Peace and Justice Post

The Raw Story, December 9, 2007

John Byrne
Published: Sunday December 9, 2007

Pelosi would later boot sole objector to program from chance to chair Intelligence Committee

Two senior Republicans and Democrats in Congress — including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — were briefing on the CIA’s program to use waterboarding on terror suspects in September 2002 and did not object, according to Sunday’s Washington Post.

In the long-ranging article, which seemingly takes the lawmakers and the Bush Administration to task by discussing the practice’s emergence in Nazi Germany and other totalitarian states, a Pelosi aide said the Speaker remembered discussion of “enhanced” interrogation techniques and “acknowledged that Pelosi did not raise objections at the time.”

Keep reading . . .

voltairenet.org

by Silvia Cattori

Omar Barghouti belongs to a new generation of Palestinians who never adhered to the solution of « Two States, Two peoples ». They are advocating, instead, the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) of Israel as well as a «secular, democratic state» solution, where Palestinians and Israelis would share equal rights, after historic injustices are redressed and the refugees are allowed to return.

Continued . . .

RINF.com, December 10, 2007

One of the countries that has been most frequently used by the CIA for torturing detainees is Jordan, a key US ally in the Middle East.

By Joe Kay

The revelation that the CIA organized the destruction of videotapes documenting the interrogation of prisoners at secret CIA detention facilities abroad has focused attention on one aspect of the US torture program. Another important component is the policy of “extraordinary rendition”—the transfer of prisoners to the control of other countries that specialize in torture.

One of the countries that has been most frequently used by the CIA in this way is Jordan, a key US ally in the Middle East. An article in the Washington Post published on Saturday (“Jordan’s Spy Agency: Holding Cell for the CIA” by Craig Whitlock) documents the close relationship that has developed over the past seven years.

Keep reading . . .

Salon.com, December 9, 2007

The Washington Post reports today that the Bush administration, beginning in 2002, repeatedly briefed leading Congressional Democrats on the Senate and House Intelligence Committees — including, at various times, Jay Rockefeller, Nancy Pelosi, and Jane Harman — regarding the CIA’s “enhanced interrogation methods,” including details about waterboarding and other torture measures. With one exception (Harman, who vaguely claims to have sent a letter to the CIA), these lawmakers not only failed to object to these policies, but affirmatively supported them.

This information was almost certainly leaked to the Post by intelligence officials who are highly irritated — understandably so — from watching the manipulative spectacle whereby these Democrats now prance around as outraged victims of policies to which they deliberately acquiesced, when they weren’t fully supporting them. Numerous liberal bloggers are already drawing the only conclusions that can be drawn, and expressing their outrage and horror at the Democratic Party leadership. Those sentiments are indisputably appropriate, and I just want to add a few more points to them.

Keep reading . . .

uruknet.info

Ramy Abdu, Popular Committee Against siege

About 60 years passed since our Palestinian catastrophe (Nakhba). Palestinian people have passed and tasted several sufferings and calamites, thus the Gaza strip which includes about 1.5 million peoples 75% from refuges, got a big share from these sufferings. By the start of the 2 nd Intifada in 2000, Israeli occupation violated all the taboos international conventions and tortured Palestinians severely. In the mean time, the harsh siege imposed on Gaza Strip continues for the seven months but with more cruelty. The siege hinder the freedom movement for people and goods into and out the Gaza Strip. Therefore, humanitarian situation severely deteriorated and the fragile Gaza economy die out. That economy was weak due to occupation procedures. Accordingly, the Gaza Strip turned to a big “Ghetto” All Gaza houses carry stories of pain and suffering! Basically, Gaza Strip depends on importing goods through the occupied territories that under Israeli occupation control. Since the start of this siege, occupation prevented raw materials into the Gaza strip as well as banding exporting Palestinian home made goods! Additionally, unemployment rates reached sharp level of 70% percent. Therefore, Gaza civilians became not able to secure their basic human needs beside the sharp decrees of income which reached less than $650 yearly per capita. Until this moment, Occupation failed in subjugating Gazans. Thus occupation is seeking all methods and means to reach this subjugation. Keep reading . . .

Dissident Voice, December 8, 2007

By Mike Whitney

A nation’s economic system is a reflection pool. The face that looks back from the water is the face of the culture and the prevailing ethos. It’s no different with America. The stewards of the US economic system — Paulson and Bernanke — are inextricably linked to a political/military establishment which has been thoroughly marinated in a culture of violence and corruption. Paulson’s “Marshall Plan” for subprime homeowners is just the gloved hand of the autocrat. The other hand is still busy gouging out eyes at Guantanamo, or clubbing foreign nationals at CIA black sites, or dropping incendiary bombs on schoolchildren in Falluja. It’s all the same. The culture of war and demagoguery has its roots in the economic system. Its financial leaders are just as culpable as any low-ranking GI at Abu Ghraib.

Keep reading . . . 

Opednews.com

By Alan Miller

December 4, 2007 – Eight former senior Republican administration appointees have severely criticized the official account of 9/11 and several have called for a new investigation. “I find the facts against the official story of the [WTC] buildings’ collapse more compelling than the case that has been made in behalf of the official story. I would like to see the issue debated by independent scientists and engineers,” wrote Paul Craig Roberts, PhD, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury under President Ronald Reagan. “A real investigation is needed to find an explanation consistent with the evidence, even if it doesn’t reassure the public,” said Dr. Roberts [1], frequently referred to as the “Father of Reagonomics.”

Paul Craig Roberts, PhD

“Over the past six years, the ranks of distinguished skeptics of the 9-11 storyline have grown enormously. The ranks include distinguished scientists, engineers and architects, intelligence officers, air traffic controllers, military officers and generals, including the former commanding general of U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command, former presidential appointees and members of the White House staff in Republican administrations, Top Gun fighter pilots and career airline pilots who say that the flying attributed to the 9-11 hijackers is beyond the skills of America’s best pilots, and foreign dignitaries.” [2]

Dr. Roberts currently serves as Chairman of the Institute for Political Economy and Research Fellow at the Independent Institute. Previously he was the William E. Simon Chair in Political Economy, at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Georgetown University. He also served as a Senior Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and as Associate Editor of The Wall Street Journal.

Keep reading . . .

The Sunday Times, December 9, 2007

By Sarah Baxter

The CIA has been accused of covering up the torture of two top Al-Qaeda terror suspects after it emerged that White House and justice department officials and senior congressmen warned it against destroying hundreds of hours of videotape of the interrogations in 2003.

The tapes were destroyed in November 2005, the month in which The Washington Post exposed the CIA’s imprisonment of suspected terrorists at “black sites”. Last night the justice department and the CIA’s internal watchdog launched an investigation.

The tapes show the interrogations of Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, who are now held in Guantanamo Bay. Zubaydah is believed to have been “waterboarded”, a technique that induces panic by simulating drowning, while al-Nashiri has complained that he was extensively tortured.

Harriet Miers, the White House counsel for President George W Bush, told CIA officials she opposed the destruction of the tapes, according to Bush administration sources. Porter Goss, who went on to become director of the CIA in 2004, also warned against their destruction when he was a senior congressman in charge of the House intelligence committee.

The destruction of the tapes occurred on Goss’s watch, but it appears he was not warned in advance by Jose Rodriguez, the head of the agency’s clandestine service. The existence of the tapes was kept secret from members of the September 11 commission, which had asked for all material relating to detainees.

Lee Hamilton, the co-chairman of the September 11 commission, said: “It certainly raises a suspicion of a cover-up, of activities they’re not proud of . . . activities they might even think are criminal.” The CIA had clearly obstructed the inquiry, Hamilton added.

Counterpunch, Weekend Edition, December 8/9, 2007

By Paul Craig Roberts

The recent disclosure that the latest National Intelligence Estimate concludes that Iran halted its nuclear weapon program several years ago, assuming Iran ever had such a program, has caused consternation among neoconservatives, right-wing Israeli government officials, and Bush regime ranks.

Members of the right-wing Israeli government have denounced the NIE finding as contrary to Israel’s interests. Former Bush regime official John Bolton accused America’s intelligence agencies with conspiring to discredit President Bush with politicized intelligence. According to Bolton, it is US intelligence agencies, not the neoconservatives, who have their “own agenda.” President Bush has promised to continue his threats against Iran regardless of the NIE finding.

The NIE finding puts Bush on the spot by bringing US intelligence up to speed with the International Atomic Energy Agency, whose director has repeatedly reported, as he did on December 4, that “the agency has no concrete evidence of an ongoing nuclear weapons program or undeclared nuclear facilities in Iran.”

Keep reading . . .

 The Independent, December 8, 2007

By Leonard Doyle in Washington

Senior US senators and congressmen are pressing for a criminal investigation of the CIA for obstruction of justice after it admitted destroying two videotapes showing apparently abusive interrogations of al-Qa’ida suspects in 2005.

The digital recordings apparently show a team of CIA agents subjecting Abu Zubayadh, the agency’s first detainee, and another suspect to abusive interrogation. The tapes were apparently destroyed because CIA officers feared prosecution for torture, which is a felony under US law.

“We haven’t seen anything like this since the 18-minute gap on the tapes of Richard Nixon,” said Senator Edward Kennedy who accused the CIA of “a cover-up.” He called on the Attorney General Michael Mukasey to investigate.

Congresswoman Jan Harman said that in early 2003, she had warned the CIA not to destroy any videotapes dealing with interrogation practices.

“To my knowledge, the Intelligence Committee was never informed that any videotapes had been destroyed,” Ms Harman, said.

Keep reading . . .