public service announcement

I rarely go off topic but today is one of those rare days...click on the link for easy instructions on how to do your part (if you can't go out and join the crowds...or even if you can) for the occupy wallstreet movement. If everyone did this everyday we would send a message that would costs the banksters a few cents along the way:

http://thegallopingbeaver.blogspot.com/2011/11/99-action-from-home.html

DRY BOARDING- A NEW EXPLANATION FOR THE SO-CALLED SUICIDES AT GUANTANAMO--UPDATED

A new article at truthout by Almerindo Ojeda of the Guantanamo Tesimonials Project offers a possible (and disturbing) explanation for the three men who died at Guantanamo in 2006. Almerindo takes a look at what we know about the three deaths and compares it to what we know about the torture of Ali Al-Marri- a man from Qatar who came to the United States on a student visa in 2001. There are a lot of similarities and many of the questionable holes left in the militaries version fit nicely into the theory that the three men were tortured to death in a technique that is referred to as "dry boarding."

Click on the title to read the whole story.
Scott Horton at Harpers- who wrote a groundbreaking story about the deaths of these men a few months back has written about Almerindo's article here.

THE DOJ UNDER GW OBAMA

I have explained to people when giving speeches about Guantanamo that the Department of "justice" under Obama is actually quite a bit worse than it was under Bush. An example of this is found in the latest article at truthout by Jason Leopold regarding Abu Zubaydah. I could try to summarize what this is all about but I think it is better if you just read the article....

what a concept.... (updated...yet again)

Only in the new U. S. of A. could this be an issue, the next man at Guantanamo who is set to have his case heard at a military commission is asking the judge to let him know if he will be released if the jury acquits him. You can read more about this odd question here. The bottom line is that in the kangaroo court also known as the military commission there is no guarantee of release if you are found not guilty. It begs the question, why go through the theatrics if nothing is going to change?

Stay tuned for the answer.....but don't hold your breath waiting.

Carol Rosenberg at the Miami Herald has more here

The military prosecution has now responded- they claim that the military commission can sentence a man to death but they cannot set a man free---and they argue that the military tribunal hearing the case should NOT be told that even if they acquit the man he will not be set free.

Sweet land of liberty......

Carol Rosenberg at the Miami Herald has the follow up here.

And Now We Are Assassinating American Kids....

I don't even have words to describe my disgust and anguish at our latest assassination by drone-

Jim White at Emptywheel has the story here and here.

From Roger Fitch and our Friends Down Under

Comforting the comfortable

Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Justinian in Alien Tort Statute, Citizens United, Donald Rumsfeld, Rendition, Roger Fitch Esq, Torture, US Supreme Court

Analysing the US Supremes most recent term - plenty of goodies for big business, nothing for plaintiff lawyers ... Alien Tort Statute up for a workout ... Torture cases batted around the circuit courts ... Rendition victims lose final appeal ... Our Man in Washington reports

The US Supreme Court sits again this month, but the 2010 term is still being analysed here and here.

Scotusblog has the term's statistics.

By general consensus, big business and conservatives scored well.

Some say the court is only interested in comforting the comfortable.

The court's hostility to litigation and plaintiffs' lawyers led notably to Wal-Mart v Dukes, a class-action killer and the most pro-business decision since Citizens United invented corporate free speech.

More here and here.

The decision in AT&T Mobility v Conception, an arbitration clause case, will have a devastating effect on consumer class litigation. Emptywheel has more.

A leading law dean, Erwin Chemerinsky at the University of California, and Dahlia Lithwick have more on the Roberts Court junta.

While some writers believe the Supreme Court killed class actions, others think the cause is not yet lost.

Click here for more from Fitch.........

The continuing saga of Zubaydah....

Remember Abu Zubaydah? If you have forgotten Jason Leopold at truthout has a sad reminder for you here.

Just to jog your memory- when Zubaydah was captured in Pakistan back in the spring of 2002 we were told he was the number 3 in al-Qaeda -so we water boarded him 100 times or so and subjected him to lots of other torture because that was the only way to save our country- however sometime thereafter we realized that he really wasn't number 3---or number 33 or even number 333. In fact, we realized he wasn't really a part of al-Qaeda after all. Oops on that one.

You might also recall that our torturers videotaped their handiwork but apparently after some higher ups took a gander at those tapes they decided no one else should see them and the tapes disappeared....we have been told that the tapes were destroyed (even though there was a court order to preserve the tapes). So as far as we know there are no longer any tapes depicting the torture that Abu Zubaydah and others were subjected.

However the tapes were not the only record of our misdeeds....Zubaydah of course remembered what happened to him and he drew pictures depicting his torture. As Jason tells us in the Truthout article the pictures are (or were) pretty detailed....but of course we will never see those drawings either- you see, if his drawings still even exist (the powers to be refuse to admit whether the drawings are still in existence) they are classified (wouldn't want those to get into the wrong hands would you?....I mean that could possibly make it harder for us to keep looking forward.....).

And so, Abu Zubaydah- the man who wasn't who we thought he was but who must be forever detained without charge because.....why is it again that he must be detained forever? Partly because being the most powerful country in the world we do not admit mistakes....maybe also so that Zubaydah cannot redraw those pictures?

The Drone King- moving on to target americans....

Pretty much from the moment he moved into the white house he has been a disaster.... but who could have predicted that he would be this bad?

For more discussion and insight:

Emptywheel here , here and here.

Andy Worthington here.

and Democracy Now here.

What Goes Around Comes Around

When I watched this tape of the two released American hikers who were held in Iran for over two years...and I listened to their experience and treatment I could only think- change the name of the captors from Iranian to American and this could be my client or one of the many other innocent men held at Guantanamo ...except of course for the fact that most of the men at Guantanamo are getting ready to finish their tenth year in captivity. I guess it should be no surprise that the Iranians also noted the parallel. That our prisons at Guantanamo and elsewhere have given justification to the Iranians to hold these two men (and countless other political prisoners) in conditions as bad as we hold our political prisoners is but another national shame.

I am so very sorry for the treatment of these two men as I am so very sorry for the similar ongoing mistreatment given the innocent men at Guantanamo....

Watch the video and understand that these two American's tell the story of hundreds of the innocent men that my country is holding.

http://www.democracynow.org/2011/9/26/freed_us_hiker_shane_bauer_iranian

t/h to Walt.

Lest we forget....

Steven Biko (18 December 1946 – 12 September 1977) RIP

Just sayin...

I don't write about this day. I mean what is there to say? We were attacked by some criminals and we decided in return to shred our constitution, terrorize a big chunk of the world and turn a blind eye to the criminals in our own country who wreaked havoc on the rule of law and our economy. So, since I don't write about this day I turn you to my friend the talking dog and to this piece on the changes since 2001-by the numbers.

HOW DOES THE MILITARY ACKNOWLEDGE TODAYS ANNIVERSARY?

By creating a new war crime.....conspiracy. It would be funny if it were not so pathetic. Read the opinion here. Some analysis here and reporting here.

For those of you without either the time or the inclination to read the opinion let me just say that the military took a bunch of ass sucking military lawyers and created the new war crime by ignoring the law they were citing.

STATES SECRETS REVISITED.....

Seems that detainees are not entitled to information about the rendition flights they were subjected to because, you know, states secrets .... and the fact that someone might actually then be held accountable. But those same documents are publicly available in a lawsuit involving money -between the owner of the plane used for the renditions and the the company that contracted to use the plane for the renditions. As emptywheel noted "sort of proves the lie behind the Jeppesen state secrets invocation. The government let all the details behind the KSM flights appear in unsealed court dockets. The only thing that separates what would have appeared in the Binyam Mohamed suit against Jeppesen and this suit is the explicit demand for compensation for a torture victim."

Clive Stafford Smith- attorney for Binyam Mohamed puts it even more succinctly: "When they screw our tortured clients, they assert “National Security”, but when it is a matter of money, they don’t. — Reprieve’s Clive Smith

I wonder if any one will be able to get a judge to care....... or at least be embarassed......

The guardian has more here.

The Truth Shall Set You Free??

The Military it seems is always striving to reach a new low so it should be no surprise that they have barred this 19 year veteran from reenlisting for having the nerve to discuss his experiences at Guantanamo with Truthout..... read about it here.

TWO NEW ARTICLES WORTH READING

First is another good article from Jeff Kaye on water torture and Rumsfeld:

http://www.truth-out.org/more-evidence-water-torture-depravity-rumsfelds-military/1313618756

The second is an article in Esquire about the unfortunate Mr. Noor Uthman- AKA ISN 707-a man who pled guilty a month or so ago in the military commission-the only way out of Guantanamo these days.... and is now serving his 34 months for providing meals at a camp unconnected with either the Taliban or al-Qaeda and which closed in 1999 when the camp refused to be connected with Osama Bin Laden. Poor Mr. Uthman, like my client Razak Ali, had the misfortune of being in a guesthouse in Pakistan that was raided in March 2002- and like my client Noor has not been shown to have any connection to any illegal activities that may or may not have been going on upstairs in that house (although the article suggests certain bomb making capabilities were taking place at the house other evidence suggests that nothing was going on at the house.) It is a long article but worth the read.

http://www.esquire.com/features/guantanamo-prisoner-0911