The Agonist - Human Rights

Unearthing Secrets of Colombia's Long War

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 06:41:27 -0700

Juan Forero | Anori, Colombia | Aug 27

WaPo - A team of forensic anthropologists painstakingly dug up the bodies -- two from the town's decaying mausoleum, others from the moist earth in the cemetery, a couple from a field nearby. The preferred method of death: a single gunshot to the head. One young man had been beheaded, his skull now nowhere to be found.

Victims of Colombia's slow-burning but brutal civil war, they had been killed by right-wing death squads and left on roadsides and in ditches around this northern town. Their impoverished relatives, too fearful to report the slayings, hastily buried the bodies and never told authorities.

The scene had been repeated across Colombia for a generation, as illegal paramilitary gunmen, often working closely with army units, killed thousands of people in their war against leftist insurgencies and, in most cases, disposed of them in shallow, unmarked graves. With Colombia's economy booming and its government feted from Washington to Paris for its recent success against Marxist guerrillas, the disappearances of mostly peasant farmers, in a campaign that intensified in the 1990s, have been largely overlooked.

Attorney General Mario Iguarán, whose office oversees the exhumations, said in an interview that authorities think more than 10,000 bodies might still be scattered across the country.

Guantanamo trial may proceed without defendant

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 03:47:47 -0700

August 15

Reuters - An accused al Qaeda videographer abandoned his hearing in the U.S. war crimes court at Guantanamo on Friday, setting up what could be a fast trial with no defendant and no defense.

First Rule of SAPRO Is...Don't Talk About SAPRO

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 15:38:04 -0700

Good news: Pressure from Rep. Waxman to enforce Dr. Kaye Whitley's subpoena to testify on how the DOD is preventing and responding to incidents of sexual assault in the military have paid off: after first blocking her from attending a House committee's hearing, the Pentagon is allowing Whitley to testify. Bad news: the DOD continues to ignore a very specific responsibility they have been tasked with in order to fully address this issue.

I expect that people find it hard to deal with emotionally sensitive issues. I may even expect that many people would want to shield themselves from it.

But I won't tolerate elected and appointed officials who run and hide when they not only have the power to do something about it, they have the explicit responsibility of doing something about it.

And when that issue concerns protecting women in the military from sexual assault, it should be absolutely unacceptable for the Defense Department's Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office (SAPRO), to shirk their responsibilities of doing all they can to address what is a very serious issue, which includes participating in a congressional hearing on why so many alarming reports have been surfacing about the sexual assault rate in the military.

HHS Secretary Tries to Dispell Our Fears About Defining Contraception as Abortion...By Refusing to Discuss it.

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 14:30:02 -0700

HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt is awfully proud of the controversy from the recent draft regulation on what he calls “Physician Conscience:”

“I’m delighted to announce that with the help of Planned Parenthood, my blog -- for the first time -- received more visits than my teenage son’s MySpace page.”

Congratulations, Mr. Leavitt! But what about our fear that your new regulation will redefine contraception as abortion -- and reduce access, especially among low-income women, to birth control?

Khadr launches suit against PM in bid to force repatriation

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 19:15:00 -0700

David Akin | Augut 9

CanWest - Omar Khadr, the Canadian man accused of war crimes, is suing Stephen Harper, asking that a judge order the prime minister to step in to help repatriate him from the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The lawsuit, filed yesterday with the Federal Court of Canada, argues that this country has an obligation to co-operate in the rehabilitation and social reintegration of children illegally used in armed conflict.

Women Stuck in Holy Book Thumping Fundamentalism

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 21:31:20 -0700

In horribly oppressive theocratic countries, these five remarkable women bust out to find a freedom that many of us in America fear and hide from under the veils of self-imposed constraints. Awake up call to the American fundamentalists who demand more religious based laws and education. Theocracies exist and they often grow into ugly regimes.

The autobiography, entitled Infidel by Ayaan Kirsi Ali, drags gruesome truths out from the shadows of Muslim society that otherwise remain in the darkness of closed circles and communications controlled by Islamic authorities. Ayaan exposes the hidden workings of a backward society gripped tightly in religious fervor.

RCMP's spy campaign on women's movement

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 01:58:53 -0700

August 4

CBC - RCMP spies infiltrated Canada's women's movement in the early 1970s, monitoring meetings and rallies to keep an eye on feminists...

...While the Mounties recognized the groups were out to "stop so-called exploitation of women," as one officer put it, the force was much more concerned about the apparent infiltration of the movement by avowed Communist interests.

Gitmo Detainees Subject to Detention Even If Acquitted

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 14:46:56 -0700

August 3

AFP - Some detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba will likely never be released because of the danger they pose, and those tried and acquitted will still be subject to continued detention as enemy combatants, a Pentagon spokesman said Tuesday.

Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary, made the remarks as Salim Hamdan, a Yemeni, awaited a verdict in the first war crimes trial to be held under a special regime created for "war on terror" suspects.

Morrell said Hamdan, a former driver of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, could appeal the verdict in US courts.

"But in the near term, at least, we would consider him an enemy combatant and still a danger and would likely still be detained for some period of time thereafter," he said.

Texas set to execute Mexican at center of diplomatic battle

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 08:25:22 -0700

Dave Montgomery | Washington | August 4

McClatchy - In 2004, the International Court of Justice ruled that 51 Mexican defendants were not properly notified of their rights to consular access and were entitled to new hearings. President Bush ordered states to comply, but the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that he'd overstepped his authority. On Tuesday, Texas is set to execute the first of those defendants, Jose Medellin.

"Texas . . . has the power to stop the execution," said Medellin's co-counsel, Sandra Babcock of Chicago. "If Texas doesn't stop the execution, Texas is going to be responsible for putting the United States in breach of its international obligations."

But Gov. Rick Perry has thus far shown little inclination to stop the execution, despite written appeals from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Attorney General Michael Mukasey.
..
Jeffrey Davidow, former U.S. ambassador to Mexico, said U.S. failure to comply with the treaty obligations will "reduce American standing in the world" and endanger thousands of U.S. citizens arrested overseas each year.

Verdict due in US trial of bin Laden's driver

Sun, 03 Aug 2008 20:54:40 -0700

Washington | August 2

AFP - A verdict awaits Osama bin Laden's former driver, Salim Hamdan, this week in a trial seen as a test of the controversial military tribunals set up by the US administration to try suspects in the "war on terror."

Truth Commission Report Ignores Justice, Church Says

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 21:02:32 -0700

TIMOR LESTE | July 29, 2008
DILI (UCAN>) - The report of the Commission for Truth and Friendship on who was behind the violence surrounding East Timor's independence vote in 1999 ignores justice, a Catholic Church official says.

The commission, set up by the Timorese and Indonesian governments, concluded that the Indonesian army directed the violence but also cited allegations of human rights violations by pro-independence groups.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of Indonesia and President Jose Ramos-Horta of Timor Leste (East Timor) officially received the report at a ceremony on the Indonesian island of Bali on July 15. Media reported that Yudhoyono expressed regret for the bloodshed but said Indonesia and Timor Leste would examine the report before proceeding further.

What would the Attic Orators say?

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 21:55:49 -0700

The lawyer for a Missouri mother accused of creating a fake MySpace page to harass a 13-year-old girl is arguing that charges should be tossed out of court because if she is guilty, then so are millions of Internet users every day. {snip} from Wapo
Experts in the field also said that if violating terms of service is a crime, then the Web sites that write the agreements essentially could function as lawmakers or prosecutors.

"The possibilities for abuse are endless because Web site terms of service are arbitrary," said Orin S. Kerr, a former federal computer crime prosecutor and now a George Washington University law professor, who has provided informal advice to the defense. "A computer owner could set up a public Web site; announce that only Christians can visit; and then refer for prosecution any Jews, Muslims or atheists who visit the Web site out of curiosity."

My Country Right or Wrong...My Country

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 16:40:40 -0700

Those words…so haunting, seemingly harmless and benign, I love my country whether it’s right or wrong. That’s what the phrase means, right? To some it may mean that, but to me, it means something entirely different.

“My country right or wrong”, that part is entirely correct. The Egyptians, the Spartans, the Romans, the Spanish and the English all supported their nations, whether they were right or wrong. What most people don’t realize is that the last two words of that phrase changes the meaning so completely; “my country”.

The truth is that it is your country whether your country is right or wrong. It’s still your country. That makes you part and parcel of what is done in your name. “My Country” is the damning part of that phrase. Yes, it’s your country, and what your country does reflects on you. The truth may be that you have no real power to move your country in a different direction, but that doesn’t take away the fact that you are complicit. What your country does, what it stands for, or doesn’t stand for, is certainly part of your responsibility. You may only be one voice in the wilderness, but you still have that voice.

Come and see the violence inherent in the system! Help! Help! I'm being repressed!

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 17:01:08 -0700

All pythonesque jokes aside: Mike Stark writes from Maryland, about the States' spy system.

1985 in 2008

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 09:27:14 -0700

An editorial in The New York Times, No Friend of the Workers, today http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/18/opinion/18fri2.html?ref=opinion was a scathing indictment of the Labor Department. Now I don’t want to lecture anyone about what they should be paying attention to, but this one was too hard to ignore. The editorial was spot-on in it’s reporting, and that was gratifying in itself. The New York Times has published a number of editorials that could come under the banner of “dissent”.

In the article, there were clear indictments of the Labor Department. In one paragraph of the editorial the Times stated: