Recently, I wrote a column on how the West has used hate crime laws to create a Western version of blasphemy prosecutions in the Middle East. Finland has now added to the list of countries charging people with blasphemy. Helsinki city councilman, Jussi Halla-aho was charged with blasphemy and incitement of an ethnic-group for publishing on his blog that Islam’s prophet was a pedophile. Mohammad is often accused of being a pedophile due to his marriage to 6-year-old Aisha, which was consummated when she was 9.
Continue reading “Finland Prosecutes Politician for Blasphemy in Calling Mohammad a Pedophile”
Category: International
According to close friends, Judge Jay S. Bybee appears to have adopted the Alberto Gonzalez defense: he is now claiming that he did not write his infamous memo and only signed it. This is similar to the defense that Democrats allowed Gonzales to make on the first torture memo at his confirmation hearing for Attorney General, to wit, he did not read an important policy memo on the commission of a war crime, he just signed it. It is the empty suit defense: I really am not to blame when I sign orders or memos because I just sign things. Bybee has not spoken directly on this matter to the public, but there are now various friends saying that he would like to repudiate the memos and even denies writing the memos.
Continue reading “The Alberto Gonzales Defense: Judge Bybee Reportedly Denies That He Wrote Infamous Memo”
A Jewish professor at the University of California at Santa Barbara has been accused of anti-Semitism for material that he shared with his students in a course on sociology and globalization. The material critical of Israel led to two students dropping the course and charges filed against Professor William I. Robinson.
Continue reading “Jewish Professor in California Accused of Anti-Semitism”
Jordan’s King Abdullah II joined the ever-lengthening list of people saying that the United States tortured detainees in an interview to air on NBC Meet the Press. He joins a long list of Bush officials, the International Red Cross, countless NGOs and experts who have come forward in the last few weeks. I discussed this evidence last night on this segment of Hardball.
Continue reading “Jordan’s King Abdullah: Evidence of Torture By United States Is Obvious”
A Senate Intelligence Report shows that Condoleeza Rice, then national security adviser, approved of the torture program as early as 2002. One week later, Attorney General John Ashcroft signed off the the legality of the torture by finding that the “proposed interrogation techniques were lawful.” It was also revealed that torture was used on Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the first person charged in the United States in the 2000 attack on the destroyer USS Cole in Yemen.
Continue reading “Report: Condoleeza Rice and John Ashcroft Approved of Torture Program”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is trying to fend off criticism over her knowledge of the Bush Administration’s plan to torture detainees. Pelosi has adopted a highly lawyered exclamation that she was briefed on the plan but never told that they were implementing the plan. It is a distinction lost on civil libertarians. She was still briefed on a war crime and did not act to stop it.
Continue reading “It Depends What “Know” Means: Pelosi Admits That She Was Briefed on Torture But Claims Ignorance on its Actual Use”
Attorney General Eric Holder said Wednesday that he will “follow the law” in deciding whether to pursue criminal charges against Bush officials for the torture program. While first reported as a major advance, the statement conspicuously does not mention the appointment of a special prosecutor, an essential component to any investigation since the Justice Department featured heavily in these allegations.
Continue reading “Holder Promises to Follow the Law on Any Torture Investigation But Fails to Mention Special Prosecutor”
At a time when the Harman scandal is focusing attention on the power of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in Congress, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman is quoted in his very first interview on foreign policy as saying “Believe me, America accepts all our decisions.”
Continue reading “Israeli Foreign Minister: The United States Does What Israel Decides Should Be Done”
President Obama reversed earlier statements statements made as late as this weekend from Raum Emmanuel and others that he did not want anyone — low level or high level officials — prosecuted for torture. In a clear break from his past statements, Obama insisted that the matter had to be left to Attorney General Eric Holder. We discussed this latest development on this segment of MSNBC Countdown. In the meantime, the Administration leaked a memo from Intelligence Director Dennis Blair that said that the torture program yielded new information — part of a new emerging argument that torture works that was also recently advanced by former Vice President Dick Cheney.
The lawsuit against KBR by the families of civilian drivers killed in an ambush in Iraq in 2004 have been strengthened by internal memos showing that KBR officials knew of the insurgent activity and high level of danger before sending them into harm’s way.
After refusing to release even unclassified materials as Vice President, former Vice President Dick Cheney is now calling for the release of all interrogation reports to show that torture works. This is the same Cheney who supported the denial of such evidence to courts and criminal defendants and Congress. However, now that calls for prosecution for war crimes are increasing, Cheney suddenly believes in transparency in government. In the meantime, Obama has reversed earlier statements and indicated that he will not rule out prosecutions of Bush officials. We discussed this latest development on this segment of MSNBC Countdown.
Continue reading “Torture Works: Cheney Unrolls New Campaign to Justify War Crimes”
For civil libertarians, this story is proof of a divine being. Rep. Jane Harman has long been criticized for her knowledge of the unlawful warrantless surveillance program and torture program. The democrats have blocked any investigation into the unlawful programs in part to protect democratic members like Harman who would be implicated. Now, it has been reported that Harman was captured on an NSA surveillance allegedly cutting a deal with a suspected Israeli agent to help reduce charges against two officials of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee. Harman allegedly offered the help in exchange for AIPAC securing her the position as Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. According to CQ, Harman offers to “waddle into” the AIPAC case in exchange for help securing the Chairmanship. Harman reportedly ended the call with the suspected spy with the warning “This conversation doesn’t exist.”
Aisha al-Hamzi, 40, was executed by firing squad in Yemen for the murder of her husband. She insisted that she killed her husband after he molested their oldest daughter, who is now 14. Notably, she would have been spared if any of her seven children asked for a pardon. Critics blame the husband’s family for pressuring the children in their control not to ask for a pardon. In the meantime, another woman was executed by beheading in Saudi Arabia.
Continue reading “Mother Shot By Firing Squad After Children Refuse to Ask for Pardon”
A British tabloid is reporting that it conducted an undercover sting and confirmed that the father of Rubina Ali (one of the child star’s from the movie Slumdog Millionaire) is trying to sell the girl for £200,000.
Continue reading “Oscar Special: Father of Slumdog Millionaire Child Actress Accused of Trying to Sell Daughter”
I just completed the discussion below on NPR’s On Point with Professor Robert Turner of the University of Virginia. It shows the flood of different rationales being put forward from every quarter to excuse not investigating war crimes.
Continue reading “On Point Debate With Professor Robert Turner”