New Orleans: Prisoners Abandoned to Floodwaters

Posted on September 29, 2005 by billycuts

(New York, September 22, 2005)?As Hurricane Katrina began pounding New Orleans, the sheriff’s department abandoned hundreds of inmates imprisoned in the city?s jail, Human Rights Watch said today.

Inmates in Templeman III, one of several buildings in the Orleans Parish Prison compound, reported that as of Monday, August 29, there were no correctional officers in the building, which held more than 600 inmates. These inmates, including some who were locked in ground-floor cells, were not evacuated until Thursday, September 1, four days after flood waters in the jail had reached chest-level.

Human Rights Watch

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Government Defies an Order to Release Iraq Abuse Photos

Posted on July 28, 2005 by DrQuickbeam

“Lawyers for the Defense Department are refusing to cooperate with a federal judge’s order to release secret photographs and videotapes related to the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal.

[...] In early June, Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein of Federal District Court in Manhattan ordered the release of the additional photographs, part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union to determine the extent of abuse at American military prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan and at Guant?namo Bay, Cuba. Judge Hellerstein… rejected arguments from the government that releasing the photographs would violate the Geneva Conventions…”

CommonDreams

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Not a Pretty Picture

Posted on May 20, 2005 by billycuts

Zahraa Ali, four years old, lies in the burn unit of a Baghdad hospital. Her family was hit by an aerial bombing attack while driving. Her parents, 24-year-old brother, and nine-year-old sister died. Zahraa eventually died. Only her three-month-old sister survived.
photo: David Leeson/The Dallas Morning News

“History,” Hegel said, “is a slaughterhouse.” And war is how the slaughter is carried out.

If we believe that the present war in Iraq is just and necessary, why do we shrink from looking at the damage it wreaks? Why does the government that ordered the war and hails it as an instrument of good then ask us to respect those who died in the cause by not describing and depicting how they died? And why, in response, have newspapers gone along with Washington and grown timid about showing photos of the killing and maiming? What kind of honor does this bestow on those who are sent to fight in the nation’s name?

The Iraq war inspires these questions.

The government has blocked the press from soldiers’ funerals at Arlington National Cemetery. The government has prevented the press from taking pictures of the caskets that arrive day after day at the Dover Air Force Base military mortuary in Delaware, the world’s largest funeral home. And the government, by inferring that citizens who question its justifications for this war are disloyal Americans, has intimidated a compliant press from making full use of pictures of the dead and wounded. Also worth noting: President Bush’s latest rationale for the war is that he is trying to “spread democracy” through the world. He says these new democracies must have a “free press.” Yet he says all this while continuing to restrict and limit the American press. There’s a huge disconnect here.

The Village Voice

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Red Cross Issued Several Warnings to U.S. About Koran Desecration

Posted on May 20, 2005 by billycuts

The International Red Cross had received what it described as ‘credible’ reports about U.S. personnel at Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba treating the Koran with disrespect and raised the issue with the Pentagon several times according to a spokesman for the Red Cross.

The information was collected by the Red Cross when they visited the Guantanamo Bay prison facility in 2002 and 2003.

Elites TV

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Nike lists abuses at Asian factories

Posted on April 16, 2005 by billycuts

Nike, long the subject of sweatshop allegations, yesterday produced the most comprehensive picture yet of the 700 factories that produce its footwear and clothing, detailing admissions of abuses, including forced overtime and restricted access to water.

The company has published a 108-page report, available on its website, the first since it paid $1.5m to settle allegations that it had made false claims about how well its workers were treated.

Guardian Unlimited

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U.S. Soldiers Told to ?Beat the F**k Out of? Detainees

Posted on April 14, 2005 by billycuts

NEW YORK, Mar 31 (IPS) – The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is charging that U.S. Army documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that the mistreatment of detainees in Iraq was much more widespread than the government has admitted..

The advocacy group also accused the Army of failing to comply with a court order to release the documents and manipulating the media ?to minimise coverage and public access.?

The ACLU said the reason for the delay in delivering the more than 1,200 pages of documents was ?evident in the contents?, which include reports of brutal beatings, ?exercise until exhaustion? and sworn statements that soldiers were told to ?beat the f**k out of? detainees. One file cites evidence that military intelligence personnel in Iraq ?tortured? detainees held in their custody.

IPS News

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Videos Challenge Accounts of Convention Unrest

Posted on April 12, 2005 by billycuts

A sprawling body of visual evidence, made possible by inexpensive, lightweight cameras in the hands of private citizens, volunteer observers and the police themselves, has shifted the debate over precisely what happened on the streets during the week of the convention.

For [Dennis] Kyne and 400 others arrested that week, video recordings provided evidence that they had not committed a crime or that the charges against them could not be proved, according to defense lawyers and prosecutors….

Of the 1,670 cases that have run their full course, 91 percent ended with the charges dismissed or with a verdict of not guilty after trial.

NY Times via Nanovirus

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Same-sex marriage foes set broader agenda

Posted on April 7, 2005 by billycuts

Topeka ? Now that Kansas voters have changed the state constitution to prohibit same-sex marriage, what’s next?

The Rev. Terry Fox of Wichita, one of the primary supporters of the same-sex marriage ban, said Christians have been energized by the debate over same-sex marriage and they are eager to flex their political muscles.

“This has awakened the body of Christ,” Fox said.

LJ World

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The 91-Pound Acid Trip

Posted on March 25, 2005 by billycuts

Leonard Pickard
By Ryan Grim from Slate

On Nov. 25, 2003, a federal judge sentenced Leonard Pickard and Clyde Apperson to life and 30 years, respectively, for one count each of conspiracy to manufacture and distribute more than 10 grams of LSD and one count each of possession with the intent to distribute more than 10 grams of LSD. That afternoon, the Department of Justice and Drug Enforcement Administration celebrated the sentencing with a press release describing the bust in the case as the “Largest LSD Lab Seizure in DEA History.”

But how real is the 91-pound number? Based on my inquiries and official testimony, I’ve concluded that the drug operation the DEA broke up had less than a half-pound of LSD on hand, enough to make only 10 million hits of 20-microgram acid.

Slate

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NY Times: CIA Sent Suspected Terrorists to Other Countries

Posted on March 6, 2005 by billycuts

The New York Times says the CIA has sent more than 100 suspected terrorists to other countries for interrogation under a secret program authorized by the Bush administration.

Sunday’s edition of the newspaper quotes former and current government officials as saying the CIA has acted under a still-classified directive that President Bush signed within days of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The officials said the process, known as rendition, has been central in U.S. efforts to disrupt terrorism. Suspects have been sent to countries including Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.

The transfers have been criticized because some former prisoners alleged they were mistreated. An administration official told the paper the CIA takes care to ensure the prisoners are detained under humane conditions and not tortured.

VOA News

Pope Calls Gay Marriage Part of ‘Ideology of Evil’

Posted on March 1, 2005 by DrQuickbeam

ROME (Reuters) – Homosexual marriages are part of “a new ideology of evil” that is insidiously threatening society, Pope John Paul says in a new book published Tuesday.

In “Memory and Identity,” the Pope also calls abortion a “legal extermination” comparable to attempts to wipe out Jews and other groups in the 20th century.

He also reveals that he is convinced the Turkish gunman who shot him in 1981 did not act alone and suggests that the former Communist Bloc may have been behind the plot to kill him.

Yahoo News

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Genocide report expected on Sudan

Posted on January 25, 2005 by billycuts

A senior United States senator has called for sanctions to be imposed on the Sudan government if it does not disarm Arab militias in Darfur.

From BBC

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Posted on January 16, 2005 by matt

A German car salesman says that a year ago he was kidnapped in Europe, beaten and flown to a US-controlled jail in Afghanistan. Now the German government is collecting evidence to back up his story. James Meek hears Khaled el-Masri’s account of life in America’s secret offshore prison network

Guardian (UK)

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FBI Criticized Military Interrogation Methods at Guantanamo

Posted on December 8, 2004 by billycuts

Internal FBI memoranda made public on December 6, 2004 indicate that Bureau officials repeatedly criticized ?aggressive interrogation practices? being used by military personnel questioning enemy combatants at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

From Watching Justice

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U.S. OKs Evidence Gained Through Torture