bulls and 3rd grade keep-away." ... "[2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] John McCain, acting like a mean old man trying to chase those pesky voters off his lawn, refused to endorse a new GI bill that would help those currently serving our country get a college education." ... "The Supreme Court issued a fractured opinion on the death penalty that for the first time in years raises the real possibility of a national debate on the value and morality of the ultimate punishment." ... "And we are in the middle of what is clearly the most important, most consequential election of my lifetime -- and I'm no spring chicken." ... "Instead, I sat in front of my TV open-mouthed, listening to a hodgepodge of juvenile questions about flag jewelry, the possibility of a "dream" ticket, elderly radicals, Charlie Gibson's personal tax concerns and ministers who emote too much. What, no time for a question about Cindy McCain's purloined pork chop recipe?" -By Mary Mapes -HuffingtonPost.com
  • 20080414
    NOTEWORTHY News.
  • MEDIA News.MediaOPINION News.OpinionDICK CHENEY News. REPUBLICAN US VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY News.Dick CheneyTORTURE News.TortureWAR CRIMES News.War CrimesCRIMINAL News.CriminalGOVERNMENT News.GovernmentMILITARY News.MilitaryINTELLIGENCE News.IntelligenceLAW News.LawUS AMERICAN NewsUSINTERNATIONAL News.InternationalPOLITICS News. POLITICIAN News.Politics - "Bush OK'd Torture Meetings." ... "[Republican] President Bush says he was aware that his top aides met in the White House basement to micromanage the application of waterboarding and other widely-condemned interrogation techniques. And he says it was no big deal." ... ""I'm aware our national security team met on this issue. And I approved," Bush told ABC News' Martha Raddatz on Friday. "I don't know what's new about that; I'm not so sure what's so startling about that."" ... "It's true that it has been widely assumed and occasionally reported that the CIA's [Central Intelligence Agency's] use of brutal interrogation techniques could be traced back to the White House on a general level. But it was most definitely new last week when ABC News reported that a group of Bush's top aides, including [Republican] Vice President Cheney, took part in meetings where they explicitly discussed and approved -- literally blow by blow -- tactics such as waterboarding. And while Bush has previously defended these tactics -- vaguely, and insisting against all evidence that they did not amount to torture -- he had not, until now, acknowledged that he personally OK'd them beforehand." ... "If you consider what the government did to be torture, which is a crime according to U.S. [United States] and international law, Bush's statement shifts his role from being an accessory after the fact to being part of a conspiracy to commit." ... "The mainstream media by and large seem to agree with Bush that the ABC News Report wasn't so startling, and they have given Bush's remarks almost no coverage. There was no mention of Bush's admission in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal or the Los Angeles Times. There was nothing on the major wire services. And nothing on CNN, CBS or NBC." (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) -By Dan Froomkin -WashingtonPost
    OPINION News.
  • BARACK OBAMA News. 2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Obama News.Barack ObamaLAW News. ATTORNEY GENERAL News. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT News. CONSTITUTION News.LawLAW ENFORCEMENT News. CRIMINALITY News.EnforcementTORTURE News.TorturePOLITICAL News. POLITICIAN News.Politics2008 ELECTION News2008 Election - "Obama would ask his AG to “immediately review” potential of crimes in Bush White House." ... "Tonight I had an opportunity to ask [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] Barack Obama a question that is on the minds of many Americans, yet rarely rises to the surface in the great ruckus of the 2008 presidential race -- and that is whether an Obama administration would seek to prosecute officials of a former [Republican President] Bush administration on the revelations that they greenlighted torture, or for other potential crimes that took place in the White House." ... "Obama said that as president he would indeed ask his new Attorney General and his deputies to "immediately review the information that's already there" and determine if an inquiry is warranted -- but he also tread carefully on the issue, in line with his reputation for seeking to bridge the partisan divide. He worried that such a probe could be spun as "a partisan witch hunt." However, he said that equation changes if there was willful criminality, because "nobody is above the law."" ... "Here's his answer, in its entirety:"
    • "What I would want to do is to have my Justice Department and my Attorney General immediately review the information that's already there and to find out are there inquiries that need to be pursued. I can't prejudge that because we don't have access to all the material right now. I think that you are right, if crimes have been committed, they should be investigated. You're also right that I would not want my first term consumed by what was perceived on the part of Republicans as a partisan witch hunt because I think we've got too many problems we've got to solve." ... "So this is an area where I would want to exercise judgment -- I would want to find out directly from my Attorney General -- having pursued, having looked at what's out there right now -- are there possibilities of genuine crimes as opposed to really bad policies. And I think it's important-- one of the things we've got to figure out in our political culture generally is distinguishing betyween really dumb policies and policies that rise to the level of criminal activity. You know, I often get questions about impeachment at town hall meetings and I've said that is not something I think would be fruitful to pursue because I think that impeachment is something that should be reserved for exceptional circumstances. Now, if I found out that there were high officials who knowingly, consciously broke existing laws, engaged in coverups of those crimes with knowledge forefront, then I think a basic principle of our Constitution is nobody above the law -- and I think that's roughly how I would look at it."
    " -Philly.com -By Will Bunch
    20080411
    NOTEWORTHY News.
  • DICK CHENEY News. Republican US Vice President Dick Cheney News.Dick CheneyJOHN ASHCROFT News. REPUBLICAN JOHN DAVID ASHCROFT News.John AshcroftTORTURE News.TortureGOVERNMENT News.GovernmentMILITARY News.MilitaryINTELLIGENCE News.IntelligenceTERRORISM News.TerrorismPOLITICS News. POLITICIAN News.PoliticsUS AMERICAN NewsUSINTERNATIONAL News.InternationalLAW News.LawWAR CRIMES News.War Crimes - "Bush Aware of Advisers' Interrogation Talks: President Says He Knew His Senior Advisers Discussed Tough Interrogation Methods." ... "[Republican] President Bush says he knew his top national security advisers discussed and approved specific details about how high-value al Qaeda suspects would be interrogated by the Central Intelligence Agency, according to an exclusive interview with ABC News Friday." ... ""Well, we started to connect the dots in order to protect the American people." Bush told ABC News White House correspondent Martha Raddatz. "And yes, I'm aware our national security team met on this issue. And I approved."" ... "These top advisers signed off on how the CIA would interrogate top al Qaeda suspects -- whether they would be slapped, pushed, deprived of sleep or subjected to simulated drowning, called waterboarding, sources told ABC news." ... "At the time, the [National Security Council's] Principals Committee included Vice President Dick Cheney, former National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell, as well as CIA Director George Tenet and Attorney General John Ashcroft." ... "The so-called Principals who participated in the meetings also approved the use of "combined" interrogation techniques -- using different techniques during interrogations instead of using one method at a time -- on terrorist suspects who proved difficult to break, sources said." ... "Critics at home and abroad have harshly criticized the interrogation program, which pushed the limits of international law and, they say, condoned torture." (1, 2, 3, 4) -By Jan Crawford Greenburg, Howard L. Rosenberg and Ariane de Vogue -ABCNEWS.com
    NOTEWORTHY News.
  • DICK CHENEY News. Republican US Vice President Dick Cheney News.Dick CheneyJOHN ASHCROFT News. REPUBLICAN JOHN DAVID ASHCROFT News.John AshcroftJAY BYBEE News. Republican Politician Attorney Jay Scott Bybee News.Jay BybeeMICHAEL MUKASEY News. Republican President George Bush's Attorney General Michael B Mukasey News.Michael MukaseyTORTURE News.TortureWAR CRIMES News.War CrimesGOVERNMENT News.GovernmentMILITARY News.MilitaryINTELLIGENCE News. CIA: Central Intelligence Agency News.IntelligenceTERRORISM News.TerrorismPOLITICS News. POLITICIAN News.PoliticsSECRET News.SecretAttorney General News. Justice Department News. Office of Legal Counsel News. LAW News.LawHISTORY News.HistoryUS AMERICAN NewsUSOVERSEAS News.Overseas - "Cheney, Others OK'd Harsh Interrogations." ... "[Republican President] Bush administration officials from Vice President Dick Cheney on down signed off on using harsh interrogation techniques against suspected terrorists after asking the Justice Department to endorse their legality, The Associated Press has learned." ... "The officials also took care to insulate President Bush from a series of meetings where CIA [Central Intelligence Agency] interrogation methods, including waterboarding, which simulates drowning, were discussed and ultimately approved." ... "Between 2002 and 2003, the Justice Department issued several memos from its Office of Legal Counsel that justified using the interrogation tactics, including ones that critics call torture." ... "The meetings were held in the White House Situation Room in the years immediately following the [September] Sept. 11 attacks. Attending the sessions were Cheney, then-Bush aides Attorney General John Ashcroft, Secretary of State Colin Powell, CIA Director George Tenet and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice." ... "The principals eventually authorized physical abuse such as slaps and pushes, sleep deprivation, or waterboarding. This technique involves strapping a person down and pouring water over his cloth-covered face to create the sensation of drowning." ... "The Office of Legal Counsel issued at least two opinions on interrogation methods." ... "In one, dated [August] Aug. 1, 2002, then-Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee defined torture as covering "only extreme acts" causing pain similar in intensity to that caused by death or organ failure. A second, dated March 14, 2003, justified using harsh tactics on detainees held overseas so long as military interrogators did not specifically intend to torture their captives." ... "Both legal opinions since have been withdrawn." ... "The department issued another still-secret memo in October 2001 that, in part, sought to outline novel ways the military could be used domestically to defend the country in the face of an impending attack. The Justice Department so far has refused to release it, citing attorney-client privilege, and Attorney General Michael Mukasey declined to describe it Thursday at a Senate panel where Democrats characterized it as a "torture memo."" -By Lara Jakes Jordan and Pamel Hess contributed to by Pete Yost -AP via -SeattleTimes
  • 20080410
    LAW News. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT News. LEGAL News.
  • INVESTIGATION News. FBI News. Federal Bureau of Investigation News. Inspector General News. Investigatin News.InvestigationCLASSIFIED News. CLASSIFIED SECRETS News.ClassifiedMILITARY News. Pentagon News. Defense Department News.MilitaryINTELLIGENCE News.IntelligenceTORTURE News.TortureDETAINEE News.PrisonsUS AMERICAN NewsUSAFGHANISTAN News.AfghanistanGUANTANAMO BAY NEWS, GUANTANAMO BAY CUBA NEWS, Guantánamo News, Gitmo NewsGuantanamoCUBA News.CubaIRAQ News.IraqINTERNATIONAL News.International - "Exclusive: Pentagon delays report on FBI role in detainee abuse." ... "The release of a report on the FBI's [Federal Bureau of Investigation] role in the interrogations of prisoners in Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay [Cuba] and Iraq has been delayed for months because the Pentagon is reviewing how much of it should remain classified, according to the Justice Department's watchdog." ... "Glenn Fine, the Justice Department's inspector general, told McClatchy that his office has pressed the Defense Department to finish its review, but officials there haven't completed the process "in a timely fashion."" ... "Fine is investigating whether FBI employees participated in detainee abuse, whether they witnessed or reported incidents of abuse, and how such reports were handled by the bureau." ... "Fine launched his investigation into the FBI's role in the interrogations in early 2005 amid disclosures that FBI agents had witnessed and complained about harsh interrogation practices of detainees, including seeing Guantanamo Bay detainees who had defecated and urinated on themselves and who had been chained on the floor for more than 24 hours without food or water in more than 100 degree temperatures." ... "The delays come as the [Republican President] Bush administration is under fire for its legal justifications of harsh interrogation practices, which critics say equated to an endorsement of torture prohibited by U.S. [United States] and international laws." -By Marisa Taylor -McClatchyDC.com
  • 20080409
    NOTEWORTHY News.
  • DICK CHENEY News. REPUBLICAN US VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY News.Dick CheneyJOHN ASHCROFT News. REPUBLICAN JOHN DAVID ASHCROFT News.John AshcroftJAY BYBEE News. Republican Politician Attorney Jay Scott Bybee News.Jay Scott BybeeTORTURE News. Waterboarding News.TortureWAR CRIMES News.War CrimesMILITARY News.MilitaryGOVERNMENT News.GovernmentINTELLIGENCE News.IntelligenceTERRORISM News.TerrorismUS AMERICAN NewsUSINTERNATIONAL News.InternationalATTORNEY GENERAL News. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT News. OFFICE OF LEGAL COUNSEL News. LAW News. LAWYER News.LawSECRET News. CLASSIFIED MEMO. CLASSIFIED TOP-SECRET News.SecretPOLITICS News. POLITICIAN News.PoliticsPRISONERS News.Prisoners - "Sources: Top Bush Advisors Approved 'Enhanced Interrogation': Detailed Discussions Were Held About Techniques to Use on al Qaeda Suspects." ... "In dozens of top-secret talks and meetings in the [Republican President Bush] White House, the most senior Bush administration officials discussed and approved specific details of how high-value al Qaeda suspects would be interrogated by the Central Intelligence Agency, sources tell ABC News." ... "The so-called Principals who participated in the meetings also approved the use of "combined" interrogation techniques -- using different techniques during interrogations, instead of using one method at a time -- on terrorist suspects who proved difficult to break, sources said." ... "Highly placed sources said a handful of top advisers signed off on how the CIA [Central Intelligence Agency] would interrogate top al Qaeda suspects -- whether they would be slapped, pushed, deprived of sleep or subjected to simulated drowning, called waterboarding." ... "The high-level discussions about these "enhanced interrogation techniques" were so detailed, these sources said, some of the interrogation sessions were almost choreographed -- down to the number of times CIA agents could use a specific tactic." ... "The advisers were members of the National Security Council's Principals Committee, a select group of senior officials who met frequently to advise President Bush on issues of national security policy." ... "At the time, the Principals Committee included Vice President Cheney, former National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell, as well as CIA Director George Tenet and Attorney General John Ashcroft." ... "Critics at home and abroad have harshly criticized the interrogation program, which pushed the limits of international law and, they say, condoned torture. Bush and his top aides have consistently defended the program. They say it is legal and did not constitute torture." ... "Lawyers in the Justice Department had written a classified memo, which was extensively reviewed, that gave formal legal authority to government interrogators to use the "enhanced" questioning tactics on suspected terrorist prisoners. The August 2002 memo, signed by then head of the Office of Legal Counsel Jay Bybee, was referred to as the so-called "Golden Shield" for CIA agents, who worried they would be held liable if the harsh interrogations became public." (1, 2, 3, 4) -By Jan Crawford Greenburg, Howard L. Rosenberg and Ariane de Vogue -ABCNEWS.com 
  • 20080406
    NOTEWORTHY News.
  • JOHN C YOO News. Republican Politician Lawyer JOHN CHOO YOO NEWS.John C YooTORTURE News.TortureWAR CRIMES News.War CrimesCRIMINAL News.CriminalMILITARY News.MilitaryINTELLIGENCE News.IntelligenceLAW News. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT News. LEGAL News. CONSTITUTIONAL News. Office of Legal Counsel News.LawLANGUAGE News.LanguagePOLITICIAN News. POLITICS News.PoliticsTERRORISM News.TerrorismGOVERNMENT News. FEDERAL News.GovernmentPRISONERS News.PrisonersHUMAN RIGHTS News.Human RightsCALIFORNIA News.CaliforniaINDIANA News.Indiana - "Permissible Assaults Cited in Graphic Detail." ... "Thirty pages into a memorandum discussing the legal boundaries of military interrogations in 2003, senior [Republican President Bush's deputy Office of Legal Counsel] Justice Department lawyer John C. Yoo tackled a question not often asked by American policymakers: Could the president, if he desired, have a prisoner's eyes poked out?" ... "Or, for that matter, could he have "scalding water, corrosive acid or caustic substance" thrown on a prisoner? How about slitting an ear, nose or lip, or disabling a tongue or limb? What about biting?" ... "These assaults are all mentioned in a U.S. [United States] law prohibiting maiming, which Yoo parsed as he clarified the legal outer limits of what could be done to terrorism suspects as detained by U.S. authorities. The specific prohibitions, he said, depended on the circumstances or which "body part the statute specifies."" ... "But none of that matters in a time of war, Yoo also said, because federal laws prohibiting assault, maiming and other crimes by military interrogators are trumped by the president's ultimate authority as commander in chief." ... "It [Yoo's memorandum] repeats an assertion in another controversial Yoo memo that an interrogation tactic cannot be considered torture unless it would result in "death, organ failure or serious impairment of bodily functions."" ... "Yoo, who is now a law professor at the University of California at Berkeley [California], also uses footnotes to effectively dismiss the Fourth and Fifth amendments to the Constitution, arguing that protections against unreasonable search and seizure and guarantees of due process either do not apply or are irrelevant in a time of war." ... "Written opinions by the Office of Legal Counsel have the force of law within the government because its staff is assigned to interpret the meaning of statutory or constitutional language. Yoo's 2003 memo has evoked strong criticism from legal academics, human rights advocates and military-law experts, who say that he was wrong on basic matters of constitutional law and went too far in authorizing harsh and coercive interrogation tactics by the Defense Department." ... ""Having 81 pages of legal analysis with its footnotes and respectable-sounding language makes the reader lose sight of what this is all about," said Dawn Johnsen, an OLC chief during the [Democratic President Bill] Clinton administration who is now a law professor at Indiana University [Indiana]. "He is saying that poking people's eyes out and pouring acid on them is beyond Congress's ability to limit a president. It is an unconscionable document."" -By Dan Eggen -WashingtonPost
  • 20080405
    OPINION News.
  • NOTEWORTHY News.NoteworthyMEDIA News.MediaJOHN YOO News. Republican Politician Lawyer JOHN CHOO YOO NEWS.John YooMICHAEL MUKASEY News. Republican President George Bush's Attorney General Michael B Mukasey News.Mike MukaseyTORTURE News.TortureLAWBREAKING News. ATTORNEY GENERAL News. LAW News. LAWSUITS News.LawbreakingSURVEILLANCE News. SPYING News. FOURTH AMENDMENT News.SurveillanceMILITARY News.MilitaryINTELLIGENCE News.IntelligenceTERRORISM News.TerrorismPOLITICAL News. POLITICIAN News.PoliticalLAW ENFORCEMENT News.EnforcementBARACK OBAMA News. 2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Obama News.Barack ObamaPENNSYLVANIA News.PennsylvaniaUS AMERICAN News.USIRAQ News.Iraq - "The U.S. establishment media in a nutshell." ... "In the past two weeks, the following events transpired. A Department of Justice memo, authored by John Yoo, was released which authorized torture and presidential lawbreaking. It was revealed that the [Republican President Bush] Bush administration declared the Fourth Amendment of the Bill of Rights to be inapplicable to "domestic military operations" within the U.S. [United States] The U.S. Attorney General [Michael Mukasey] appears to have fabricated a key event leading to the 9/11 attacks and made patently false statements about surveillance laws and related lawsuits. Barack Obama went bowling in Pennsylvania and had a low score." ... "Here are the number of times, according to NEXIS, that various topics have been mentioned in the media over the past thirty days:" ... ""Yoo and torture" - 102" ... ""Mukasey and 9/11" -- 73" ... ""Yoo and Fourth Amendment" -- 16" ... ""Obama and bowling" -- 1,043" ... ""Obama and Wright" -- More than 3,000 (too many to be counted)" ... ""Obama and patriotism" - 1,607" ... ""Clinton and Lewinsky" -- 1,079" ... "And as Eric Boehlert documents, even Iraq -- that little five-year U.S. occupation with no end in sight -- has been virtually written out of the media narrative in favor of mindless, stupid, vapid chatter of the type referenced above." ... "Think about it this way: if you were a high government official and watched as -- all in a couple of weeks time -- it is revealed, right out in the open, that you suspended the Fourth Amendment, authorized torture, proclaimed yourself empowered to break the law, and sent the nation's top law enforcement officer to lie blatantly about how and why the 9/11 attacks happened so that you could acquire still more unchecked spying power and get rid of lawsuits that would expose what you did, and the political press in this country basically ignored all of that and blathered on about Obama's bowling score and how he eats chocolate, wouldn't you also conclude that you could do anything you want, without limits, and know there will be no consequences? What would be the incentive to stop doing all of that?" -By Glenn Greenwald -Salon
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Torture
OPINION News.
JOHN MCCAIN News. 2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate John Sidney McCain III News.John McCainTORTURE News.TorturePRISONERS News.PrisonersFOOD News.FoodWATER News.WaterMEDICAL News.MedicalPOLITICAL News. POLITICIAN News.Politics