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”
Category: Lawyering
This week involved not one but two leading lawyers nailed for shoplifting. In Wichita, Troy Ellis the former chief counsel at Invista was forced to resign after filmed allegedly stealing food from the company cafeteria. In the meantime, in Utah, former prosecutor Gary Guymon (left) was arrested for stealing a necklace from a jewelry shop at a resort.
Continue reading “Two Leading Lawyers Face Shoplifting Allegations in Two Separate Cases”
Chicago attorney Nathan Billmaier, 35, was convicted of smuggling drugs and paraphernalia in legal briefs and materials to a client, Donald Jordan, in prison. He is the second attorney in Chicago to be nailed for smuggling in contraband.
Continue reading “Chicago Attorney Convicted of Smuggling Contraband into Prison”
Finally, an Olympic event in which I could compete.
Continue reading “Synchronized Sleeping — The New Olympic Sport”
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”
An American journalist Roxana Saberi, 31, has been convicted of spying and sentenced to eight years in prison after a closed door trial.
Continue reading “American Journalist Roxana Saberi Given Eight Year Sentence in Iran”
The newly released torture memos reveal the comprehensive and premeditated character of America’s torture program. It also highlights the shameful role of now Judge Jay Bybee, who distorts the current law in the area to justify a clear war crime. In the meantime, former administration officials have called the release a danger to national security. I discussed the memos onthis segment of Countdown.
Continue reading “New Torture Memos Reveal Details of America’s Torture Program”
After his recent trip to the Middle East to reach out to Muslims appears to have born fruit. A Pakistan leader has adopted the position of the Obama Administration on war crimes. Tehrik-i-Nifaz-i-Shariat-i-Muhammadi chief Sufi Mohammad has announced that Taliban murderers who have been accused of such crimes as burning schools, throwing acid in the faces of school girls, and killings should not be prosecuted because “[w]e intend to bury the past. These things will be left behind and we will go for a new life in peace.” It is the very logic that our President has been trying to advance as an excuse for not allowing an investigation into the torture program. Obama has insisted that “no one is above the law” while immediately guaranteeing that Bush officials are above the law by stating “My orientation’s going to be to move forward . . . getting things right in the future as opposed to looking at what we got wrong in the past.”
I have long been a critic of the faux judges on television who turn criminal justice into a form of caricatured entertainment. Now, “Judge” Greg Mathis is opening his own video game to compete with such games as Grand Theft Auto. His game includes such fun risks as prison rape.
Continue reading ““Judge” Mathis Goes Video: Fun With Prison Rape and Other “Justice Issues””
A federal appellate court has tossed out the lawsuit by Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich sued Rep. John Murtha for defamation after the congressman said that his Marine unit killed Iraqi women and children “in cold blood” in Haditha.
Continue reading “Appellate Court Throws Out Murtha Defamation Lawsuit On Immunity Grounds”
Superior Court Judge Sam Cozza in Washington state has granted a temporary restraining order against Sean B. Fawcett to prevent him from giving his 9-year-old son access to a shotgun. The mother, Laura Vissydas, argued that her son came back with bruises on his shoulder and that Fawcett is unable to fully protect her son due to his deafness.
Continue reading “Family Court Bars Father From Giving Shotgun to 9-Year-Old Under Visitation”
There are reports that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin may be backing off of her nomination of Wayne Anthony Ross for state attorney general Palin’s nominee has long been a controversial and far-right figure. Various groups have come forward with extremist and bizarre statements attributed to Ross, who like to drive around in his Hummer with W.A.R. on this license plates (his initials)
Continue reading “W.A.R. (What is He Good For?): Sarah Palin’s Attorney General Triggers Firestorm”
Spanish prosecutors reportedly will seek criminal charges against Alberto Gonzales, Federal Appeals Court Judge and former Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee, University of California law professor and former Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Yoo, former Defense Department general counsel and current Chevron lawyer William J. Haynes II, Vice President Cheney’s former chief of staff David Addington, and former Undersecretary of Defense Douglas J. Feith. In a particularly embarrassing moment for the United States, the Audencia Nacional court in Madrid asked if or when the United States was going to investigate and said that it would not order the investigation if such an investigation is begun — yielding to the United States. This is precisely what was discussed in previously on Countdown.
After seeking adopting Bush positions on unlawful surveillance last week, President Obama has adopted another controversial Bush policy: opposing basic legal rights for detainees held in U.S. military prison in Afghanistan. Some of the most egregious allegations of torture and abuse have focused on such prisons as the one at Bagram Air base. President Obama is now claiming that access to courts and review in such cases would threaten national security.