Federal Judge Mark Abel in Ohio has imposed a $15 million damage award on former Somali colonel, Abdi Aden Magan, who tortured human rights advocate Abukar Hassan Ahmed. What was most striking about the decision was the statement that such damages are necessary to guarantee that the United States is not a “safe harbor for those who commit human rights abuses.” Of course, this follows a series of court decisions barring the victims of the U.S. torture program from even getting a trial, let alone damages. Those responsible continue to appear on television from George W. Bush to Dick Cheney to John Yoo. Indeed, rather than punish those who facilitated the torture program, we made one — Jay Bybee (shown right) — a federal appellate judge with lifetime tenure. That particular “safe harbor” is found in the courthouse of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Ahmed proved that Magan oversaw his torture in Somalia in 1988. Ahmed was a professor at the Somalia International University and a human rights lawyer. Notably, his torture included the use of stress positions which was included in our own torture program. People like Bybee and Yoo advised that short of organ failure or death, such stress positions would not amount to torture.
Magan was investigations chief of the National Security Service of Somalia. One of Ahmed’s lawyers explained that the court wanted to draw the line at our borders to prevent this country from serving as a safe harbor.
Ahmed found Magan living in Ohio. He now lives in Kenya. He tried to dismiss the case as filed in the wrong country. It appears however that such jurisdictional problems only arise when U.S. officials are accused of torture. The Obama Administration (which opposed efforts to even try U.S. officials for torture) supported the right of a court to try a foreign torturer.
The hypocrisy of the United States on torture could not be evident or embarrassing. We have a federal court (correctly) holding a former foreign government official liable while on another federal court a supporter of the U.S. torture program sits in judgment of others without fear of prosecution.
Source: Chronicle
Juan Cole:
(Informed Comment).
Daniel Ellsberg, Pentagon Papers Whistleblower, Sees Bradley Manning’s Conviction As The Beginning Of Police State
Posted: 08/22/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/22/daniel-ellsberg-bradley-manning_n_3793199.html
Excerpt:
The NSA surveillance of millions of emails and phone calls. The dogged pursuit of whistleblower Edward Snowden across the globe, regardless of the diplomatic fallout. And the sentencing of Bradley Manning to 35 years in prison for giving a cache of government files to the website WikiLeaks. Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg sees these events as signs that the United States is becoming a police state.
“We have not only the capability of a police state, but certain beginnings of it right now,” Ellsberg said. “And I absolutely agree with Edward Snowden. It’s worth a person’s life, prospect of assassination, or life in prison or life in exile — it’s worth that to try to restore our liberties and make this a democratic country.”
Ellsberg was a military analyst with the RAND Corporation in 1969 when he secretly copied thousands of classified documents about U.S. decision-making during the Vietnam War. In 1971, he leaked the files (known as the Pentagon Papers) to The New York Times and 18 other newspapers.
Although the Nixon administration tried to prevent the publication of the files, the Supreme Court ruled in New York Times Co. v. United States that the newspaper could continue publishing the files.
Ellsberg was later tried on 12 felony counts under the Espionage Act of 1917, and faced a possible sentence of 115 years in prison. His case was dismissed in 1973 on the grounds of gross governmental misconduct.
Darren,
Convicted Army private Bradley Manning says he’s a woman
Carolyn Pesce and Jim Michaels
August 22, 2013
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/08/22/convicted-leaker-manning-a-woman/2684009/
Excerpt:
Bradley Manning, the Army private sentenced to 35 years in military prison for leaking classified documents, revealed Thursday he intends to live out the remainder of his life as a woman.
“I am Chelsea Manning. I am female,” the Army private wrote in a statement read on NBC’s TODAY show Thursday by his attorney. “Given the way that I feel, and have felt since childhood, I want to begin hormone therapy as soon as possible. I hope that you will support me in this transition.”
He’s petitioning Obama for a pardon.
Dredd, I really liked your statement about truth. No one does own it, it is simply the truth.
Bart, that was funny!
Elaine
IT is certainly unfair how Bradley Manning receive sentences longer than those listed in that article. I can only hope he is granted parole when he is eligible in 8 or 9 years.
8 Real Spies And Actual Bad Guys Who Got Shorter Sentences Than Bradley Manning
The Huffington Post
By Nick Wing
Posted: 08/21/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/21/shorter-sentences-than-bradley-manning_n_3789754.html
With Jay Bybee wearing the robe, contempt of court is a patriotic duty.
@ Dredd i still giggled until i read these quotes..
“The governments of the present day have to deal not merely with other governments, with emperors, kings and ministers, but also with the secret societies which have everywhere their unscrupulous agents, and can at the last moment upset all the governments’ plans. ”
British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, 1876
“The real menace of our republic is this invisible government which like a giant octopus sprawls its slimy length over city, state and nation. Like the octopus of real life, it operates under cover of a self created screen….At the head of this octopus are the Rockefeller Standard Oil interests and a small group of powerful banking houses generally referred to as international bankers. The little coterie of powerful international bankers virtually run the United States government for their own selfish purposes. They practically control both political parties.”
New York City Mayor John F. Hylan, 1922
“From the days of Sparticus, Wieskhopf, Karl Marx, Trotsky, Rosa Luxemberg, and Emma Goldman, this world conspiracy has been steadily growing. This conspiracy played a definite recognizable role in the tragedy of the French revolution. It has been the mainspring of every subversive movement during the 19th century. And now at last this band of extraordinary personalities from the underworld of the great cities of Europe and America have gripped the Russian people by the hair of their head and have become the undisputed masters of that enormous empire.”
Winston Churchill, stated to the London Press, in l922.
“For a long time I felt that FDR had developed many thoughts and ideas that were his own to benefit this country, the United States. But, he didn’t. Most of his thoughts, his political ammunition, as it were, were carefully manufactured for him in advanced by the Council on Foreign Relations-One World Money group. Brilliantly, with great gusto, like a fine piece of artillery, he exploded that prepared “ammunition” in the middle of an unsuspecting target, the American people, and thus paid off and returned his internationalist political support.
“The UN is but a long-range, international banking apparatus clearly set up for financial and economic profit by a small group of powerful One-World revolutionaries, hungry for profit and power.
“The depression was the calculated ‘shearing’ of the public by the World Money powers, triggered by the planned sudden shortage of supply of call money in the New York money market….The One World Government leaders and their ever close bankers have now acquired full control of the money and credit machinery of the U.S. via the creation of the privately owned Federal Reserve Bank.”
Curtis Dall, FDR’s son-in-law as quoted in his book, My Exploited Father-in-Law
and the list goes on..
http://www.theforbiddenknowledge.com/quotes/index.htm
Government agents stormed the offices of the Guardian and destroyed the military NSA’s information on that newspaper’s hard drive:
As bad as it is, Bush officials may be better off taking personal responsibility for their war crimes or at least promoting a Truth Commission.
Injustice creates people like Simon Weisenthal, they hunt down war criminals for their entire lives. This justice is much more severe than the official justice system. The victims never forget!
“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”
~ Mahatma Gandhi
“short of organ failure or death, such stress positions would not amount to torture.”
Inserting wires under finger nails, or simply ripping off finger nails doesn’t lead to either organ failure or death. So ripping off finger nails is in.
But it is not clear to me if cigarette burns to sensitive body parts is in or out. Certainly cigarette burns never cause death – at least not without other complications.
But what about the burn to the skin. Does the burn over a limited area of skin constitute an organ failure? And if not, how much skin area can interrogators burn before the skin organ has failed – in a legal sense? I hope the Honorable Bibee can give us an opinion on this important question – soon. We never know when we might have to interrogate a high value detainee.
The administration’s sycophantic journalist running dogs and lackeys are screaming that Manning needed to be punished to show the system works. If they would be honest they would say, “we demand Manning be punished for revealing illegalities committed by my govt. patrons”.
There is no scream for the people who tortured Manning, who unlawfully imprisoned him, to be investigated, brought to trial and to learn a lesson that their conduct will not be tolerated.
I mean, this does not pass anyone’s smell test. If the system worked, Bybee would not be a sitting judge for a pie contest. If the system worked, the people who did order this illegal detention and torture (people at the very top) would be held to account. That’s just one easy way to spot these hacks on sight. I think they are despicable.
I will say this again, the destruction of your society should not be something you will do for any reason, let alone, to pick up your paycheck and to hobnob with the powerful.
American ‘justice’ at its finest.
If they won’t restore American values voluntarily, maybe both Bush and Obama should stand trial. These are evil acts regardless of party.
Jill 1, August 21, 2013 at 1:51 pm
Dredd, there’s only one way to expose the deep state and that is to expose those who hold elected office. It may not work, I grant that, but if politicians are held to account by the people, they are going to start squealing. These people don’t exactly have a profile in courage award. They aren’t going to go down without ratting on their masters. They are paid hacks and paid hacks don’t have loyalty to anyone or anything but themselves.
Something that always interested me about Cheney is he appears to have actual friends. Scooter shut up and went up for Cheney. Obama doesn’t seem to have any friends. He’s just a paid hack. That means people like him, Pelosi, Rogers, Feinstein, Boehner, etc.–right now they are used to getting away with everything, no problem. But if we can rethether the govt. to the rule of law, I’d like to see what happens regarding the deep state.
At this point the deep state is still having the political class front for them. I think the deep state would run into trouble if the political class could no longer do their dirty work.
=====================================
We have to try.
But the psychological deep state is not bound by the 1% alone, the 99% also have a cultural amygdala.
Which gives new meaning to “the deep state”.
Keep up the good work.
Defense attorney: Manning tried ‘cheering me up’
DAVID DISHNEAU and PAULINE JELINEK | August 21, 2013 02:13 PM EST | AP
HANOVER, Md. — The attorney for Army Pfc. Bradley Manning says the soldier tried to cheer him up after the judge sentenced Manning to 35 years in prison.
David Coombs said at a news conference Wednesday that he was in tears after the sentence was handed down. Coombs says Manning looked at him and said: “Don’t worry about it. It’s all right. I know you did your best. It’s going to be OK.”
Coombs did not recommend a specific sentence for Manning but suggested he shouldn’t get more than 25 years because some of the documents he leaked will be declassified by then.
Prosecutors had asked for at least 60 years in prison. They did not comment after the sentence was announced.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20130821/us-manning-wikileaks-defense-attorney/
Blouise,
Hmmmm…. 😉 Certainly one has to be careful…
Disguises I Have Worn: Why Subterfuge Is Necessary for Investigative Journalism
http://barrygrahamauthor.com/post/49156848858/disguises-i-have-worn-why-subterfuge-is-necessary-for
“There have been other such deceptions – these are only the ones that spring to mind right now – and the sad fact is that they are often necessary in matters of public interest. It should be exceptional, and a last resort, but as long as the privacy of individuals is not being violated, I see no ethical problem with it.”
America’s two tiered Justice system.
One set of Laws reserved to reward the political elite…
… The other set of Laws are reserved to prosecute Just-us.
Dredd, there’s only one way to expose the deep state and that is to expose those who hold elected office. It may not work, I grant that, but if politicians are held to account by the people, they are going to start squealing. These people don’t exactly have a profile in courage award. They aren’t going to go down without ratting on their masters. They are paid hacks and paid hacks don’t have loyalty to anyone or anything but themselves.
Something that always interested me about Cheney is he appears to have actual friends. Scooter shut up and went up for Cheney. Obama doesn’t seem to have any friends. He’s just a paid hack. That means people like him, Pelosi, Rogers, Feinstein, Boehner, etc.–right now they are used to getting away with everything, no problem. But if we can rethether the govt. to the rule of law, I’d like to see what happens regarding the deep state.
At this point the deep state is still having the political class front for them. I think the deep state would run into trouble if the political class could no longer do their dirty work.