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Medical marijuana’s legal in his state, but feds sentence medical pot dispenser to jail

Saturday, June 13th, 2009

Charles Lynch, a medical marijuana provider in the state of California, which has voted consistently to allow what he does, faces a year in federal prison. This after Obama and the new “drug czar” have expressed support for state autonomy in regulating medical marijuana.

The Marijuana Policy project writes

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Shell’s “Humanitarian” Gesture is Self-Serving

Saturday, June 13th, 2009

One of the advantages for a corporation in resolving a sensitive lawsuit out of court is that it can proclaim innocence and insist it is settling for other reasons. Royal Dutch Shell has done just that in a case brought in connection with the 1995 execution of author Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other activists who campaigned against the oil company’s operations in the Ogoniland region of Nigeria.

Shell actually was even more brazenly self-serving than the typical company that says it is settling in order to put the case behind it. The Anglo-Dutch transnational insisted that its willingness to pay the plaintiffs US$15.5 million - $5 million of which will go into a trust fund for the Ogoni people - was a “humanitarian gesture.” It was unusual for Shell to allow the amount of the settlement to be disclosed, but it was apparently worth it to draw attention away from the lawsuit’s charges that the company collaborated with the repressive military regime that ruled Nigeria in the 1990s and that put Saro-Wiwa and the others to death after a sham trial. The suit  - brought in U.S. federal court under the Alien Tort Claims Act, the Torture Victim Protection Act and racketeering statutes - also accused Shell of being complicit in crimes against humanity, torture, inhumane treatment, arbitrary arrest, wrongful death, assault and battery, and infliction of emotional distress.

It is understandable why the plaintiffs and their lawyers - led by the Center for Constitutional Rights and EarthRights International - would feel a need to settle a case that had dragged on for 13 years and provide some financial assistance to the Ogoni community. Yet it is frustrating to see Shell trying to turn an outrage into an opportunity to burnish its image, even though other Ogoni claims are still pending.

The frustration is compounded by the fact that Shell continues to engage in dubious behavior in other parts of its global operations. For example, the company has a problematic relationship with another undemocratic government as part of its deep involvement in a massive oil and gas project in the Russian Far East. That offshore project, known as Sakhalin II, has been the subject of a great deal of controversy because it threatens the survival of one of the world’s most endangered species of whales - Western Pacific Grays (photo).

Groups such as Pacific Environment, collaborating with Russian activists who formed Sakhalin Environment Watch, have pressured Shell and its partners to adopt stronger environmental protections or abandon the project. Shell’s largest partner is Gazprom, a publicly traded gas monopoly that is controlled by the Russian government, which has used the company to advance Russian foreign policy goals vis-à-vis Eastern Europe by cutting off gas supplies at various times. Shell has acknowledged that it is interested in developing a new Sakhalin III project in collaboration with Gazprom.

Last year, there were reports that Shell had sought to influence the outcome of a purportedly independent environmental audit of Sakhalin II. Previously, Shell gained notoriety for overstating its proven petroleum reserves by 20 percent. The company ended up paying about $150 million to U.S. and British authorities to settle the charges. It did not try to depict that payment as a humanitarian gesture, but it is possible that one day Shell may have to put a positive spin on millions paid to settle claims stemming from the harms caused in Sakhalin.

Note: If you want to keep track of the far-flung operations of U.S.-based transnationals, check out a new tool called Croctail, which provides an easy way to search the names of domestic and foreign subsidiaries that publicly traded companies report in their 10-K filings to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Croctail is an extension of the Crocodyl wiki of critical corporate profiles sponsored by CorpWatch and other groups (full disclosure: I am a contributor and advisor to Crocodyl).

Phil Mattera
http://dirtdiggersdigest.org/

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Israeli War Crimes Against Children

Saturday, June 13th, 2009

Following Israel’s Operation Cast Lead, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) documented the toll on Gaza’s children and published it in May. It did so “in response to the unprecedented number of children who were killed (and injured) by (the Israeli Defense Forces) during the offensive on Gaza.” According to international standards, the Convention on the Rights of the Child’s (CRC) definition was used to apply to anyone under age 18.

PCHR reviewed IDF killing of Gaza’s children since the beginning of the Second Intifada in September 2000, then focused on the 313 youth deaths during the recent conflict. Its evidence comes from eye-witness accounts of the willful targeting of civilians, including women and children. Also covered are the psychological scars and “alarming scale of physical injuries” leaving some children blind and many others (as well as adults) permanently disabled by the loss of limbs and psychological trauma.

PCHR’s report bears testimony to Israel’s contempt for international laws, its imperial agenda, culture of violence, disdain for peace, genocidal intentions, disparagement of Arabs and Islam, and its scorn for Palestinian lives and welfare.

PCHR presented 13 case studies in its report. Briefly discussed below, they represent a small fraction of the many hundreds killed and thousands more grievously harmed.

Introduction

Since the September 2000 Second Intifada, Israeli forces killed 1179 children, including 865 in Gaza as part of a decades-long policy of collectively punishing millions of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, mostly civilian men, women, and children.

Israel calls self-defense “terrorism” and justifies its actions as responses to militant missile or other attacks. PCHR’s investigations “have consistently undermined these claims,” and condemns all killing, especially of children.

In September 2006, the London Independent’s Donald Macintyre headlined his story: “Gaza: The children killed in a war the world doesn’t want to know about.” He wrote about more than 37 children under 18 killed since June 25 during Israel’s Operation Summer Rain, according to PCHR figures, out of an overall 228 total, mostly civilians.

He highlighted a “forgotten war in the Middle East” with young boys, girls and adults blown apart by Israeli shells and missiles, but who notices. He said the IDF attacks heavily populated areas indiscriminately on the pretext of fighting a “terrorist infrastructure.” He stressed that “attention (was) diverted from Gaza as Israel launch(ed) a full military invasion of southern Lebanon” yet civilian deaths mounted in both areas. He listed by name Gazan children under 18 killed and by what means — from airstrikes, while playing football, missiles, shrapnel, tank or artillery shells, and shot in the head or chest at close range. Khitam Mohammed Rebhi Tayey was one — age 11. Aya Salmeya another — age 9.

Israel rarely responds to public outrage or investigates its crimes, including against children. The few times it does turn into whitewashes. After 11 days on March 30, 2009, military advocate general Avichai Mandelblit closed the IDF’s inquiry into Israeli soldiers’ accounts of Operation Cast Lead crimes and dismissed them as unfounded.

International Humanitarian Law (IHL) Protection for Children

Various laws apply, including the Fourth Geneva Convention and UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). As protected persons, they’re to be safeguarded against willful killing, coercion, corporal punishments, torture, collective penalties and reprisals.

CRC was the first legally binding international instrument incorporating all human rights for children, including civil, cultural, economic, political and social. They’re now universally agreed on non-negotiable standards and obligations supporting their rights.

CRC’s Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict took effect on February 12, 2002. Israel ratified it on July 18, 2005 and CRC in 1991. The Optional Protocol strengthens children’s rights, recognizes that they require special protection, and condemns their being targeted in armed conflicts, especially in schools, hospitals or at home. Israel is legally bound under both laws and Geneva, yet disdains them repeatedly, especially by “willful killing” through indiscriminate attacks or deliberately targeting civilian areas or structures.

Truth and Lies: Operation Cast Lead and Civilian Deaths

Besides vast destruction and mass population displacement, 313 children were killed among the 1414 who died over a 23-day period. Of the 5300 injured (many seriously), 1606 were children. In all cases, the vast majority were noncombatants.

Of the children killed:

• most were at home or nearby;
• around one-third were girls and the rest boys;
• almost 15% were under age 5 and another one-fourth between 5 and 10;
• the remainder were between 11 and 17;
• the “overwhelming majority” were killed in densely populated residential areas;
• 46% were killed in northern Gaza;
• 38% in Gaza City;
• 9% in Khan Yunis and Rafah and 7% in less densely populated areas.

Israel used conventional and illegal weapons. The former included missiles, artillery and tank shells, mortars, and automatic weapons.

Others included:

• white phosphorous that burns flesh to the bone and can be fatal; it’s use is prohibited in civilian areas;
• flechettes that are 4cm long darts used as anti-personnel weapons; they penetrate to the bone and can cause multiple horrific injuries; up to 8000 of them can be packed into one artillery shell; on explosion, they travel at high speed in multiple directions up to around 300 meters; and
• various other internationally prohibited weapons that PCHR investigations uncovered and condemned.

Its case studies show a consistent failure of Israeli forces to protect civilian lives, especially those of children. They document indiscriminate attacks against densely populated neighborhoods in grave violation of international laws.

To safeguard civilians and non-military areas and structures, IHL requires that precautions be taken in any attack, and civilian protection is paramount. Israel pays no heed and attacks indiscriminately in grave violation of the law.

Case Study One: The Olaiwa Family

Gaza City’s Isma’il (age 7), Mo’men (age 13), Mo’tassem (age 14) and Lana Olaiwa, (age 9) and their mother Amal were killed when an artillery shell struck their home on January 5, 2009. Three other family members were injured, including Amal’s husband, Haider, and her eldest son, Muntasser.

Two survivors were too badly injured to be interviewed. PCHR spoke to Fadwa Olaiwa, Haider’s sister, who lived two floors below. She said that 42 extended family members lived in the four-story house. The shell killed five of them in their kitchen where Amal was cooking.

When Fadwa heard the explosion, she ran upstairs and saw what happened. She found Amal decapitated by the refrigerator and the other bodies close by. Haider, Muntasser and Ghadir were taken to Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital. Haider sustained permanent facial and jaw injuries. Ghadir’s right arm was seriously injured. She and her father’s hearing were badly damaged. Muntasser had serious liver and stomach shrapnel wounds requiring two operations. Metal is still embedded in his right leg, and he continues to undergo treatment.

PCHR investigations confirm that no combatants or military targets were close by at the time of the attack. Artillery shells were fired indiscriminately, have a range of up to 60 km, and were used against entire areas, including civilian ones. This attack and many others like it constitute war crimes on two counts under Articles 8(2)(b)(ii) and (iv) of the International Criminal Court Statute.

Case Study Two: the al-Dayah Family

In the Zaytoun district of eastern Gaza, 22 family members were killed when a bomb struck their home — including 12 children and a pregnant woman. The explosion destroyed the house and buried many of the family inside. Only two family members survived, 28-year old Aamer and his brother Rida. Those killed included:

• Fayez Musbah Hasham, age 60
• Kawkab Sa’id Hussein, age 57
• Radwan Fayez Musbah, age 22
• Sabrin Fayez Musbah, age 24
• Raghda Fayez Musbah, age 34
• Eyad Fayez Musbah, age 36
• Rawda Hilal Hussein, age 32
• Ali Eyad Fayez Musbah, age 10
• Khitam Eyad Fayez Musbah, age 9
• Alaa’ Eyad Fayez Musbah, age 7
• Raba’a Eyad Fayez, age 6
• Sharaf Al-Din Eyad Fayez, age 5
• Mohammed Eyad Fayez, age 7 months
• Ramez Fayez Musbah, age 27
• Safaa’ Saleh Mohammed, age 20
• Baraa’ Ramez Fayez, age 1.5
• Salsabil Ramez Fayez, age 5 months
• Tazal Isma’il Isma’il Mohammed, age 28 and 8 months pregnant
• Amani Mohammed Fayez, age 6
• Qamar Mohammed Fayez, age 5
• Arij Mohammed Fayez, age 3, and
• Yousef Mohammed Fayez, age two

On February 3, 2009, PCHR interviewed Aamer al-Dayah (who was home) and his brother, Rida who was outside the house when attacked. Aamer said 24 family members shared seven apartments in the building. When it was struck, the force knocked Aamer unconscious, and he awakened under rubble. Rida was at a nearby mosque at the time. He rushed home, freed Aamer and his twin brother Radwan inside, still alive but only barely until he died on January 9.

Both survivors told PCHR that the explosion flung some family members meters outside their home while others inside were burned beyond recognition. They had no advance warning of an immanent attack, but PCHR fieldworkers learned there was military activity nearby. However, all al-Dayah family members were civilians. The IDF attack gravely breached international law and constitutes two war crime counts under Articles 8(2)(b)(ii) and (iv) of the International Criminal Court Statute.

According to IHL principles, Israeli forces used excessive and disproportionate force against a known civilian target resulting in the death of 22 al-Dayah family members — a crime Palestinians will long remember.

Case Study Three: the al-Battran family

On January 16, six al-Battran family members were slaughtered in their al-Bureji refugee camp home by an Israeli aircraft fired missile. Killed were Manal and five of her children:

• Manal, age 32
• Islam, age 15
• Eman, age 9
• twin sister Ehsan, age 9
• Bilal, age 6 and
• Izziddin, age 3

One year old son Abdul Hadi and Amal’s husband Issa survived. On February 25, PCHR interviewed Issa’s brother, Diaa’ who was in the house next door at the time of the attack. When he heard the explosion, he ran over and discovered the bodies, burnt and shorn of some body parts.

According to al-Battran family members, Issa hadn’t seen his wife and children since Operation Cast Lead began for fear of being assassinated. The day of the attack was the first time in January he was with them, only to pack clothing before heading to a safer location. He survived three earlier attempts to kill him because of his position in the Izz ad-Din Al Qassam Brigades.

Shrapnel at the scene identified a US-made Hellfire missile providing clear evidence of US involvement. Killing noncombatants is a war crime as defined in Article 8(2)(b)(iv) of the International Criminal Court Statute.

Other Case Studies: Further Examples of War Crime Attacks on Noncombatants, Including Children

(1) On January 16, two projectiles killed four Abu Eita family members outside their home, the youngest 2.5 year old Malak Abu.

(2) On January 9, two projectiles destroyed their house and killed six Salha family members, the youngest Bahaa, age 5

(3) On January 5, a projectile killed Mohammed Hijji. Earlier their home was commandeered by Israeli forces. Family members were held prisoners inside, then forced to be human shields so they could occupy a nearby house. Afterwards the family was ordered to evacuate Zaytoun where they lived, then shot at while leaving, killing their 2.5 year old daughter Shahd. Relatives and Arafat family members told to leave were also fleeing. In progress, one woman was shot and killed. Nine others were wounded. All are civilians, including children.

(4) on January 14, a projectile killed 14 year old Izziddin al-Farra in Qarara village in eastern Gaza while he and his friend Abdul Ghani were bicycling on a rural road. Abdul sustained a serious head injury.

(5) On January 4, Israeli forces shot and killed 1.5 year old Farah al-Helu. Family members were in their home. Soldiers entered, shot and killed 62 year old Fouad, then ordered the family to evacuate. Outside they were shot at, injuring three family members and killing Farah who bled to death. One family member described their ordeal. They tried crawling to safety. Most did but three others were struck and lay in the street. Farah bled to death because emergency care was denied — further evidence of a war crime atrocity.

(6) On December 29, a bombing of an adjacent mosque destroyed the Balousha family Jabaliya refugee camp home. Five of eight daughters were killed, the youngest Jawaher age four. Five others were injured and another five homes were seriously damaged.

(7) On January 6, two projectiles struck the yard of Mo’in Deeb’s Jabaliya refugee camp home when 10 family members were there. Ten were killed instantly, the youngest Nour Mo’in age 3. Others were injured, four critically. One subsequently died. Another had both legs amputated.

(8) On December 29, a bomb struck the al-’Absi family Yibna refugee camp home in Rafah while those in it were sleeping. Three children died instantly, the youngest Sidqi age 4. Their mother sustained critical injuries. Four other children were also injured.

(9) On January 17, a white phosphorous artillery shell struck the area around a Beit Lahiya school killing Bilal al-Ashqar (age 6) and Mohammed al-Ashqar (age 4). Two other family members were seriously injured. Their mother sustained critical head injuries and loss of her right hand. Her 19 year old daughter had her leg blown off. All were sheltering there at the time.

(10) On January 5, a projectile struck a house where the Abdul-Dayem family was attending a condolence ceremony. Those inside fled across the street and were struck by two tank shells containing flechettes. Three family members, including one child, were killed instantly. Two others, including a child, subsequently died of their injuries.

PCHR summarized the 23-day toll as follows:

“Alongside the 313 children killed by Israeli forces during (Operation Cast Lead), 1606 children were injured, with some sustaining horrific disabilities, head and spinal injuries, facial disfiguration, burns and amputation.”

Most were in their homes at the time. Others in shelters for their safety. Some of the injured couldn’t access medical care resulting in their permanent disability, infection, and for some their death. Even at hospitals, doctors were overwhelmed, under-resourced, and forced to deliver care under battlefield conditions.

The toll on parents and children was horrific, and some surviving adults face a lifelong task of caring for their permanently disabled offspring. Those who lost parents require help from relatives. The stench of death, injury, vast destruction, displacement, and Gaza still under siege pervades the Territory. The conflict’s psychological impact inflicted collective trauma — unrelieved and hardly noticed by Israel, America, the West, and most Arab states.

Children more than others suffer most and now experience “anger, sleeping difficulties, nightmares, avoidance of situations that are reminders of the trauma, impairment of concentration, and guilt” because they survived while others didn’t. Post Traumatic Stress Disorders (PTSD) approach epidemic levels, but fortunately Gaza’s Community Mental Health Programme (GCMHP) provides some of the best care of its kind in the Middle East. Years of conflict honed their skills.

After hostilities ended, they assessed the psychological damage on children and learned that the overwhelming majority personally witnessed traumatic events that could seriously impair their mental health. For example:

• 98% of children said they didn’t feel safe;
• 96% didn’t think they could protect themselves;
• 97% thought their families couldn’t protect them;
• 90% heard bombing;
• 89% saw homes destroyed from it;
• 65% were forced to evacuate their homes;
• 61% saw their neighbors’ homes bombed;
• 54% were either physically detained in their homes by soldiers or were trapped inside them during bombings and/or shellings; and
• 55% said they were told that one or more of their family members or relatives were killed.

Psychologist Hassan Ziyada said: “These children reported high levels of trauma and insecurity that will impact on the psychological and intellectual development….(They’re) suffering continual long-term trauma due to the psychological, social and economic effects of the recent offensive, the siege and closure of Gaza, and the internal political situation. This (attack) came at a very difficult time for all the people of Gaza, especially children, who were already suffering acute feelings of anxiety and powerlessness….Children in Gaza are continuing to exhibit long-term symptoms of hyperactivity, deterioration of their cognitive abilities, instrusive memories and hyper arousal and anxiety.”

Ziyada believes many children will develop long-term depression from the loss of loved ones and friends that contribute to a feeling of abandonment. He also said they’re experiencing physical body pain, headaches, stomach aches, insomnia and aggressive behavior.

In an appendix, PCHR listed all 313 children killed by name, gender, age, location, date of attack, and date of death. The youngest was one month old Al-Mu’tasim Bellah Mohammed Ibrahim al-Samouni. Also one month old Hala ‘Isam Ahmed al-Mnei’i. Israel expressed no regrets, neither did America.

Stephen Lendman

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Iran polls prompt vote rigging allegations

Saturday, June 13th, 2009

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British Photographers Forced To Play Roulette With Anti- Terror Law

Saturday, June 13th, 2009

In Britain, cops have the power to search you if you take a picture of a “sensitive” area, but they won’t tell you which areas are “sensitive,” because they’re so “sensitive.”

The British Journal of Photography is trying to use the UK Freedom of Information Act to find out which places in Britain have such precious photons that people who collect them without authorization can have their civil rights violated, but so far they’ve been unsuccessful.

There’s no evidence that terrorists use photographs to plan attacks. Indeed, if disclosing the visible features of notable, iconic buildings puts them in danger, we may as well tear them all down now and get it over with, since the whole point of a notable, iconic building is that everybody knows what they look like.

The Home Office has rejected a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the BJP regarding the disclosure of the list of all areas where police officers are authorised to stop-and-search photographers under Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000…While it is common knowledge that the entire City of London [ed: the City of London is a one-square-mile financial district], at the behest of the Metropolitan Police, is covered by the legislation, it remains unclear which other areas in England and Wales have requested the stop-and-search powers…

The request asked for a ‘full list of all areas - in England, Wales and Northern Ireland - subject to Section 44 Terrorism Act 2000 authorisations, which the Home Office has a statutory duty to be aware of.’

The request was rejected in late May on grounds of national security. ‘In relation to authorisations for England and Wales, I can confirm that the Home Office holds the information that you requested. I am, however, not obliged to disclose it to you,’ writes J Fanshaw of the Direct Communications Unit at the Home Office. ‘After careful consideration we have decided that this information is exempt from disclosure by virtue of Section 24(1) and Section 31(1)(a-c) of the Freedom of Information Act…’

As part of its ongoing campaign for photographers’ rights, BJP has appealed the decision, requesting an internal review of the request’s handling. It has also filed 46 additional Freedom of Information Act requests to all Chief Constables in England and Wales, asking them to disclose whether they have asked for stop-and-search powers under section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000.

Cory Doctorow

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Torture documents need to be released

Saturday, June 13th, 2009

Despite its repudiation of “enhanced interrogation techniques,” the Obama administration continues to stifle public scrutiny of how the Bush Justice Department’s strained legal rationale for torture was translated into the mistreatment of suspected terrorists. The latest attempt to deflect disclosure was a statement by CIA Director Leon Panetta on Monday that not a single paragraph of 65 documents describing the agency’s interrogations could safely be made public. Most of the documents describe the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah, who was waterboarded at least 83 times.

The federal judge to whom Panetta submitted his declaration shouldn’t take it at face value. As with the photographs of prisoner abuse that President Barack Obama wrongly declined to make public, the documents sought by the American Civil Liberties Union shouldn’t be withheld to spare the United States additional embarrassment. Nor is continued secrecy justified, as Panetta maintains, by the possibility that details about abandoned techniques would help al-Qaida prepare for future interrogations. Even less convincing is Panetta’s claim that national security would be endangered by the identification of countries that allowed the CIA to interrogate suspects on their soil.

To be fair, these are only some of Panetta’s justifications for exempting so-called operational documents from the disclosure requirements of the Freedom of Information Act. He also told U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein that their release would expose the identities of CIA employees who took part in interrogations and reveal what the CIA did and didn’t know about terrorist plots at particular points in time.

These arguments have a better claim to the exception in the FOIA for matters “specifically authorized under criteria established by an executive order to be kept secret in the interest of national defense or foreign policy.” But the documents may contain information that doesn’t meet that test. For example, they might establish whether interrogators circumvented even the inadequate constraints imposed by the Bush administration. They also could shed light on a matter under criminal investigation: the destruction of 92 videotapes of CIA interrogations.

Even the harshest critics of the Bush-era interrogation program recognize that the government can’t divulge to the public the identities of covert operatives or important sources and methods. But with all due respect to Panetta, he shouldn’t have the final say on that question. The solution seems obvious: Judge Hellerstein should examine the contested documents — not just summaries — and decide for himself which of the CIA’s objections are valid.

— Los Angeles Times editorial

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The great big DNA database fishing expedition

Saturday, June 13th, 2009

In London the Met police have been rounding up and arresting children as young as ten who have committed no crime, for the purpose of getting their DNA on record. A FOI request has revealed that in 2008, police in the Camden area arrested and took DNA samples from 386 under-eighteens in a practice they describe as a “long-term crime prevention strategy”. This big fishing expedition will furnish the UK database on children with DNA records which will be held for six years or until the kid turns eighteen.

The European Court Of Human Rights has come into conflict with the Home Office over the extent of British plans for a National ID Database, which stores DNA data amongst other biometric details. In December 2008 at the ECHR in Strasbourg a panel of seventeen judges unanimously condemned British powers to hold DNA data of all arrestees indefinitely - and regardless of the seriousness of the alleged crime - as ‘blanket and indiscriminate’. The judges ruled that some 857,000 innocent people should have their DNA data deleted. The Home Office is fobbing the ECHR off by only slightly watering down their plans and will still store samples of those arrested (but not convicted) for serious crimes for twelve years, and keep DNA data six years for those arrested (but not convicted) of minor offences. Those who are convicted will have their DNA information held indefinitely.

The National Identity Register (See SchNEWS 466) and the Children’s Act 2004 – which saw the creation of a database for every child in the country (See SchNEWS 452) are just two components of the grand Neo-Labour vision for an Orwellian British state, and no doubt the Tories will be happy to carry on the good work if they get in.

* www.no2id.net www.privacyinternational.org

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Ex-Bush lawyer can be sued over torture according to Judge

Saturday, June 13th, 2009

A prisoner who says he was tortured while being held for nearly four years as a suspected terrorist can sue former Bush administration lawyer John Yoo for coming up with the legal theories that justified his alleged treatment, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled Friday.

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White’s decision marks the first time a government lawyer has been held potentially responsible for the abuse of detainees.

“Like any other government official, government lawyers are responsible for the foreseeable consequences of their conduct,” White said in refusing to dismiss Jose Padilla’s lawsuit against Yoo.

If Padilla, now serving a 17-year prison sentence on terrorism charges, can prove his allegations, he can show that Yoo “set in motion a series of events that resulted in the deprivation of Padilla’s constitutional rights,” White said.

White, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, noted that Padilla’s lawsuit accuses Yoo of helping to design administration policy on detention and torture, and then crafting legal opinions to justify it - stepping outside the usual role of a lawyer.

Yoo, a UC Berkeley law professor, was an attorney in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel from 2001 to 2003 and wrote a series of memos on interrogation, detention and presidential powers.

The best-known memo, written to then-White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales in 2002, said rough treatment of captives amounted to torture only if it caused the same level of pain as “organ failure, impairment of bodily function or even death.” The memo also said the president may have the constitutional power to authorize torture of enemy combatants.
‘Any means necessary’

A 2001 Yoo memo, made public by the Obama administration, said U.S. military forces could use “any means necessary” to seize and hold terror suspects in the United States.

Yoo could not be reached at his Berkeley office Friday. A spokesman for the Justice Department, which is representing him and has argued for dismissal of the suit, was unavailable for comment.

Padilla’s lawyers issued a statement saying they are “pleased that our client will get his day in court and the right to challenge the unconstitutional conduct to which he was subjected.”
Unique ruling

John Eastman, law school dean at Chapman University in Orange County, where Yoo taught for the past year, said the ruling is unique - the first to hold any administration official potentially liable for alleged mistreatment of terrorist suspects.

Eastman predicted that the Justice Department will file an immediate appeal, going to the Supreme Court if necessary. Padilla, a U.S. citizen, was arrested in Chicago in 2002 and accused by the Bush administration of plotting with al Qaeda to detonate a radioactive “dirty bomb.”

Declared an enemy combatant, Padilla was held in a Navy brig for three years and eight months and was denied all contact with the outside world for the first half of that period, his suit said. He was then taken out of the brig and charged with taking part in an unrelated conspiracy to provide money and supplies to Islamic extremist groups. He was convicted and has appealed.

His suit against Yoo covers his time in the brig. He says he was detained illegally, held for lengthy periods in darkness and blinding light, subjected to temperature extremes and sleep deprivation, confined in painful stress positions, and threatened with death to himself, harm to his family and transfer to a nation where he would be tortured.
Claims of mistreatment

The suit said Yoo - who has acknowledged being a member of an administration planning group known as the “war council” - personally reviewed and approved Padilla’s detention in the brig and provided the legal cover for his treatment.

At a hearing in March, Justice Department lawyer Mary Mason told White that courts had no power to scrutinize high-level government decision-making, especially in wartime.

But White said Friday that Padilla had a right to sue “the alleged architect of the government policy” on enemy combatants. He said an examination of Yoo’s publicly disclosed writings would not damage national security, and an inquiry into “allegations of unconstitutional treatment of an American citizen on American soil” would not affect foreign relations.

Bob Egelko

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Iran election may decide war or peace for Middle East

Saturday, June 13th, 2009

More than 42 million Iranians are eligible to vote Friday in the presidential election, and long lines were reported around the country’s polling places. Voting has already been extended at least two hours because of heavy turnout.

 

Incumbent hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has denied the Holocaust and vowed bloodcurdling threats against the United States and to wipe Israel off the map, is being challenged by former Prime Minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi, who was an extremist prime minister through most of the 1980s but now appears a relative moderate compared with Ahmadinejad. There are two other candidates, but the race is seen as between Ahmadinejad, whose reputation precedes him, and Mousavi. If no candidate wins more than 50 percent of the vote, a runoff is scheduled for June 19.

Most opinion polls heavily favor the incumbent Ahmadinejad, but some have given widely varying results — Ahmadinejad’s support swings from 22 percent to 62 percent. On the other hand, Ahmadinejad and his supporters control the state functions of government, which puts them at a huge advantage.

The campaign has been very spirited. The central issues — echoing last November’s presidential election in the United States — are the economy and international relations. The British Broadcasting Corporation reported that, after voting, Ahmadinejad thanked his fellow Iranians for “their goodness, for the greatness, for their selflessness, their sacrifice and for their forgiveness.” What was meant by that last comment is unclear.

Mousavi said, “God willing, with the nationwide participation of the public we will see better and more beautiful days.”

A quarter-century ago Mousavi was determined to export the Iranian Islamic Revolution throughout the Middle East, and he vigorously prosecuted Iran’s bloody, eight-year war with Iraq not just to drive the Iraqi invaders out of Iran, but also to carry the flag of the revolution across the entire region, fulfilling the implacable vision of the Islamic Republic’s founding father, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

But Mousavi sounds very different today. Al-Jazeera television network quoted him as saying in the closing stages of his electronic campaign, “The conditions in this country have changed. The revolution has changed. There were specific conditions at the beginning of the revolution, particular motives and the motivation.”

According to al-Jazeera, Mousavi now wants to ensure that Iran functions as part of the international system as a major and respected power, and even as a partner to other nations.

The position of president is no figurehead in Iran. Ahmadinejad re-radicalized the country’s foreign and national security policies and pushed ahead more energetically than ever with its nuclear development programs after he succeeded President Mohammed Khatami in the 2005 presidential election. Khatami had offered two U.S. presidents, Democrat President Bill Clinton and Republican George W. Bush, to negotiate an end to Iran’s programs that could develop nuclear weapons, but neither followed up on it.

Iran’s current Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, backs Ahmadinejad.

If Ahmadinejad wins, global oil prices, which climbed back to $70 a barrel this week, are likely to rise again, as fears will increase that Israel may order a pre-emptive air attack on Iran’s far-flung web of thousands of gas centrifuges that are working day and night to produce highly enriched uranium for nuclear weapons.

That could also happen if Mousavi wins, but the Israelis might then be more willing to sit back and let U.S. President Barack Obama try till the end of this year his policy of reining in the Iranian nuclear program by negotiations alone.

This year’s election therefore may be the most significant in the history of the Islamic Republic, and its outcome will be closely scrutinized not just in the Middle East but around the world for its pointers to war and peace in the coming years.

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Pentagon Cyber Command threat to civil liberties

Saturday, June 13th, 2009

The Obama administration’s plan to create a Pentagon Cyber Command to conduct both defensive and offensive cyberwarfare is arousing concern about potential threats to privacy and civil liberties.

A new report in the New York Times warns that even though President Obama has promised that protections will be built into the cyberdefense strategy, such protections will be difficult to implement in practice.

“Much of the new military command’s work is expected to be carried out by the National Security Agency, whose role in intercepting the domestic end of international calls and e-mail messages after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, under secret orders issued by the Bush administration, has already generated intense controversy,” the Times explains. “There is simply no way, the officials say, to effectively conduct computer operations without entering networks inside the United States, where the military is prohibited from operating, or traveling electronic paths through countries that are not themselves American targets.”

The establishment of a Cyber Command first became a source of controversy when it was announced in April. One of the most chilling assessments was in an article at GlobalResearch, which spoke of “billions of dollars already spent on a score of top secret initiatives, included those hidden within Pentagon Special Access (SAP) or black programs” and warned direly that “NSA has positioned itself to seize near total control over the country’s electronic infrastructure, thereby exerting an intolerable influence–and chilling effect–over the nation’s political life.”

Although the article’s conclusion that cybersecurity is nothing more than a “euphemism for keeping the rabble in line” is not widely shared, even the experts interviewed by the Times expressed unusually strong fears of a threat to civil liberties.

Peace activist Frida Berrigan — the daughter of renowned Vietnam War protester Philip Berrigan — told the Times of her concern that “if the Pentagon and the military services see cyberspace as a battlefield domain, then the lines protecting privacy and our civil liberties get blurred very, very quickly.”

Even defense expert Maren Leed — a former assistant to the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — suggested that a broad national debate should be undertaken to define the line between acceptable and unacceptable intrusions into email and other private information. Leed emphasized that although the military and intelligence agencies may be best equipped to detect and ward off cyberattacks, “they are not the best suited, from a civil liberties perspective, to take on that responsibility.”

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Sri Lankan government interrogate doctors who witnessed war crimes

Saturday, June 13th, 2009

The Sri Lankan government is continuing to detain and interrogate three doctors—Dr Thurairajah Varatharajah, Dr Thangamuttu Sathyamurthi and Dr V. Shanmugarajah—who risked their lives to provide medical care to thousands of Tamil civilians caught in fighting between the army and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

 

With journalists and most aid workers barred from the war zone, the government-appointed medical officers provided a glimpse into the horrific conditions facing over a quarter of a million civilians in the small LTTE-held enclave. Their testimony provided first-hand evidence of the war crimes being carried out by the Sri Lankan military in shelling civilian areas. Their makeshift clinic was hit several times in the last weeks of fighting.

 

The three doctors fled along with thousands of civilians just days before the army overran the last LTTE territory. They were detained by soldiers and handed over to police. To deflect attention from its own crimes, the government accused the doctors of aiding the LTTE and denounced their accounts as propaganda. Only the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has had access to the men.

 

Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe told the BBC last week that the doctors were being held “on the reasonable suspicion of collaboration with the LTTE”. He added: “I don’t know what the investigations may reveal, but maybe they were even part of that whole conspiracy to put forward the notion that government forces were shelling and targeting hospitals and indiscriminately targeting civilians as a result of the shelling.”

 

What Samarasinghe refers to as “a conspiracy” is the mounting evidence of the atrocities for which the Sri Lankan government and military are responsible. The Colombo government backed by China, Russia and India blocked a motion in the UN Human Rights Council this month calling for an independent inquiry into war crimes by both the army and LTTE.

 

Leaked UN reports estimate that at least 7,000 civilians were killed since late January in the army’s final offensive on the LTTE. While President Mahinda Rajapakse and his ministers blame all civilian deaths on the LTTE, satellite imagery and the comments of survivors have exposed the government lie that the military did not use heavy weapons on an area packed with civilians. Other estimates based on UN sources and aerial photos put the death toll at more than 20,000.

 

Comments to the media by the three doctors gave a graphic account of the desperate plight of hundreds of thousands of Tamil civilians inside the LTTE enclave—much of which the military had cynically proclaimed to be a “no-fire zone”. Food and water were extremely limited. The doctors struggled to cope each day with hundreds of injured in appalling conditions and without adequate medical supplies.

 

On May 13, Agence France Presse reported Dr Varatharajah had told them that the makeshift hospital had been hit for the second time in two days. At least 50 people had been killed, including a health aide, and another 60 injured. Dr V. Shanmugarajah told Associated Press by telephone that the strike was the third in the month.

 

Ultimately, the doctors were forced to leave. Associated Press reported on May 14 that the hospital had been abandoned because it was too dangerous to work there. About 400 badly injured patients remained inside, in desperate need of medical attention. A medical staff member said: “Looking at the hospice and hearing the civilians cry, you feel only disaster.” The military overran the last LTTE positions on May 18.

 

Amnesty International reported seeing the doctors on May 15 at a screening point for the internally displaced people (IDPs) near Omanthai. To quash mounting questions about their fate, the army commander denied any knowledge of their whereabouts. On May 20, however, an ICRC team had spotted them at the same site. The military later handed the men over to the police and placed in the custody of the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID).

 

ICRC spokeswoman Sarasi Wijeratne told the WSWS on June 3 that lawyers, journalists and relatives had all been barred from seeing the three doctors. Asked about their health and their whereabouts, she said that the ICRC was constrained to maintain silence as per an agreement with the Sri Lankan authorities.

 

In comments to the British-based Independent, Satish Kumar, the brother-in-law of Dr Shanmugarajah, said he had been told by ICRC officials that they had been able to leave the doctor some clothes and that “he had not been tortured”. The concern about torture is very real as the TID is notorious for using physical coercion against “terrorist suspects” to obtain confessions that are then used in court. In the case of the three doctors, much more is at stake for the government in getting them to recant their previous comments.

 

Kumar told the newspaper: “If the government charges them, then we can approach a lawyer. Everybody knows they’ve not done anything other than help civilians and try to save lives. They may have given some casualty figures, but is that an offence? It’s obvious how many people were injured—they are now all in the camps.”

 

Human Rights Minister Samarasinghe, however, said that the investigation into the doctors could last for a year or more before charges are finally laid. Under the country’s draconian emergency powers and Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), suspects can be held virtually indefinitely without charge.

 

Samarasinghe declared that the comments of the doctors to the international media had been made with the LTTE holding “pistols at their heads”. He continued: “There was a lot of publicity that we launched an attack on a hospital. That publicity was given due to the three doctors. Now they are in the custody of the TID, under detention orders. Soon they will be produced in court. You will hear what really happened.”

 

Samarasinghe’s comments only begs the question: if their previous comments were coerced, why detain the doctors and prevent the journalists, lawyers and relatives from speaking to them? The very fact that the three men could be held incommunicado for a year or more signifies that the government has a great deal to hide.

 

The BBC reported yesterday that Dr Sathyamurthi had been produced in a magistrate’s court in Colombo as formally required under the PTA. He said nothing during his brief appearance and was returned to police custody.

Nanda Wickramesinghe

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Feds ask court to reconsider CIA renditions suit

Saturday, June 13th, 2009

The U.S. Department of Justice is asking a federal appeals court to reconsider its decision to allow a Boeing Co. subsidiary to be sued for allegedly flying terrorism suspects to secret prisons overseas to be tortured.

In April, a panel of judges from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled that the lawsuit dealing with the CIA’s “extraordinary rendition” program could proceed.

The government earlier had successfully invoked the “state secrets” law that blocks the release of evidence it deems potentially harmful to national security. But the appeals court said the prisoners can try to prove their case without top-secret information.

Federal prosecutors filed court documents Friday asking that a full panel of judges rehear the case.

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Thousands of postal workers to strike

Saturday, June 13th, 2009

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