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CIA ordered to speed up release of torture report

Friday, July 17th, 2009

On Wednesday, the Federal judge overseeing the American Civil Liberty Union’s Freedom of Information Act request for CIA information pertaining to the destruction of interrogation videotapes ordered CIA to release its 2004 Inspector General report on CIA torture and interrogation not later than August 24.

An earlier decision by the judge had set August 31 as the deadline for release of the IG report, after several earlier postponements.

Marcy Wheeler of the firedoglake blog opined that presiding judge Alvin K. Hellerstein is becoming impatient with the foot-dragging of administration attorneys. In court pleadings, Federal attorneys have argued over the past five months or so that CIA—with an estimated 20,000 employees and global reach—and Department of Justice—with a national presence and over 112,500 employees—just don’t have adequate time or resources to review and declassify the IG report and its supporting documents.

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Bush, Cheney knew they were violating law

Friday, July 17th, 2009

Torture instigators George Bush and Dick Cheney should not be allowed to evade prosecution on grounds they acted in good faith on their lawyers’ advice because they told their lawyers what advice to give, a law school dean says.

“Could Al Capone or ‘Lucky’ Luciana receive immunity for acting in accordance with the advice of counsel when they told counsel what to advise?” asks Lawrence Velvel of the Massachusetts School of Law at Andover .

“(Vice-President) Cheney and (President) Bush knew that they were ordering violations of law,” Velvel points out. “The fact that they were doing so, and were well aware they were doing so, was one of the reasons why they, like a significant number of CIA officials who knew the same, demanded that lawyers produce legal cover for them in the form of Office of Legal Counsel memos authored by the likes of (John) Yoo and (Steven) Bradbury.”

Lower level CIA and military personnel that did not read the supposedly exculpatory memos, Velvel said, also cannot claim reliance on legal counsel because “they had to know that torture was forbidden no matter what some lawyers said. You could not grow up in America and not know this” any more than a person could claim murder was lawful because some lawyer told him so, Velvel writes.

“People who grew up in America cannot realistically claim that they thought it was lawful to beat people mercilessly, to smash their heads against walls, to kill about one hundred of them apparently, to hang them from ceiling hooks, to make them freeze, to deny them sleep for weeks on end, and so forth,” Velvel writes in an essay in his new book “America 2008” from Doukathsan Press.

“They knew what they were doing was wrong,” he continued. “FBI…guys on the scene knew it regardless of what lawyers like Yoo said, and it was knowledge that what they were doing was wrong that caused some lower level CIA guys too to want a ‘get out of jail free card,’” Velvel writes.

“That realization is why CIA officials, from 2002 to 2006 or 2007 demanded memoranda from the Office of Legal Counsel of the Department of Justice, falsely claiming that the abuse and torture were not criminal acts,” Velvel said. “The officials wanted these OLC memos so that they could later avoid or defeat prosecutions by claiming that the decision-making office of the DOJ had approved the legality of what they were doing. The officials wanted a ‘golden shield,’” he added.

Those who claim they were ordered to torture, like those who said they had a legal opinion that to do so was okay, are guilty of an effort to “escape the Nuremberg principles by saying that others said what the culprits were doing was okay,” Velvel continues. The Nuremberg tribunal that judged accused Nazi war criminals after World War Two concluded they could not evade guilt by asserting they were only following orders.

“But claiming that their actions were immune because others okayed them is precisely what Cheney, Bush, their whole crowd…have been attempting to do… They knew what they were doing was illegal, as evidenced by the extreme secrecy they practiced lest it be learned they were practicing, and lest they be accused of practicing, the crimes they were in fact practicing. Morality, decency, and Nuremberg alike forbid this.”

“By now it seems beyond serious doubt that George Bush and company committed numerous war crimes,” Velvel wrote. “It is evident that if these things can be done, then there is an end of law where the truly wealthy and powerful are concerned. Whether it is Al Capone or Dick Cheney, the filthy rich or obscenely powerful will have it in their power to do the most awful things yet escape the law by using contributions or power to obtain immunity from preexisting law and to buy the opinions of immoral lawyers. That is the moral and philosophical basis why these things can’t be permitted,” Velvel said.

Velvel is dean of the Massachusetts School of Law at Andover, founded in 1988 for the express purpose of providing a quality, affordable legal education to minority students, immigrants and students from low-income backgrounds who would otherwise not be able to afford law school. Tuition at the school is only about half that charged by other New England area law schools. Velvel has been honored for his contributions to legal education reform by the National Law Journal and has also received a number of awards from the book publishing industry for his essays.

Sherwood Ross

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Freedom of Information Act to be extended

Friday, July 17th, 2009

The Freedom of Information Act looks set to be extended to include four new bodies.

The government has published its response to a consultation launched in October 2007 about which new organisations, if any, should fall under its remit.

The quartet is: the Financial Services Ombudsman, the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service, Academy schools and the Association of Chief Police Officers which volunteered to be brought under the Act.

Consultations with Network Rail and utility companies about possible inclusion within the Act are due to take place.

A statement from the Ministry of Justice said: “The government’s response reflects the considerable support for extending the Act.

“A further consultation will now be undertaken with those proposed for inclusion within the scope of the Act.”

Among those who responded to the consultation were the Press Complaints Commission, Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, Newspaper Society and Campaign for Freedom of Information.

The latter welcomed the news but was disappointed at the scope of the proposals.

It said: “The Act allows contractors providing services on behalf of a public authority to be brought under its scope, if the provision of the service is a function of the authority. However, the government is not proposing to designate any contractors.

“The Campaign had argued that private health bodies providing surgical or diagnostic services under the NHS should be subject to the Act as should providers of social care services and educational and criminal justice services.

“People’s rights to know about the quality of a public service they receive should be the same, whether the service is provided by a public authority itself or by a private body under contract to the authority.”

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Obama on slavery

Friday, July 17th, 2009

President Obama slowly walked across the grounds of Cape Coast Castle, a slave outpost in Ghana where hundreds of thousands of Africans were shipped as human cargo to a life of bondage in the United States, South Africa and the Caribbean.

“You almost feel as if the walls can speak. You try to project yourself into these incredibly harrowing moments,” Obama told CNN’s Anderson Cooper.

When the president reached the “Door of No Return,” an arched gateway with thick doors that would shut behind African men, women and children before they were forced onto slave ships, Obama looked out over the Atlantic Ocean where waves crashed onto rocks. “Obviously there’s a sense of what a profound sorrow must’ve been felt as people were hauled off into the great unknown,” he said.

What does he tell his two daughters, Sasha and Malia, about slavery?

“You try to explain that people were willing to degrade others because they appeared differently,” Obama said. “You try to get them to engage in the imaginative act of what it would be like if they were snatched away from Mom and Dad and sent to some place they had never seen before. But you know, part of what you also try to do with kids is to get them to imagine themselves on the other side, as being the slave merchant.

“That slave merchant might’ve loved their children and gone to that place of worship,” he said, pausing to point to a church on the grounds, “right above the dungeon. And [I try to] get them to make sure that they’re constantly asking themselves questions if they’re treating people fairly and whether they are examining their own behavior and how it affects others.”

He toured the site with his family, including first lady Michelle Obama and her mother, who are descendants of slaves from South Carolina. “I can’t imagine that for her, for her mother who is with us … that seeing that portal doesn’t send a powerful message — the kinds of emotions that must be evoked.”

Obama’s recent trip to Ghana and the slave-shipping outpost comes on the heels of last month’s apology by the U.S. Senate about slavery. The Senate passed a nonbinding resolution that “acknowledges the fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality and inhumanity of slavery, and Jim Crow laws,” and “apologizes to African-Americans on behalf of the people of the United States for the wrongs committed against them and their ancestors who suffered under slavery and Jim Crow laws.” Obama called it a “historic” resolution at the time.

The issue of apologizing for the past has prompted some heated discussion. In an interview that has gone viral on the Internet, Chris Matthews, the host of MSNBC’s “Hardball with Chris Matthews,” blasts Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennessee for backing such an apology.

“It makes no sense to me. Why should the whole country apologize for what a good half or more of the country got killed opposing? You’re from Tennessee. Maybe you should apologize first before you ask the rest of the country,” Matthews snaps.

Katrina Browne, a descendant of wealthy Northerners, said she always thought slavery was confined to the South, until she began digging through her own family’s history. She learned that her family, the DeWolfs, sailed ships from Bristol, Rhode Island, to West Africa, trading rum for African men, women and children in the late 1700s to early 1800s.

The DeWolf family brought more than 10,000 slaves from Africa, she said, and eventually became one of the wealthiest families in the nation as a result of its slave-trading business. Browne detailed her family’s experience in a documentary last year called “Traces of the Trade: A story from the Deep North,” as part of PBS’s “Point of View” series.

“I’m a firm believer in the U.S. government apologizing because of all the ways in which the government supported and condoned and made slavery possible,” said Browne, who has also traveled to Ghana to see Cape Coast Castle.

“What most Americans don’t know is the extensive complicity of the North in slavery. The victors write the history books, so the North wrote the history on slavery and very conveniently painted it solely as a Southern sin, whereas in fact the Northern colonies and states owned slaves for over 200 years and were the main slave traders.”

She said she found inspiration in Obama’s trip to Ghana and the recent Senate apology. The nation needs to discuss the issue of slavery now more than ever, she said.

“Some people think that those of us who are white and believe in the importance of public apologies or public acknowledgements — [they] feel that we’re just a bunch of knee-jerk, guilt-ridden liberals,” she said. “I like to say, ‘Why wouldn’t the government and white Americans want to go out of our way to make things right, including with what is just a very simple human step of offering an apology/acknowledgement?’ ”

In addition to the Senate apology, states such as Alabama, Connecticut, Florida, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina and Virginia have enacted similar resolutions at the state level for their roles in sanctioning and promoting slavery.

But many feel an apology is over the top.

State Rep. Patrick McDonough opposed an apology when it was considered in Maryland in 2007. A descendant of Irish immigrants, McDonough said an apology is simply a “mindset cleansing” for liberals and a potential preamble for reparations.

“It’s just a divisive grand-standing issue that makes no sense at all,” said McDonough, a Republican radio host in Baltimore. “No. 1, I or my family have never owned slaves. We came to the United States from Ireland long after slavery had been abolished. No. 2, I think the apology has already been given in the way of 500,000 dead American soldiers in the Union Army who made it clear that they didn’t approve of slavery and fought against it.”

He added that tens of millions of dollars from taxpayers, both black and white, have been spent on programs to help African-Americans over the years, amounting to the equivalent of an apology for a bad institution.

“There is no need for an apology; there is a need for people to come together and work for the general welfare of the nation,” he said. “The president, I believe, will pretty soon appoint a czar of apology.”

On his trip in Ghana, Obama said the nation and the world should never forget the scourge of slavery because it’s still relevant in today’s world.

“I think that the experience of slavery is like the experience of the Holocaust. I think it’s one of those things you don’t forget about. I think it is important that the way we think about it and the way it’s taught is not one in which there’s simply a victim and a victimizer, and that’s the end of the story,” he said.

“I think the way it has to be thought about, the reason it’s relevant is because whether it’s what’s happening in Darfur or what’s happening in the Congo or what’s happening in too many places around the world — you know, the capacity for cruelty still exists.”

“So trying to use these kinds of extraordinary moments to widen the lens and make sure that we’re all reflecting on how we are treating each other, I think, is something I want my kids to think about and I want every child to think about.”

Wayne Drash

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EU justice ministers call for more data protection

Friday, July 17th, 2009

Stockholm - The European Union must balance its attempts to gather more security information on EU citizens with the need to protect their privacy, EU justice ministers said in Stockholm on Friday.

‘The question of data protection must feature more strongly on the European agenda,’ Germany’s justice minister, Brigitte Zypries, said during informal talks with EU counterparts.

‘When it comes to individual rights, it’s of concern that (data) integrity is assured,’ agreed Sweden’s justice minister, Beatrice Ask, who chaired the meeting.

Sweden currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency.

In that capacity, Ask is tasked with overseeing the creation of the so-called Stockholm Programme, a five-year plan aimed at making legal cooperation between EU member states more efficient.

‘We have said yes to the fundamental freedoms (to move and live in EU member states), so we need to say yes to European law and European rules,’ Luxembourg Justice Minister Luc Frieden said.

But at the same time, cooperation ‘has to be useful and provide real added value,’ Ask stressed as she summarized the two days of talks.

One key element of the programme is a proposal to set up an agency to oversee the various computer systems the EU uses to share security information on visa applicants, travellers and criminal cases.

‘The advantage is that things will be handled more professionally than today: when you have these questions one at a time, sometimes it gets very expensive and it’s not professionally taken care of,’ Ask said.

That is particularly true of the EU’s programme to share complex data on people travelling within the Schengen border-free zone, known as SIS II, which is years overdue and millions of euros over budget.

The idea of creating an agency to oversee SIS II, the EU’s visa information system, VIS, and its database of fingerprints, Eurodac, has raised accusations that the bloc is trying to create a ‘Big Brother’ surveillance system.

But Ask rejected that fear, saying, ‘The thing is not that you want to collect a lot of information in one place, which is a danger, it’s how to govern and to secure different sorts of information.’

And Frieden stressed that European citizens should think about the kind of data held by private companies as well as the authorities.

‘People are giving a lot of information to private companies when they travel, when they shop, when they do other things: I think the abuses might come much more in that sector,’ he said.

The informal meeting, which was tasked with debating the broad outlines of the Stockholm Programme ahead of detailed discussions in the autumn, also analysed how EU citizens living outside their home country in another EU state could be given better access to legal services such as courtroom interpretation.

‘Suspects must be told about the case in their own language. You can’t have a situation where you arrest someone and he only understands the word ‘train station,” Zypries said.

Frieden called for standardized EU forms for documents such as birth and marriage certificates, to take into account the some 8 million EU citizens who now live, work and marry in other member states.

And EU Justice Commissioner Jacques Barrot urged member states to use more use of modern technologies such as the internet and machine translation to make access easier for all EU citizens.

The language barrier ‘is a substantial problem, but we will have to be able to master it if we want people to be able to have access to justice,’ he said.

Ministers also called for an analysis of the way the EU-wide European Arrest Warrant is used, saying that some states were not using it enough.

‘Some countries don’t use it as often as others, so maybe they don’t have enough knowledge or routines,’ Ask said.

Justice and interior ministers are expected to finalize the Stockholm Programme by the end of the year.

Ask would not be drawn on the question of which issues would be most contentious, pointing out that ‘The devil is in the detail.’

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Indians to get biometric ID cards

Friday, July 17th, 2009

The Indian government plans to give all of its 1.2 billion citizens biometric ID cards, and Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani will lead the project.

The project team will face a huge challenge in securing the information stored, which will be a target for hackers. But unlike the UK, the general population are likely to accept the cards.

The project is going to cost an estimated £3bn. The UK ID cards scheme was expected to cost £5.3bn and the UK government has now abandoned its plan to make ID cards compulsory. There was lot of opposition to the scheme in the UK.

Nandan Nilekani, who left Infosys to lead the project, has described it as a “humongous, mind-boggling challenge”, according to The Telegraph.

Infosys said it accepts Nilekani’s decision to leave with “a sense of duty to a larger cause, but with deep sadness”.

The ID scheme is an attempt to fight corruption and could identify illegal immigrants and tackle terrorism.

Each card will contain personal data and proof of identity, such as fingerprint or iris scans. It will be linked to a central database.

Kris Lakshmikanth, managing director at Indian recruitment firm Headhunters, said it will take a decade to do this. He doubts the project will get the same level of opposition as the UK scheme because the general population are not aware of the privacy risks.

But he is concerned about the security. “I am sure hackers will hack into the database,” he said.

Pradipta Bagchi, head of communications at Indian IT supplier TCS, said the biggest challenge will not be IT but getting all the states and government departments involved to agree.

He said it is an ambitious IT project. “India is a massive country and a lot of it is rural. It also has a lot of different types of ID in circulation.”

Bagchi said he is not concerned about having to carry an ID card. “Security will be an issue, but in India we have not seen too many incidents of data getting lost.”

NR Narayana Murthy, chairman at Infosys, said, “We are glad that an extraordinary individual like Nandan has got an opportunity to add value to India through this position. As a company that has always put the interest of the society ahead of itself, Infosys will accept his absence with a sense of duty to a larger cause, but with deep sadness at the departure of one of her most illustrious sons. We, the Infoscions, wish him the best in his new assignment.”

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This entry was posted on Friday, July 17th, 2009 at 11:43 pm and is filed under War & Terrorism News . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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