Report: CIA planned to 'rendition' suspects in Germany

By GottaLaff

Report: I'm reporting a report, it's been reported. My sources are confidential because of the sensitive nature of the sensitivity of the as of yet unreported report that I'm reporting.

Reportedly--now I'm not saying this for certain, but it's out there-- this happened, according to unnamed sources, or so it's been reported:

The CIA had 25 agents in Germany after the September 11 attacks and planned to "rendition" illegally al-Qaeda suspects without informing the German government, Spiegel magazine reported Sunday.

"It was about grabbing people without the Germans knowing about it," the German weekly magazine cited an unnamed former CIA agent as saying. "We were planning stuff that was totally illegal."

The plan went so far that other parts of the Central Intelligence Agency were in the loop, but in the end it was scrapped because of objections by the agency's German section, Spiegel cited its source as saying.

As soon as they report more in another report, I'll report it to you, sources say.

Aiding and Abetting The Enemy: Special Comment by my 72-year-old friend

By GottaLaff

My very caring, impassioned 72-year-old Twitter pal, who goes by the name 42bkdodgr, would like to share his feelings about BushCo's generous contribution to the national INsecurity of our country since 9/11. I am more than happy to oblige.

But first, a personal note from 42bkdodgr:

Many of you may wonder why I chose to use the “ 72 year old friend” as the introduction to my Special Comments. I selected the moniker so readers could see that from my age and life experiences I give a different perspective to the issues of today.

Now for his Special Comment:

Aiding and Abetting The Enemy

Recently former Vice President Dick Cheney and former special assistant to President George W. Bush Ron Christie stated on television that President Obama is “aiding and abetting the enemy“; while activist Peter Gadiel, on Sean Hannity’s show suggested that Obama should be tried for treason.

All this talk about “aiding and abetting the enemy”-- and treason-- is due to the fact that the U.S. government has decided to put Kahlid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks, and four of his cohorts, on trial in a civilian court in New York City.

I’m not going to discuss whether the decision to try the defendants in a federal court is the right decision or not, but what I want to discuss is who I believe has aided and abetted the enemy.

After the 9/11 tragedy, the United States had the full support on the world community to find and capture Osama bin Laden and members of the Al-Qaeda organization who claimed responsibility for the horrendous acts. When the U.S. invaded Afghanistan, many nations provided logistical support and/or armed forces to help in our endeavor.

We started to lose world support, especially in the Middle East, when it became apparent that the reasons given by the Bush/Cheney administration for invading Iraq were based on lies and misinformation.

As the world became aware of the following events-- (1) Abu Ghraib Prison Photos, (2) Rendition Prisons operated by the CIA, (3)Guantanamo Bay detention camp, (4) Torture and (5) Unexplained deaths at various prison sites-- it enabled Al-Qaeda to recruit terrorists for Jihads attacks against American forces and the people in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan.

But now we are also learning the war policies and practices of Bush/Cheney are having consequences in this country. Recent events show there is a growing trend of U.S. citizens participating in and joining in a global jihad.

One need only to look at such recent events as the arrest of a U.S. citizen accused of helping to plot the Mumbai, India attack; the massacre at Fort Hood, Texas; and the arrest of five young Americans in Pakistan for a possible terrorist connections... to see this global jihad is happening.

So I say to Dick Cheney, Ron Christie and Peter Gadiel: It’s not President Obama who has aided and abetted the enemy; it's the policies of the Bush/Cheney administration who have aided and abetted the enemy and have made this country unsafe and possibly open to another terrorist attack.

Dick Cheney you reap what you sow.

Many thanks again for another important, relevant piece, 42bkdodgr. This one hit home with me, in light of the many posts I've done on Gitmo detainee Fayiz al-Kandari and the subject of torture. You never fail to say what so many of us are thinking and feeling, and your perspective is invaluable.

Italian court convicts 23 Americans of kidnapping in CIA rendition case

By GottaLaff

Meaningless/meaningful, depending on how you look at it:

Twenty three Americans have been convicted in absentia, after an Italian court found them guilty of kidnapping in the CIA rendition of a Muslim cleric, the Associated Press reports. Three other Americans were acquitted. [...]

The Times notes that the case, which has been going on for three years, is the first to challenge the legality of the practice of "extraordinary rendition" and is "widely seen as a referendum on Bush administration foreign policy." The government of Premier Silvio Berlusconi, however, has refused to seek extradition of any of the Americans, making it questionable whether the guilty verdicts can be enforced.

A symbolic victory at best. However, it is somewhat satisfying to see actual public acknowledgment of the Bush war crimes in a court of law.

Then there is this update:

One of the 23 American citizens convicted in an Italian court of kidnapping a Muslic cleric in 2003 says the CIA "broke the law" when it ordered the operation.

Sabrina DeSousa, a former CIA operative, told ABC News that the agency and the US government "betrayed and abandoned" her and the other US government employees who orchestrated the kidnapping as part of the CIA's extraordinary rendition program, which saw terrorism suspects shipped to countries where they could be tortured within the confines of local law.

DeSousa a said she and the 22 other defendants in the case "are paying for the mistakes right now, whoever authorized and approved this."

And that, too, is a real crime.

Torture Victim May Get His Day in (Inter-American) Court

By GottaLaff

I have posted several times about Mohammed Jawad, the very young detainee whose testimony was ruled inadmissible by two U.S. judges because it was coerced. He was tortured and his attorney, Lt. Col. Darrel Vandeveld, quit over Jawad's treatment and asked that he be released.

Jawad is in the news again:

If You’re Old Enough to Be Tortured, You’re Old Enough to Sue for Being Tortured

Adam Serwer talks to his lawyer in Kabul:

Lawyers for Mohammed Jawad, the Afghan national who was a minor when he was first detained by the U.S. government and was recently released to Afghanistan after spending seven years in detention based on evidence gained through torture, intend to sue the U.S. government in part to prevent torture from being ever used again.

Speaking from Kabul, Maj. Eric Montalvo, Jawad’s military commissions defense lawyer, said that “From a policy standpoint, it’s a disincentive for the United States to engage in that type of conduct…you have punitive damages, you have a lawsuit that creates precedent…and it may create a pause for the U.S. government should they decide to do this in the future.”

And he's not the only one who wants his day in court:

From a newly released statement:

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has accepted a petition filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of Khaled El-Masri, an innocent victim of the CIA’s extraordinary rendition program. The U.S. government has two months to respond to allegations of kidnapping and torture summarily rejected by U.S. courts in 2007.

“The United States has an opportunity to reverse one of the most shameful legacies of the Bush administration and finally give an innocent victim of the extraordinary rendition program his day in court,” said Steven Watt, senior staff attorney with the ACLU Human Rights Program. “The State Department should fully engage in this process and comprehensively address the gross violation of El-Masri’s human rights, including his forcible disappearance and torture. To date, the United States hasn’t so much as acknowledged its involvement in El-Masri’s extraordinary rendition.”

Meantime, Fayiz al-Kandari (see below) is still waiting for his day in court. But, hey, no biggie. It's only been about eight years.

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All my previous posts on this subject matter can be found here; That link includes one specific to only Fayiz al-Kandari's story here. Here are audio and video interviews with Lt. Col. Wingard, one by David Shuster, one by Ana Marie Cox, and more. My guest commentary at BuzzFlash is here.

If you are inclined to help rectify these injustices: Twitterers, use the hashtag #FreeFayiz. We have organized a team to get these stories out. If you are interested in helping Fayiz out, e-mail me at The Political Carnival, address in sidebar to the right; or tweet me at @GottaLaff.

If you'd like to see other ways you can take action, go here and scroll down to the end of the article.

Then read Jane Mayer's book The Dark Side. You'll have a much greater understanding of why I post endlessly about this, and why I'm all over the CIA deception issues, too.

More of Fayiz's story here, at Answers.com.

Obama okays team to interrogate terrorists

By GottaLaff

Thank you, President Obama:

President Barack Obama has approved the establishment of a special unit of terrorist interrogators based out of the FBI, U.S. officials said Monday, confirming a report in the Washington Post.

The interagency High Value Detainee Interrogation Group will be overseen by the National Security Council and “draw on interrogators from defense, intelligence, and law enforcement,” a senior administration official said.

The State Department will also play a more prominent role in overseeing renditions of suspected terrorists to other countries for interrogation, the official added. The department will help ensure that suspected terrorists are not abused or tortured.

The decision to place the FBI in charge of the interrogation of suspected terrorists — as opposed to the Central Intelligence Agency — represents a major shift in U.S. national security policy. [...]

“The CIA didn’t want to house this initiative. They’re glad to be out of the long-term detention business,” a U.S. government official said.

More, via NPR:

The administration has also decided that all U.S. interrogators will follow the rules for detainees laid out by the Army Field Manual, according to senior administration officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the decision. That decision aims to end years of fierce debate over how rough U.S. personnel can get with terror suspects in custody.

The new unit does not mean the CIA is now out of the interrogation business, deputy White House press secretary Bill Burton told reporters covering the vacationing Obama at Oak Bluffs, Mass.

Lots of news breaking today. On to the next story....

UPDATE: Listening to Thom Hartmann Show right now, and this touting of the Army Field Manual as the golden standard should still be troubling to us. It would apparently still allow torture and mistreatment, Appendix M specifically, per Marjorie Cohn (MarjorieCohn.com).

Judge Orders Release of Yemeni From Guantánamo

By GottaLaff

29 of 35 Gitmo prisoners have been ordered released by federal district judges. The latest is Moahammed al Adahi, and all because of a wrist watch. Really? That was their case? Nearly 8 years of imprisonment and abuse based on a time piece? And what do you know, it turns out to be the wrong kind of watch.

Via CagePrisoners:

A federal judge has ordered the Pentagon to free a Yemeni father of two with a heart condition who has been held for seven and a half years at Guantánamo on suspicion of serving as Osama bin Laden's bodyguard.

Mohammed al Adahi, 47, testified by video link from the prison camp that he had met bin Laden socially during the summer before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks but never worked for him or waged jihad.

"I did not fight the American alliance. I did not deal with Taliban or al Qaeda. I am a working man in my country. I have never committed a crime,'' he said, according to a transcript of his mostly classified June hearing at the U.S. District Court in Washington D.C.
[...]

The U.S. is still negotiating a repatriation agreement with the Yemeni government of President Ali Abdullah Saleh for up to 93 Yemeni citizens held among the 229 detainees at the U.S. Navy base in southeast Cuba.

Kessler's ruling raised to 29 the number of long-held Guantánamo captives that federal judges have ordered released through unlawful detention suits, compared with the six whose detentions that judges have upheld. [...]

The hearing lasted three days. Justice Department attorneys called no witnesses but showed the judge prison camp videos of guards tackling and shackling the Yemeni and forcing him from his cell, said defense attorney Kristin Wilhelm of Atlanta.

To clear his name, she said, Adahi collected statements from fellow detainees at Guantánamo who supposedly fingered him in prison camp interrogations.

None corroborated the U.S. government allegations, Wilhelm said.

"All Mr. al Adahi wants to do is to return to his wife and two children in Yemen. Unfortunately, his health is not good,'' said attorney Richard G. Murphy Jr., part of a legal team between Washington and Atlanta that defended him without charge.

Pakistani troops captured Adahi as he fled the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan soon after 9/11. He was aboard a bus carrying wounded Taliban soldiers, the basis of a Pentagon claim that he had been in league with the Taliban.

On his wrist was a Casio watch, which U.S. military intelligence said was similar to those al Qaeda terrorists had rigged as explosive triggers. But the Yemeni told the judge at his hearing that his watch had hands, and wasn't digital, a key distinction. [...]

For a time, the U.S. had suspected that Adahi served as a bin Laden bodyguard, in part because his brother-in-law may have worked for the al Qaeda leader.

But Adahi had long maintained that he was captured during what was meant to be a two-month vacation from a Yemeni oil refinery. He was escorting his sister to an arranged marriage with a fellow Yemeni in Kandahar, Afghanistan.

While there, in the summer before the 9/11 attacks, Adahi attended a party of men celebrating his sister's wedding and was introduced to bin Laden among the guests.

Bin Laden, a Saudi, traces his family back to Yemen, and Adahi testified that in the summer of 2001 bin Laden was "in control of Kandahar . . . considered as the governor of the city.''

They made small talk about Yemen he said, and then a few days later he was summoned to meet bin Laden again. "If you are a stranger and you go to that place and the man called you, you submit,'' he said.

SOURCE: Miami Herald

************************************

All my previous posts on this subject matter can be found here; That link includes one specific to only Fayiz al-Kandari's story here. Here are audio and video interviews with Lt. Col. Wingard, one by David Shuster, one by Ana Marie Cox, and more. My guest commentary at BuzzFlash is here.

If you are inclined to help rectify these injustices: Twitterers, use the hashtag #FreeFayiz. We have organized a team to get these stories out. If you are interested in helping Fayiz out, e-mail me at The Political Carnival, address in sidebar to the right; or tweet me at @GottaLaff.

If you'd like to see other ways you can take action, go here and scroll down to the end of the article.

Then read Jane Mayer's book The Dark Side. You'll have a much greater understanding of why I post endlessly about this, and why I'm all over the CIA deception issues, too.

More of Fayiz's story here, at Answers.com.

On Obama's Watch: First Rendition - Raymond Azar of Lebanon

By GottaLaff

Sigh. I will give you an excerpt from a post I hope you read, link you to my series of posts on all things rendition/detainees, shake my head slowly, and then go back to business as usual:

Imagine the shock when Lebanese husband/father, construction manager, grade school grad, 45 year old Raymond Azar

was seized by "at least eight" heavily armed FBI agents in Kabul, Afghanistan, where they had traveled for a meeting to discuss the status of one of his company's U.S. government contracts. The trip ended with Azar alighting in manacles from a Gulfstream V executive jet in Manassas, Virginia, where he was formally arrested and charged in a federal antitrust probe.,

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/11/target-of-obama-era-rendi_n_256499.html

All happening on on April 7, 2009. Is this witness protection? Or rendition? You be the judge.

**************************

All my previous posts on this subject matter can be found here; That link includes one specific to only Fayiz al-Kandari's story here. Here are audio and video interviews with Lt. Col. Wingard, one by David Shuster, one by Ana Marie Cox, and more. My guest commentary at BuzzFlash is here.

If you are inclined to help rectify these injustices: Twitterers, use the hashtag #FreeFayiz. We have organized a team to get these stories out. If you are interested in helping Fayiz out, e-mail me at The Political Carnival, address in sidebar to the right; or tweet me at @GottaLaff.

If you'd like to see other ways you can take action, go here and scroll down to the end of the article.

Then read Jane Mayer's book The Dark Side. You'll have a much greater understanding of why I post endlessly about this, and why I'm all over the CIA deception issues, too.

More of Fayiz's story here, at Answers.com.

H/t: DMiller23

Torture Ministers must explain destruction of CIA 'torture flight' papers

By GottaLaff

Remember when Boy Georgie said he and Tony Blair were bffs? Partners? Soul mates? Fellow Colgate users? Remember the U.S. and Britain were paired up the way the Enquirer paired up Sarah the Quitter and the First Dude's business partner?

This is what happens when you're inextricably linked to a partner... in crime-- investigations begin to overlap:

Ministers must explain why crucial documents relating to CIA "torture flights" that stopped on sovereign British territory were destroyed, a panel of MPs has said.

A damning appraisal by the influential foreign affairs select committee on Britain's role in the rendition of terror suspects and alleged complicity of torture condemns the government's lack of transparency on vital areas of concern.

In particular, the MPs, in a report released today, call for an explanation for the missing papers, which might explain the role of Diego Garcia, the British overseas territory, in the US's "extraordinary rendition" programme. [...]

It also criticises the government's inability to offer assurances that ships anchored outside Diego Garcia's waters were not involved in the rendition programme. [...]

Amnesty International said the MPs' verdict underlined the need for a full, independent inquiry into the UK's involvement in "war on terror" and human rights abuses.

The committee also voiced disquiet over claims that British intelligence officers were complicit in the torture of detainees held overseas. [...]

Details of the investigations the government has carried out into any of the claims should be made public, according to MPs. Mike Gapes, chairman of the committee, said it was time ministers also disclosed the guidance given at the time to intelligence officers interviewing suspects.

He said details of people captured by UK forces in Iraq and Afghanistan and placed in US custody should be divulged as part of a drive to improve transparency.

*******************************************

All my previous posts on this subject matter can be found here; That link includes one specific to only Fayiz al-Kandari's story here. Here are audio and video interviews with Lt. Col. Wingard, one by David Shuster, one by Ana Marie Cox, and more. My guest commentary at BuzzFlash is here.

If you are inclined to help rectify these injustices: Twitterers, use the hashtag #FreeFayiz. We have organized a team to get these stories out. If you are interested in helping Fayiz out, e-mail me at The Political Carnival, address in sidebar to the right; or tweet me at @GottaLaff.

If you'd like to see other ways you can take action, go here and scroll down to the end of the article.

Then read Jane Mayer's book The Dark Side. You'll have a much greater understanding of why I post endlessly about this, and why I'm all over the CIA deception issues, too.

More of Fayiz's story here, at Answers.com.

Secrets of CIA 'ghost flights' to be revealed

By GottaLaff

Protest in support of Guantanamo detainee Binyam Mohamed outside the American Embassy, London, February 17, 2009. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

We continue the practice of rendition today, although the ObamAdministration insists torture is a thing of the past. Speaking of the past, seems that at least one facilitator of torture at "black sites", aka "corporate collusion", is busted:

Confidential documents showing the flight plans of a CIA "ghost plane" allegedly used to transfer a British resident to secret interrogation sites around the world are to be made public. The move comes after a Sussex-based company accused of involvement in extraordinary rendition dropped its opposition to a case against it being heard in court.

Lawyers bringing the case against Jeppesen UK on behalf of the former Guantánamo Bay detainee, Binyam Mohamed, claimed last night the climbdown had wide-ranging legal implications that could help expose which countries and governments knew the CIA was using their air bases to spirit terrorist suspects around the world.

Jeppesen UK, a division of the Jeppesen Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Boeing, is alleged to have provided a range of services that allowed planes owned by shell companies operating on behalf of the CIA to fly suspected terrorists to "black sites".

Jeppesen is alleged to have provided flight planning services, secured permits for travel, arranged fuel provision and filed flight plans for the clients in the knowledge that the planes were being used for extraordinary rendition.

"Jeppesen's embarrassing U-turn vindicates our fight to expose corporate collusion in torture," said Clive Stafford Smith, director of the legal charity Reprieve, which has led the campaign on behalf of Mohamed. "Binyam Mohamed, and perhaps many others, are one step nearer to making the directors of companies stop and think before they commit criminal acts for profit."

According to an affidavit signed by a former employee, Jeppesen's managing director, Bob Overby, told his staff that "we do all the extraordinary rendition flights". Sean Belcher, a former technical writer for the company, said Overby claimed that the CIA "spared no expense" when it came to paying for Jeppesen's services.

Jeppesen, of course, denies this. But, oops! There's a little something we like to call "evidence":

But after Mohamed's London lawyers, Leigh Day & Co, presented a large volume of evidence - running to 419 pages - which they claim proves the company's involvement in the rendition process, the British arm of the firm withdrew its attempt to have the case struck out.

Meanwhile, the ACLU is bringing its own case:

The US government is seeking to have the case against Jeppesen dismissed, saying it would breach national security. But Jeppesen UK's decision to drop its opposition to fighting the case in a British court means a wealth of confidential information relating to the alleged rendition process will become public.

And of course, another story similar to Fayiz al-Kandari's comes to light:

Mohamed, an Ethiopian who lived in Britain, was arrested in 2002 in Pakistan and handed to the US. He alleges that before his transfer to Guantánamo Bay he was held in prisons in Pakistan, Morocco and Afghanistan, beyond the reach of law. While in Morocco, he alleges that interrogators tortured him by using blades to cut his penis and chest.

Reprieve's renditions investigator, Clara Gutteridge, said the CIA could not have acted alone and the case would raise questions over which governments were complicit in extraordinary rendition.

All my previous posts on this subject matter can be found here; That link includes audio and video interviews with Lt. Col. Wingard, one by David Shuster, one by Ana Marie Cox, and more. My guest commentary at BuzzFlash is here.

If you are inclined to help rectify these injustices: Twitterers, use the hashtag #FreeFayiz. We have organized a team to get these stories out. If you are interested in helping Fayiz out, e-mail me at The Political Carnival, address in sidebar to the right; or tweet me at @GottaLaff.

If you'd like to see other ways you can take action, go here and scroll down to the end of the article.

Then read Jane Mayer's book The Dark Side. You'll have a much greater understanding of why I post endlessly about this, and why I'm all over the CIA deception issues, too.

More of Fayiz's story here, at Answers.com.

Obama: Don't look back; A.G. Holder: May probe Bush-era torture anyway

By GottaLaff

Part of President Obama's agenda should be maintaining our system of justice, freeing those who are innocent of wrongdoing (follow that link for all posts about the abuse and miscarriage of justice as they apply to Gitmo detainees, specifically Fayiz al-Kandari), upholding the laws, ethics, and the very fabric of this country:

Holder, 58, may be on the verge of asserting his independence in a profound way. Four knowledgeable sources tell NEWSWEEK that he is now leaning toward appointing a prosecutor to investigate the Bush administration's brutal interrogation practices, something the president has been reluctant to do. While no final decision has been made, an announcement could come in a matter of weeks, say these sources, who decline to be identified discussing a sensitive law-enforcement matter. Such a decision would roil the country, would likely plunge Washington into a new round of partisan warfare, and could even imperil Obama's domestic priorities, including health care and energy reform. Holder knows all this, and he has been wrestling with the question for months. "I hope that whatever decision I make would not have a negative impact on the president's agenda," he says. "But that can't be a part of my decision."

No, it can't. Lives are at stake. Our country's legal foundation is at stake. We cannot set a precedent that will further destroy what's left of true democracy.

Holder acknowledges that he struggles against a tendency to please, that he's had to learn to be more assertive over the years. "The thing I have to watch out for is the desire to be a team player," he says, well aware that he's on the verge of becoming something else entirely. [...]

[His wife, Sharon Malone] Malone drew a direct line from the sins of America's racial past to the abuses of the Guantánamo Bay detention center. Both are examples of "what we have not done in the face of injustice," she said at one point, her Southern accent becoming more discernible as her voice rose with indignation. At the same party, Holder praised the Bush administration for setting up an "effective antiterror infrastructure."

What force is Holder up against? Who else might be influencing him?

For his part, Emanuel calls Holder a "strong, independent attorney general." But Emanuel's agitated presence hangs over the building—"the wrath of Rahm," one Justice lawyer calls it—and he is clearly on the minds of Holder and his aides as they weigh whether to launch a probe into the Bush administration's interrogation policies.

Here is where I start to jump back onto my Fayiz/Barry Wingard/Vandeveld bandwagon:

There were startling indications that some interrogators had gone far beyond what had been authorized in the legal opinions issued by the Justice Department, which were themselves controversial. He told one intimate that what he saw "turned my stomach."

It was soon clear to Holder that he might have to launch an investigation to determine whether crimes were committed under the Bush administration and prosecutions warranted. The obstacles were obvious. [...]

Holder couldn't shake what he had learned in reports about the treatment of prisoners at the CIA's "black sites." If the public knew the details, he and his aides figured, there would be a groundswell of support for an independent probe.

And I am doing everything I can to build that groundswell, with your help, and now hopefully, with A.G. Holder's.

Obama, Holder says confidently, "understands the nature of what we do at the Justice Department in a way no recent president has. He's a damn good lawyer, and he understands the value of having an independent attorney general."

The next few weeks, though, could test Holder's confidence. After the prospect of torture investigations seemed to lose momentum in April, the attorney general and his aides turned to other pressing issues. They were preoccupied with Gitmo, developing a hugely complex new set of detention and prosecution policies, and putting out the daily fires that go along with running a 110,000-person department. The regular meetings Holder's team had been having on the torture question died down. Some aides began to wonder whether the idea of appointing a prosecutor was off the table.

But in late June Holder asked an aide for a copy of the CIA inspector general's thick classified report on interrogation abuses. He cleared his schedule and, over two days, holed up alone in his Justice Depart ment office, immersed himself in what Dick Cheney once referred to as "the dark side." [Note: You're well aware that I've been hawking Jane Mayer's book The Dark Side. Even more apt in this context] He read the report twice, the first time as a lawyer, looking for evidence and instances of transgressions that might call for prosecution. The second time, he started to absorb what he was reading at a more emotional level. He was "shocked and saddened," he told a friend, by what government servants were alleged to have done in America's name.

Now do something about it, A.G. Holder. Please.

H/t: BuzzFlash

Police launch Guantanamo 'torture' probe

By GottaLaff

Here I go again, writing about seeking justice. Color me stubborn. And forgive me just this millionth time once:

The Metropolitan Police Service(MPS) said Friday they had launched a criminal investigation into allegations made by former Guantanamo Bay detainee Binyam Mohamed that he was tortured with the help of British agents.

Hey kids! Torture's not just for the CIA any more! Tell your friends!

"The papers were reviewed by the MPS and the investigation accepted. A team of detectives... has now been selected and vetted to appropriate levels. As a result a criminal investigation has now begun," a police statement said.

Dear ObamAdministration: Please follow suit. Love, Laffy

Ethiopian-born Mohamed, 30, was arrested in Pakistan in 2002 while trying to return to Britain and spent six and a half years either in US custody or that of countries taking part in the US-run rendition programme of terror suspects.

After a lengthy campaign orchestrated by his supporters in Britain, he became the first prisoner to be released from the US-run Guantanamo camp under President Barack Obama and returned to Britain in February.

On his journey through the rendition system, Mohamed was first held for three months in Pakistan, during which time he claims he was tortured and questioned by US and British agents.

The rendition system is still intact. But now there's serious pinky swearsies that torture won't happen, and the stays at the Holiday Inn Rendition Express will only be short ones.

He says he was then taken to Morocco with the explicit knowledge of Britain's Security Service, where he alleges he was subjected to further torture, including sexual mutilation. [...]

In January 2004, he was transferred to US facilities in Afghanistan for five months before being taken to Guantanamo, where he was never charged or faced trial.

Does all this sound familiar? It should:

All my previous posts about Gitmo detainee Fayiz al-Kandari, and his military attorney Lt. Col. Barry Wingard, can be found here; That link includes audio and video interviews with Lt. Col. Wingard, one by David Shuster, one by Ana Marie Cox, and more. My guest commentary at BuzzFlash is here.Our system of justice is broken. Military commissions rely on coerced confessions and hearsay, something Jane Mayer covers in great detail in her book..

If you are inclined to help rectify these injustices: Twitterers, use the hashtag #FreeFayiz. We have organized a team to get these stories out. If you are interested in helping Fayiz out, e-mail me at The Political Carnival, address in sidebar to the right; or tweet me at @GottaLaff.

If you'd like to see other ways you can take action, go here and scroll down to the end of the article.

Then read Jane Mayer's book The Dark Side. You'll have a much greater understanding of why I post endlessly about this, and why I'm all over the CIA deception issues, too.

Detainee Who Gave False Iraq Data Dies In Prison in Libya

By GottaLaff

More stomach-turning reminders of BushCo's toxicity:

A former CIA high-value detainee, who provided bogus information that was cited by the Bush administration in the run-up to the Iraq war, has died in a Libyan prison, an apparent suicide, according to a Libyan newspaper.

A researcher for Human Rights Watch, who met Ibn al-Sheikh al-Libi at the Abu Salim prison in Tripoli late last month, said a contact in Libya had confirmed the death.

Libi was captured fleeing Afghanistan in late 2001, and he vanished into the secret detention system run by the Bush administration. He became the unnamed source, according to Senate investigators, behind Bush administration claims in 2002 and 2003 that Iraq had provided training in chemical and biological weapons to al-Qaeda operatives. The claim was most famously delivered by then-Secretary of State Colin L. Powell in his address to the United Nations in February 2003.[...]

The Defense Intelligence Agency and some analysts at the CIA had questioned the veracity of Libi's testimony, which was obtained after the prisoner was transferred to Egyptian custody for questioning by the CIA, according to Senate investigators.

In their book "Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War," Michael Isikoff and David Corn said Libi made up the story about Iraqi training after he was beaten and subjected to a "mock burial" by his Egyptian interrogators, who put him in a cramped box for 17 hours. Libi recanted the story after being returned to CIA custody in 2004.

When President George W. Bush ordered the 2006 transfer to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, of high-value detainees previously held in CIA custody, Libi was pointedly missing. Human rights groups had long suspected that Libi was instead transferred to Libya, but the CIA had never confirmed where he was sent.

"I would speculate that he was missing because he was such an embarrassment to the Bush administration," said Tom Malinowski, the head of the Washington office of Human Rights Watch. "He was Exhibit A in the narrative that tortured confessions contributed to the massive intelligence failure that preceded the Iraq war." [...]

The Libyan newspaper Oed reported Sunday that Libi was found dead in his cell after killing himself, but added that friends of the 46-year-old former preacher, who ran a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan, questioned the alleged cause of death. [...]

Human Rights Watch called for an independent investigation of the death.

H/t: Babzter

Republicans warn A.G. Holder on torture. Clinton redux?

By GottaLaff

I hear familiar strains of the Clinton Impeachment Waltz. A-a-and ONE two three, ONE two three...

At a hearing today with Attorney General Eric Holder, Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee suggested that any potential criminal investigation into the CIA's harsh interrogation methods might not easily be contained.

Both Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and Richard Shelby of Alabama pressed Holder on the CIA's "rendition" program that moved terrorism suspects from one country to another.

Didn't that happen during the Clinton administration?
Yes, Holder said.

"How many did you approve?" they asked.
Holder said he'd check the record.

The clear suggestion was, if any criminal investigation is opened, Republicans would push to get it expanded beyond events during the Bush administration. Alexander, for example, asked several times whether members of Congress, who were told about the interrogation methods, should also be investigated.

Where's Ken Starr when you need him? Will there be more big, fat volumes of documents filled with graphic sexy details for all those repressed Rushpublic voyeurs? And most importantly, did any of Clinton's lawyers smoke cigars?

Meantime, Holder is still skeptical about investigating the Bush lawyers.

"We're not trying to do anything that would be perceived as partisan,” he said. “We want to move forward to the extent we can."

Um, Attorney General Holder? You already are perceived as partisan. You are part of the ObamAdministration. You are a Democrat. Your last name isn't Shelby or Alexander. Or Limbaugh.

And yes, things happened during the Clinton administration. But were they criminal? Did he start a fraudulent war? Did he use scare tactics to force the country into submission and shred the U.S. Constitution when it got in his way? Let's first stay focused on BushCo, see where that leads, and take it from there. No shiny keys, at least until that enormous taks is undertaken, okay?

Did the CIA lie to the Red Cross? And about those criticisms of President Obama's policies...

By GottaLaff

Is this obstruction of justice? That's what the Washington Independent is asking:

[T]hat’s what Jane Mayer told Alternet’s Liliana Segura: the Defense Department actually hid prisoners from the International Committee of the Red Cross when the humanitarian group first visited the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay in 2002.

“That’s an overt act; lying to the Red Cross, hiding prisoners from them,” Mayer said.

Here is an excerpt from Segura's interview that delves further into the lies:

LS: Is there anything in the report in particular that has struck you that you didn't know before?

JM: One of the things that caught my eye last night was that it's clear that the CIA -- and I think you'd have to guess the Department of Defense -- lied to the Red Cross. They told the Red Cross when it visited Guantanamo [in 2002] that it had seen all of the detainees. But what the report says is that some of the detainees -- some of the high-value detainees -- realized when they were finally sent to Guantanamo in 2006 that they'd been there before. They were there. And yet the Red Cross was not allowed to see them. The Red Cross was told they'd seen everybody.

So the CIA and DOD lied to the Red Cross. There were some hidden prisoners in Guantanamo. That's an overt act; lying to the Red Cross, hiding prisoners from them.

And here is some interesting analysis about the Obama administration's policies:

LS: Does this mean that the CIA black sites have been dismantled? Also, what about renditions? Isn't Obama keeping open the possibility of keeping Clinton-era style rendition in place?

JM: [...] Essentially, they claim it's a return to the pre-9/11 Clinton program, which was ostensibly "rendition to justice." But some sources who were involved in the Clinton years have told me it was a very rough business. The CIA has fought very hard to keep the program going in a modified form. We'll see if they can do it in the transparent, legal and humane way the executive orders require. I have my doubts.

I think that there's a ton still to do here. And some of the early positions they've taken -- defending state secrets and denying, as you say, habeas corpus rights to prisoners held in Bagram -- you know, they're worrisome. I think there's more going on here, though, which people haven't really focused on, which is: there's a real tug-of-war going on about the confirmation process. A number of top appointees who Obama wants to put in to handle some of these issues have not been confirmed. The Republicans in the Senate are really holding up people that Obama needs to make changes for the better.

You've got Harold Koh, who's been nominated to be the top lawyer for the State Department. He's a great defender of human rights. His nomination confirmation is in trouble because the Republicans are talking about trying to block him.

And the same thing is true of Dawn Johnsen, who has been nominated for the head of the Office of Legal Council. And there are a number of other top positions that are open that are really important. The Obama administration doesn't have enough staff to handle what it needs to do.

Meanwhile, it's being hit by wave after wave of litigation, because the human rights community's approach in the Bush years was "we're gonna litigate." So there is case after case breaking and requiring action from the Obama administration, which doesn't have its people in place yet. And I think that's part of the problem. So, I'm cutting them more slack then some critics, because I don't think we're seeing everything they want to do yet.

LS: So is what you're saying that they are buying themselves time, adopting these Bush positions or defending them for the moment?

JM: Well they're definitely buying themselves time on Guantanamo, but they haven't bought themselves very much time. They gave themselves 180 days; they've got three task forces, which took a long time to get up and running. I hear from people who are involved in this that it's a really complicated process.

And on the state-secrets cases -- you know, I don't know whose really making these decisions. But again, on accountability, I think it comes back to Obama himself. And he is spread so thin and so distracted by so many other emergencies right now, I'm not sure that he's really giving it the attention that some of us think it needs.

So that's what I think is going on. I'm not sure that I would impute terrible motives to them at this point. I think it's more disorganization and delay.

This would all go back to my wait-and-see posture. Which is why I'm waiting and seeing. And have good posture.

Like Mayer, I have some doubts, but I feel we still don't know the whole story yet. I remain troubled by what Jonathan Turley and others have opined, but as I keep saying, I'm willing to be patient for awhile longer. It's only been a couple of months, after all. I'm still in simmer mode.

CIA Shuts Secret Prisons Under Obama Order

By GottaLaff

This is great news, but all I can think of at the moment is all the damage that's already been done:

The CIA is no longer operating secret prisons used to interrogate terror suspects with harsh techniques such as waterboarding, the agency's director has said.

Leon Panetta confirmed the move in response to an order from Barack Obama, which was one of his first after taking office as US President in January.

"CIA no longer operates detention facilities or black sites and has proposed a plan to decommission the remaining sites," the spy chief said in a letter to agency employees.

"I have directed our agency personnel to take charge of the decommissioning process and have further directed that the contracts for site security be promptly terminated." [...]

Mr Panetta said the CIA retained the authority to detain suspects "on a short-term transitory basis".

But he added agents would use "a dialogue style of questioning that is fully consistent with the interrogation approaches authorised and listed in the Army Field Manual," which bans harsh techniques.

"CIA officers do not tolerate, and will continue to promptly report, any inappropriate behaviour or allegations of abuse," he said.

"That holds true whether a suspect is in the custody of an American partner or a foreign liaison service."

British involvement in mistreatment of terrorism suspects wider than reported

By GottaLaff

I'm sure BushCo knows nothing about any of this. It's all about the British, see. We 'Murkins are clean as a whistle, because we don't do torture. Nobody does. It's all a figment of our imaginations:

British involvement in the mistreatment of terrorism suspects abroad is wider than previously reported, a human rights group has claimed.

Cageprisoners - which campaigns on terror detention - said there were 29 cases of security service involvement with tortured or mistreated suspects.

One case cited, of Moroccan-born Farid Hilali, pre-dates the 9/11 attacks.

UK authorities deny collusion but say interrogating suspects in foreign prisons yields valuable intelligence. [...]

The allegations include rendition [...] and interrogation of suspects by MI5, MI6 and the SAS in foreign prisons where they have been tortured or otherwise mistreated.

All of the alleged mistreatment took place abroad and the Cageprisoners report lists a number of countries including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates and Kenya. [...]

A number of those making allegations were transferred to and then released from Guantanamo Bay, while others are serving prison sentences in Britain for terrorism offences. [...]

The claims go back to 1999, two years before the terrorist attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania [...]

The latest allegations were the "strongest yet", he added.

This is getting a little hard to ignore, isn't it?

Former Homeland Security SecretaryTom Ridge: We were wrong to torture

By GottaLaff

Was Tom Ridge for torture and illegal detention before he was against it?

America's first homeland security secretary has accepted some criticisms of the US "war on terror" made in a recent report by legal experts.

Tom Ridge told the BBC that the report's attacks on extended detention and torture were justified. [...]

The report the International Commission of Jurists said anti-terror measures worldwide had seriously undermined international human rights law.

After a three-year global study, the ICJ said many states had used the public's fear of terrorism to introduce measures including detention without trial, illegal disappearance and torture.

It said the framework of international law that existed before the 9/11 attacks was robust and effective, but had been actively undermined by the US and the UK.

Mr Ridge, who was appointed to the new post of homeland security secretary after the 11 September, 2001 attacks on the US, said the ICJ was on "solid ground" in its commentary "with regard to torture and sustained detention without due process".

In an interview with the BBC's World Today programme he said that regardless of what terrorism suspects had done, the US still needed "to afford them some sense of due process."

"It has taken a while for us to get to that point but we are certainly there now," he said.

He added that there was now a consensus in the US and beyond that water-boarding - a harsh interrogation technique that simulates drowning - was torture, saying there had been no allegations of its use since 2003.

Oh goody. He says we only waterboarded people until 2003. That's a relief. I bet he can't wait for those who were brutally tortured to get wind of this... the ones that survived.

And how nice that he finally feels free to openly acknowledge these horrendous, illegal abuses... in 2009.

Oh, did I forget to mention this?

However, Mr Ridge also defended US policy, saying counter-terrorism work was now about detaining people before they were able to commit terrorist acts. [...]

Many suspects had "embraced an ideology, a belief system, that said it's perfectly all right in order to advance a cause to kill innocents along the way", he said.

"They had no loyalty to a country so they're not the traditional prisoner of war, they don't wear the uniform of a country so we can't treat them as we have done in previous wars."

Mr Ridge added: "How we dealt with them in terms of returning them to their potential country of origin was a difficult issue that not only the United States but other countries have had to deal with.

"So, we're in the process of dealing with it."

But are we in the due process of dealing with it?

Sidebar: I wonder if Mr. Ridge is currently employed. If so, he may be one of the lucky 25%.

Bush loyalists trying to hinder Obama's agenda?

By GottaLaff

We've touched on this before, but now we've got an entire article-- with examples and everything!-- to draw from:

Some liberals are beginning to suspect Bush loyalists in career government positions are doing their best to try to deflate and hinder President Obama's agenda.

When the New York Times published a story on a former Guantanamo detainee who allegedly joined Al Qaeda in Yemen after his release, the timing struck Huffington Post reporter Sam Stein as "suspicious." The paper published its report just one day after President Obama ordered the prison closed. [...]

Thursday, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) wrote Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, asking him to "immediately review the circumstances behind the conversion of these positions and the hiring of any former Bush administration appointees as career or temporary officials within the Office of Detainee Affairs."

"Allegations of improper 'burrowing' of political appointees to career positions are very troubling to me," wrote Sen. Feinstein. "This is especially disconcerting within the Office of Detainee Affairs due to the nature of the policy recommendations that office provides regarding Guantanamo." [...]

Stein is not the only media figure openly wondering whether Bush loyalists still in government would attempt to "send a signal," "undermine" or even "sabotage" President Obama.
When the Los Angeles Times reported that President Obama had preserved the use of renditions -- the secret capture, transportation and detention of suspected terrorists to foreign prisons in countries that cooperate with the U.S. -- for the CIA's anti-terror toolbox, many liberals were outraged.

However, some charged that the paper was "punked" by former CIA officials. MSNBC's Rachel Maddow wondered aloud if "Bush loyalists" who remain in government are trying to "undermine" President Obama.

Maddow's guest, Scott Horton, a contributing editor with Harpers magazine, agreed with her line of questioning, and even went so far as to say, "I think we may see sabotage as well."

Every trick in the book.

Attorney general orders review of 'state secrets' claims

By GottaLaff

I mentioned this in Comments earlier after hearing something about it on the Thom Hartmann show. Then, poof! I just got home to find the article waiting for me:

Attorney General Eric Holder Monday ordered a complete review of all cases in which the Justice Department under his Republican predecessors had invoked claims of a "state secrets" privilege to protect classified government programs from lawsuits.

Holder has instructed the department's top lawyers to begin the review promptly "to ensure that it is being invoked only in legally appropriate situations," department spokesman Matt Miller said..

Holder's instructions stressed, "It is vital that we protect information that if released could jeopardize national security, but the Justice Department will ensure that it is not invoked to hide from the American people information about their government's actions that they have a right to know," Miller said. [...]

The American Civil Liberties Union, which has been pressing the Obama administration to drop the state secrets claim, issued a blistering statement Monday.

"Eric Holder's Justice Department stood up in court today and said that it would continue the Bush policy of invoking state secrets to hide the reprehensible history of torture, rendition, and the most grievous human rights violations committed by the American government. This is not change. This is more of the same," said ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero.

"Candidate Obama ran on a platform that would reform the abuse of state secrets, but President Obama's Justice Department has disappointingly reneged on that important civil liberties issue," Romero said.

Pressure, pressure, pressure.

Obama Thanks U.K. for Concealing Evidence of U.S.-Sponsored Torture

By GottaLaff

President Obama needs to continue with his policy of transparency. He needs to break with BushCo on the issue of rendition and torture, as promised. So what's up with this:

In a followup to yesterday’s news that a British court ruled that it would conceal information about the rendition and alleged torture of Guantanamo Bay detainee Binyam Mohamed at the U.S. government’s request, the BBC today reports that in a statement, the Obama White House said it “thanked the UK government for its continued commitment to protect sensitive national security information,” adding that this would “preserve the long-standing intelligence sharing relationship that enables both countries to protect their citizens”. [...]

Here’s how the U.K. court described the United States’ move: “[T]he United States Government’s position is that, if the redacted paragraphs are made public, then the United States Government will re-evaluate its intelligence sharing relationship with the United Kingdom with the real risk that it would reduce the intelligence provided.” [...]

Call it what you will, the Obama administration is continuing the Bush administration’s policy of concealing evidence that the U.S.-sponsored torture and other abuse, humiliation and mistreatment of detainees. [...]

It looks like the Obama administration is increasingly being boxed into a corner: either it keeps concealing evidence that crimes were committed, in violation of the President’s recent pledges for a newly transparent government, or it lets the evidence come out and confronts the fact that it’s going to have to authorize some sort of an investigation of what abuses took place under the Bush administration and who was responsible.

Attorney General Holder, please do the right thing here. Investigate.