War Crimes and Torture Committee
Democrats Abroad Berlin
Under cover of its so-called war on terror, the Bush administration has implemented policies that have led to violations of the Geneva Conventions, the U.N. Convention against Torture, the U.S. War Crimes Statute, the U.S. Torture Statute, and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The damage done to our traditional national values is incalculable. The present low world opinion of the U.S. is directly related to our government’s derogation of long-standing human rights obligations. While a few enlisted soldiers have been convicted of crimes, these policies were designed and approved by high-level government officials and the White House, where the real responsibility for wrongdoing lies. As individual members of Democrats Abroad Berlin, we believe that the reversal of these Bush administration policies must become a cornerstone of political renewal in the U.S.—before it is too late. We seek to educate ourselves, fellow Democrats, and the public about these issues and related legislative initiatives.
If you would like to join in our research, discussion, and planning, or if you just wish to inform yourself, we invite you to attend a meeting of the War Crimes and Torture Committee of Democrats Abroad Berlin. We meet on the fourth Thursday of every month. Our next meetings will be held on June 22, July 27, and August 24, 2006. Your ideas are welcome!
Fourth Thursday of the month at 7 p.m.
Restaurantkneipe Giraffe, Klopstockstraße 2, 10557 Berlin
(near S-Bahnhof Tiergarten; midway between U-Bahnhof Zoologischer Garten and U-Bahnhof Hansaplatz)
tel. 34351690
Below are details regarding the meeting agendas as well as some useful resources.
Greetings!
Elsa Rassbach, committee chair
Donald Tuckwiller, committee vice-chair
Topic 1. U.N. Committee against Torture Examines U.S. Compliance with the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
Amnesty International, "USA: Amnesty International's Supplementary Briefing to the UN Committee against Torture," AMR 51/061/2006, May 3, 2006:
http://web.amnesty.org/library/print/ENGAMR510612006
Amnesty International, "US: Government Creating 'Climate of Torture,'" press release, AMR 51/070/2006, May 3, 2006:
http://web.amnesty.org/library/print/ENGAMR510702006
Matthew Schofield, "Report Blames Top U.S. Officials for Alleged Torture of Detainees," Knight Ridder Newspapers, May 3, 2006:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/printer_050406A.shtml
Amy Goodman, "Chicago's Abu Ghraib: UN Committee against Torture Hears Report on How Police Tortured over 135 African-American Men inside Chicago Jails," transcript of interview with David Bates, Flint Taylor, and John Conroy, DemocracyNow! May 9, 2006:
http://www.democracynow.org/print.pl?sid=06/05/09/1415210
Alexander G. Higgens, " U.N. Urges U.S. to Shut Guantanamo Prison," Associated Press, May 19, 2006:
http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2006/05/19/un_us_should_close_gitmo_facility?mode=PF
"U.N.: U.S. Should Close Gitmo," CBS News, May 19, 2006:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/05/19/world/main1633209.shtml
"Summary of a U.N. Anti-Torture Panel's Report on the United States," Associated Press, May 20, 2006:
http://english.ohmynews.com/ArticleView/article_view.asp?no=293213&rel_no=1
Topic 2. The Situation of Detainees in Guantánamo Bay
William Fisher, "Gitmo Releases Suggest Numerous Mistakes," Inter Press Service, May 3, 2006:
http://www.commondreams.org/cgi-bin/print.cgi?file=/headlines06/0503-07.htm
"Albania Takes Guantanamo Uighurs: Five Chinese Muslim Men Have Been Released from the US Detention Centre in Guantanamo Bay and Flown to Albania for Resettlement, the US Says," BBC News, May 6, 2006:
http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4979466.stm
"Bush Says He Wants to Close Guantanamo: President Tells German TV He Wants 'to Get People to a Court,'" CBS News, May 8, 2006:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/05/08/politics/main1596464.shtml?source=RSS&attr=Politics_1596464
Human Rights Watch, "U.S.: Bush Should Close Guantanamo Now," New York, NY, May 9, 2006:
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/05/09/usdom13332_txt.htm
"UK Calls for Guantanamo Closure: The Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, Has Called for the Closure of the US Detention Camp at Guantanamo Bay," BBC News, May 11, 2006:
http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/4759317.stm
"Attorney General Speech: The Full Text of Attorney General Lord Goldsmith's Speech to the Royal United Services Institute, Including His Call for the Guantanamo Bay Detention Centre to Close," BBC News, May 10, 2006:
http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/4760031.stm
Paul Reynolds, "'Significant' UK Shift on Guantanamo: Analysis," BBC News, May 10, 2006:
http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4760155.stm
Center for Constitutional Rights, "Center for Constitutional Rights Reacts to DOD Release of Guantánamo Detainee Names," New York, NY, May 16, 2006:
http://www.ccr-ny.org/v2/reports/report.asp?ObjID=8uuDsg6oPm&Content=772
Ben Fox, "Gitmo Fight Reported; U.N. Seeks Closure," Associated Press, May 19, 2006:
http://news.findlaw.com/scripts/printer_friendly.pl?page=/ap/i/630/05-20-2006/747f00689cf0d6e6.html
Severin Carrell, "Breaking Point: Inside Story of the Guantanamo Uprising; the Camp Commander's Claims of a Co-ordinated Revolt Are Challenged by New Details of the Violence," The Independent, May 21, 2006:
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0521-01.htm
Max Berley, "Guantanamo, Target of World Criticism, Seems Set for Long Life," Bloomberg News, May 23, 2006:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=washingtonstory&sid=aI7bO0ogT2NE#
Ben Wizner and Jamil Dakwar have been blogging from the military commission proceedings in Guantánamo Bay. See their illuminating observations at the American Civil Liberties Union Website:
http://blog.aclu.org/
Topic 3. Pentagon War Crimes Probe into the Death of Iraqi Civilians in Haditha
Jim Miklaszewski and Mike Viqueira, "Lawmaker: Marines Killed Iraqis 'in Cold Blood,'" NBC News, May 17, 2006;
Drew Brown, "Pentagon Report Said to Find Killing of Iraqi Civilians Deliberate," Knight Ridder Newspapers, May 17, 2006:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/printer_051806J.shtml
Vicki Allen, "US Lawmaker Says 24 Iraqis Killed in 2005 Incident," Reuters, May 19, 2006:
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/05/19/us_lawmaker_says_24_iraqis_killed_in_2005_incident?mode=PF
Topic 4. CIA Rendition Flights
The lawsuit brought by Khaled el-Masri against George Tenet et al. has been dismissed by a federal judge who endorsed the government's claim that trying the case would risk exposure of state secrets.
Jerry Markon, "Lawsuit against CIA Is Dismissed: Mistaken Identity Led to Detention," Washington Post, May 19, 2006:
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/print.php?id=6929
Members of the European Parliament investigating reports of CIA rendition flights and secret prisons in Europe made a fact-finding trip to Washington.
"Angeblich weniger als zehn CIA-Häftlingstransporte in Europa: EU-Delegation in Washington," NZZ Online, May 12, 2006:
http://www.nzz.ch/2006/05/12/al/newzzEN3ZSMVX-12.print.html
"NSA und CIA: Die dunklen Seiten der US-Geheimdienste," Handelsblatt, May 12, 2006:
http://www.handelsblatt.com/pshb/fn/relhbi/sfn/buildhbi/artpage/0/cn/GoArt!200013,200051,1077600/SH/0/depot/0/
Topic 5. Amnesty International's Annual Report Documents Human Rights Abuses in 150 Countries
Amnesty International, "Report 2006: The State of the World's Human Rights," London, UK, May 23, 2006:
http://web.amnesty.org/report2006/globaloverview-eng
Here is the section of Amnesty's "Report 2006" dealing with the United States of America:
http://web.amnesty.org/web/web.nsf/print/62C4D84AE5E9F50C80257168004121A0
"Despite evidence that the US government had sanctioned interrogation techniques constituting torture or ill-treatment, and 'disappearances,' there was a failure to hold officials at the highest levels accountable, including individuals who may have been guilty of war crimes or crimes against humanity."
Amnesty International, "Facts and Figures; Report 2006: The State of the World's Human Rights," media briefing, POL 10/023/2006, London, UK, May 23, 2006:
http://web.amnesty.org/library/print/ENGPOL100232006
Sanjay Suri, "War Provoking Terror, Amnesty Says," Inter Press News Agency, May 23, 2006:
http://ipsnews.net/print.asp?idnews=33328
Topic 1. Oral Arguments Heard in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld
Emily Bazelon, "Invisible Men: Did Lindsey Graham and Jon Kyl Mislead the Supreme Court?" Slate, March 27, 2006:
http://www.slate.com/id/2138750/
For a link to the pages in the Congressional Record of December 21 where the scripted "colloquy" by Senators Graham and Kyl was inserted, see below in the agenda of our December 22, 2005, meeting under topic 1, "The Detainee Treatment Act of 2005" (CR S14260–68).
"In the Supreme Court of the United States, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, Petitioner, v. Donald H. Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense, et al., No. 05-184," Washington, D.C., March 28, 2006:
http://www.supremecourtus.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts/05-184.pdf (transcript, PDF document)
http://www.oyez.org/oyez/resource/case/2019/audioresources (audio recording)
Jack Balkin, "The Hamdan Oral Argument," Balkinization, March 28, 2006:
http://balkin.blogspot.com/2006/03/hamdan-oral-argument.html
Gina Holland, "Supreme Court Questions Military Trials," Associated Press, March 28, 2006:
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20060329/D8GKSU202.html
Linda Greenhouse, "Justices Hint That They'll Rule on Challenge Filed by Detainee," New York Times, March 29, 2006:
http://www.warcrimeswatch.org/news_details.cfm?artid=1150&cat=1
David G. Savage, "Court Appears Wary of Terror War Tribunals: Most Justices Seem Open to a Prisoner's Claims That New Presidential Powers Go Too Far," Los Angeles Times, March 29, 2006:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-scotus29mar29,0,3274904.story?coll=la-home-nation
Joe Conason, "Who Put the Temper in Judicial Temperament? Antonin Scalia: Loudmouth Extraordinaire," New York Observer, March 29, 2006:
http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?ItemID=20570
David Scheffer, "Why Hamdan Is Right about Conspiracy Liability," Jurist, March 30, 2006:
http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/forumy/2006/03/why-hamdan-is-right-about-conspiracy.php
Topic 2. Reports on the DOD/CIA Gulag
Amnesty International, "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Below the Radar: Secret Flights to Torture and 'Disappearance,'" AMR 51/051/2006 (April 5, 2006):
http://web.amnesty.org/library/print/ENGAMR510512006
Amnesty International, "USA: Front Companies Used in Secret Flights to Torture and 'Disappearance,'" press release, April 5, 2006:
http://news.amnesty.org/mavp/news.nsf/print/ENGAMR510542006
Evidence has emerged that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was personally involved in the interrogation of Guantánamo detainee Mohammad al-Qahtani.
Human Rights Watch, "U.S.: Rumsfeld Potentially Liable for Torture; Defense Secretary Allegedly Involved in Abusive Interrogation," New York, NY, April 14, 2006:
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/04/14/usdom13190_txt.htm
Ken Silverstein, "The CIA 'Wehrmacht,'" Harpers.org, April 19, 2006:
http://www.harpers.org/sb-cia-wehrmacht.html
Human Rights Watch, "By the Numbers: Findings of the Detainee Abuse and Accountability Project," vol. 18, no. 2(G), April 26, 2006:
http://hrw.org/reports/2006/ct0406/ct0406web.pdf
Human Rights Watch, "U.S.: More than 600 Implicated in Detainee Abuse: Investigations Lag Two Years after Abu Ghraib Photos," Washington, D.C., April 26, 2006:
http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2006/04/26/usint13268.htm
Jim Lobe, "After Abu Ghraib, Impunity," TomPaine.com, April 28, 2006:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/printer_042806C.shtml
"European Governments Helped US with Rendition: Report (Roundup)," Deutsche Presse-Agentur, April 26, 2006:
http://news.monstersandcritics.com/europe/printer_1158648.php
Teresa Küchler, "Over 1,000 Illegal CIA Flights in Europe, MEPs Say," EUobserver, April 26, 2006:
http://euobserver.com/9/21440/?print=1
Richard Norton-Taylor, "1,000 Secret CIA Flights Revealed: MEPs' Report Says Member States Knew of Abductions; Documents Show 'Strange Routes' and Stopovers," Guardian," April 27, 2006:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,329466120-110878,00.html
Howard LaFranchi, "Why the CIA's Secret Flights Irk Europeans," Christian Science Monitor, Boston, MA, April 28, 2006:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0428/p01s01-usfp.htm
Topic 1. The Situation of DOD Detainees in Guantánamo Bay and Bagram
Miranda Leitsinger and Ben Fox, "Pentagon Releases Names of Gitmo Inmates," Associated Press, March 4, 2006:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/printer_030406Y.shtml
Josh White and Carol D. Leonnig, "U.S. Cites Exception in Torture Ban: McCain Law May Not Apply to Cuba Prison," Washington Post, March 3, 2006:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/030306B.shtml
Adam Zagorin, "'20th Hijacker' Claims That Torture Made Him Lie: Mohammad al-Qahtani, Held in Guantanamo and Touted by the U.S. as a Major Informant, Is Taking It All Back, His Lawyer Says," Time, March 3, 2006:
http://www.time.com/time/nation/printout/0,8816,1169322,00.html
James Sturcke, "Guantánamo Detainee Tells of Torture and Beatings," Guardian Unlimited, March 3, 2006:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,329426312-103681,00.htm
Rob Jennings, "'War on Terror' Trials Could Allow Evidence Obtained through Torture," Agence France Presse, March 2, 2006:
http://www.commondreams.org/cgi-bin/print.cgi?file=/headlines06/0302-05.htm
Tim Golden and Eric Schmitt, "A Growing Afghan Prison Rivals Bleak Guantánamo," New York Times, February 26, 2006:
http://www.globalpolicy.org/empire/un/2006/0226bagram.htm
Topic 2. Alleged U.S. War Crimes in Iraq
The top-secret Task Force 6-26, currently named Task Force 145, is the military's most highly trained counterterrorism unit, composed of about a thousand people drawn from the Joint Special Operations Command, military reservists and Defense Intelligence Agency personnel with special skills, like interrogators, as well as CIA officers, FBI agents, and special operations forces from other countries.
Eric Schmitt and Carolyn Marshall, "Task Force 6-26: Before and after Abu Ghraib, a U.S. Unit Abused Detainees," New York Times, March 19, 2006:
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=21692
Tim McGirk, "Collateral Damage or Civilian Massacre in Haditha?: Last November, U.S. Marines Killed 15 Iraqi Civilians in Their Homes. Was It Self-Defense, an Accident or Cold-Blooded Revenge?" Time, March 19, 2006:
http://www.time.com/time/world/printout/0,8816,1174649,00.html
Jonathan Karl, "Did Marines Commit Crime in Iraq Civilian Deaths? Prompted by Video and Magazine, Military Investigates Incident in Which 15 Iraqis Died, Including Children," ABC News, March 19, 2006:
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/print?id=1743981
Julian Borger, "Iraqi Police Claim US Troops Executed Family: Women and Children Shot in Raid, Says Official Report; Marines Accused After 15 Died in Separate Incident," The Guardian, March 21, 2006:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,329438805-103550,00.htm
Amy Goodman, "Another Civilian Massacre? U.S. Launches Investigation After Iraqi Police Accuse U.S. Troops of Murdering 11 Men, Women, and Children Last Week," transcript of interview with Matthew Schofield, European Bureau Chief for Knight Ridder Newspapers, speaking from Baghdad, DemocracyNow! March 23, 2006:
http://www.democracynow.org/print.pl?sid=06/03/23/152259
"British Papers Focus on Alleged U.S. 'Massacres' in Iraq," Editor & Publisher, New York, NY, March 26, 2006:
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002236470
Topic 3. Democrats Abroad Resolution against Torture
Executive Committee of the Democratic Party Committee Abroad, "Resolution against Torture," Washington, D.C., March 13, 2006:
http://www.democratsabroad.org/newsroom/announcements/archives/2006/03/13/002438.php
Topic 1. The Situation of Detainees in Guantánamo Prison
Maggie Farley, "Report: U.S. Is Abusing Captives; A U.N. Inquiry Says the Treatment of Detainees at Guantanamo Bay at Times Amounts to Torture and Violates International Law," Los Angeles Times, February 13, 2006:
http://www.commondreams.org/cgi-bin/print.cgi?file=/headlines06/0213-01.htm
David Usborne and Ben Russell, "Close Guantanamo Now, UN Tells White House," The Independent, February 14, 2006:
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0214-03.htm
United Nations Commission on Human Rights, "Situation of Detainees at Guantánamo Bay," February 15, 2006:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/security/library/report/2006/guantanamo-detainees-report_un_060216.htm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/16_02_06_un_guantanamo.pdf (PDF document, 336 KB)
"Human Rights Experts Issue Joint Report on Situation of Detainees in Guantánamo Bay," United Nations Press Release, February 16, 2006:
http://www.unhchr.ch/huricane/huricane.nsf/view01/52E94FB9CBC7DA10C1257117003517B3?opendocument"
Sam Cage, "UN Calls Guantánamo a US Torture Camp," Associated Press, February 16, 2006:
http://www.truthout.org/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/49/17780/printer
Amnesty International, "USA: Amnesty Welcomes UN Call to Close Guantánamo Bay—But It Is Tip of Iceberg," AMR 51/029/2006 (February 16, 2006):
http://web.amnesty.org/library/print/ENGAMR510292006
Tim Reid, "Bush Rejects UN Call for Immediate Closure of Guantanamo," The Times, London, February 17, 2006:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-2044528,00.html
"EU Trio Join UN Call for Closing Guantanamo Camp," China View, February 20, 2006:
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-02/20/content_4202421.htm
Bettina Vestring, "'Der Schaden ist unermeßlich groß': Die SPD-Politikerin Herta Däubler-Gmelin über Guantanamo, die Bundesregierung und den Kulturkampf," Berliner Zeitung, February 21, 2006:
http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~tuckwill/vestring.htm
"US-Botschafter verteidigt Guantanamo. Timken: 'Mißhandlungen werden bestraft,'" Berliner Zeitung, February 22, 2006:
http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~tuckwill/timken.htm
David Rose, "Scandal of Force-Fed Prisoners: Hunger Strikers Are Tied Down and Fed through Nasal Tubes, Admits Guantánamo Bay Doctor," The Observer, January 8, 2006:
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,5369414-119093,00.html
Tim Golden, "Tough U.S. Steps in Hunger Strike at Camp in Cuba," New York Times, February 9, 2006:
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0209-06.htm
Marjorie Cohn, "US Force-Feeding Prisoners in Torture Camp," Truthout.org, February 19, 2006:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/printer_022006J.shtml
Mark Denbeaux, Joshua Denbeaux, et al., "Report on Guantanamo Detainees: A Profile of 517 Detainees through Analysis of Department of Defense Data," February 8, 2006:
http://law.shu.edu/news/guantanamo_report_final_2_08_06.pdf
Lolita C. Baldor, "Lawyers: Many Gitmo Detainees Not Accused," Associated Press, February 8, 2006:
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0208-02.htm
"Report: More Than Half of Gitmo Detainees Not Accused of Hostile Acts," TalkLeft, February 9, 2006:
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/february2006/090206gitmo_detainees.htm
"Many Guantanamo Detainees Not Tied to 'Hostile Acts,'" Agence France-Presse, February 9, 2006:
http://www.truthout.org/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/47/17581/printer
On February 10, 2006, in Berlin, author and television moderator Roger Willemsen presented his new book, Hier spricht Guantánamo (Frankfurt am Main: Zweitausendeins), which contains interviews with five former detainees.
Franziska Augstein, "Das Skandalon: Roger Willemsen über die Gespräche, die er mit fünf ehemaligen Gefangenen des Lagers von Guantánamo geführt hat," Süddeutsche Zeitung, München, February 10, 2006:
http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~tuckwill/skandalon.html
Reinhard Mohr, "Buchvorstellung in Berlin: Willemsens Guantanamo," Spiegel Online, February 10, 2006:
http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~tuckwill/spiegel_willemsen.htm
"Hier spricht Guantánamo: Roger Willemsen hat Ex-Insassen des US-Gefangenenlagers interviewt—Kritik an Medien," ddp Nachrichtenagentur, February 10, 2006:
http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~tuckwill/ddp_willemsen.htm
At the Berlin Film Festival on February 19, 2006, the Silver Bear for Best Director was awarded to British director Michael Winterbottom and his codirector Mat Whitecross for The Road to Guantanamo, a documentary-style recreation of events surrounding the detention of three British muslims from Tipton in the West Midlands, who were captured in Afghanistan, suspected of links to the Taliban, and held for two years in Guantánamo prison camp until their release in March 2004.
Christiane Peitz, "Im Trommelfeuer: Mit dem Dokudrama Road to Guantanamo agitiert das Festival zur Halbzeit offen politisch," Der Tagesspiegel, Berlin, February 15, 2006:
http://archiv.tagesspiegel.de/archiv/15.02.2006/2353072.asp
Topic 2. CIA Secret Prisons, Abductions, and Rendition Flights
Don Van Natta Jr., "Germany Weighs If It Played Role in Seizure by U.S.," New York Times, February 21, 2006:
http://www.iht.com/bin/print_ipub.php?file=/articles/2006/02/20/news/germany.php
Damir Fras, "Neue Vorwürfe im Entführungsfall El Masri: Verschleppter will BKA-Verhörbeamten erkannt haben," Berliner Zeitung, February 22, 2006:
http://www.berlinonline.de/.bin/_print.php/berliner-zeitung/archiv/.bin/dump.fcgi/2006/0222/politik/0036/index.html
"Bericht der Bundesregierung (Offene Fassung) gemäß Anforderung des Parlamentarischen Kontrollgremiums vom 25. Januar 2006 zu Vorgängen im Zusammenhang mit dem Irakkrieg und der Bekämpfung des internationalen Terrorismus," Berlin, February 23, 2006:
http://www.bundesregierung.de/Anlage965868/Bericht+der+Bundesregierung+-+offene+Fassung.pdf
Deutscher Bundestag, 16. Wahlperiode, Parlamentarisches Kontrollgremium, "Bewertung des Parlamentarischen Kontrollgremiums (PKGr) zum Bericht der Bundesregierung zu Vorgängen im Zusammenhang mit dem Irak-Krieg und der Bekämpfung des internationalen Terrorismus," Berlin, February 22, 2006:
http://www.bundestag.de/aktuell/archiv/2006/pkgr_irak/pkgr_irak_bnd.pdf
Hans-Christian Ströbele, "Abweichende Bewertung des Mitgliedes des Parlamentarischen Kontrollgremiums Hans-Christian Ströbele (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen) zum Bericht der Bundesregierung zu den 'Vorgängen im Zusammenhang mit den Irak-Krieg und der Bekämpfung des Internationalen Terrorismus' gemäß § 5 Abs. 1 Satz 5 PKGr," Berlin, February 23, 2006:
http://www.bundestag.de/aktuell/archiv/2006/pkgr_irak/bewertung_stroebele.pdf
Max Stadler, "Abweichende Bewertung des Abg. Dr. Max Stadler (FDP): Anmerkungen zum Schlußbericht der Bundesregierung," Berlin, February 22, 2006:
http://www.bundestag.de/aktuell/archiv/2006/pkgr_irak/bewertung_stadler.pdf
Ruth Reimertshofer, "'Demokratien müssen Gesetze achten': Der Mailänder Staatsanwalt Spataro ermittelt gegen 22 US-Agenten," Der Tagesspiegel, Berlin, February 24, 2006:
http://archiv.tagesspiegel.de/archiv/24.02.2006/2373595.asp
Topic 1. The Detainee Treatment Act of 2005
On December 30, 2005, President Bush officially refused to accept the binding nature of a statutory ban on cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment of detainees.
George W. Bush, "President's Statement on Signing of H.R. 2863, the 'Department of Defense, Emergency Supplemental Appropriations to Address Hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico, and Pandemic Influenza Act, 2006,'" White House, Office of the Press Secretary, Washington, D.C., December 30, 2005:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/12/20051230-8.html
Marty Lederman, "So Much for the President's Assent to the McCain Amendment," Balkinization, January 2, 2006:
http://balkin.blogspot.com/2006/01/so-much-for-presidents-assent-to.html
Charlie Savage, "Bush Could Bypass New Torture Ban: Waiver Right Is Reserved," Boston Globe, January 4, 2006:
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/01/04/bush_could_bypass_new_torture_ban?mode=PF
Charlie Savage, "Three GOP Senators Blast Bush Bid to Bypass Torture Ban: Reject Assertion He Has Right to Waive Rules to Protect US Security," Boston Globe, January 5, 2006:
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/01/05/3_gop_senators_blast_bush_bid_to_bypass_torture_ban?mode=PF
Ron Hutcheson and James Kuhnhenn, "Torture Ban Still Faces Political Interpretation," Knight Ridder Newspapers, January 8, 2006:
http://159.54.227.3/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060108/NEWS/60108008
Alfred W. McCoy, "Why the McCain Torture Ban Won't Work," TomDispatch.com, February 8, 2006:
http://www.truthout.org/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/48/17547/printer
Topic 2. CIA Secret Prisons, Abductions, and Rendition Flights
Dana Priest, "Covert CIA Program Withstands New Furor: Anti-Terror Effort Continues to Grow," Washington Post, December 30, 2005:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/123005K.shtml
Council of Europe, Parliamentary Assembly, Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, "Alleged Secret Detentions in Council of Europe Member States: Information Memorandum II; Rapporteur: Mr Dick Marty, Switzerland, Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe," Strasbourg, January 22, 2006:
http://assembly.coe.int/Main.asp?link=/CommitteeDocs/2006/20060124_Jdoc032006_E.htm
http://assembly.coe.int/CommitteeDocs/2006/20060124_Jdoc032006_E.pdf
Stephen Castle, "CIA Flights Likened to the Work of Gangsters," The Independent, January 25, 2006:
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0125-01.htm
Topic 1. The Detainee Treatment Act of 2005
The detainee provisions in the DOD authorization bill were considerably revised in House-Senate conference committee, with the result that Guantánamo detainees' access to judicial review is restricted even more drastically (sec. 1405, e, 1), and evidence obtained by torture may be admitted in a Combatant Status Review Tribunal or an Administrative Review Board (sec. 1405, b). Another added statutory provision, sec. 1404, affords civilian interrogators the same legal protections as military interrogators, effectively shielding all U.S. Government personnel engaged in authorized interrogations of foreign detainees from civil actions or criminal prosecution, provided the person did not know, or "a person of ordinary sense and understanding" would not have known, that certain interrogation or detention practices were "unlawful." Matters relating to detainees are combined in title 14 of the fiscal year 2006 Defense Authorization Act, comprising sections 1401 to 1406, under the title "Detainee Treatment Act of 2005."
Ray McGovern, "McCain's Defining Moment," TomPaine.com, December 13, 2005:
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20051213/mccains_defining_moment.php
Center for Constitutional Rights, "Center for Constitutional Rights Statement on Dangers of Court-Stripping and Graham-Levin Amendment," New York, NY, December 16, 2005:
http://www.ccr-ny.org/v2/reports/report.asp?ObjID=VJQl1vGD5N&Content=684
William Douglas and James Kuhnhenn, "House Endorses Ban on Cruel Interrogation Techniques," Knight Ridder Newspapers, December 14, 2005:
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/nation/13408625.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
John W. Dean, "Shocking the Conscience of America: Bush and Cheney Call for the Right to Torture and Are Decisively and Correctly Rebuffed by the House," FindLaw, December 16, 2005:
http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dean/20051216.html
Human Rights Watch, "U.S.: Landmark Torture Ban Undercut: Congress Would Allow Evidence Obtained by Torture," New York, NY, December 16, 2005:
http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2005/12/16/usdom12311.htm
"If the McCain law demonstrates to the world that the United States really opposes torture, the Graham-Levin amendment risks telling the world the opposite" (Tom Malinowski, Washington advocacy director of Human Rights Watch)
Marty Lederman, "The McCain Amendment—What Would the Law Be, Anyway?" Balkinization, December 16, 2005:
http://balkin.blogspot.com/2005/12/mccain-amendment-what-would-law-be.html
Marty Lederman, "The McCain Amendment—The Good," Balkinization, December 16, 2005:
http://balkin.blogspot.com/2005/12/mccain-amendment-good.html
Marty Lederman, "The McCain Amendment—The (Potentially) Bad," Balkinization, December 16, 2005:
http://balkin.blogspot.com/2005/12/mccain-amendment-potentially-bad.html
Marty Lederman, "The McCain Amendment—The Ugly," Balkinization, December 16, 2005:
http://balkin.blogspot.com/2005/12/mccain-amendment-ugly.html
Marty Lederman, "The McCain and Graham/Levin/Kyl Amendments—Here They Are," Balkinization, December 24, 2005:
http://balkin.blogspot.com/2005/12/mccain-and-grahamlevinkyl-amendments.html
On December 20 and 21, 2005, debate was held in the U.S. Senate on the DOD authorization bill, with particular emphasis on the McCain and Graham-Levin amendments:
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/crecord/index.html
See especially the remarks on December 20 by Senator Edward Kennedy D-MA (Congressional Record S14169 column c to S14170 column c):
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getpage.cgi?dbname=2005_record&page=S14169&position=all
Debate continued on December 21 with discussion of the detainee provisions by Sen. Patrick Leahy D-VT (CR S14245 column a to S14246 column c):
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getpage.cgi?dbname=2005_record&page=S14245&position=all
Sen. Dick Durbin D-IL (CR S14251 column b to S14252 column c, repeated at S14274 column a to S14275 column a):
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getpage.cgi?dbname=2005_record&page=S14251&position=all
Sen. Russell Feingold D-WI (CR S14253 column c to S14254 column a):
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getpage.cgi?dbname=2005_record&page=S14253&position=all
Sen. Carl Levin D-MI (CR S14257 column b to S14259 column a):
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getpage.cgi?dbname=2005_record&page=S14257&position=all
Senators Jon Kyl R-AR and Lindsey Graham R-SC (CR S14260 column c to S14268 column c):
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getpage.cgi?dbname=2005_record&page=S14260&position=all
Senators Graham and Kyl later cited their "extensive colloquy" in a brief filed in the Supreme Court in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld to support their contention that the "legislative history" of their amendment reflects an understanding of the Senate that the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 strips the Supreme Court of jurisdiction in the Hamdan case. However the Senate did not hear these remarks of the two senators, which were added to the Congressional Record and scripted to appear live, including a fictive intervention by Sen. Brownback R-KS (CR S14262 column c). See the link to Emily Bazelon's article in the agenda of our April 27, 2006, meeting under topic 1, "Oral Arguments Heard in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld."
Sen. Hillary Clinton D-NY (CR S14271 columns b–c):
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getpage.cgi?dbname=2005_record&page=S14271&position=all
Sen. Russell Feingold D-WI (CR S14272 column b):
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getpage.cgi?dbname=2005_record&page=S14272&position=all
Sen. Harry Reid D-NV (CR S14275 columns a–c):
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getpage.cgi?dbname=2005_record&page=S14275&position=all
Topic 1. The Legislative Assault on Habeas corpus
On Thursday November 10, 2005, the surprise, last-minute habeas jurisdiction stripping Graham Amendment no. 2515 (2516) to the DOD Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2006 was passed in the Senate by a vote of 49 to 42, pretty much along party lines: Senators Kent Conrad D-ND, Mary Landrieu D-LA, Joseph Lieberman D-CT, Ben Nelson D-NE, and Ron Wyden D-OR voted with the Republicans, while Senators Lincoln Chafee R-RI, Gordon Smith R-OR, Arlen Specter R-PA, John E. Sununu R-NH, and James Jeffords I-VT sided with the Democrats. See the Congressional Record for November 10:
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/crecord/index.html
At page S12667, Sen. Lindsey Graham R-SC unveiled his previously undiscussed amendment, which includes the following outrageous subsections on habeas corpus: "(d) Judicial Review of Detention of Enemy Combatants. – (1) In General. –Section 2241 of title 28, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following: (e) No court, justice, or judge shall have jurisdiction to hear or consider an application for a writ of habeas corpus filed by or on behalf of an alien outside the United States (as that term is defined in section 101(a)(38) of the Immigration and Naturalization Act (8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(38)) who is detained by the Department of Defense at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba."
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getpage.cgi?dbname=2005_record&page=S12667&position=all
A substitute amendment that Senators Graham and Levin (D-MI) worked out, the Graham-Levin Amendment, was put to a vote in the Senate on Tuesday November 15 and passed by a wide margin, 84 to 14:
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getpage.cgi?dbname=2005_record&page=S12803&position=all
Graham-Levin is an improvement on the underlying Graham Amendment, which would have passed the Senate with or without improvement, as the vote on November 10 indicated. The substitute amendment doesn't strip the Supreme Court of jurisdiction in the pending case of Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, and it allows the federal courts to review the constitutionality of Bush's military commissions. However the proposed elimination of the habeas stripping subsections of the Graham Amendment through a second-degree amendment brought forward by Sen. Jeff Bingaman D-NM was defeated by 54 to 44 votes. Senators Mary Landrieu D-LA and Ron Wyden D-OR, who had supported the original Graham Amendment, nevertheless voted for the Bingaman Amendment, while Sen. Evan Bayh D-IN, who had opposed Graham, voted against Bingaman; as in the Graham Amendment vote on November 10, Senators Kent Conrad D-ND, Joseph Lieberman D-CT, and Ben Nelson D-NE were in the Republican camp on the November 15 Bingaman vote, while Senators Lincoln Chafee R-RI, Gordon Smith R-OR, Arlen Specter R-PA, John E. Sununu R-NH, and James Jeffords I-VT supported the Bingaman Amendment; Senators Lamar Alexander R-TN and Jon Corzine D-NJ were absent:
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getpage.cgi?dbname=2005_record&page=S12800&position=all
Consequently the Graham-Levin Amendment No. 2524 to the FY 2006 DOD Authorization Act, as passed by the Senate, still prohibits habeas corpus petitions from any prisoner being held at Guantánamo Bay, even if the government decides it is going to hold the prisoner without ever determining his status. The D.C. Circuit Court can review whether the Combatant Status Review Tribunal's procedures are legal, but not whether a particular detainee's detention is legal. Graham-Levin does not provide any mandatory court appeal of a military commission conviction of a Guantánamo detainee for fewer than ten years. It overturns the June 28, 2004, decision by the Supreme Court in Rasul v. Bush, which affirmed the right of Guantánamo prisoners to challenge the legality of their detention in court. We urge all who are interested in this issue to contact their representatives in Congress and demand that the Graham-Levin Amendment be deleted altogether or at least be improved in the joint Congressional conference committee. For further information see the remarks by Sen. Durbin D-IL, who led the group of fourteen senators who voted against Graham-Levin (CR S12799 column b to S12800 column b):
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getpage.cgi?dbname=2005_record&page=S12799&position=all
Center for Constitutional Rights, "Graham Amendment Passes: Habeas Corpus Gutted; Bush's New Assault on Democracy: Habeas Corpus Stabbed in the Back," New York, NY, November 11, 2005:
http://www.ccr-ny.org/v2/reports/report.asp?ObjID=B9iXnQkBmm&Content=664
"The Graham amendment will create a thousand points of darkness across the globe where the United States will be free to hold people indefinitely without a hearing and beyond the reach of U.S. law and the checks and balances of the courts enshrined in our Constitution."
Center for Constitutional Rights, "Graham Myths: Seventeen Myths and Distortions about the Graham Amendment," New York, NY, no date:
http://www.ccr-ny.org/v2/reports/report.asp?ObjID=V9mCOgUtSh&Content=666
Center for Constitutional Rights, "CCR Statement on the Graham-Levin Habeas Jurisdiction Stripping Amendment," New York, NY, November 15, 2005:
http://www.ccr-ny.org/v2/reports/report.asp?ObjID=0A858fho7K&Content=669
American Civil Liberties Union, "Senate Restores Some Rights for Detainees: ACLU Says Move Welcome, But Still Falls Short," November 15, 2005:
http://www.aclu.org/safefree/detention/21624prs20051115.html?ht=senate%20restores%20some%20rights%20senate%20restores%20some%20rights
The Center for Constitutional Rights has assembled a collection of newspaper opinion articles into a large PDF-document entitled "Graham Amendment Op-Eds" (1.41 MB):
http://www.ccr-ny.org/v2/legal/september_11th/docs/GrahamOpEds111405.pdf
Topic 2. International Outrage over CIA Black Sites and Rendition Flights
A November 2, 2005, article by Dana Priest in The Washington Post revealed some previously unknown details about the CIA's covert prison system, which since its inception in 2001 has at various times included sites in eight countries, including Thailand, Afghanistan, and several democracies in Eastern Europe, as well as a small center at the Guantánamo Bay prison. Priest's sources also revealed the existence of a Soviet-era compound in Eastern Europe where high value Al Qaeda captives have been held and interrogated:
Dana Priest, "CIA Holds Terror Suspects in Secret Prisons: Debate is Growing within Agency about Legality and Morality of Overseas System Set Up after 9/11," Washington Post, November 2, 2005, page A1:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/01/AR2005110101644_pf.html
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/110205Z.shtml
In a subsequent article two weeks later, Dana Priest again drew on her sources among present and former U.S. and foreign diplomatic and intelligence officials to describe the Counterterrorist Intelligence Centers (CTICs) operated jointly by the CIA and more than two dozen host countries in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. In joint operations with other intelligence agencies since September 11, 2001, the CIA has killed or captured an estimated 3,000 "suspected terrorists" outside Iraq, according to Priest's sources.
Dana Priest, "Foreign Network at Front of CIA's Terror Fight: Agency Has Joint Operation Centers in More Than Two Dozen Nations," Washington Post, November 18, 2005, page A1:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/17/AR2005111702070_pf.html
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11059.htm
A third recent, high-profile article by Dana Priest shed light on the case of Khaled al Masri, a Lebanese-born German who, apparently for no good reason but not just by "mistake," was abducted by the CIA in Macedonia in January 2004 and flown to a CIA-run prison in Afghanistan, where he was held, interrogated, and mistreated until his release on May 28, 2004.
Dana Priest, "Wrongful Imprisonment: Anatomy of a CIA Mistake: German Citizen Released after Months in 'Rendition,'" Washington Post, December 4, 2005, page A1:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/03/AR2005120301476_pf.html
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/120405D.shtml
Dana Priest's December 4, 2005, article appeared on the eve of a trip to Europe by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, whose stops in Berlin, Bucharest, Kiev, and Brussels were overshadowed by reactions to Priest's three articles as well as to a fourth important article revealing still more details about the CIA's mini-gulag. It seems that in response to Dana Priest's November 2, 2005, article, eleven top Al Qaeda suspects were moved from Poland to a new CIA facility in the North African desert, perhaps Morocco:
Brian Ross and Richard Esposito, "Sources Tell ABC News Top Al Qaeda Figures Held in Secret CIA Prisons: Ten Out of Eleven High-Value Terror Leaders Subjected to 'Enhanced Interrogation Techniques,'" ABC News, December 5, 2005:
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/print?id=1375123
Recent revelations about CIA black sites and rendition flights have ignited a storm of protest and controversy in the U.S. and Europe. The Council of Europe named a special investigator, Dick Marty, a Swiss liberal party senator, who in an interim report to the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has indicated that reports of illegal CIA prisoner renditions and detentions in European Union countries and countries applying for EU membership are credible, and that he will continue to investigate these allegations of grave human rights crimes committed in Europe by the CIA, presumably aided and abetted by others. Another interim report by Marty is expected in late January 2006.
Jamey Keaten, "Investigator: U.S. Shipped Out Detainees," Associated Press, December 14, 2005:
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/december2005/141205shippedout.htm
"CIA Flights Reports 'Credible,'" Guardian Unlimited, December 13, 2005:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1666433,00.html
Jon Henley and Richard Norton-Taylor, "Investigator Links Europe's Spy Agencies to CIA Flights," The Guardian, London, UK, December 14, 2005:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,5355284-110878,00.html
Marcello Faraggi, Jan Rosenkranz, and Hans-Martin Tillack, "CIA-Flugaffäre: SPD wäre gerne ahnunglos," Stern.de, December 14, 2005:
http://www.stern.de/politik/ausland/:Extra-CIA-Macht-Amerikas/551456.html?eid=551508
Bettina Vestring, "'Diese augenzwinkernde Kumpanei der Dienste': Ex-Justizministerin Däubler-Gmelin zieht enge Grenzen," Berliner Zeitung, December 17, 2005, p. 5:
http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~tuckwill/daeubler.htm
European governments and the European Commission seem anxious to get this CIA affair out of the headlines as soon as possible, but the public outcry as well as some parliamentary initiatives and Dick Marty's investigation seem likely to keep the matter on the agenda, hopefully until more truth is known and some justice done. With the help of the American Civil Liberties Union, Khaled al Masri is suing the CIA, George Tenet, and the U.S. government in the first case in U.S. courts to challenge the kidnapping of foreign nationals for interrogations in secret prisons in third countries. In Italy twenty-two CIA officers have been charged in absentia for alleged roles in the rendition of a radical cleric, Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, who was seized in Milan in February 2003 and transferred via Ramstein Air Base to Egypt, where he was tortured and is still being held. State prosecutor Eberhard Bayer in Zweibrücken, Germany, near Ramstein Air Base, has opened a criminal investigation to determine if CIA operatives were guilty of kidnapping, illegally restraining, or coercing Abu Omar. Other inquiries and criminal investigations regarding CIA activities in Europe have been launched in France, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Germany, The Netherlands, Poland, UK, Sweden, Norway, and Iceland. On December 15, 2005, the European Parliament passed a resolution expressing concern about the "presumed use of European countries by the CIA for the transportation and illegal detention of prisoners" and set up a temporary committee of inquiry:
Huw Jones and Marie-Louise Moller, "EU Lawmakers Agree to Set Up CIA Prisons Inquiry," Reuters, December 15, 2005:
http://www.warcrimeswatch.org/news_details.cfm?artid=111&cat=1
Human Rights Watch says the heart of the CIA's secret detention network in Europe was Poland, where until recently two facilities housed about two dozen of the hundred detainees estimated to be held in such CIA-run camps reserved for first-tier and second-tier terror suspects worldwide.
"Poland Was Main CIA Detention Base in Europe: HRW," Reuters, Warsaw, December 9, 2005:
http://www.commondreams.org/cgi-bin/print.cgi?file=/headlines05/1209-04.htm
Der Stern reports that the CIA apparently used a training center of the Polish intelligence agency to interrogate Al Qaeda detainees. Americans are said to have been stationed intermittently since about 2000 in the three by one-and-a-half kilometers large camp located near the town of Kiejkuty, which is ten kilometers from the airport Szymany in northeast Poland. The CIA held and interrogated prisoners in an inner zone of the camp, approximately 100 by 50 meters in size, surrounded by a barbwire fence and a three-meter-high wall.
Marc Goergen, "CIA Al-Kaida-Häftlinge offenbar in Polen verhört," Stern.de, December 15, 2005:
http://www.stern.de/politik/ausland/551562.html?eid=551508
Two important missing documents in the CIA affair are a presidential finding of September 17, 2001, authorizing the CIA to kill, capture, and detain Al Qaeda members anywhere in the world and to set up detention facilities outside the U.S., outlining permissible interrogation methods, and a 2002 Justice Department OLC memorandum specifying interrogation methods that the CIA may use against top Al Qaeda members:
American Civil Liberties Union, "ACLU Challenges CIA Refusal to Admit Existence of Presidential Order on Detention Facilities Abroad; ACLU Also Seeking Justice Department Memo Authorizing CIA Interrogation Techniques," New York, NY, December 12, 2005:
http://www.aclu.org/natsec/emergpowers/22610prs20051212.html
Topic 3. War Crimes in Iraq
We discussed the use of white phosphorus, thermobaric weapons, and "improved" napalm (called Mark-77) by U.S. forces in Iraq, as well as the existence of torture dungeons operated by Iraqi Interior Ministry forces. Here are some links:
Thermobaric warheads ignite the air, producing a shockwave of unparalleled destructive power, especially against buildings. When used in urban settings, they invariably cause civilian deaths.
David Hambling, "Marines Quiet about Brutal New Weapon," plus comments, edited by Noah Shachtman, DefenseTech.org, November 14, 2005:
http://www.defensetech.org/archives/001944.html
George Monbiot, "The US Used Chemical Weapons in Iraq—and Then Lied about It: Now We Know Napalm and Phosphorus Bombs Have Been Dropped on Iraqis, Why Have the Hawks Failed to Speak Out?" The Guardian, November 15, 2005:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,5673,1642831,00.html
"US Used White Phosphorus in Iraq: US Troops Used White Phosphorus as a Weapon in Last Year's Offensive in the Iraqi City of Falluja, the US Has Said," BBC News, November 16, 2005:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4440664.stm
Mark Sappenfield, "Arms Controversy in Iraq: Civilian Fatalities in Fallujah Raise Concerns about US Military's Use of Phosphorus Munitions," The Christian Science Monitor, November 18, 2005:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1118/p03s01-usmi.htm
George Monbiot, "Behind the Phosphorus Clouds Are War Crimes within War Crimes: We Now Know the US Also Used Thermobaric Weapons in Its Assault on Falluja, Where up to 50,000 Civilians Remained," The Guardian, November 22, 2005:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,5338507-103677,00.html
Juan Cole, "White Phosphorus Round-Up," Informed Comment: Thoughts on the Middle East, History, and Religion, November 25, 2005:
http://www.juancole.com/2005/11/white-phosphorus-round-up-george.html#comments
Greg Mitchell, "White Phosphorus, a California Embed, and 'The Times,'" Editor & Publisher, November 29, 2005:
http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=20051129105920118&mode=print
"Our military's use of the incendiary—some say, chemical—weapon white phosphorus in Iraq against insurgents has drawn international controversy, partly fueled by an eyewitness account by reporter Darrin Mortenson. Today, in an editorial, The New York Times demanded that the U.S. stop using the substance."
Dan Murphy, "Iraqi Torture Practices Could Be More Widespread: Revelations This Week That Iraq's Interior Ministry Abused Detainees in a Secret Prison May Be Just the Beginning," The Christian Science Monitor, Boston, MA, November 17, 2005:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1117/p12s01-woiq.html
Kim Sengupta, "The Dirty War: Torture and Mutilation Used on Iraqi 'Insurgents,'" The Independent, November 20, 2005:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11083.htm
Peter Beaumont, "Frontline Police of New Iraq Are Waging Secret War of Vengeance," The Observer, November 20, 2005:
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,5337535-102275,00.html
Ellen Knickmeyer, "U.S. Envoy Calls Torture Severe and Extensive at Two Iraqi Prisons," Washington Post, December 14, 2005, page A22:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/13/AR2005121300429_pf.html
http://prisonplanet.com/articles/december2005/141205severeextensive.htm
Topic 1. New Allegations of Widespread Prisoner Abuse by U.S. Forces in Iraq and Afghanistan
In statements to Human Rights Watch and to members of Congress, Captain Ian Fishback and two sergeants of the U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne Division, 1st Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, have recounted how U.S. Army troops subjected Iraqi detainees to severe beatings and other torture at Camp Mercury, a forward operating base near Falluja, between September 2003 and April 2004.
Human Rights Watch, "New Accounts of Torture by U.S. Troops: Soldiers Say Failures by Command Led to Abuse," New York, NY, September 24, 2005:
http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2005/09/25/usint11776.htm
Human Rights Watch, "Leadership Failure: Firsthand Accounts of Torture of Iraqi Detainees by the U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne Division," September 2005, vol. 17, no. 3 (G):
http://hrw.org/reports/2005/us0905/us0905.pdf
Adam Zagorin, "Pattern of Abuse: A Decorated Army Officer Reveals New Allegations of Detainee Mistreatment in Iraq and Afghanistan. Did the Military Ignore His Charges?" Time, September 23, 2005:
http://www.time.com/time/nation/printout/0,8816,1108972,00.html
Topic 2. The McCain Amendment (No. 1977) to the DOD Appropriations Bill for Fiscal Year 2006
On October 7, 2005, the defense appropriations bill was passed by the Senate, including the double amendment on uniform interrogation standards and the torture ban sponsored by Sen. John McCain R-AZ and others and an amendment on Guantánamo status review tribunals sponsored by Sen. Lindsey Graham R-SC. Differences between the House and Senate versions of the appropriations bill are currently being ironed out in a conference committee, where administration paladins led by Sen. Stevens R-AK are probably trying to water down the McCain amendment to allow the CIA and members of top-secret Pentagon-sponsored Special Access Programs to continue to abuse and torture foreign prisoners in secret locations outside the U.S. with impunity.
The October 5, 2005, Senate debate on McCain's amendment is worth looking at. See the Congressional Record for Oct. 5:
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/crecord/index.html
At page S11061 several amendments to the Department of Defense Appropriations Act 2006 (H.R. 2863) were brought to the floor. The first amendment called up was no. 1977, submitted and introduced by Sen. McCain. Senate amendment no. 1977 has two parts: the first part mandates uniform standards for the interrogation of persons under the detention of the Department of Defense. The second part prohibits cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment of persons under the custody or control of the United States Government. President Bush threatens to veto the defense appropriations bill if this Senate amendment remains attached to it. McCain's well-supported amendment reflects a major rebellion among Senate Republicans. In his floor speech, McCain quoted extensively from a letter to him by Captain Ian Fishback of the 82nd Airborne Division and also cited another letter signed by twenty-nine retired military officers in support of the amendment (S11061 column c to S11064 column a):
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getpage.cgi?position=all&page=S11061&dbname=2005_record
Following McCain's speech, Sen. Ted Stevens intervened to present the Bush administration's (and his) view that it would be counterproductive for Congress to limit in effect the President's flexibility in the war on terror (S11064 column a to S11065 column a):
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getpage.cgi?position=all&page=S11064&dbname=2005_record
Stevens's position was then challenged by Sen. Lindsey Graham R-SC, who stressed that permissible interrogation techniques to be enumerated in a classified section of the revised Army Field Manual 34-52 will protect soldiers from possible prosecution for war crimes while allowing for executive branch flexibility (page S11065):
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getpage.cgi?position=all&page=S11065&dbname=2005_record
Sen. Graham was followed by Sen. Pat Roberts R-KS, who really hammered home the message that the amendment "protects our own people from being prosecuted" (S11066–67):
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getpage.cgi?position=all&page=S11066&dbname=2005_record
Sen. Durbin came close to placing the ultimate blame for the prisoner abuses where it belongs: with certain high-level Bush administration officials (Durbin mentioned Bybee, Gonzales, and Flanigan, see CR S11068 column a to S11070 column a):
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getpage.cgi?position=all&page=S11068&dbname=2005_record
Senators Durbin, Leahy, and Kennedy quoted additional passages from Captain Ian Fishback's letter to Sen. McCain.
Sen. Leahy responded aptly to Sen. Stevens: "I fail to see how a bill requiring the humane treatment of detainees—the same treatment the President claims they now receive—would impinge on his authority in any way" (CR S11070 columns a and b):
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getpage.cgi?position=all&page=S11070&dbname=2005_record
Sen. Kennedy excoriated high-level adminstration officials for their deliberate, ill-advised decisions that led to the detainee abuses (see his speech CR S11075 column b to S11076 column c):
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getpage.cgi?position=all&page=S11075&dbname=2005_record
The full text of Captain Fishback's letter to Sen. McCain is reproduced at CR S11076 columns b–c.
Several speakers repeated the McCain mantra that it's not about them but about us. The senators seemed to care little about the rights of the prisoners per se (or didn't want to give the appearance). The elephant in the room is the specter of war crimes indictments, hundreds or thousands of them, that may be brought against administration officials, agents, and soldiers. There is apparently a barely challenged but uneasy consensus view that the Geneva Conventions do not apply to non-Americans captured or abducted in the so-called war on terror. To their credit, the Democrats who spoke in support of the McCain amendment (Sens. Durbin, Obama, Leahy, Feinstein, and Kennedy) insisted that the Geneva Conventions and the Convention against Torture are indeed the law of the land (as far as that goes). The McCain amendment doesn't substantively change existing laws prohibiting torture, but it would severely restrict the ability of the Bush administration to claim exceptions. What is lacking are accountability and enforceablility, which the amendment does not provide. A just law would assure that violations are punished. The country needs a special prosecutor to bring war crimes charges, but for now nobody is talking about that.
In the final vote, 90 senators agreed to the McCain amendment, while 9 senators opposed it (Wayne Allard R-CO, Christopher Bond R-MO, Tom Coburn R-OK, Thad Cochran R-MS, John Cornyn R-TX, James Inhofe R-OK, Pat Roberts R-KS, Jeff Sessions R-AL, and Ted Stevens R-AK; see Laurence M. Vance, "Senate Republican Torture Masters," October 12, 2005: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m16678&date=12-oct-2005_14:11_ECT ).
Bush has threatened to veto the DOD appropriations bill because of the McCain amendment, but we'll be watching to see how it fares in the House-Senate conference committee. Here is a good analysis of how and why the Bush administration wants to water down the McCain amendment:
Marty Lederman, "Beware the 'Augmented' McCain Amendment!" Balkinization, October 15, 2005:
http://balkin.blogspot.com/2005/10/beware-augmented-mccain-amendment.html
Since the proceedings of the Congressional conference are not public, it is difficult to know what is actually going on. The Senate delegation is composed of 19 members, 10 Republicans and 9 Democrats; the conferees are Senators Stevens R-AK, Cochran R-MS, Specter R-PA, Domenici R-NM, Bond R-MO, McConnell R-KY, Shelby R-AL, Gregg R-NH, Hutchison R-TX, Burns R-MT, Inouye D-HI, Byrd D-WV, Leahy D-VT, Harkin D-IA, Dorgan D-ND, Durbin D-IL, Reid D-NV, Feinstein D-CA, and Mikulski D-MD. The following WaPo article provides the latest information we could locate about the status of the McCain amendment:
R. Jeffrey Smith and Josh White, "Cheney Plan Exempts CIA from Bill Barring Abuse of Detainees," Washington Post, October 25, 2005, Page A1:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/24/AR2005102402051.html
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/102505J.shtml
Sen. Stevens and the Bush administration had no serious objections to Sen. Graham's amendment no. 2004 to H.R. 2863 to "bless" and tweak the Guantánamo Bay Combatant Status Review Tribunals and Administrative Review Boards. On Oct. 5, the slightly revised Graham amendment was agreed to in the Senate by unanimous consent; see the text and discussion of the amendment in the Congressional Record, S11073 column c to S11075 column a:
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getpage.cgi?position=all&page=S11073&dbname=2005_record
We saw press reports of an amendment to this DOD appropriations bill, proposed by Sen. Carl Levin D-MI along with Sens. Kennedy D-MA, Rockefeller D-WV, and Reed D-RI, to create an independent commission to investigate allegations of prisoner abuse.
See William Fisher, "Calls Mount for Prisoner Abuse Commission," Inter Press Service News Agency, New York, NY, September 26, 2005:
http://ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=30423
However no such amendment to H.R. 2863 reached the Senate floor.
Topic 3. Will the Supreme Court Decline to Hear Hamdan v. Rumsfeld?
According to David Luban, the Supreme Court is reluctant to review the July 15, 2005, decision by the D.C. Court of Appeals. Luban discusses the implications of this against the background of Captain Ian Fishback's abuse allegations and the McCain amendment:
David Luban, "Human Rights in the Balance: What's at Stake in Hamdan," Balkinization, October 12, 2005:
http://balkin.blogspot.com/2005/10/human-rights-in-balance-whats-at-stake.html
Topic 1. The Nomination of Judge John Roberts to Be Chief Justice of the United States
Following the death of Chief Justice Rehnquist, the stakes in the Roberts nomination were raised when President Bush nominated him for the position of Chief Justice rather than Associate Justice. During two-and-a-half days of questioning before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Democratic senators showed a lack of preparation and coordination. The questions of Senators Leahy and Feingold were relatively effective, but that's not saying much, particularly since both Leahy and Feingold ended up voting for the Roberts nomination (five of the eight Democratic senators on the Judiciary Committee voted against it). On the first day of questioning, which was the second day of the nomination hearings (Tuesday, September 13, 2005), Senator Russ Feingold D-WI posed this question to the nominee:
—
FEINGOLD: Last month, when I was home in Wisconsin, a constituent came up and said to me that he believed the D.C. Circuit decision in the Hamdan case, a different case, which you joined in, to uphold the government's ability to try a Guantanamo Bay detainee by military commission, should disqualify you from being on the Supreme Court. This is apart from the issue that Senator Schumer and I wrote you about, which I'll turn to later. I want to know with regard to the substance of the decision, why do you think someone would think that your decision in that case—why would somebody come up to me and say that your decision in that case should disqualify you from consideration as a Supreme Court justice?
ROBERTS: Well, Senator, you've touched upon an area in which I cannot comment. That case is still pending. It's pending before the Supreme Court. Under the Judicial Canons of Ethics, Canon 3A(6), I'm not supposed to comment publicly in any way about a case that's still pending.
FEINGOLD: Not asking you to comment on the case. I'm asking you why you think somebody who I represent would care enough about this issue that they would say this should be a disqualify. In other words, characterize what is the issue in the case that would make somebody that concerned that he would make such a statement.
ROBERTS: Well, the issue involves the same sort of issues that you began the discussion with, the question of civil liberties in wartime.
—
Reading this exchange one wonders why, after Roberts's predictably evasive response, Sen. Feingold didn't go on to state why his constituent thought this way about the July 15, 2005, appellate court decision in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld. Also one wonders about Sen. Feingold's opinion on the matter. Since he voted to confirm the nominee, Feingold obviously doesn't subscribe to the view of the constituent he mentions. Like Sen. Feingold's constituent, those who participated in the July and August meetings of our War Crimes and Torture Committee believe that Roberts's actions in this appellate court case should indeed disqualify him for a seat on the Supreme Court. (This is aside from, but not unrelated to, the question of why Judge Roberts didn't recuse himself from the case to avoid the appearance of impropriety.) Judge Roberts fully concurred with the decision written by Judge Randolph, which goes further than any court has ever gone in acquiescing to the demands of unchecked executive power. In Judge Roberts's view, the Geneva Conventions are meaningless for Hamdan and hundreds of other Muslim men imprisoned in Guantánamo Bay outside the rule of law. Clearly Judge Roberts is a right-wing judicial activist whom Democratic senators should oppose, but unfortunately they can't muster the necessary votes to filibuster his nomination because too many of them support it.
Here are transcripts of the Senate Judiciary Committee question-and-answer sessions with Roberts:
http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~tuckwill/RobertsDay2.html
http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~tuckwill/RobertsDay3.html
http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~tuckwill/RobertsDay4.html
These documents, which were published on the Web by the New York Times, contain many transcription and copyediting errors. We couldn't locate hearings transcripts at the Judiciary Committee Web site ( http://judiciary.senate.gov/ ) or in the Congressional Record ( http://www.gpoaccess.gov/crecord/index.html ), but you can find the opening statements by committee members and the opinions submitted by outside experts at the Judiciary Committee Web site ( http://judiciary.senate.gov/nominations.cfm ).
Here are some excerpts from the hearings transcripts relating to the limits of executive power and human rights issues:
http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~tuckwill/RobertsHearingsExcerpts.txt
In a speech on the Senate floor on September 21, 2005, explaining his opposition to the Roberts nomination, Senator John Kerry emphasized Judge Roberts's ruling in the Hamdan case: "Judge Roberts' more recent positions trouble me as well, particularly his decision to join Judge Randolph's decision in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, the military tribunals case. That opinion gave the President unfettered and unreviewable authority to place captured individuals outside the protections of the Geneva Convention. Six retired senior military officials with extensive experience in legal policy, the laws of war, and armed conflict have filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the Supreme Court arguing that Hamdan must be overturned immediately because it directly endangers American soldiers. I understand that Judge Roberts felt he could not discuss the case while it was pending before the Supreme Court, but, even when asked about his views of the scope of executive power unrelated to the Hamdan case, Judge Roberts was evasive. He did little more than describe the Court's current framework for analyzing assertions of executive power. As a result, I do not know whether he believes that the state of war is a blank check for the President or whether he will closely scrutinize the legality of Executive Branch actions at all times. Given the fact that his Hamdan decision placed our troops at risk, I am forced to conclude that Judge Roberts' future decisions may further threaten the security of our troops abroad and our citizens at home" ( http://www.johnkerry.com/features/robertsExcerpts.html ).
In section 3 of the following article, Ronald Dworkin examines Judge Roberts's responses to a question by Senator Leahy on whether the president has the power to order the torture of prisoners and a question by Senator Feingold on the practice of extraordinary rendition, as well as Roberts's decision in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld:
Ronald Dworkin, "Judge Roberts on Trial," New York Review of Books, vol. 52, no. 16, Oct. 20, 2005:
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/18330
Topic 2. The Current Hunger Strike of Guantánamo Prisoners
It seems that at least 210 Guantánamo prisoners are currently participating in a hunger strike. They are demanding fair trials and humane treatment. Some are being force-fed by the military. Many are prepared to die if their demands are not met. Reliable information on the situation in Guantánamo Bay is of course hard to come by, due to DOD restrictions and misrepresentations, but see this recent report issued by the Center for Constitutional Rights:
Gitanjali Gutierrez et al., "The Guantánamo Prisoner Hunger Strikes and Protests: February 2002 – August 2005," Center for Constitutional Rights, Guantánamo Global Justice Initiative, September 8, 2005:
http://www.ccr-ny.org/v2/legal/september_11th/docs/Gitmo_Hunger_Strike_Report_Sept_2005.pdf
Topic 1. Judge John Roberts and Bush's Military Commissions
At last month's committee meeting, on July 28, those who attended were unanimous in our opinion on topic 2, "Salim Ahmed Hamdan (Osama bin Laden's driver), Bush's military commissions, and Judge John Roberts," namely that Democrats should oppose, by all means, including a Senate filibuster, the nomination of Judge John G. Roberts Jr. to replace Sandra Day O'Connor on the Supreme Court. On July 15, 2005, Judge Roberts concurred in a unanimous appellate court decision, in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, to reverse a lower-court decision granting Salim Ahmed Hamdan the right to a trial by court-martial. This decision allows Bush's military commissions in Guantanamo Bay to proceed. Judge Roberts and his two colleagues ruled that Hamdan has no rights and no status under U.S. law and is rightfully subject to the decision of a military commission (i.e., of a kangaroo court, in the view of many, if not most, legal experts). For details and links see below in the meeting agenda for July 28, 2005, under topic 2.
John Roberts's views on privacy, abortion, equal pay for women, civil rights, affirmative action, and myriad other hot-button issues, past and present, contribute to the picture we are forming of this right-wing nominee and should lead to some close questioning (probably eliciting some evasive responses) during Senate confirmation hearings in September. However, the views expressed in legal briefs he worked on and in memos he wrote don't in themselves disqualify him for the highest court, neither separately nor cumulatively (at least so far; but the documents that have been released contain many inked-out passages, other Roberts documents have gone missing, and who knows what's in the requested documents from the G. H. W. Bush administration that they are hiding from scrutiny). In order to effectively shape the public debate and to justify the political end and means, Democrats should focus on the actions of Judge John Roberts in the two years since President Bush placed him on the federal bench. John Kerry said in a noteworthy speech on the Senate floor on May 19, 2005, in the context of the Priscilla Owen nomination and the Senate filibuster compromise, "some of my colleagues have argued that Democrats filibuster these judges because we simply dislike them, or disagree on ideology or policy. That couldn't be farther from the truth. We have confirmed countless judges who we disagree with, but respect as responsible, impartial arbiters of the law. It is these activist judges who we seek to keep off the federal bench. It is these judges who want to rewrite our laws from the bench that we believe are unqualified for lifetime appointments. And we stand against them in defense of, not as a threat to, the Constitution" ("John Kerry on 'Nuclear Option' on Judicial Nominees" http://kerry.senate.gov/v3/cfm/record.cfm?id=237974). On the basis of his July 15, 2005, appellate court decision, we now know that John Roberts is just such an activist judge who, although (or in part because) he is a so-called strict constructionist, poses a real threat to the Constitution. His action in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld is the heavyweight issue that Democrats should bring to bear on the nominee, at the expense of a myriad of specific issues that would likely amount to a series of gripes against Roberts, but not to a cogent and compelling argument against his elevation to associate justice.
Judge Roberts's answers to a Senate questionnaire on August 2 reveal that the nominee was engaged in a series of interviews with high-level Bush administration officials for a Supreme Court position beginning on April 1, 2005, six days before oral arguments were heard in the Hamdan v. Rumsfeld appeal. To avoid the appearance of impropriety, Roberts should have recused himself from the case or at least notified Hamdan's lawyer who could then have filed a motion for recusal. Judge Roberts acted improperly, though apparently not illegally.
See Jim VandeHei, "Judge Heard Terrorism Case As He Interviewed for Seat," Washington Post, August 17, 2005, A04:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/16/AR2005081601561.html
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/081705A.shtml#1
Some legal experts are urging Judge Roberts to "withdraw his vote retroactively. That would at least eliminate the precedential effect of the opinion on whether the Geneva Conventions grant minimum human rights to Hamdan and others in his position." The other two appellate court judges were split on whether Geneva applies to Hamdan, one of them affirming that Hamdan is indeed covered by the Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War (it is the law of the land; this judge apparently thinks the law is valid but meaningless), the other said it's not valid. Anyway, Roberts, who as the youngest member of the panel led the proceedings, came down on the side of the Bush administration, giving them a huge victory. As far as Roberts is concerned, Bush can do whatever he likes with his "enemy combatants." The appellate court decision has now been appealed to the Supreme Court, which surely will take the case on (one would think). Roberts should not be sitting on that court when Hamdan v. Rumsfeld reaches the justices' dockets, because clearly the Supreme Court must reverse that abominable appellate court decision, which goes further than any court has ever gone in acquiescing to the demands of unchecked executive power. See Stephen Gillers, David J. Luban, and Steven Lubet, "Improper Advances: Talking Dream Jobs with the Judge out of Court," Slate, August 17, 2005: http://www.slate.com/id/2124603
Hamdan v. Rumsfeld belongs to a series of cases, including Rumsfeld v. Padilla, Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, and Rasul v. Bush, that test the expansion of executive power at the expense of the other two government branches. Many similar cases will likely confront the Supreme Court in the coming years. From what we know of John Roberts's eight years of service in the executive branch, it seems clear that as associate justice he would be sympathetic to claims of presidential authority. See Henry Weinstein, "Debating the Power of the Presidency: Some Say John Roberts' Biggest Impact on the High Court Could Come in Cases on Wartime Executive Authority—Not a Right to Abortion," Los Angeles Times, August 14, 2005: http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~tuckwill/weinsteinlat.html
By affirming the executive suspension of protections afforded in principle to Guantánamo prisoners by the Geneva Conventions, the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and the U.S. Code, Judge Roberts has also moved to shield those high-level Bush administration officials who are ultimately responsible for acts of torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment of prisoners there and elsewhere in Bush and Rumsfeld's mini-gulag (which contains upwards of 17,000 prisoners worldwide). These high-level officials know full well that if Republicans lose control of Congress and/or the White House, many of them may be prosecuted in U.S. courts for aiding and abetting or tolerating war crimes. One of the key perpetrators, Alberto Gonzales, was the official who first interviewed Judge Roberts for a Supreme Court position (on April 1, 2005). In connection with Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, not only Rumsfeld but also Gonzales and their boss Bush are, or should be, under scrutiny for their roles in creating this hellhole. Judge Roberts is looking like a Manchurian candidate. The Bushies put him on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, and now want him on the Supreme Court, in order to cover their butts for human rights crimes and to better facilitate their power grab. Let's work to block this nomination.
Topic 1. Democratic initiatives in the House and Senate to establish an independent commission to investigate policies that led to abuses of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, Guantánamo, and elsewhere
As Congress heads toward the August recess, debate on the DOD appropriations bill is expected to be held this week in the Senate, where Democrats plan to propose an amendment to create an independent commission on prisoner abuse, while some Republicans are considering amendments to curb potential abuse. For background see the following documents:
Eric Schmitt, "Cheney Working to Block Legislation on Detainees," New York Times, July 26, 2005:
http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/print.cfm?ID=4224
Josh White and R. Jeffrey Smith, "White House Aims to Block Legislation on Detainees," Washington Post, July 23, 2005, A1:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/printer_072305A.shtml
109th Congress, 1st Session, House of Representatives, Bill 3003, To Establish an Independent Commission to Investigate Detainee Abuses, introduced by Rep. Waxman et al., June 21, 2005:
http://www.theorator.com/bills109/hr3003.html
Topic 2. Salim Ahmed Hamdan (Osama bin Laden's driver), Bush's military commissions, and Judge John Roberts
Salim Ahmed Hamdan is one of four Guantánamo prisoners designated in July 2004 for trial before a military commission. In April 2004, Hamdan filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus with District of Columbia District Judge James Robertson. On November 8, 2004, Judge Robertson granted Salim Ahmed Hamdan's petition, but on July 15, 2005, a three-judge court of appeals panel including John G. Roberts reversed the lower court's decision, paving the way for first of Bush's military commissions to proceed. These military commissions are clearly unjust and illegal; see the Amnesty International report "Guantánamo and Beyond: The Continuing Pursuit of Unchecked Executive Power," AMR 51/063/2005 (May 13, 2005): http://web.amnesty.org/library/print/ENGAMR510632005, especially chapter 10, "Military Commissions—Yet More Executive Injustice." Here is an excerpt from chapter 10: "Amnesty International reiterates that the proposed trials by military commission—executive bodies set up to obtain the conviction of foreign nationals on lower standards of evidence than would hold in the US courts—would flagrantly violate international fair trial standards and result neither in justice being done nor being seen to be done.(250) It is particularly shocking that people could face execution after such trials. The commissions entirely lack independence from the executive. The right to counsel of choice and to an effective defence is severely restricted. The defendant can face secret evidence which he will be unable to rebut. The defendant can be excluded from certain parts of the proceedings. The commission rules can admit evidence extracted under torture or other coercion. There will be no right of appeal to an independent and impartial court. Only foreign nationals are eligible for such trials, violating the prohibition on the discriminatory application of fair trial rights. A US citizen, whether soldier or civilian, charged with a similar crime would not face trial by military commission, and would have the right to appeal to higher courts of law."
Even if Salim Ahmed Hamdan is acquitted of all charges by a military commission, he can still be detained indefinitely if the president deems him a danger to the nation. A few days after the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued this misguided decision in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, President Bush nominated Judge John G. Roberts Jr. to be associate justice of the Supreme Court.
Here is the full text of the appeals court decision:
http://pacer.cadc.uscourts.gov/docs/common/opinions/200507/04-5393a.pdf
See also "Statement of Center for Constitutional Rights in Response to Court of Appeals Decision in Case of Hamdan V. Rumsfeld":
http://www.ccr-ny.org/v2/reports/report.asp?ObjID=yEQ7q0XA0N&Content=600
Robyn E. Blumner, "Roberts' Rules Put U.S. at Risk," St. Petersburg Times, July 24, 2005:
http://www.stpetersburgtimes.com/2005/07/24/Columns/Roberts__rules_put_US.shtml
Leigh Saavedra, "John Roberts: Part of the Downward Spiral," BuzzFlash.com, July 22, 2005:
http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/05/07/con05251.html
Chris Floyd, "Judge Dread: John Roberts and Enemy Combatants," CounterPunch, July 20, 2005:
http://www.counterpunch.org/floyd07202005.html
Physicians for Human Rights describes the conditions and effects of Hamdan's detention in Guantánamo: "One current detainee, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a Yemeni national, was held in solitary confinement at Camp Echo at Guantánamo from December 2003 to late October 2004. While at Camp Echo he was denied contact with other detainees and permitted only very limited access to a translator. Mr. Hamdan was initially denied outdoor exercise during daylight and medical treatment despite his repeated requests.420 He described his mood during solitary confinement as 'deteriorating, . . . encompassing frustration, rage (although he has not been violent), loneliness, despair, depression, anxiety, and emotional outbursts.'421 Mr. Hamdan's appointed military defense counsel, Lieutenant Commander Charles Swift, described his client's condition as 'initially agitated and withdrawn' and said that he witnessed in Mr. Hamdan significant mood swings, including 'uncontrollable weeping at inappropriate times, undirected anger, and unresponsiveness.'422 Based on these descriptions, an expert psychiatrist concluded that Mr. Hamdan was 'at significant risk for future psychiatric deterioration, possibly including the development of irreversible psychiatric symptoms.'423 The psychiatrist also noted 'the psychological stress of the uncertainty he faces over his lack of charges and about the nature and duration of his future confinement.'424" (Physicians for Human Rights, "Break Them Down: Systematic Use of Psychological Torture by US Forces," PHR, Cambridge, MA, May 1, 2005: http://www.phrusa.org/research/torture/pdf/psych_torture.pdf, pages 67–68).
Topic 3. The successful universal jurisdiction case in the UK against Afghan ex-warlord Zardad; three British soldiers indicted for war crimes committed in Iraq
Philippe Naughton, "Afghan Warlord Jailed for Twenty Years at Old Bailey," The Times, July 19, 2005:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1700132,00.html
Neil Tweedie, "Uproar over 'War Crimes' Trials," The Telegraph, July 21, 2005: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/07/21/narmy21.xml&sSheet=/portal/2005/07/21/ixportaltop.html
Julian E. Barnes, "Army Manual to Skip Geneva Detainee Rule: The Pentagon's Move to Omit a Ban on Prisoner Humiliation from the Basic Guide to Soldier Conduct Faces Strong State Dept. Opposition," Los Angeles Times, June 5, 2006:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-torture5jun05,0,1129567,print.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Greg Mitchell, "Was the Media, Like the Military, Slow to Probe Haditha Killings?" Editor & Publisher, New York, NY, June 5, 2006:
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/columns/pressingissues_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002613053
Thomas E. Ricks, "In Haditha Killings, Details Came Slowly: Official Version Is at Odds With Evidence," Washington Post, June 4, 2006, page A1:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/03/AR2006060300710_pf.html
Robert Jay Lifton, "Haditha Massacre: In an 'Atrocity-Producing Situation'—Who Is to Blame?" Editor & Publisher, New York, NY, June 2, 2006:
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/columns/shoptalk_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002612148
Severin Carrell, "Breaking Point: Inside Story of the Guantanamo Uprising; the Camp Commander's Claims of a Co-ordinated Revolt Are Challenged by New Details of the Violence," The Independent, May 21, 2006:
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0521-01.htm
Amy Goodman, "Chicago's Abu Ghraib: UN Committee against Torture Hears Report on How Police Tortured Over 135 African-American Men inside Chicago Jails," transcript of interview with David Bates, Flint Taylor, and John Conroy, DemocracyNow! May 9, 2006:
http://www.democracynow.org/print.pl?sid=06/05/09/1415210
Amnesty International, "USA: Amnesty International's Supplementary Briefing to the UN Committee against Torture," AMR 51/061/2006, May 3, 2006:
http://web.amnesty.org/library/print/ENGAMR510612006
Amnesty International, "US: Government Creating 'Climate of Torture,'" press release, AMR 51/070/2006, May 3, 2006:
http://web.amnesty.org/library/print/ENGAMR510702006
Dahr Jamail, "'Reason for Their Death Is Known,'" Truthout.org, May 3, 2006:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/printer_050306J.shtml
Jim Lobe, "After Abu Ghraib, Impunity," TomPaine.com, April 28, 2006:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/printer_042806C.shtml
Human Rights Watch, "By the Numbers: Findings of the Detainee Abuse and Accountability Project," vol. 18, no. 2(G), April 21, 2006:
http://hrw.org/reports/2006/ct0406/ct0406web.pdf
Seymour M. Hersh, "The Iran Plans: Would President Bush Go to War to Stop Tehran from Getting the Bomb?" The New Yorker, April 17, 2006 (posted April 10, 2006):
http://www.newyorker.com/printables/fact/060417fa_fact
Amnesty International, "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Below the Radar: Secret Flights to Torture and 'Disappearance,'" AMR 51/049/2006 (April 5, 2006):
http://web.amnesty.org/library/print/ENGAMR510512006
Amnesty International, "USA: Front Companies Used in Secret Flights to Torture and 'Disappearance,'" press release, April 5, 2006:
http://news.amnesty.org/mavp/news.nsf/print/ENGAMR510542006
Jack Balkin, "The Hamdan Oral Argument," Balkinization, March 28, 2006:
http://balkin.blogspot.com/2006/03/hamdan-oral-argument.html
Tim McGirk, "Collateral Damage or Civilian Massacre in Haditha?: Last November, U.S. Marines Killed 15 Iraqi Civilians in Their Homes. Was It Self-Defense, an Accident, or Cold-Blooded Revenge?" Time, March 19, 2006:
http://www.time.com/time/world/printout/0,8816,1174649,00.html
Eric Schmitt and Carolyn Marshall, "Task Force 6-26: Before and after Abu Ghraib, a U.S. Unit Abused Detainees," New York Times, March 19, 2006:
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=21692
Josh White, "Military Lawyers Say Tactics Broke Rules," Washington Post, March 16, 2006:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/printer_031606I.shtml
Marty Lederman, "Does the Army Field Manual Authorize 'Creative' Humiliation of Detainees?" Balkinization, March 16, 2006:
http://balkin.blogspot.com/2006/03/does-army-field-manual-authorize.html
Nat Hentoff, "The Torture Judge: U.S. Court Rules Our Government Can Break International Laws to Keep Us Safe," Village Voice, March 13, 2006:
http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0611,hentoff,72497,6.html
See this analysis of Judge David Trager's decision in Arar v. Ashcroft:
David Luban, "An Embarrassment of Riches," Balkinization, March 4, 2006:
http://balkin.blogspot.com/2006/03/embarrassment-of-riches.html
Amy Goodman, "'They've Ruined My Life': Torture Survivor Maher Arar Recalls How U.S. Sent Him to Syria Where He Was Jailed and Tortured For Ten Months," DemocracyNow! February 27, 2006:
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/02/27/1519248
Miranda Leitsinger and Ben Fox, "Pentagon Releases Names of Gitmo Inmates," Associated Press, March 4, 2006:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/printer_030406Y.shtml
Josh White and Carol D. Leonnig, "U.S. Cites Exception in Torture Ban: McCain Law May Not Apply to Cuba Prison," Washington Post, March 3, 2006:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/030306B.shtml
Adam Zagorin, "'20th Hijacker' Claims That Torture Made Him Lie: Mohammad al-Qahtani, Held in Guantanamo and Touted by the U.S. as a Major Informant, Is Taking It All Back, His Lawyer Says," Time, March 3, 2006:
http://www.time.com/time/nation/printout/0,8816,1169322,00.html
James Sturcke, "Guantánamo Detainee Tells of Torture and Beatings," Guardian Unlimited, March 3, 2006:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,329426312-103681,00.htm
"'War on Terror' Trials Could Allow Evidence Obtained through Torture," Agence France Presse, March 2, 2006:
http://www.commondreams.org/cgi-bin/print.cgi?file=/headlines06/0302-05.htm
Tim Golden and Eric Schmitt, "A Growing Afghan Prison Rivals Bleak Guantánamo," New York Times, February 26, 2006:
http://www.globalpolicy.org/empire/un/2006/0226bagram.htm
Tom Engelhardt, "Mark Danner on Bush's State of Exception: You Can Do Anything with a Bayonet Except Sit On It," TomDispatch.com, February 26, 2006:
http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=63903
"Human Rights First Releases First Comprehensive Report on Detainee Deaths in U.S. Custody: Groundbreaking Study Documents Lack of Accountability and Command Failure Despite Homicides, Torture, Harsh Conditions of Detention," Human Rights First Press Release, New York, NY, February 22, 2006:
http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/media/2006_alerts/etn_0222_dic.htm
Human Rights First, "Command's Responsibility: Detainee Deaths in U.S. Custody in Iraq and Afghanistan: Executive Summary," New York, NY, no date:
http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/us_law/etn/dic/exec-sum.asp
Hina Shamsi et al., "Command's Responsibility: Detainee Deaths in U.S. Custody in Iraq and Afghanistan," edited by Deborah Pearlstein, Human Rights First Report, New York, NY, February 21, 2006 (large PDF document, ca. 1 MB):
http://www.humanrightsfirst.info/pdf/06221-etn-hrf-dic-rep-web.pdf
Bettina Vestring, "'Der Schaden ist unermeßlich groß': Die SPD-Politikerin Herta Däubler-Gmelin über Guantanamo, die Bundesregierung und den Kulturkampf," Berliner Zeitung, February 21, 2006, page 6:
http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~tuckwill/vestring.htm
Bettina Vestring, "'Diese augenzwinkernde Kumpanei der Dienste': Ex-Justizministerin Däubler-Gmelin zieht enge Grenzen," Berliner Zeitung, December 17, 2005, page 5:
http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~tuckwill/daeubler.htm
Marjorie Cohn, "US Force-Feeding Prisoners in Torture Camp," Truthout.org, February 19, 2006:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/printer_022006J.shtml
United Nations Commission on Human Rights, "Situation of Detainees at Guantánamo Bay," February 15, 2006:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/security/library/report/2006/guantanamo-detainees-report_un_060216.htm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/16_02_06_un_guantanamo.pdf (PDF document, 336 KB)
Mark Denbeaux, Joshua Denbeaux, et al., "Report on Guantanamo Detainees: A Profile of 517 Detainees through Analysis of Department of Defense Data," February 8, 2006:
http://law.shu.edu/news/guantanamo_report_final_2_08_06.pdf
Elizabeth Holtzman, "The Impeachment of George W. Bush," The Nation, January 30, 2006:
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060130/holtzman
Amy Goodman, "Ex-British Ambassador to Uzbekistan Craig Murray on Why He Defied UK Foreign Office by Posting Classified Memos Blasting U.S., British Support of Torture by Uzbek Regime," transcript of an interview with Craig Murray, DemocracyNow! January 19, 2006:
http://www.democracynow.org/print.pl?sid=06/01/19/1452237
Amnesty International Deutschland, "USA/Guantánamo: Murat Kurnaz aus Bremen," Bonn, January 11, 2006:
http://www2.amnesty.de/internet/deall.nsf/windexde/KA2005018
Amnesty International, "USA: Days of Adverse Hardship in US Detention Camps—Testimony of Guantánamo Detainee Jumah al-Dossari," AMR 51/107/2005 (December 16, 2005):
http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAMR511072005
John W. Dean, "Shocking the Conscience of America: Bush and Cheney Call for the Right to Torture and Are Decisively and Correctly Rebuffed by the House," FindLaw, December 16, 2005:
http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dean/20051216.html
Mark Morford, "Fun Bits about American Torture: In Many Ways, the U.S. Is Now Just as Inhumane and Brutal as Any Third World Regime. Oh Well?" San Francisco Chronicle, December 16, 2005:
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2005/12/16/notes121605.DTL&type=printable
Human Rights Watch, "U.S. Operated Secret 'Dark Prison' in Kabul," New York, NY, December 19, 2005:
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/12/19/afghan12319.htm
Human Rights Watch, "Questions and Answers: U.S. Detainees Disappeared into Secret Prisons: Illegal under Domestic and International Law," New York, NY, December 9, 2005:
http://hrw.org/backgrounder/usa/us1205/index.htm
Frank Nordhausen, "Guantanamo ist überall: Ein UN-Mitarbeiter im Kosovo erhebt schwere Vorwürfe gegen Amerikas Regierung. Die US-Ermittler sollen dort ein Geheimgefängnis aufgebaut haben. Ein Blick auf die Arbeitsweise der CIA," Berliner Zeitung, December 9, 2005:
http://www.berlinonline.de/berliner-zeitung/archiv/.bin/dump.fcgi/2005/1209/politik/0011/index.html
Here is the text of Harold Pinter's lecture to be delivered by video in Stockholm at the awarding of the 2005 Nobel prize for literature:
Harold Pinter, "Art, Truth and Politics," Guardian Unlimited, December 8, 2005:
http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,6109,1661516,00.html
Dahr Jamail, "An Increasingly Aerial Occupation," in Tom Engelhardt, "Tomgram: Dahr Jamail on the Missing Air War in Iraq," TomDispatch.com, December 13, 2005:
http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=42286
Amy Goodman, "Pulitzer Prize Winning Journalist Seymour Hersh on Where the Iraq War Is Headed Next," transcript of an interview with Seymour Hersh, DemocracyNow! November 29, 2005:
http://www.democracynow.org/print.pl?sid=05/11/29/1458235
Seymour M. Hersh, "Up in the Air: Where Is the Iraq War Headed Next?" The New Yorker, December 5, 2005 (posted November 28, 2005):
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/051205fa_fact
Human Rights Watch, "List of 'Ghost Prisoners' Possibly in CIA Custody," New York, NY, November 30, 2005:
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/11/30/usdom12109.htm
Florian Klenk and Ulrich Ladurner, "Abflug in die Folterkammer," Die Zeit, Hamburg, December 1, 2005, page 3:
http://www.zeit.de/2005/49/Verschleppung?page=all
Michael Naumann, "Menschenrechte: Folterstaat Amerika," Die Zeit, Hamburg, November 29, 2005:
http://www.zeit.de/2005/48/Menschenrechte?page=all
David Luban, "Torture, American-Style: This Debate Comes Down to Words vs. Deeds," Washington Post, November 27, 2005, page B1:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/25/AR2005112501552_pf.html
http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/index.cfm?page=article&id=5605
Brian Ross and Richard Esposito, "Sources Tell ABC News Top Al Qaeda Figures Held in Secret CIA Prisons: Ten out of Eleven High-Value Terror Leaders Subjected to 'Enhanced Interrogation Techniques,'" ABC News, December 5, 2005:
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/print?id=1375123
Brian Ross and Richard Esposito, "CIA's Harsh Interrogation Techniques Described," ABC News, November 18, 2005:
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/Investigation/story?id=1322866
Human Rights Watch, "Human Rights Watch Statement on U.S. Secret Detention Facilities in Europe," New York, NY, November, 2005:
http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2005/11/07/usint11995.htm
A series of Washington Post articles by Dana Priest reveals important new details about the CIA's covert prison system:
Dana Priest, "CIA Holds Terror Suspects in Secret Prisons: Debate Is Growing within Agency about Legality and Morality of Overseas System Set Up after 9/11," Washington Post, November 2, 2005, page A1:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/01/AR2005110101644_pf.html
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/110205Z.shtml
Dana Priest, "Foreign Network at Front of CIA's Terror Fight: Agency Has Joint Operation Centers in More Than Two Dozen Nations," Washington Post, November 18, 2005, page A1:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/17/AR2005111702070_pf.html
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11059.htm
Dana Priest, "Wrongful Imprisonment: Anatomy of a CIA Mistake: German Citizen Released after Months in 'Rendition,'" Washington Post, December 4, 2005, page A1:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/03/AR2005120301476_pf.html
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/120405D.shtml
Khaled El-Masri, "America Kidnapped Me," Los Angeles Times, December 18, 2005:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-masri18dec18,0,3748543.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinions
Dana Priest, "Covert CIA Program Withstands New Furor: Anti-Terror Effort Continues to Grow," Washington Post, December 30, 2005:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/123005K.shtml
The following New York Times report about the Bush administration's internal debate over how the DOD should treat foreign detainees highlights the role of Vice President Cheney and his new chief of staff David S. Addington in this matter:
Tim Golden and Eric Schmitt, "Detainee Policy Sharply Divides Bush Officials," New York Times, November 2, 2005:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/110205E.shtml (the second of two articles in the document)
In this interview, Scott Horton analyzes Vice President Cheney's motives for opposing the McCain amendment's ban on cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment of detainees held by the government:
Amy Goodman, "Lawyer Scott Horton: 'Vice President Cheney Is the Man Who Unleashed Torture and Promoted It within Our Military and Our Intelligence Service,'" DemocracyNow! October 27, 2005:
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/10/27/1451229
"Guantanamo Man 'Wants to Starve': A Kuwaiti Detainee on Hunger Strike at Guantanamo Bay Wants a Judge to Order the Removal of His Feeding Tube So He Can Be Allowed to Die, His Lawyer Says," BBC News, October 26, 2005:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4378282.stm
"Judge Rules on Guantanamo Strike: Lawyers for Scores of Terror Suspects on Hunger Strike at the Guantanamo Bay Jail Must Be Told Before Detainees Are Force-Fed, Says a US Federal Judge," BBC News, October 27, 2005:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4380642.stm
Editorial, "Legalized Torture, Reloaded," New York Times, October 26, 2005:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10775.htm
R. Jeffrey Smith and Josh White, "Cheney Plan Exempts CIA from Bill Barring Abuse of Detainees," Washington Post, October 25, 2005, Page A1:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/24/AR2005102402051.html
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/102505J.shtml
Marty Lederman, "Beware the 'Augmented' McCain Amendment!" Balkinization, October 15, 2005:
http://balkin.blogspot.com/2005/10/beware-augmented-mccain-amendment.html
David Luban, "Human Rights in the Balance: What's at Stake in Hamdan," Balkinization, October 12, 2005:
http://balkin.blogspot.com/2005/10/human-rights-in-balance-whats-at-stake.html
Scott Horton, "Sexual Perversion in Rumsfeld's Pentagon," Balkinization, October 9, 2005:
http://balkin.blogspot.com/2005/10/sexual-perversion-in-rumsfelds.html
Francis Harris, "Bush Will Veto Anti-Torture Law after Senate Revolt," The Telegraph, October 7, 2005:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/10/07/wus207.xml
John Sifton, "Abuse: Systematic and Chronic," TomPaine.com, October 7, 2005:
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20051007/abuse_systematic_and_chronic.php
Scott Horton, "What the England Courtmartial Doesn't Tell Us," Balkinization, October 1, 2005:
http://balkin.blogspot.com/2005/10/what-england-courtmartial-doesnt-tell.html
Richard A. Serrano, "New Iraq Abuse Allegations Get McCain Moving: The Senator Advocates Legislation in Response to Complaints Made Public by an Army Officer," Los Angeles Times, September 26, 2005:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/092605I.shtml
William Fisher, "Calls Mount for Prisoner Abuse Commission," Inter Press Service News Agency, September 27, 2005:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/092805I.shtml
Scott Horton, "Shirking Responsibility," Balkinization, September 25, 2005:
http://balkin.blogspot.com/2005/09/shirking-responsibility.html
Human Rights Watch, "New Accounts of Torture by U.S. Troops: Soldiers Say Failures by Command Led to Abuse," New York, NY, September 24, 2005:
http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2005/09/25/usint11776.htm
Human Rights Watch, "Leadership Failure: Firsthand Accounts of Torture of Iraqi Detainees by the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division," September 2005, vol. 17, no. 3 (G):
http://hrw.org/reports/2005/us0905/us0905.pdf
Adam Zagorin, "Pattern of Abuse: A Decorated Army Officer Reveals New Allegations of Detainee Mistreatment in Iraq and Afghanistan. Did the Military Ignore His Charges?" Time, September 23, 2005:
http://www.time.com/time/nation/printout/0,8816,1108972,00.html
Gitanjali Gutierrez et al., "The Guantánamo Prisoner Hunger Strikes and Protests: February 2002 – August 2005," Center for Constitutional Rights, Guantánamo Global Justice Initiative, September 8, 2005:
http://www.ccr-ny.org/v2/legal/september_11th/docs/Gitmo_Hunger_Strike_Report_Sept_2005.pdf
Amnesty International, "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Guantánamo and Beyond: The Continuing Pursuit of Unchecked Executive Power," AMR 51/063/2005 (May 13, 2005):
http://web.amnesty.org/library/print/ENGAMR510632005
Amnesty International, "USA/JORDAN/YEMEN: Torture and Secret Detention: Testimony of the 'Disappeared' in the 'War on Terror,'" AMR 51/108/2005 (August 4, 2005):
http://web.amnesty.org/library/print/ENGAMR511082005
Amnesty International, "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Human Dignity Denied: Torture and Accountability in the 'War on Terror'; a Report Based on Amnesty International's Twelve-Point Program for the Prevention of Torture by Agents of the State," AMR 51/145/2004 (October 27, 2004):
http://web.amnesty.org/library/print/ENGAMR511452004
Physicians for Human Rights, "Break Them Down: Systematic Use of Psychological Torture by US Forces," PHR, Cambridge, MA, May 1, 2005:
http://www.phrusa.org/research/torture/pdf/psych_torture.pdf
Human Rights Watch, "Getting Away with Torture? Command Responsibility for the U.S. Abuse of Detainees," April 2005, vol. 17, no. 1 (G):
http://www.hrw.org/reports/2005/us0405/
http://www.hrw.org/reports/2005/us0405/us0405.pdf
Human Rights Watch, "U.S.: Did President Bush Order Torture? White House Must Explain 'Executive Order' Cited in FBI E-Mail," New York, NY, December 21, 2004:
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2004/12/21/usint9925_txt.htm
Dan Eggen and R. Jeffrey Smith, "FBI Agents Allege Abuse of Detainees at Guantanamo Bay," Washington Post, December 21, 2004:
http://www.globalpolicy.org/empire/terrorwar/liberties/2004/1221impersonators.htm
Mark Danner, "The Transformation of the United States from a Nation That Did Not Torture to One That Does," Part 1, UC Berkeley News, Berkeley, CA, June 2, 2004:
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2004/06/02_torture1.shtml
Originally published under the title "Torture and Truth," New York Review of Books, vol. 51, no. 10, June 10, 2004.
Mark Danner, "The Transformation of the United States from a Nation That Did Not Torture to One That Does," Part 2, UC Berkeley News, Berkeley, CA, June 2, 2004:
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2004/06/02_torture2.shtml
Originally published under the title "The Logic of Torture," New York Review of Books, vol. 51, no. 11, June 24, 2004.
Mark Danner, "Abu Ghraib: The Hidden Story," New York Review of Books, vol. 51, no. 15, October 7, 2004:
http://www.markdanner.com/nyreview/100704_abu.htm
Alfred W. McCoy, "The Hidden History of CIA Torture: America's Road to Abu Ghraib," TomDispatch.com, September 9, 2004:
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0909-16.htm
Alfred W. McCoy, "Why the McCain Torture Ban Won't Work," TomDispatch.com, February 8, 2006:
http://www.truthout.org/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/48/17547/printer
Alfred W. McCoy, A Question of Torture: CIA Interrogation, from the Cold War to the War on Terror, The American Empire Project (New York, NY: Metropolitan Books, 2006).
An excerpt from the first chapter of Alfred McCoy's book is accessible at the publisher's Web site:
http://www.americanempireproject.com/bookexcerpt.asp?ISBN=0805080414
Here is the table of contents of the German edition (Foltern und foltern lassen: 50 Jahre Folterforschung und -praxis von CIA und US-Militär [Frankfurt am Main: Zweitausendeins, 2005]):
http://www.zweitausendeins.de/cmsImgDB/18556_In.pdf
And here is the index of the German edition:
http://www.zweitausendeins.de/cmsImgDB/18556_Re.pdf
Amy Goodman, "Professor McCoy Exposes the History of CIA Interrogation, from the Cold War to the War on Terror," transcript of an interview with Alfred McCoy, DemocracyNow! February 17, 2006:
http://www.democracynow.org/print.pl?sid=06/02/17/1522228
Alfred W. McCoy, "Invisible in Plain Sight: CIA Torture Techniques Go Mainstream," Amnesty International Magazine, New York, NY, May 2006:
http://www.amnestyusa.org/magazine/invisible_in_plain_sight.html
Ted Rall, "The Normalization of Horror: American Gulags Become Permanent," January 12, 2005:
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0112-35.htm
Susan Sontag, "Regarding the Torture of Others," Southern Cross Review 35 (June 2004):
http://www.southerncrossreview.org/35/sontag.htm
Originally published under the same title in The New York Times, May 23, 2004.
Elizabeth Holtzman, "Torture and Accountability," The Nation, July 18, 2005:
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20050718&s=holtzman
Bradford Plumer, "Shut It Down, Already," Mother Jones, August 22, 2005:
http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/archives/2005/08/shut_it_down_al.html
Mark Chmiel and Andrew Wimmer, "Let's Open the Gulag! A People's Mission to Guantánamo," Counterpunch, June 25–26, 2005:
http://www.counterpunch.org/chmiel06252005.html
David Rose, Guantánamo: America's War on Human Rights (London, UK: Faber and Faber Limited, 2004).
David Rose, "MI6 and CIA 'Sent Student to Morocco to Be Tortured': An Ethiopian Claims That His Confession to Al-Qaeda Bomb Plot Was Signed after Beatings," The Observer, London, UK, December 11, 2005:
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1664612,00.html
Erik Saar and Viveca Novak, Inside the Wire: A Military Intelligence Soldier's Eyewitness Account of Life at Guantanamo (New York, NY: The Penguin Press, 2005).
Amy Goodman, "Inside the Wire: A Military Intelligence Soldier's Eyewitness Account of Life at Guantanamo," transcript of an interview with Erik Saar, DemocracyNow! May 4, 2005:
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/05/04/1342253
Onnesha Roychoudhuri, "Inside the Wire: An Interview with Erik Saar," Mother Jones, May 24, 2005:
http://www.motherjones.com/news/qa/2005/05/saar.html
Paul Harris, "Soldier Lifts Lid on Camp Delta: For the First Time, an Army Insider Blows the Whistle on Human Rights Abuses at Guantánamo," The Observer, May 8, 2005:
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,5188757-102275,00.html
Joseph Lelyveld, "The Strange Case of Chaplain Yee," review of For God and Country: Faith and Patriotism Under Fire, by James Yee with Aimee Molloy, New York Review of Books, vol. 52, no. 20, December 15, 2005:
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/18550
Mark Bowden, "The Dark Art of Interrogation," The Atlantic Monthly, vol. 292, no. 3, October 2003:
http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~tuckwill/bowden.html
Jane Mayer, "The Memo: How an Internal Effort to Ban the Abuse and Torture of Detainees Was Thwarted," The New Yorker, February 27, 2006 (posted February 20, 2006):
http://www.newyorker.com/printables/fact/060227fa_fact
Jane Mayer, "A Deadly Interrogation: Can the C.I.A. Legally Kill a Prisoner?" The New Yorker, November 14, 2005 (posted November 7, 2005):
http://www.newyorker.com/printables/fact/051114fa_fact
Jane Mayer, "The Experiment: The Military Trains People to Withstand Interrogation. Are Those Methods Being Misused at Guantánamo?" The New Yorker, July 11 and 18, 2005 (posted July 4, 2005):
http://www.newyorker.com/printables/fact/050711fa_fact4
Amy Davidson, "In Gitmo," interview with Jane Mayer about interrogation and the war on terror, The New Yorker, July 11, 2005 (posted July 6, 2005):
http://www.newyorker.com/online/content/articles/050711on_onlineonly01
Jane Mayer, "Outsourcing Torture: The Secret History of America's 'Extraordinary Rendition' Program," The New Yorker, February 14, 2005 (posted February 7, 2005):
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?050214fa_fact6
James Risen, State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and The Bush Administration, esp. chapter 1, "'Who Authorized Putting Him on Pain Medication?'" (New York, NY: Free Press, 2006), 11–37.
Helen Thomas, "Bush Won't Block Abuse of Detainees," Seattle Post-Intelligencer, July 28, 2005:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/234204_thomas28.html
Al Gore, "Remarks by Al Gore, May 26, 2004, as Prepared," MoveOn PAC:
http://www.moveonpac.org/goreremarks052604.html
Gore's philippic on the torture scandal is also reproduced in a right-wing context (see Bob Schatan's Web page "Hate Speech: The DEMOCRAT'S Weapon of Choice" (http://www.papillonsartpalace.com/hate.htm). Schatan's document includes a striking photo of the orator as well as responses to Gore's speech from the Republican National Committee, Rush Limbaugh, The Wall Street Journal editorial page (James Taranto, "Guilty Gore Goes Gaga"), Lucianne.com, and the New York Post (John Podhoretz, "Gore Goes Ga-Ga"): http://www.papillonsartpalace.com/remaarks.htm
Anthony Lewis, "Making Torture Legal," New York Review of Books, vol. 51, no. 12, July 15, 2004:
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/17230
http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~tuckwill/lewisnyb.html
Anthony Lewis, "Guantánamo's Long Shadow," New York Times, June 21, 2005:
http://www.truthout.org/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/38/12072
Anthony Lewis, "The Torture Administration," The Nation, December 26, 2005 (posted December 7, 2005):
http://www.thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20051226&s=lewis
Marty Lederman, "The JAG Memos on Military Interrogation and OLC's Legal Analysis," Balkinization, July 27, 2005:
http://balkin.blogspot.com/2005/07/jag-memos-on-military-interrogation.html
Karen J. Greenberg, "The Achilles Heel of Torture: What the JAG Memos Tell Us," in Tom Engelhardt, "Tomgram: Greenberg on Why U.S. Military Lawyers Opposed Torture," TomDispatch.com, August 25, 2005:
http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?emx=x&pid=16843
The Torture Papers: The Road to Abu Ghraib, edited by Karen J. Greenberg and Joshua L. Dratel, introduction by Anthony Lewis (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2005).
This 1283-page tome, the best collection of memoranda and official reports, is an invaluable resource.
The Torture Papers: The Legal Road to Abu Ghraib, edited by Karen J. Greenberg and Joshua L. Dratel, 2 vols. (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, forthcoming).
Here is Scott Horton's report to the German federal prosecutor regarding the criminal complaint brought against Donald Rumsfeld and others by four Iraqis who were tortured in Abu Ghraib prison:
Scott Horton, "An den Herrn Generalbundesanwalt, Beim Bundesgerichtshof . . . Karlsruhe, Betr: Strafanzeige gegen den US-Verteidigungsminister Donald Rumsfeld, u.a., Expert Report of Scott Horton," January 28, 2005:
http://www.ccr-ny.org/v2/legal/september_11th/docs/ScottHortonGermany013105.pdf
Seymour M. Hersh, Chain of Command: The Road From 9/11 to Abu Ghraib (New York, NY: HarperCollins, 2004).
Some of the material that Seymour Hersh incorporated into his book Chain of Command appeared in The New Yorker and is available online. The following article describes how the Pentagon special-access program (SAP) known as Copper Green spun out of control when it was expanded to encourage physical coercion and sexual humiliation of Iraqi prisoners:
Seymour M. Hersh, "The Grey Zone: How a Secret Pentagon Program Came to Abu Ghraib," The New Yorker, May 24, 2004 (posted May 15, 2004):
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?040524fa_fact
Eva Brückner-Tuckwiller has provided a German translation of "The Grey Zone" for use by committee participants (not for public distribution):
http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~tuckwill/hersh.rtf
Seymour M. Hersh, "Torture at Abu Ghraib: American Soldiers Brutalized Iraqis. How Far Up Does the Responsibility Go?" The New Yorker, May 10, 2004 (posted April 30, 2004):
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?040510fa_fact
Seymour M. Hersh, "Chain of Command: How the Department of Defense Mishandled the Disaster at Abu Ghraib," The New Yorker, May 17, 2004 (posted May 9, 2004):
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?040517fa_fact2
Torture: A Collection, edited by Sanford Levinson (New York, NY: Oxford Univ. Press, 2004).
Contains contributions by, among others, Ariel Dorfman, Elaine Scarry, Alan Dershowitz, Judge Richard Posner, Michael Walzer, and Jean Bethke Elshtain.
Elaine Scarry, The Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking of the World, chapter 1, "The Structure of Torture: The Conversion of Real Pain into the Fiction of Power" (New York, NY: Oxford Univ. Press, 1985), 27–59.
This book is out of print, but it is available in libraries (for example, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, Signatur 735932). Contact us for JPEGs of pp. 27–59.
Giorgio Agamben, Homo sacer: Die souveräne Macht und das nackte Leben, translated by Hubert Thüring, Edition Suhrkamp 2068 (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 2002).
Originally published as Homo sacer: Il potere sovrano e la nuda vita (Torino: Giulio Einaudi, 1995).
Translated by Daniel Heller-Roazen as Homo sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life (Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. Press, 1998).
Giorgio Agamben, Ausnahmezustand (Homo sacer II.i), translated by Ulrich Müller-Schöll, Edition Suhrkamp 2366 (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 2004).
Originally published as Stato di eccezione (Torino: Bollati Boringhieri, 2003).
"Die unmittelbar biopolitische Bedeutung des Ausnahmezustands als einer ursprünglichen Struktur, in der das Recht durch seine eigene Suspendierung das Lebendige in sich schließt, kommt in aller Klarheit durch die military order zum Vorschein, die der Präsident der Vereinigten Staaten am 13. November 2001 erlassen hat" (Ausnahmezustand, p. 9).
Giorgio Agamben, Was von Auschwitz bleibt: Das Archiv und der Zeuge (Homo sacer III), translated by Stefan Monhardt, Edition Suhrkamp 2300 (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 2003).
Originally published as Quel che resta di Auschwitz: L'archivo e il testimone (Torino: Bollati Boringhieri, 1998).
American Civil Liberties Union
http://www.aclu.org/
Amnesty International
http://www.amnesty.org/
Center for Constitutional Rights
http://www.ccr-ny.org/
Human Rights First
http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/
Human Rights Watch
http://www.hrw.org/
This page was updated on June 6, 2006, by Donald Tuckwiller.