Don’t Let Them Bury Torture Crimes

Evidently, CIA director Michael Hayden decided that Super Tuesday was a good day to bury bad news, and he wasn’t far from wrong. Yesterday Director Hayden admitted that the US Government has used waterboarding on at least 3 people. This is the first such clear admission by the Bush Administration.

Let’s be clear. Waterboarding is torture and torture is a crime.

1. The Anti-Torture Act criminalizes the use of torture;
   
2. Article 3 of the Geneva Convention prohibits cruel treatment, torture and outrages upon personal dignity, in particular, humiliating and degrading treatment;
   
3. The War Crimes Act criminalizes the use of torture and abuse against detainees protected by the Geneva Conventions, which includes terrorist suspects;
   
4. The U.S.-ratified Convention Against Torture prohibits all torture and cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment;
   
5. The McCain Amendment of the Detainee Treatment Act reaffirms the prohibition of torture in the Convention Against Torture;
   
6. General criminal laws such as federal statutes criminalize conduct such as assaults by or against Americans in federal facilities.

I like to think that on any other day, an admission by the Director of the CIA that employees of the federal government violated international and federal laws would be a headline. I’d like to think that people would notice. However, after the litany of high crimes and misdemeanors committed by the Bush Administration, the public has grown too weary to care. And with the feeding frenzy of the election to replace Bush, the press hardly noticed.

Are we still a good and decent people? Do we still care if our government violated the law? If we are, then don’t let this be buried. Don’t let this issue die. Write a letter to the editor. Tell everyone you know about it. We can’t let the head of the CIA come to congress and admit that the US violated laws without consequences.

Don’t just Boot Bush – Reboot

It’s pretty clear that the American people want to boot Bush & Co. out of the Whitehouse. Barack Obama’s message of change absolutely resonated in Iowa, stunning the country with an astounding win. Even on the Republican side, the insurgent who criticized the President’s “bunker mentality” beat the corporate Bush-apologist in Iowa. Change has been the recurring theme of this campaign so far. However, I think we need more than change. We need to not just boot out Bush: we need to reboot the system.

Let’s face it. If any of the Democrats are elected, change will come. There is little doubt that Barack Obama, John Edwards or Hillary Clinton would change some of the Bush policies. Let’s be honest here. If you read the position papers of all three Democrats, you will find that most of the differences in position are tinkering around the edges. The core messages are the same. Healthcare is broken and needs to be fixed. The environment is in crisis and must be healed. Education is weak and has to be supported.

We also need to restore America’s standing in the world. The pictures of Abu Ghraib still circulate on the internet as inspiration for would-be terrorists. The Bush Administration has held prisoners without trial, based on secret evidence, while Bush hides behind a veil of “state secrets” and executive privilege. It is shameful.

One difference between Barack Obama and his Democratic rivals is his ability to not just change the reputation of America in the world, but to reset it, to give us a fresh start, to reboot the political system. The election of Barack Obama as president does more than continue the conversation with different players and an altered message. It completely changes the context of the conversation.

There are times when a system doesn’t just need to close the old programs and open new ones. Until we completely reset the system, there are programs that can continue to run in the background unnoticed. We need to reboot with Obama.

Now is OUR Time

NOW is the time to make a difference, and YOU are the one to do it. Our children are watching what we do. What legacy are you going to leave them? The writers of the history books will look at this time and report on what the American people did. How will history treat you?

Why Now?

Let’s think about this moment in the context of history:

• Our government holds prisoners without charge for years at a time.
  
• The gap between the rich and poor widens every day.
  
• The government searches our private information without a warrant.
  
• The earth warms, the ice melts and our lives hang in the balance.
  
• The Bush-Cheney Whitehouse authorizes the torture of prisoners – and then orders the destruction of evidence.
  
• We are fighting a war based on intelligence failures, enmeshing us in a civil war.

If you’ve listened to Barack Obama speak more than once, you’ve probably heard him quote Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., using the phrase “the fierce urgency of now.” Have you ever wondered about the context of that phrase? You can read the entire speech here, but if you don’t want to plow through the entire speech, then at least read this one paragraph:

“We are now faced with the fact, my friends that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still the thief of time. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked, and dejected with a lost opportunity. The tide in the affairs of men does not remain at flood-it ebbs. We may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is adamant to every plea and rushes on. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words, ‘Too late.’ There is an invisible book of life that faithfully records our vigilance or our neglect. Omar Khayyam is right: ‘The moving finger writes, and having writ moves on.’”

- Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., "Beyond Vietnam," address delivered to the Clergy and Laymen Concerned about Vietnam, at Riverside Church, New York, NY, 4 April 1967. You can hear an audio recording of the entire speech here.

As Barack Obama said at the Jefferson-Jackson dinner,

“I am running in this race because of what Dr. King called ‘the fierce urgency of now.’ Because I believe there is such a thing as being too late – and that hour is almost upon us. America, our moment is now.”

This is the time, and you are the key.

It’s About You

Not only is this the time, but you are the one to make a difference. This is the chance to change the conversation – to take back our country from the special interest groups. This is our chance to win, but it is up to us.

If you want to understand your role in healing our nation, watch this video. Here is Barack Obama on February 11, 2007, in his own words, telling us what it is that he is trying to do. He says:

“I want to win, but I don’t just want to win. I want to transform this country. And the only way we are going to do this is if YOU make this a vehicle for your hopes and dreams.”

“Ultimately, the country changes when millions of people come together and their voices speak out on behalf of change.”

“When ordinary citizens are awakened, they accomplish extraordinary things.”

Do you get it? This race isn’t about Barack Obama. This race is about us – We the People. This is our chance to rise up and to be heard. The time is now, the place is here and the person to make a difference is you.

None Dare Call it Torture

There’s a story told about President Abraham Lincoln. A group of citizens came to him early in his presidency, before the start of the civil war, and tried to get him to sign the Emancipation Proclamation. Lincoln listened politely, and then posed a question to his visitors. “If you call a dog’s tail a leg, then how many legs would a dog have?” The group answered “Five.” “No,” replied Lincoln. “A dog has four legs. Calling a tail a leg does not make it a leg.”

If George W. Bush would have been president in 1861, he might have gotten his Attorney General to redefine the word slavery as “executions specifically with guillotines.” Then he would have said to the citizens, “This government does not enslave people. There are highly trained professionals holding these extremists and terrorists. We don’t practice slavery. There is no slavery. Slavery is not in our nature.” Bush would have called a tail a leg and pretended everything was alright.

A 2002 Justice Department memo said that torture only occurs when the prisoner experiences “pain associated with organ failure or death.” With this broad definition, anything that did not kill the prisoner was not torture. Though in 2004, the Justice Department posted a note on its web site that “Torture is abhorrent both to American law and values," in 2005 they approved the very techniques they had just declared to be abhorrent.

On October 3rd, a New York Times article revealed that in 2005 the Justice Department released an opinion that gave “an expansive endorsement of the harshest interrogation techniques ever used by the Central Intelligence Agency.” Around the same time that Congress passed a law affirming that cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of prisoners was illegal; the Justice Department was redefining the terms by issuing blanket statements that none of the CIA’s techniques were cruel, inhuman or degrading.

By the stroke of the pen, the Bush administration changed the definition of torture. They authorized head-slapping, water-boarding, sleep deprivation, and exposing people to frigid temperatures. In the mind of President Bush, if he says torture is not torture, then America does not practice torture.

This is not the only time that the Bush Administration has redefined words to suit its purposes.

• For example, the Bush Administration does not want to say they send people to other countries to be tortured, so it’s called “extraordinary rendition.” Whether we do the torturing or we outsource torturing to others, it’s still torture.
  
• If the Bush Administration wants to strip a human being of his or her rights, they call them an “enemy combatant.” This is a made-up term that avoids affording the person the rights of a US prisoner or a prisoner-of-war. By creating a new set of words for people, the Bush Administration feels they can justify any treatment of human beings.
  
• According to the Bush Administration, by placing a person at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba the person is not on US territory, and yet he or she is not on the territory of any other nation. Where are they, the moon? The Bush Administration would like to make you think that these people have been taken off of the planet, but that is not true. People in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, a US military installation, are on US property. The CIA also operates “black sites,” prisons where US laws supposedly do not apply. The theory that US laws do not apply is not true, no matter how the Bush Administration would like to define the terms.
  
• The Bush Administration has a habit of using “signing statements.” When the president signs a bill into law, if he decides that the law does not apply to him, he simply attaches a signing statement that says so. This is a clear violation of the separation of powers.
  
• The law said that the Bush Administration had to get a court order from the FISA court to spy on Americans. The Bush Administration decided that the law did not apply to them, so they spied on us anyway. Worse yet, Congress passed a temporary bill changing the law that Bush had broken, retroactively making the illegal act of spying on Americans legal.
  
• And all of this is protected by a claim of “state secrets,” a claim that was just supported by the right-wing friendly Supreme Court.

I am reminded of the comment of Special Counsel for the Army Joseph N. Welch to Senator Joseph McCarthy. “Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?” I am horrified by the brazen behavior of the Bush Administration and the seeming lack of public outcry. Have we no sense of decency?

If no one else will expose the indecency of the Bush Administration, then it’s up to us, the people. Here are three actions you can take today.

1. Join Amnesty International’s effort 86 Days to restore civility and the rule of law. October 17th marks the first year anniversary of the Military Commissions Act. There will be events held around the country starting on October 17th and culminating on January 11th, the anniversary of the first detainee held at Guantánamo Bay, 86 days later.
   
2. Flood the phones in Congress in support of the FISA Modernization Bill.
   
3. Press the presidential candidates to come out clearly in opposition to the use of torture – and be sure to make them define their terms!

Together we can make a difference. When others do not dare to do so, we will call torture just what it is: torture.

Do You Know Joe?

Do you know the name Jose Padilla? You might think, “Wasn’t he caught trying to set off a dirty bomb?” or maybe, “Wasn’t he fighting in Afghanistan?” I’m afraid you’d be wrong on both counts, though it’s easy to see how you would be confused with all of the misinformation that has been spread by the Bush Administration. Despite the fact that his name is mentioned regularly on the national news, you might have lost him in all of the terror-related news since September 11, 2001. Let me help you to get caught up.

Jose Padilla is a citizen of the United States. He was born in Brooklyn, NY and lived in Chicago. In 2002 Jose traveled to the Middle East. Upon his return on May 8, 2002 he was arrested on a warrant as a “material witness” to the September 11th attacks. No connection was ever made to September 11th, only a vague material witness allegation. On June 9th, President Bush arbitrarily declared Jose Padilla to be an “enemy combatant.” The effect of this designation was to take Jose out of the criminal system while not affording him the rights provided under the Geneva Conventions. Jose Padilla, a US citizen was cast into a legal no-man’s land.

Before we go on with this story, I want to pause just to make sure you get what I just said. Jose Padilla was arrested in Chicago, not on some far off battle field fighting American forces. He has not been tried on any charge. He was simply declared by one person in the US, President Bush, to be an “enemy combatant,” and just like that, all of his rights went away. Upon President Bush’s order, Jose Padilla was taken away from his family and his attorney and sent to a Navy brig in South Carolina. The scary thing is, this could happen to you or me.

In June, 2002 the Bush Administration made sweeping allegations about Jose Padilla’s intention to set off a dirty bomb in the US. An attorney, Donna Newman took up his case. Despite dogged opposition from the Bush Administration, the Supreme Court agreed to hear Jose’s case in November, 2005, three and a half years after his capture. Two days before the case was to go to the Supreme Court, the Bush Administration decided to drop the military charges and instead file charges in criminal court alleging that Jose had “conspired to murder, kidnap and maim people overseas.” Nowhere in the charges did the Bush Administration allege a plot to blow up a dirty bomb or to commit any other criminal act in the US.

Jose’s day in court is scheduled for April 16, 2007, almost four years after his initial capture. In the mean time, his lawyers allege that he has been tortured to the point where he cannot assist in his own defense. According to recent testimony in his competency trial it was revealed that Jose was kept in sensory depravation for years. His windows were blacked out and the one light in his cell could only be activated by his jailers. He had no clock or visibility to the outside. When Jose was moved outside of his 8’ x 8’ cell, heavy goggles and headphones were placed on him to keep him in sensory deprivation. At other times he was subjected to intense lights and pulsating sounds. According to reports, Jose Padilla was kept under these conditions for 1,307 days. His interrogators covered their name badges when they questioned him for hours on end. This information has just begun to trickle in. More revelations could be forthcoming.

Jose Padilla was only able to find his way out of this hell because he had the power of habeas corpus, the right to have his day in court. Last year the Republican-led Congress stripped all enemy combatants of their habeas corpus rights in a bill called the Military Commissions Act of 2006. This Act and the general treatment of “enemy combatants” have brought on the scorn of the UN high commissioner for human rights.

Today, Jose Padilla has been found competent to stand trial. However, the judge also commented that she may conduct another hearing into torture allegations, and so the revelations will continue. What is being uncovered in this trial is not a mad bomber about to explode a dirty bomb. Instead the trial is revealing a rogue US administration violating international laws with flagrant disregard. If this is the democracy that the Bush Administration wants to export, I don’t blame the world for being frightened. We could all suffer the fate of a US citizen named Jose.

You’re Only as Sick as Your Secrets

Alcoholics Anonymous has a saying - You’re only as sick as your secrets. Over the past six years the Bush Administration has exploited it’s authority by using “state’s secrets,” in order to cover its abuse of power in the name of the so-called “war on terror.” Two examples of the use of the government secrecy to shield its actions can be seen in the warrantless NSA spying program and in the act of “extraordinary rendition.”

If you want a primer on the Bush Administrations’ inconceivable use of secrecy, simply look at the case of Oregon charity, al-Haramain Islamic Foundation. This case is related to the NSA’s illegal warrantless spying program. Click here for my mid-2006 analysis of the constitutionality and legality of the NSA warrantless spying program.

A recent New York Times/International Herald Tribune article provides surreal examples of government secrecy. For example, one government lawyer declined to divulge whether he had a particular security clearance, saying information about the clearance was classified. Other revelations from this article include:

• Judges have to make an appointment to review the government’s filing in the case and then cannot keep a copy. Lawyers for the plaintiffs cannot see the government’s filings at all. I’m no lawyer, but I would imagine it difficult to mount a counter-offence to a document that you cannot view.
  
• Judges have been told to use only Justice Department computers to write their decisions. The Justice Department asked to inspect and delete files from the computers on which lawyers for the plaintiffs had prepared their legal filings.
  
• The Justice Department has filed legal papers, not with the court but by placing them in a room at the Department of Justice. As the article says, “They have filed papers, in other words, with themselves.”

Despite the Bush Administration’s concerted efforts to keep the details of warrantless domestic surveillance secret, details are leaking out. Because of pressure from the public and the newly-elected Democratic majority in Congress, the Justice Department has begrudgingly “allowed” judges from the FISA court to review the NSA warrantless spying program (which they have been legally required to do all along). They also have decided to allow select members of Congress to view documents related to the program. Public pressure and Congressional oversight is slowly shedding light on the secret NSA Spying program.

A second example of how the US uses States Secrets to cover up its misdeeds is in the area of “extraordinary rendition,” the practice of capturing private citizens off of the street and sending them off to a country such as Syria or Egypt to be tortured. Two names that you may already be familiar with are Khaled el-Masri and Maher Arar. El-Masri is a German citizen, who was on his way to family vacation when he was picked up in Macedonia in December, 2003. He was beaten, stripped naked, and drugged. He was then flown to a CIA interrogation center in Afghanistan where he continued to be beaten and interrogated. Despite overwhelming evidence of his innocence, the CIA continued to hold El-Masri until May, 2005, at which time they released him without charge, without apology and without comment. When El-Masri tried to sue the US, the Bush Administration claimed “states secrets” and asked for the case to be dismissed. The case was thrown out on May 16, 2006.

Similarly, Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen was picked up in the United States in September, 2002. The US Government sent Arar to Syria where he was routinely tortured until his release in October, 2003. Again, the US government was sued and again, the Bush Administration appealed to the courts using the argument of State’s Secrets. In February 2006, a judge ruled in favor of the Bush Administration, saying that rendition of Arar was a matter of national security.

Both of these would be very sad cases indeed if they were allowed to remain shrouded in the secrecy of the Bush Administration. However, moves from the Democrats in Congress are promising to shed light on the dark secrets of the extraordinary rendition program. Senator Patrick Leahy, the new Democratic chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has insisted that US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales share all documentation on the rendition of Arar.

Outside of the US, the pressure continues to mount over the Bush Administrations’ extraordinary rendition program. In Canada, the Prime Minister has issued a formal apology to Maher Arar. The Canadian government has also agreed to pay Arar $8.9 million. This increases the pressure on the US government to come clean in it’s involvement in the Arar case in particular and in extraordinary rendition in general. In Germany, prosecutors have issued arrest warrants for 13 CIA agents involved in the rendition of El-Masri. In another case, in Italy, a Judge is deciding whether to put 26 CIA agents on trial for the 2003 rendition of Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr. Nasr, who is also known as Abu Omar, was taken from Milan, Italy to Egypt where he was tortured and beaten. Once again, the power of public opinion is working to shed light on the cover of darkness required for the Bush Administration to carry on its unconstitutional and illegal activities.

There’s another saying about secrets – If you name the secret, you get its power. For the last six years the Bush Administration has held all of the power in the NSA spying and the practice of extraordinary rendition. Now we citizens have a chance to take back the power. Transparency in government is a cornerstone of our democracy. Without transparency, we are not citizens of a democracy but are instead prisoners in a totalitarian state. It is up to us, the citizens of the United States to insist on transparency in government. It is vital to our freedom that we demand the truth on warrantless spying and on extraordinary rendition. Only by demanding the truth can we heal the sickness of the Bush Administration’s secrets.

Four Questons For John Edwards

As a blogger I was lucky enough to be invited to sit in an intimate setting with John and Elizabeth Edwards and ask them some questions. I've uploaded a video of four questions I asked John Edwards along with his answers.

See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XN-Iiumg-3o

The issues we asked about included

1. What should we do about the detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba?
   
2. Would you make the US a States Party of the International Criminal Court?
   
3. Would you sign the Kyoto Protocol, dealing with the causes of global warming?
   
4. Should there be parity between mental and physical health insurance?

Take a look at the video to see Senator Edwards’ responses.

Time Has a Strange Way

I’m lying in bed, wrestling with a persistent thought and trying to resist the urge to wake up. I can tell I’m fighting a losing battle. I crack open my eye to see the time…2:10 AM. When I went to bed I was so tired that I thought I would sleep for fourteen hours, but here I am, four short hours later – time is strange like that.

I slip quietly into the cool house, my feet shuffling on the wood floor. Note to self: locate slippers. The seasons have changed and winter has arrived. I stop by and pet the confused dog just to let him know that it’s OK to go back to sleep. I find my way to the kitchen and unconsciously fire up my laptop. Maybe I’ll knock out a few emails. My friends won’t be surprised to see the timestamp on the email. I’m not sleeping much these days. My Outlook calendar opens in front of me and I remember the thought that had forced me awake in the first place. December 10 is Human Rights Day.

Human Rights Day marks the anniversary of the United Nations General Assembly’s adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. That document serves as the cornerstone for the modern human rights movement, which has done so much to secure human freedom and dignity since World War II.

Wow. What a weird time in US history to celebrate human rights. Traditionally, Americans mark December 10 with joy, proud of their country’s role in promoting human rights around the world. Not today. U.S. policies in the “war on terror” - secret prisons and secret evidence, torture, indefinite detention without charge or trial – break our distinguished human rights legacy. Since 2001 US authorities have held detainees in secret CIA-run prisons with no access to families, lawyers or the International Committee for the Red Cross. The government passed and signed the Military Commission Act, contradicting international law and repealing the right of habeas corpus. They’ve sent suspects to be interrogated in countries with proven histories of torture.

What makes this time in history so tragic is how far the United States has fallen. In a different time, specifically in the aftermath of the Holocaust, America played a leading role to establish human rights for all. Eleanor Roosevelt actively led the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. This important document defines basic rights such as freedom from torture, the right to a fair trial and the right to education.

Today, the country urgently needs a change of course. The world urgently needs the United States government to restore its standing as a global leader on human rights. We could close Guantanamo, stop sending people to countries that torture and shut down secret CIA prisons. We should either charge and fairly try detainees, or release them. We could establish an independent commission to publicly investigate reports of abuse in U.S.-controlled detention centers. We could ensure that anyone responsible for detainee abuse is held to account, regardless of rank or stature.

Today, with a new Congress and a new mandate from the people, we have a chance to start anew. The America I believe in leads the world on human rights. Today, this Human Rights Day, we have a new time to start again. Fortunately for us, time has a strange way of changing things.