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HavenWorks.com/us/archive/2004 |
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News-
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Bernard
Kerik - Rudolph
Giuliani - 
New
York
- 
Police
- 
Government
- 
Politics
- "Kerik
made millions from agency contractor: Homeland Security
nominee sat on board of stun-gun maker." ... "Bernard Kerik, [Republican]
President Bush's choice to run the Homeland Security Department, made $6.2
million by exercising stock options he received from a company that sold
stun guns to the department — and seeks more business with it." ... "Taser
International was one of many companies that received consulting advice
from Kerik after he left his job as New York City police commissioner in
2001, when he was earning $150,500 a year. Kerik remains on Taser's board
of directors, although the company and the White House said he planned
to sever the relationship." ... "Partnering with former New York Mayor
[Republican] Rudolph Giuliani and also operating independently, Kerik has
had business arrangements with manufacturers of prescription drugs, computer
software and bulletproof materials, as well as companies selling nuclear
power, telephone service, insurance and security advice for Americans working
abroad." ... "Kerik and other former New York City officials joined the
ex-mayor in Giuliani Partners, a consulting firm. In 2003, Kerik became
chief executive officer of an affiliate consulting company, Giuliani-Kerik."
-AP via -MSNBC
- Robots
- "Army
to deploy robots that shoot: Next year, the U.S.
Army will give robots machine guns, although humans will firmly be in control
of them." ... "The Army next March will begin to deploy Talon robots from
Waltham, Mass.-based Foster-Miller.
The robots will be mounted with M240 or M249 machine guns, said a Foster-Miller
spokesman. The units also can be mounted with a rocket launcher. Defense
agencies have been testing an armed version of the Talon since 2003." -By
Michael Kanellos -CNETNews
via -ZDNetNews
- 
- 
- Austin
- Tom
DeLay
- "GOP
Pushes Rule Change to Protect DeLay's Post." ...
"House Republicans proposed changing their rules last night to allow members
indicted by state grand juries to remain in a leadership post, a move that
would benefit Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) in case he is charged
by a Texas grand jury that has indicted three of his political associates,
according to GOP leaders." ... "House Republicans adopted the indictment
rule in 1993, when they were trying to end four decades of Democratic control
of the House, in part by highlighting Democrats' ethical lapses. They said
at the time that they held themselves to higher standards than prominent
Democrats such as then-Ways and Means Chairman Dan Rostenkowski (Ill.),
who eventually pleaded guilty to mail fraud and was sentenced to prison."
-By Charles Babington -WashingtonPost
- 
- Pat
Robertson - "Bush
Predicted No Iraq Casualties, Robertson Says." ...
"The Rev. Pat Robertson said President Bush dismissed his warning that
the United States would suffer heavy casualties in Iraq and told the television
evangelist just before the beginning of the war that "we're not going to
have any casualties."" ... "Robertson related the conversation during an
interview with CNN late Tuesday. He said he spoke to Bush before the invasion
of Iraq in March 2003 and urged him to prepare the nation for heavy casualties.
While Bush's response was a mistake, Robertson said, God has blessed the
president anyhow." -By Alan Cooperman-WashingtonPost
Nathan
Sproul - Criminal
- Politics
- 
2004
Election - 
Oregon
- 
Nevada
- Phoenix
- 
Arizona
Nathan
Sproul - Criminal
- Politics
- 2004
Election - 
Library
- Portland
- Ore
- Nevada
- Arizona
Larry
Franklin - 
Douglas
Feith - Criminal
Investigation - US
- 
Israel
- 
Italy
- 
Iran
- 
Military
- 
Intelligence
- 
History
Education
- Law
- Politics
- "Nation's
Charter Schools Lagging Behind, U.S. Test Scores Reveal."
... "The first national comparison of test scores among children in charter
schools and regular public schools shows charter school students often
doing worse than comparable students in regular public schools." ... "The
findings, buried in mountains of data the Education Department released
without public announcement, dealt a blow to supporters of the charter
school movement, including the [Republican President] Bush administration."
... "The data shows fourth graders attending charter schools performing
about half a year behind students in other public schools in both reading
and math." ... "Charters are expected to grow exponentially under the new
federal education law, No Child Left Behind, which holds out conversion
to charter schools as one solution for chronically failing traditional
schools." ... ""The scores are low, dismayingly low," said Chester E. Finn
Jr., a supporter of charters and president of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation,
who was among those who asked the administration to do the comparison."
... "Charters are self-governing public schools, often run by private companies,
which operate outside the authority of local school boards, and have greater
flexibility than traditional public schools in areas of policy, hiring
and teaching techniques." (1 of 2)
-By Diana Jean Schemo
-NYTimes
ELECTION
2004 - "Kerry
vows freedom anew: In accepting nomination, he pledges
to improve security and rebuild alliances." ... "Promising ''a new birth
of freedom" for Americans facing economic uncertainty and security threats,
John Forbes Kerry accepted the Democratic presidential nomination last
night with a pledge to strengthen the US military and reform its intelligence
services, introducing himself as a Vietnam veteran who healed divisions
as a US senator and will unite a world uncertain about American power to
fight against terrorism." ... "''As president, I will bring back this nation's
time-honored tradition: the United States of America never goes to war
because we want to, we only go to war because we have to," Kerry, 60, told
a roaring Democratic audience bathed in red, white, and blue lights. ''With
confidence and determination, we will be able to tell the terrorists: You
will lose, and we will win. The future doesn't belong to fear; it belongs
to freedom."" ... "''I will be a commander in chief who will never mislead
us into war. I will have a vice president who will not conduct secret meetings
with polluters to rewrite our environmental laws. I will have a secretary
of defense who will listen to the advice of our military leaders. And I
will appoint an attorney general who will uphold the Constitution of the
United States," Kerry said, delighting the partisan audience in his most
direct attack on their favorite targets: George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald
H. Rumsfeld, and John D. Ashcroft, respectively." (1, 2,
3)
-By Patrick Healy -Boston/Globe
OPINION
- Free-Speech
-
- "Firms
play tough game to defend a good name." ... ""Overzealous
companies often try to assert trademark ownership in inappropriate ways
to stifle free speech," says Kembrew McLeod, a communications studies professor
at the University of Iowa and author of the forthcoming book "Freedom of
Expression: Overzealous Copyright Bozos and Other Enemies of Creativity."
"The real harm comes from self-censorship in a world where [companies]
fire off cease-and-desist letters, and where we and our employers back
down from lawsuits, even when they're baseless."" ... "The stakes can run
high. Microsoft, for instance, is vigorously defending its ubiquitous Windows
trademark from what it views as an infringement by a San Diego software
firm called Lindows, which markets an alternative computer-operating system.
Last summer, Fox News made headlines when it attempted to prevent humorist
Al Franken from using its "Fair and Balanced" tag line in the title of
his bestselling book." -By Eric Schellhorn
-CSMonitor
- 
-
- "Lance
Armstrong wins record sixth Tour de France." ...
"Lance Armstrong rode into history Sunday, winning a record sixth Tour
de France and cementing his place as one of the greatest athletes of all
time." ... "Never in its 101-year history has the Tour had a winner like
Armstrong — who just eight years ago was given less than a 50% chance
of overcoming testicular cancer that spread to his lungs and brain."
... "Armstrong's victories and his inspiring comeback from cancer have
drawn new fans to a race that has been won five times by four other riders.
His professionalism, attention to detail, grueling training regimens and
tactics have raised the bar for other riders hoping to win the three-week
cycling marathon." ... "After more than 1,900 miles of racing, riders mostly
took it easy on the 101-mile final stage, until they reached the crowd-lined
Champs-Elysees." -By John Leicester
-AP via -USATODAY
2004
ELECTION - "Clinton
to take key role in Kerry campaign." ... "Bill Clinton
will play a prominent role campaigning for Democratic challenger John Kerry
over the next three months, starting on Monday night with his speech at
the opening of his party's convention." ... "By contrast with the 2000
election when the Gore team had mixed feelings about Mr Clinton's contribution
and muted his role in the campaign, Mr Kerry and the 2004 Democratic leadership
are working up a busy programme for the former president." -By
James Harding and Joshua Chaffin -FT.com
2004
ELECTION - "Wavering
voters have doubts about Bush." ... "Persuadable
voters in a Associated Press poll taken by Ipsos-Public Affairs early this
month were more likely to say the country was headed down the wrong track
— 63% compared with 56% overall." ... "They were more likely to disapprove
of Bush's handling of the economy — 56% compared with 50% overall — and
more likely to disapprove of Bush's handling of other domestic issues like
health care and education — 59% to 52% overall. They also were more concerned
about the economy than voters generally." -AP
via -USATODAY
- 
-
- "US
increases pressure on Sudan." ... "The US secretary
of state, Colin Powell, today said he expected the UN security council
to threaten sanctions against Sudan over the humanitarian crisis in Dafur."
... "More than one million refugees there face the threat of famine, disease
and attacks by pro-government militia." ... "A draft resolution, circulated
by the US yesterday, called on Khartoum to prosecute the leaders of the
predominantly Arab Janjaweed militia, and advocated an immediate embargo
on weapons to the region." ... "The refugees, mainly from Darfur's black
African tribes, have fled their homes after being attacked by the Janjaweed.
They now live in tent cities, where overcrowding a shortage of rations
are leading to deaths from hunger and disease."
-Guardian.co.uk
-
- 
- "Sudanese
slam genocide resolution." ... "Sudanese Arabs have
criticised a U.S. congressional resolution declaring genocide in the Darfur
region, while Darfuris asked what Washington would do to make it safe for
them to go back home." ... "hey do not understand anything," said Ismail
Gasmalseed on Friday, a 34-year-old driver in Khartoum." ... "The U.S.
Congress approved the resolution on Thursday and its supporters hope it
will help mobilise the international community to protect Africans in Darfur
from Arab militias." ... "But the accusation of genocide is highly controversial.
The United Nations has declared the situation in Darfur the world's worst
humanitarian crisis but has not called it a genocide, which would force
it to take action." -By Nima Elbagir-Reuters
- "Failure
of 'imagination' led to 9/11: The 9/11 final report
assigns little blame, but cites many errors, and lays out bipartisan steps
to avert future terror acts." ... "Nearly three years after the attacks
of Sept. 11, a national commission blames no one agency or administration
for the strikes, but makes it clear that many errors occurred prior to
that fateful day." ... "It leaves open the question as to whether the attacks
could have been prevented, but in total it portrays a strike against America
that did not come out of nowhere. It was rather the result of a growing
threat that perhaps could, and should, have been foreseen." ... "Top officials
all told the 9/11 commission that they understood the dangers of Al Qaeda
- but commissioners in the end became convinced that there was uncertainty
at the top as to whether this was just a new and especially venomous version
of the longstanding terrorist menace, or whether it was indeed something
radically new." -By Peter Grier and Faye Bowers
-CSMonitor
-
-
- "U.S.
[Proposes UN] Gives Sudan 30 Days to Arrest, Prosecute Militia (Update2)."
... "The U.S. proposed giving Sudan's government 30 days to arrest and
prosecute leaders of the Janjaweed militia that has attacked people in
Darfur or face the threat of United Nations sanctions." ... "The demand
for action and threat of sanctions are included in a draft resolution given
today to UN Security Council members. The text, a revision of a measure
first distributed last month, also imposes an arms embargo on the Janjaweed
designed to prevent its resupply by Sudan's government."-By
Bill Varner ed. by Paul Tighe -Bloomberg
-
- 
- 
-
- Religion
- Osama
bin Laden
- "9/11:
The Iran Factor: The final report of the 9-11 Commission
reveals troubling new evidence that Tehran was closer to Al Qaeda than
Iraq was." ... "U.S. intelligence believes that in faraway Tehran, the
hard-line Islamist clerics who now exercise near total control over Iran
directed their border guards to help jihadists coming from Afghanistan.
And sometime between October 2000 and February 2001, according to the forthcoming
final report of the 9-11 Commission, eight to 10 of the "muscle" hijackers
of the September 11 plot were among those who benefited from this Iranian
good-fellowship." ... "According to a December 2001 memo buried in the
files of the National Security Agency, obtained by the commission, Iranian
officials instructed their border inspectors not to place Iranian or Afghan
stamps in the passports of Saudi terrorists traveling from Osama bin Laden's
training camps through Iran. Such "clean" passports undoubtedly helped
the 9/11 terrorists pass into the United States without raising alarms
among U.S. Customs and visa officials, sources familiar with the report
told NEWSWEEK." -By Michael Isikoff and Michael Hirsh
with contributions by Mark Hosenball and Steve Tuttle
-Newsweek 20040726
ed. via -MSNBC
-
-
-
- 
- "War
Costs Exceed Budget, Watchdog Panel Says." ... "Military
operations in Iraq and Afghanistan are running $12.3 billion over budget
this year, and Pentagon officials are trying to make up for the shortfall
by transferring money from other accounts and delaying refurbishment of
worn-out equipment in Iraq, the General Accountability Office said Wednesday."
... "The office, a nonpartisan Congressional agency, estimated that the
Army was running about $9.4 billion short of what had been budgeted. By
putting off other kinds of spending until next year, the military is likely
to run up higher costs in future, said the agency, which was formerly the
General Accounting Office." -By Edmund L. Andrews
-NYTimes
UPS
News - "United
Parcel 2nd-Qtr Net Rises 18% on Global Growth (Update2)."
... "United Parcel Service Inc., the world's largest package-delivery company,
said earnings in the second quarter rose 18 percent as global economic
growth raised shipments." ... "Net income increased to $818 million, or
72 cents a share, from $692 million, or 61 cents, a year earlier, the Atlanta-based
company said in a statement. Revenue climbed 7.8 percent to $8.87 billion
from $8.23 billion." -By Mary Schlangenstein ed. by
Steve Geimann -Bloomberg
-
- 
- 
-
- "Halliburton
unit's Iran role probed." ... "The investigation
centers on Halliburton Products and Services Ltd., a subsidiary registered
in the Cayman Islands and headquartered in Dubai that provides oil field
services in Iran. The unit's operations in Iran included [US Vice President]
Cheney's stint as CEO from 1995 to 2000, when he frequently urged the lifting
of such sanctions." ... "Current law forbids US companies from doing business
with countries considered by the US government to be sponsors of terror.
The list includes Iran, North Korea, Cuba and Sudan. However, numerous
US companies operate indirectly in Iran under strict guidelines requiring
that their subsidiaries have a foreign registry and no US employees, and
act independently of the parent company. At issue is whether Halliburton's
subsidiary met those criteria." --LAtimes
via -Boston/Globe
-
-
-
-
- "US
group admits to criminal probe over Iran." ... "Halliburton,
the oilfield services company formerly headed by US Vice-President Dick
Cheney, has disclosed that a Treasury Department probe into its business
dealings with Iran had been elevated to a criminal investigation. The company
acknowledged that it had been subpoenaed by a grand jury in the southern
district of Texas to present documents related to a Cayman Islands subsidiary
that serves the Iranian National Oil Company." -By
Joshua Chaffin -FT.com
- Osama
bin Laden - "Intelligence
failures cited in 9/11 report: Doesn't conclude whether
attacks were preventable." ... "The report, to be released publicly tomorrow,
includes a list of 10 ''operational opportunities" that the government
missed to potentially unravel the Sept. 11 plot, according to a government
official who has read the document. Six of the incidents listed came during
the Bush administration and four were during the Clinton years, the official
said." ... "Another government official who has been briefed on the report
said the tally of missed opportunities includes the CIA's failure to add
two hijackers' names to a terrorism watchlist; the FBI's handling of the
August 2001 arrest of Zacarias Moussaoui, who has been accused of conspiring
in the plot; and several failed attempts to kill or capture Osama bin Laden."
-By Dan Eggen and Mike Allen
-Boston/Globe
via -WashingtonPost
-
- 
-
- 
-
-
- "Poor
Relations With Iran Turning Worse." ... "The Bush
administration is pressing Britain, France and Germany for strong measures
against Iran in response to its violation of a nonproliferation agreement
reached with the three last fall, a State Department official said Wednesday."
... "The issue is part of a deepening American concern over recent Iranian
activities that range from weapons programs to terrorism. To head off a
potential crisis, some analysts believe the administration should work
harder to promote a dialogue with Iran." ... "The United States believes
Iran is developing nuclear weapons, a view reinforced by Iran's recent
decision to resume construction of centrifuges. This is a key step in the
development of a uranium-based bomb, one that Iran promised the Europeans
last fall that it would not take." -By George Gedda
-AP via -Newsday.com
-
-
- "Fear
of Nuclear Iran Could Influence U.S. Diplomacy."
... "The intense antagonism that has existed since militant students held
52 Americans hostage for 444 days during the 1979 Iranian revolution "could
become a collision course," former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski
said this week." ... ""But perhaps there are the makings of somewhat ameliorating
the relationship between the two sides," he said." ... "[However] Many
experts believe even if Tehran's hard-line leaders are replaced, it may
have no impact on the quest for a nuclear bomb because a broad spectrum
of Iranians endorse that goal." (1, 2)
-By Carol Giacomo-Reuters
-
-
- "Short-Changed
Soldiers: Report: U.S. Army Reservists Encounter
Pay Problems." ... "An overwhelming number of U.S. Army reservists are
having problems getting paid, and many are paid late." ... "A report issued
today by the General Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress,
discovered major problems with the way the Army compensates its reservists."
... "Such problems are causing a considerable hardship for Melinda Delain,
a single mother who had just purchased a new home when her reserve unit
was deployed to Afghanistan." ... "Like everyone else in her medical unit,
she did not receive her full paycheck for three months." ... "In its report,
GAO investigators found that 95 percent of Army reservists had pay problems."
(1, 2)
-ABCNEWS.com
UPS
News - "EBay
2nd-Qtr Profit More Than Doubles on 52% Sales Increase."
... "EBay Inc., the world's No. 1 Internet auctioneer, said second-quarter
earnings more than doubled to $190.4 million as a record number of users
bought and sold merchandise online and utilized its electronic-payment
system." ... "EBay added 9.2 million users to sites in the U.S. and 22
countries, helping boost the value of items sold through them to $8 billion."
... "During the quarter, AuctionDrop Inc., a company that takes items on
consignment for sale on EBay, reached an agreement with United Parcel Service
Inc. to have 3,400 stores to act as drop- off points for the service."
-By Greg Wiles ed. by Vince Bielski -Bloomberg
- Microsoft
News - "[Microsoft
dividends] Giving $75 billion back, with plenty to spare."
... "On Tuesday July 20th, Microsoft said it would return a whopping $75
billion to shareholders over the next four years, in the biggest corporate
cash disbursement in history." ... "Regardless of the legal situation,
Microsoft's bosses realised some time last year that they could no longer
sit on their cash pile (valued at $56.4 billion as of March 31st this year),
and resolved to take steps to give it back to shareholders." ... "Under
the disbursement announced this week, Microsoft will pay out a special
dividend worth $32 billion in early December; buy back a further $30 billion
in stock over the next four years; and double its annual dividend to 32
cents per share." -Economist
-
- "U.S.
hostage head found in freezer: The head of slain
American hostage Paul M. Johnson Jr., who was kidnapped and beheaded in
Saudi Arabia last month, has been found in a freezer [in Riyadh, Saudi
Arabia], a Saudi Interior Ministry official said." ... "Two suspected al
Qaeda militants were killed during raids, the official added Wednesday."
... "Security forces found the head and a cache of weapons in a raid on
a villa Tuesday night and it was positively identified Wednesday morning."
-CNN
-
-
-
-
- Osama
bin Laden
- "9/11
Panel's Report to Offer New Evidence of Iran-Qaeda Ties."
... "The final report of the commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks
will offer new evidence of cooperative ties between Iran and Al Qaeda,
including information drawn from intelligence reports suggesting that Iran
provided several of the hijackers with safe passage in the year before
the attacks, government officials said yesterday." ... "The officials emphasized
that the commission had no evidence to suggest that Iranian officials knew
of the Sept. 11 plot. But they said the evidence raised new questions about
why the Bush administration focused on the possibility of Iraqi ties to
Osama bin Laden's terror network after Sept. 11, 2001, when there may have
been far more extensive evidence of an Iranian connection." -By
Philip Shenon -NYTimes
-
-
-
-
- "9/11
Commission Finds Ties Between al-Qaeda and Iran:
Senior U.S. officials have told TIME that the 9/11 Commission's report
will cite evidence suggesting that the 9/11 hijackers had previously passed
through Iran." ... "A senior U.S. official told TIME that the Commission
has uncovered evidence suggesting that between eight and ten of the 14
"muscle" hijackers—that is, those involved in gaining control of the four
9/11 aircraft and subduing the crew and passengers—passed through Iran
in the period from October 2000 to February 2001. Sources also tell TIME
that Commission investigators found that Iran had a history of allowing
al-Qaeda members to enter and exit Iran across the Afghan border. This
practice dated back to October 2000, with Iranian officials issuing specific
instructions to their border guards—in some cases not to put stamps in
the passports of al-Qaeda personnel—and otherwise not harass them and to
facilitate their travel across the frontier. The report does not, however,
offer evidence that Iran was aware of the plans for the 9/11 attacks."
-By Adam Zagorin and Joe Klein
-TIME
-
- "The
[diamond] cartel isn't for ever." ... "On July 13th
in an Ohio court De Beers, the world's largest producer of rough stones,
finally pleaded guilty to charges of price-fixing of industrial diamonds
and agreed to pay a $10m fine, thereby ending a 60-year-long impasse. De
Beers executives are at last free to visit and work directly in the largest
diamond market, America." ... "A few days earlier, on July 9th, the first
case of successful industry self-regulation against trade in so-called
conflict diamonds took place when Congo-Brazzaville was punished
for failing to prove the source of its diamond exports. And on June 28th
Lev Leviev, an arch-rival of De Beers, opened Africa's biggest diamond-polishing
factory in Namibia." ... "Behind all these events lies sweeping change
in an industry that sells $60-billion-worth of jewellery alone each year.
For generations it has been run by De Beers as a cartel. The South African
firm dominated the digging and trading of diamonds for most of the 20th
century. Yet the system for distributing stones established decades ago
by De Beers is curious and anomalous—no other such market exists, nor would
anything similar be tolerated in a serious industry."
-Economist
- Enron
- "Lay
surrenders to authorities: Ex-Enron CEO turns himself
in after indictment, pleads not guilty in massive accounting fraud." ...
"In the 11-count indictment, Lay was accused of lying to the public, investors
and Enron employees in charges that include securities and wire fraud and
making false statements." ... "He pleaded not guilty to all charges and
was released on $500,000 bail." ... "In a related move, the Securities
and Exchange Commission accused Lay in a civil complaint that seeks more
than $90 million. It also seeks to bar him from serving as an officer or
director of a public company." -By Krysten Crawford
with contributions by Jen Rogers -CNN
-
- Enron
- "Enron's
Lay indicted: Former Enron CEO [Kenneth Lay] indicted
by grand jury in Houston, says he's "done nothing wrong."" ... "Enron filed
for bankruptcy Dec. 2, 2001 after investigators found it had used partnerships
to conceal more than $1 billion in debt and inflate profits. The company
once ranked as the country's seventh-largest." ... "To date the federal
government has launched 30 separate prosecutions related to Enron's implosion,
including a criminal case that brought down auditor Arthur Andersen two
years ago and criminal probes of about 20 former Enron employees. Of those,
11 have resulted in convictions or guilty pleas." -By
Krysten Crawford and Kelli Arena -CNN
-
- Enron
- [PDF]
"United
States of America V. Richard A. Causey, Jeffrey K. Skilling, and Kenneth
Lay, Defendents." [65 pages] ... "Superseding
Indictment." -From the "United States District Court
Southern District of Texas Houston Division." via
-FindLaw /LegalNews/Documents
Stephen
Cambone - Torture
- Prisons
- Classified
- Military
- Intelligence
- US
- Iraq
- Afghanistan
- Noteworthy
US
- Afghanistan
- Military
- Terrorism
- Prisoner
- War
Crimes Act - Human
Rights - Death
Penalty - Politics
- "Memos
Reveal War Crimes Warnings: Could Bush administration
officials be prosecuted for 'war crimes' as a result of new measures used
in the war on terror? The White House's top lawyer thought so." ... "The
White House's top lawyer warned more than two years ago that U.S. officials
could be prosecuted for "war crimes" as a result of new and unorthodox
measures used by the Bush administration in the war on terrorism, according
to an internal White House memo and interviews with participants in the
debate over the issue." ... "The concern about possible future prosecution
for war crimes-and that it might even apply to Bush adminstration
officials themselves- is contained in a crucial portion of an internal
January
25, 2002, memo by White House counsel Alberto Gonzales
obtained by NEWSWEEK. It urges President George Bush declare the
war in Afghanistan, including the detention of Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters,
exempt from the provisions of the Geneva Convention." ... "In the memo,
the White House lawyer focused on a little known 1996 law passed by Congress,
known as the War Crimes Act, that banned any Americans from committing
war crimes-defined in part as "grave breaches" of the Geneva Conventions.
Noting that the law applies to "U.S. officials" and that punishments
for violators "include the death penalty," Gonzales told Bush that
"it was difficult to predict with confidence" how Justice Department prosecutors
might apply the law in the future. This was especially the case given that
some of the language in the Geneva Conventions-such as that outlawing "outrages
upon personal dignity" and "inhuman treatment" of prisoners-was "undefined.""
... "One key advantage of declaring that Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters
did not have Geneva Convention protections is that it "substantially reduces
the threat of domestic criminal prosecution under the War Crimes Act,"
Gonzales wrote." -By Michael Isikoff
-MSNBC/Newsweek
Stephen
Cambone -Torture
- Prison
- Military
- Intelligence
- Police
- Human
Rights - Law
- Politics
- US
- 
Syria
- Iraq
Stephen
Cambone - Torture
- Prisons
- Military
- Intelligence
- Police
- Human
Rights - Law
- Politics
- Feith
- 
Rhode
Island - 
Virginia
- US
- Iraq
- Guantánamo
Bay - 
Cuba
- Noteworthy
James
Inhofe - Torture
- Politician
- US
- Military
- Prisoners
- Photographs
- Iraqi
- Human
Rights - Lawmakers
-