Incite

An Expert Reveals Chinese Origins of Interrogation Techniques at Guantánamo - NYTimes.com

Apparently many of our interrogation techniques were designed to elicit false confessions, not the truth:

WASHINGTON — The military trainers who came to Guantánamo Bay in December 2002 based an entire interrogation class on a chart showing the effects of “coercive management techniques” for possible use on prisoners, including “sleep deprivation,” “prolonged constraint,” and “exposure.”

What the trainers did not say, and may not have known, was that their chart had been copied verbatim from a 1957 Air Force study of Chinese Communist techniques used during the Korean War to obtain confessions, many of them false, from American prisoners.

The recycled chart is the latest and most vivid evidence of the way Communist interrogation methods that the United States long described as torture became the basis for interrogations both by the military at the base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and by the Central Intelligence Agency.

Read more:  An Expert Reveals Chinese Origins of Interrogation Techniques at Guantánamo - NYTimes.com:

The Whitehouse says Waterboarding Is Legal

WASHINGTON -- The White House said Wednesday that the widely condemned interrogation technique known as waterboarding is legal and that President Bush could authorize the CIA to resume using the simulated-drowning method under extraordinary circumstances.

The background:

 

Waterboarding refers to a practice that involves strapping down a prisoner, placing a cloth over his face and dousing him with water to simulate the sensation of drowning. The technique has been traced to the Spanish Inquisition and has been the subject of war-crimes trials dating back a century.

It is considered torture worldwide. 

 

In a recent GOP presidential debate, McCain said it was inconceivable that "anyone could believe that [waterboarding is] not torture. It's in violation of the Geneva Convention. It's in violation of existing law."

Congress has tried to stop him, but Bush continues undaunted.

Congress has passed two laws -- the Detainee Treatment Act in 2005 and the Military Commissions Act in 2006 -- that ban the use of harsh interrogation methods and require all U.S. agencies to comply with the Constitution and the Geneva Conventions in their treatment of detainees.

Waterboarding is legal, White House says - Los Angeles Times  Annotated

tags: bush, cia, convention, geneva, politics, torture, waterboarding

 

NSA Started Warrantless Surveillance Program on Americans BEFORE 9/11

Joseph P. Nacchio, a former Qwest chief executive, says the NSA approached him about a warrantless surveillance program on Americans in February, 2001 - long before 9/11.  Qwest declined to participate in the program when they discovered it would not be using any legal processes nor would it be using the FISA Court and there were no plans to use them in the future.

Nacchio was convicted for selling shares of Qwest stock in early 2001, just before financial problems caused the company's share price to tumble. He has claimed in court papers that he had been optimistic that Qwest would overcome weak sales because of the expected top-secret contract with the government. Nacchio said he was forbidden to mention the specifics during the trial because of secrecy restrictions, but the judge ruled that the issue was irrelevant to the charges against him.

Nacchio's account, which places the NSA proposal at a meeting on Feb. 27, 2001, suggests that the Bush administration was seeking to enlist telecommunications firms in programs without court oversight before the terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon. The Sept. 11 attacks have been cited by the government as the main impetus for its warrantless surveillance efforts.

The allegations could affect the debate on Capitol Hill over whether telecoms sued for disclosing customers' phone records and other data to the government after the Sept. 11 attacks should be given legal immunity, even if they did not have court authorization to do so.

Former CEO Says U.S. Punished Phone Firm - washingtonpost.com

More Voting Problems in Florida

More voting problems in Florida:

Symptoms consistent with a known software flaw in a popular electronic voting machine surfaced widely in a controversial election in Sarasota County, Florida, last November, despite county officials' claims that a bug played no role in the election results, according to documents obtained by Wired News.

Activists say the flaw might have contributed to the high number of lost or uncast votes in a now-contested congressional race.

Incident reports from the election reveal Sarasota County poll workers from at least 19 precincts contacted technicians and election officials to report touch-screen sensitivity problems with the I-Votronic voting machine. In those incidents, voters were forced to press the screen harder and repeatedly to register a vote. The complaints mirror the symptoms of a bug that the machine's maker, Election Systems & Software, revealed prior to the election in a warning unheeded by the county.

These problems happened on a smaller scale in the previous election according to documents, but denied by the supervisor of elections Kathy Dent.  Election Systems and Software suggested a sign be posted indicating the need to press the screen firmly for several seconds to insure the vote was recorded, but Dent put up signs without this critical information.

18,000 ballots recorded no vote in the Senate race which was "lost" by Christine Jennings by less than 400 votes.  Numerous voter complaints were ignored or dismissed as ballot design problems in spite of the known software flaws.

Docs Point to E-Voting Bug in Contested Race

What Habeas Corpus Means To You

This is a very good explanation of Habeas Corpus, what it means and what happens when we lose that right:

Under Habeas Corpus, you have the right to say, I want to be brought into the court to determine if I am the right person charged, if there's an actual law prohibiting what I'm charged with, if the people who are holding me have the jurisdiction to do so, and I want that publicly known and I want the right to dispute all of that and the right to be tried too.

Without Habeas Corpus you can be swept up off the street and never heard from again. Period. Nobody has to know. Nobody - including yourself - has to know why. Nobody gets to determine if there is a law against what you're charged with. You have no rights at all.

In America, the Constitution forbids taking habeas corpus away from you (except "in case of rebellion or invasion the public safety shall require it.") It was written that way because the right of habeas corpus was a basic right even under the King of England. It was the most basic check on a king's tyranny. It was assumed.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales argues it's a right we never had in the first place.

 

The Blog | Larry Beinhart: What Habeas Corpus Means to You | The Huffington Post

The Slippery Slide Away From Habeas Corpus

This is something I missed:

All Americans regardless of political philosophy or party affiliation ought to take note when the attorney general tells the Senate Judiciary Committee that the U.S. Constitution does not guarantee habeas corpus.

In justifying the law signed by the president last October that stripped federal courts of their authority to hear habeas corpus suits by noncitizens labeled "enemy combatants," U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales testified last week: "The Constitution doesn't say every individual in the United States or every citizen is hereby granted or assured the right of habeas."

Gonzales' contention, which undoubtedly is the Bush administration's most far-reaching in its battle against the war on terror, threatens to take the country down a slippery slope that undermines the very basis of the republic.

The writ of habeas corpus requires that a person detained by the authorities be brought before a court of law so that the legality of the detention may be examined.

The Blog | Byron Williams: The Slippery Slide Away From Habeas Corpus | The Huffington Post

technorati tags:politics, HabeasCorpus, Bush, Gonzales, constitution, MagnaCarta, terror, war, rights

World Watches Mukhtar Mai

Mukhtar Mai, a Pakistani woman, was sentenced by a tribal council to be gang raped by the men of her village for the actions of her brother.  Afterwards she was expected to commit suicide but, helped by a local Islamic leader, she testified against her attackers, 6 of whom were convicted.

Mukhtar Mai was invited to speak in the West which was a great embarrassment to the Pakistani Government.  She was put under house arrest and her attackers were released by the court, perhaps putting her life in danger.  She then disappeared - believed taken by the government.  Tom Watson asked all bloggers to "keep watch" over her believing that if the attention on her dropped, she would be killed.  More than 100 Bloggers responded to his call.  The story is not over, but things are looking a lot more positive.

This is the story of a heroic woman and also a story of the power of people who care - individuals, bloggers and local newspapers that responded and kept the attention on her so she could not permanently "disappear".

Mukhtaran Bibi, the Pakistani civil rights leader and worldwide hero, may be coming the United States after all.  Intrepid Times columnist Nicholas Kristof reports in his forum that Mukhtar Mai has been informed that she will be allowed to travel to the U.S. and elsewhere as part of a speaking tour on women's rights. The gang-rape victim, who opened schools for illiterate villagers with settlement money, has become a major symbol of freedom and courage, spurring governments to protest her treatment, mainstream media to pick up her cause, and bloggers to lead the way in getting the word of her plight to the world.

Earlier this week, Kristof reported "the Pakistani authorities have now told Mukhtaran that she will be allowed to travel to the U.S. on her own, without an escort – but they still haven’t returned her passport." That would be terrific news, but there are apparently no travel plans yet. Also good news was the personal involvement in the case of U.S. Secretary of State Condi Rice who "called the Pakistani foreign minister to tell him to stop beating up on Mukhtaran," according to Kristof.

Read more on Tom Watson's Blog

Technorati Tags: politics, rape