Washington | July 1

AP - The Justice Department is again delaying the release of an internal CIA report on the agency's secret detention and interrogation program during the Bush administration.

The report had been expected to be made public two weeks ago but was held back over debates about how much of it should be censored. The government published a version of the report in 2008, but its contents were almost entirely blacked out.

Dafna Linzer & Peter Finn | June 27

WaPo/ProPublica - Obama administration officials, fearing a battle with Congress that could stall plans to close the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, are crafting language for an executive order that would reassert presidential authority to incarcerate terrorism suspects indefinitely, according to three senior government officials with knowledge of White House deliberations.

Such an order would embrace claims by former president George W. Bush that certain people can be detained without trial for long periods under the laws of war. Obama advisers are concerned that an order, which would bypass Congress, could place the president on weaker footing before the courts and anger key supporters, the officials said.

After months of internal debate over how to close the military facility in Cuba, White House officials are increasingly worried that reaching quick agreement with Congress on a new detention system may be impossible. Several officials said there is concern in the White House that the administration may not be able to close the prison by the president's January deadline.

I saw three stories today that seemingly have no connection, but taken together are a kind of core sample of the heart, mind and body of our nation.

First the heart of America is clearly pumping some kind of powerful deliriant ichor that is bending our minds:

Pagano, pastor of New Bethel Church, an Assemblies of God congregation here, has spent the past few weeks inside an international media maelstrom over his church's upcoming "Open Carry Church Service," which is set for this Saturday, June 27. That's when he expects Christians who are both pious and the gun-loving to heed his invitation to bring their weapons to church to give thanks for the right to bear arms.

Then there is our mind which is asleep at the switch of a very large and dangerous machine. Its as if we've turned over the keys of the mightiest most fearsome military industrial complex in human history to a bunch of glue huffing carnies like so many decrepit ferris wheels:

A team of journalists investigating the global electronic waste business has unearthed a security problem too. In a Ghana market, they bought a computer hard drive containing sensitive documents belonging to U.S. government contractor Northrop Grumman.

The drive had belonged to a Fairfax, Virginia, employee who still works for the company and contained "hundreds and hundreds of documents about government contracts," said Peter Klein, an associate professor with the University of British Columbia, who led the investigation for the Public Broadcasting Service show Frontline. He would not disclose details of the documents, but he said that they were marked "competitive sensitive" and covered company contracts with the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Transportation Security Agency.

The data was unencrypted, Klein said in an interview. The cost? US$40.

And then there is our body, which is ravaged by parasites and rotting from within:

The National Prison Rape Elimination Commission final report is grim reading, especially the finding that prisoners report more rape committed by guards than by other prisoners.

More than 7.3 million Americans are confined in U.S. correctional facilities or supervised in the community, at a cost of more than $68 billion annually. Given our country's enormous investment in corrections, we should ensure that these environments are as safe and productive as they can be. Sexual abuse undermines those goals. It makes correctional environments more dangerous for staff as well as prisoners, consumes scarce resources, and undermines rehabilitation. It also carries the potential to devastate the lives of victims. The many interrelated consequences of sexual abuse for individuals and society are difficult to pinpoint and nearly impossible to quantify, but they are powerfully captured in individual accounts of abuse and its impact.

Former prisoner Necole Brown told the Commission, "I continue to contend with flashbacks of what this correctional officer did to me and the guilt, shame, and rage that comes with having been sexually violated for so many years. I felt lost for a very long time struggling with this. . . . I still struggle with the memories of this ordeal and take it out on friends and family who are trying to be there for me now."

We are not healthy. We need to wake up and detox before the car we're in careens entirely over the cliff.

June 23, 2009
Son of PRISP
Obama's Classroom Spies

By DAVID PRICE

As the continuities and disjunctures between the Bush and Obama administrations come into focus it becomes increasingly clear that while Obama’s domestic agenda has some identifiable breaks with Bush’s, at its core, the new administration remains committed to staying the course of American militarization. Now we have an articulate, nuanced president who supports elements of progressive domestic policies, can even comfortably say the phrase LGBT in public speeches, while funding military programs at alarming levels and continuing the Bush administration’s military and intelligence invasion of what used to be civilian life.

...And why does this case bring the question to mind?

I think because both presidents ushered in new chapters of tremendous presidential mendacity in their place in the American narrative, and the Plame case in particular called for Obama to step up. Some comment at the very least ought be made, even by inference. There won't be.

I can almost expect Obama to positively invoke Reagan in a speech some day, without batting an eye. 'Almost'? I won't be one bit surprised when he does. If he hasn't already that I've missed...

Supreme Court Refuses to Hear Plame's Lawsuit Against Cheney, Rove

Michael Doyle | Washington | June 20

McClatchy - President Barack Obama is morphing into George W. Bush, as administration attorneys repeatedly adopt the executive-authority and national-security rationales that their Republican predecessors preferred.

In courtroom battles and freedom-of-information fights from Washington, D.C., to California, Obama's legal arguments repeatedly mirror Bush's: White House turf is to be protected, secrets must be retained and dire warnings are wielded as weapons.

"It's putting up a veritable wall around the White House, and it's so at odds with Obama's campaign commitment to more open government," said Anne Weismann, chief counsel for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a legal watchdog group.

Julian E. Barnes | Washington | June 18

LA Times - Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. said Wednesday that about one-fourth of the remaining detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, could be tried in U.S. courts -- a number lower than the Pentagon previously had estimated.

Under the Bush administration, the Defense Department projected it could try as many as 80 Guantanamo detainees before military commissions. A fourth of the current population of 229 would be about 57 people.

The new estimate came during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, when Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) asked Holder whether one-fourth of the detainees stand to be tried before military commissions or federal courts. Holder replied: "That might be about right."

"I don't think we are going to have a very huge number" brought to trial, Holder said.

In the absence of trials, the Obama administration could be faced with holding a number of accused terrorists on a long-term basis without trials.

Holder cautioned that the administration did not know how many, if any, detainees would have to be held without trial.

On a related issue, Democratic leaders Wednesday agreed to a vote on a measure sponsored by Graham to ban the release of photographs of U.S. troops abusing detainees.

June 17

Raw Story - White House press secretary Robert Gibbs refused to say if President Barack Obama would sign an executive order to prevent the release of detainee abuse photos Tuesday. Earlier in the day, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told reporters that he had reason to believe Mr. Obama was considering such an order.

“I have reason to believe they are looking at that as a way to resolve this situation,” Hoyer (D-Md.) said.

At Tuesday’s White House briefing, spokesman Gibbs said, “All I’m going to say on this is that the president has committed to all interested parties that he intends to do what is necessary to keep those photos from being released and that he intends to keep that commitment.”

Didn't we have an election?

Gareth Porter | Washington | June 16

Asia Times - The United States Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA's) refusal to share with other agencies even the most basic data on the bombing attacks by remote-controlled unmanned Predator drones in Pakistan's northwestern tribal region, combined with recent revelations that CIA operatives have been paying Pakistanis to identify the targets, suggests that managers of the drone attack programs have been using the total secrecy surrounding the program to hide abuses and high civilian casualties.

Intelligence analysts have been unable to obtain either the list of military targets of the drone strikes or the actual results in terms of al-Qaeda or civilians killed, according to a Washington source familiar with internal discussion of the drone strike program. The source insisted on not being identified because of the extreme sensitivity of the issue.

"They can't find out anything about the program," the source told Inter Press Service (IPS). That has made it impossible for other government agencies to judge its real consequences, according to the source.

Also see: Pentagon wavers on release of report on Afghan attack

June 15

ACLU - On June 15, 2009, the CIA released still-highly redacted documents in which Guantánamo Bay prisoners describe abuse and torture they suffered in CIA custody. (Learn more >>) In previously released versions of the documents, the CIA had removed virtually all references to the abuse of prisoners in their custody; the new versions are still heavily blacked out but include some new information:

* Majid Khan
* Khalid Sheikh Muhammad
* Al Nashiri
* Abu Zubaydah

Also see: Heavily redacted CIA docs render more torture evidence

Kim Sengupta | June 13

The Independent - Decision to send Guantanamo inmates to British colony sours 'special relationship', The secret deal allowing detainees from Guantanamo,to settle in tropical Bermuda was made without the knowledge of David Miliband

Senior aides to President Barack Obama accompanied four Uighur prisoners as they were flown from Guantanamo Bay to the British colony of Bermuda, without the UK being informed, it was revealed yesterday.

In an escalating diplomatic row over the transfer of the former terrorist suspects, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton discussed the transfer with British Foreign Secretary David Miliband in what was said to be an uneasy conversation. Privately Whitehall officials accused America of treating Britain, with whom it is supposed to have a "special relationship", with barely disguised contempt.

One senior official said: "The Americans were fully aware of the foreign-policy understanding we have with Bermuda and they deliberately chose to ignore it. This is not the kind of behaviour one expects from an ally."

Gareth Porter | Washington | June 12

IPS - The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency’s refusal to share with other agencies even the most basic data on the bombing attacks by remote-controlled unmanned predator drones in Pakistan’s northwestern tribal region, combined with recent revelations that CIA operatives have been paying Pakistanis to identify the targets, suggests that managers of the drone attacks programmes have been using the total secrecy surrounding the programme to hide abuses and high civilian casualties.

Intelligence analysts have been unable to obtain either the list of military targets of the drone strikes or the actual results in terms of al Qaeda or civilians killed, according to a Washington source familiar with internal discussion of the drone strike programme. The source insisted on not being identified because of the extreme sensitivity of the issue.

"They can’t find out anything about the programme," the source told IPS. That has made it impossible for other government agencies to judge its real consequences, according to the source.

Since early 2009, Barack Obama administration officials have been claiming that the predator attacks in Pakistan have killed nine of 20 top al Qaeda officials, but they have refused to disclose how many civilians have been killed in the strikes.

In April, The News, a newspaper in Lahore, Pakistan, published figures provided by Pakistani officials indicating that 687 civilians have been killed along with 14 al Qaeda leaders in some 60 drone strikes since January 2008 – just over 50 civilians killed for every al Qaeda leader.

A paper published this week by the influential pro-military Centre for a New American Security (CNAS) criticising the Obama administration’s use of drone attacks in Pakistan says U.S. officials "vehemently dispute" the Pakistani figures but offers no further data on the programme.

Lieberman and Graham wage their own private cover-up war

Larisa Alexandrovna | Raw Story

Senators Joe Lieberman (I-Conn) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) have threatened all-out Congressional thermonuclear war over any additional release of detainee abuse photos. In a joint statement to the press, the duo is claiming that concern for national security is the impetus for such an aggressive move:

The most obvious solution to address both the concerns of Lieberman and Graham and the concerns of the public is to release these photos during criminal proceedings. The photos themselves can be sealed as evidence and can be viewed by a jury, while the public can be provided with the descriptions of the photos.

But Lieberman and Graham do not want to hold anyone to account and therefore, are not only covering up these crimes and obstructing justice, they are claiming national security as a reason to not make public the very evidence they know will put all those involved – possibly even themselves – on trial.

Is it not obvious that pictures released and sealed, as part of a criminal proceeding, would make us infinitely safer than covering up these crimes? Would those who want to harm Americans feel more inclined to do so if they thought America did not hold their own criminals accountable? I would wager yes.

So I find entirely disingenuous the claim that these men are simply doing their civic duty rather than covering up crimes. I also find their methods to be more of a threat to our national security than the evidence they are seeking to censor. Moreover, I find these tactics, the crimes committed and covered up, and the lack of accountability the most dangerous thing of all not only to our national security, but to our democracy and way of life.

Read the full article!

William Glaberson | June 6

NYT - The Obama administration is considering a change in the law for the military commissions at the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, that would clear the way for detainees facing the death penalty to plead guilty without a full trial.

The provision could permit military prosecutors to avoid airing the details of brutal interrogation techniques. It could also allow the five detainees who have been charged with the Sept. 11 attacks to achieve their stated goal of pleading guilty to gain what they have called martyrdom.

The proposal, in a draft of legislation that would be submitted to Congress, has not been publicly disclosed. It was circulated to officials under restrictions requiring secrecy. People who have read or been briefed on it said it had been presented to Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates by an administration task force on detention.

The proposal would ease what has come to be recognized as the government’s difficult task of prosecuting men who have confessed to acts of terrorism but whose cases present extraordinary challenges. Much of the evidence against the men accused in the Sept. 11 case, as well as against other detainees, is believed to have come from confessions they gave during intense interrogations at secret C.I.A. prisons. In any legal proceeding, the reliability of those statements would be challenged, making full trials difficult and drawing new political pressure over detainee treatment.

Some experts on the military commissions said such a proposal would raise new questions about the fairness of a system created by the Bush administration that has been criticized as permitting shortcuts to assure convictions.

David Glazier, an associate professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles who has written about the commission system, said: “This unfortunately strikes me as an effort to get rid of the problem in the easiest way possible, which is to have those people plead guilty and presumably be executed. But I think it’s going to lack international credibility.”

Eric Lichtblau | Washington | June 4

NYT - A federal judge on Wednesday threw out more than three dozen lawsuits claiming that the nation’s major telecommunications companies had illegally assisted in the wiretapping without warrants program approved by President George W. Bush after the 2001 terrorist attacks.

Chief Judge Vaughn R. Walker of Federal District Court in Northern California said that although consumer and privacy groups raised important constitutional issues in their claims, Congress had left no doubt about its “unequivocal intention” when it passed a measure last summer giving immunity to phone carriers in the wiretapping program.

The ruling represents a major victory not only for AT&T and other carriers, which faced potential damages of billions of dollars if they lost the cases, but also for intelligence officials in Washington who had fought assertively in their defense. Officials from both the Bush and the Obama administrations maintained that the cooperation of the phone companies has been vital to national security and that penalizing them for their participation would jeopardize important surveillance operations.

Christopher Drew & John Markoff | Melbourne, Fla. | May 31

NYT - The government’s urgent push into cyberwarfare has set off a rush among the biggest military companies for billions of dollars in new defense contracts.

The government’s urgent push into cyberwarfare has set off a rush among the biggest military companies for billions of dollars in new defense contracts.

The exotic nature of the work, coupled with the deep recession, is enabling the companies to attract top young talent that once would have gone to Silicon Valley. And the race to develop weapons that defend against, or initiate, computer attacks has given rise to thousands of “hacker soldiers” within the Pentagon who can blend the new capabilities into the nation’s war planning.

Nearly all of the largest military companies — including Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon — have major cyber contracts with the military and intelligence agencies.

Independent journalist Jeremy Scahill sums it up:

Ah, good thing the US quest for violent global domination was brought to a screeching halt with the November presidential election. Without Obama’s election, we’d still have an occupation of Iraq, mercenaries on the US payroll, torture of prisoners, an unending and worsening war that kills civilians in Afghanistan, regular airstrikes in Pakistan, killing civilians and an embassy the size of Vatican city in Baghdad, which was built in part on slave labor. Not to mention those crazy “Bush/Cheney” neocons running around trying to become the “CEOs” of foreign nations. Wow, glad that’s all over. Whew! And, it’s a really good thing Bush is no longer in power or else the US would come up with some crazy idea like building a colonial fortress in Pakistan to defend “US interests” in the region.

h/t Ron Beasley at Newshoggers

Salon

The Bush administration's Torture 13. They authorized it, they decided how to implement it, and they crafted the legal fig leaf to justify it.

By Marcy Wheeler May 18, 2009

(Lengthy article with many document links - Index excerpted)

1. Dick Cheney, vice president (2001-2009)
2. David Addington, counsel to the vice president (2001-2005), chief of staff to the vice president (2005-2009)
3. Alberto Gonzales, White House counsel (2001-2005), and attorney general (2005-2008)
4. James Mitchell, consultant

Washington | May 27

DPA - The United States offered 2.5 million dollars Tuesday in rewards for information leading to the capture or conviction of three Filipinos with alleged ties to the Abu Sayyaf terrorist group.

The US State Department will pay up to 1 million dollars for Radullan Sahiron, an alleged senior leader of the Philippine-based Abu Sayyaf, which has ties to al-Qaeda, and Abdul Basit Usman, a suspected bomb-making expert who is suspected of links to an Indonesia-based regional terrorist group known as Jemaah Islamiyah.

The State Department offered 500,000 dollars in connection with Khair Mundos, accused of providing financial help to Abu Sayyaf by transferring al-Qaeda funding.

Washington | May 26

AFP - US President Barack Obama on Tuesday ended the divide between national security and homeland security staff in the White House, arguing the move would make Americans safer.

Obama shook up the security structure of his teams of advisors after examining the results of a study he ordered into how best to handle homeland security and counter-terrorism efforts.

"I have carefully reviewed the findings and recommendations of that study, and am announcing a new approach which will strengthen our security and the safety of our citizens," Obama said in a statement.

"These decisions reflect the fundamental truth that the challenges of the 21st Century are increasingly unconventional and transnational, and therefore demand a response that effectively integrates all aspects of American power."

The move will see the full integration of the White House National Security Council and the Homeland Security Council to support all policy on international, transnational and homeland security issues.

May 23

DPA -
The US government could build a new high security prison to house some of the detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said Friday.

Gates defended President Barack Obama's decision to close Guantanamo and dismissed congressional opposition to bring some of the detainees to prisons on US soil as 'fear-mongering.'

Gates said that federal maximum security prisons - known as 'supermax' facilities - are capable of safely housing some of the 240 detainees currently locked up at Guantanamo.

'The truth is there's a lot of fear-mongering about this,' Gates said in an interview in NBC television. 'We've never had an escape from a super-max prison. And that's where these guys will go. And if not one of the existing ones, we'll create a new one.'

WaPo - President Obama acknowledged publicly for the first time yesterday that some detainees at Guantanamo Bay may have to be held without trial indefinitely, siding with conservative national security advocates on one of the most contentious issues raised by the closing of the military prison in Cuba.

Ian says it best:

In other words, people who have committed no crime which can be proved in a court of law, including the crime of conspiracy, will be held indefinitely without a trial. Note that Obama wants to use military commissions to try some detainees, which means that these detainees can’t be found guilty of anything even under military law.

This is punishment for a thought crime. It is also exactly the same rationale used by the Bush administration.

Obama also said something else which is a continuation of Bush administration excuses:

Transcript of Obama's speech can be read here

CNN - U.S. airstrikes aimed at al Qaeda leaders in Pakistan have been "very effective," with few civilian deaths as a result, CIA Director Leon Panetta said Monday in a rare public acknowledgment of the raids.
CIA Director Leon Panetta speaks about the fight against al Qaeda at the Pacific Council on International Policy.

CIA Director Leon Panetta speaks about the fight against al Qaeda at the Pacific Council on International Policy.

Asked about criticism of the missile attacks by counterinsurgency experts, Panetta said he did not want to discuss specifics, "but I can assure you that in terms of that particular area, it is very precise and is very limited in terms of collateral damage."

"Very frankly, it's the only game in town in terms of confronting or trying to disrupt the al Qaeda leadership," Panetta told the Pacific Council on International Policy in Los Angeles.

Excuuuuuse me but wtf is wrong with our leaders, if it is the only game then we have lost and it is time to try something else:

Press reports suggest that over the last three years drone strikes have killed about 14 terrorist leaders. But, according to Pakistani sources, they have also killed some 700 civilians. This is 50 civilians for every militant killed, a hit rate of 2 percent — hardly “precision.” American officials vehemently dispute these figures, and it is likely that more militants and fewer civilians have been killed than is reported by the press in Pakistan. Nevertheless, every one of these dead noncombatants represents an alienated family, a new desire for revenge, and more recruits for a militant movement that has grown exponentially even as drone strikes have increased. ~ Death From Above, Outrage Down Below

John Byrne | May 18

Raw Story - The Bush administration was given clear and unequivocal advice encouraging a detainee interrogation system that followed humane practices that adhered to US and international law, a previously secret memo reveals.

A detailed memorandum authored by a counselor to former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in 2005 also reveals that the Bush Administration was offered a comprehensive alternative to its use of torture techniques. The author, Rice deputy Philip Zelikow (along with then-acting deputy secretary of defense Gordon England), asserted that the adoption of a clear and humane approach to interrogation would pay dividends for the US in the years to come.

The memo was published Thursday at Secrecy News, a blog written by secrecy expert Steven Aftergood. It can be read here in PDF form.

Zelikow acknowledged an argument frequently promulgated by former Vice President Dick Cheney — that the interrogation of detainees could save thousands of lives. But he argued that humane treatment was the only right course for the United States.

embedded links available at Raw story

Washington | May 18

Reuters - The former U.S. attorney general and the FBI director cannot be subjected to a lawsuit by a Pakistani man claiming abuse while imprisoned in New York after the September 11, 2001, attacks the Supreme Court ruled on Monday.

The nation's high court overturned a ruling that Javaid Iqbal, who was held more than a year after the attacks, can proceed with his lawsuit against former Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller.

Iqbal, a Muslim, said in the lawsuit that he had suffered verbal and physical abuse, including unnecessary strip searches and brutal beatings by guards. He said he had been singled out because of unlawful ethnic and religious discrimination.