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”
Category: Justice
It is getting rather difficult to follow the line of logic at the White House on the torture investigation. For months, President Obama has been speaking about his intentions as to any investigation into the torture program. Then, this week, he suddenly declared that he should have no role in such decisions. Then the next day, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs declared that Obama did not want to see a special prosecutor. I discussed this statement last night on this segment of Hardball. In the meantime, it appears that new pictures of detainee will be released — though obviously not the videos of torture that were destroyed by CIA officials to prevent their being used against themselves.
Continue reading “White House: No Special Prosecutor on Torture”
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”
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has called for Judge Jay Bybee to resign in light of his central role in the torture program and memos. Leahy declared that “[t]he fact is, the Bush administration and Mr. Bybee did not tell the truth. If the Bush administration and Mr. Bybee had told the truth, he never would have been confirmed.”
Continue reading “Leahy Calls for Judge Bybee’s Resignations and Others Call for Impeachment”
Rep. Jane Harman, D-California, has called the alleged interception of her calls with a suspected spy “an abuse of power” and has called for the transcripts of the call to be given to her. As suggested in an earlier blog, she has promised to make the transcript public if given to her. However, she would not confirm the conversation while denying any quid pro quo arrangement to help accused American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) lobbyists — Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman — in exchange for AIPAC’s help in securing the House Intelligence Committee Chairmanship. While Harman is reported as ending the call with the statement that “This conversation doesn’t exist,” she now denies that the conversation existed as reported in the media.
Notably, the same week that this conversation was revealed, the Administration is reportedly considering dropping charges against the AIPAC lobbyists — precisely what the AIPAC contact reported demanded from Harman in her help to reduce or dismiss charges.
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.
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.”
Here is today’s column in USA Today concerning the argument today before the United States Supreme Court in the case of April Redding.
Continue reading “Lockdown High: Zero-Tolerance Policies and Authoritarian Learning”
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”
U.N. special rapporteur Manfred Nowak has gone public with a stinging indictment of President Barack Obama’s failure to investigate and prosecute officials for the American torture program, a clear war crime under existing treaties. Obama is in open violation of international law due to his failure to uphold the clear legal and moral obligations of this country.
Continue reading “United Nations Official Strongly Suggests That Obama Is In Violation International Law in Refusing to Investigate War Crimes”
One of the more shocking revelation from the May 30, 2005 Bradbury memo, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was waterboarded 183 times in March 2003. Abu Zubaydah was waterboarded 83 times in August 2002. Unless I am missing something, that would mean that that KSM was tortured roughly six times a day.
Continue reading “Memo: Bush Administration Tortured Khalid Sheikh Mohammed 183 Times”