General Granted Latitude At Prison (washingtonpost.com): "Abu Ghraib Used Aggressive Tactics | By R. Jeffrey Smith and Josh White |Washington Post Staff Writers | Saturday, June 12, 2004; Page A01

Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, the senior U.S. military officer in Iraq, borrowed heavily from a list of high-pressure interrogation tactics used at the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and approved letting senior officials at a Baghdad jail use military dogs, temperature extremes, reversed sleep patterns, sensory deprivation, and diets of bread and water on detainees whenever they wished, according to newly obtained documents.

The U.S. policy, details of which have not been previously disclosed, was approved in early September, shortly after an Army general sent from Washington completed his inspection of the Abu Ghraib jail and then returned to brief Pentagon officials on his ideas for using military police there to help implement the new high-pressure methods.
- posted by Editor @ 8:09 AM

t r u t h o u t - Administration Lawyers Approved Torture: "Pentagon Report Set Framework For Use of Torture | By Jess Bravin | The Wall Street Journal | Monday 07 June 2004

Security or Legal Factors Could Trump Restrictions, Memo to Rumsfeld Argued.

Bush administration lawyers contended last year that the president wasn't bound by laws prohibiting torture and that government agents who might torture prisoners at his direction couldn't be prosecuted by the Justice Department.
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The report outlined U.S. laws and international treaties forbidding torture, and why those restrictions might be overcome by national-security considerations or legal technicalities. In a March 6, 2003, draft of the report reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, passages were deleted as was an attachment listing specific interrogation techniques and whether Mr. Rumsfeld himself or other officials must grant permission before they could be used. The complete draft document was classified "secret" by Mr. Rumsfeld and scheduled for declassification in 2013.

The draft report, which exceeds 100 pages, deals with a range of legal issues related to interrogations, offering definitions of the degree of pain or psychological manipulation that could be considered lawful. But at its core is an exceptional argument that because nothing is more important than "obtaining intelligence vital to the protection of untold thousands of American citizens," normal strictures on torture might not apply.

The president, despite domestic and international laws constraining the use of torture, has the authority as commander in chief to approve almost any physical or psychological actions during interrogation, up to and including torture, the report argued. Civilian or military personnel accused of torture or other war crimes have several potential defenses, including the "necessity" of using such methods to extract information to head off an attack, or "superior orders," sometimes known as the Nuremberg defense: namely that the accused was acting pursuant to an order and, as the Nuremberg tribunal put it, no "moral choice was in fact possible." ....


- posted by Editor @ 6:02 PM

Yahoo! News - Powell warns against 'bantustan' solution to Palestine problem:"Sun Jun 6, 2:08 PM ETAdd Politics - AFP to My Yahoo!

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) warned against what he described as a 'bantustan' solution of the Palestinian problem, insisting that the West Bank portion of a future Palestinian state should be contiguous.
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The secretary of state said the outline of a future Palestinian state came up during these talks, and the US president supported the idea of the West Bank's contiguity.

"He was making the point that you can't have a bunch of little bantustans or the whole West Bank chopped up into non-coherent, non-contiguous pieces and say this is an acceptable state," Powell said.

Bantustans were tribal states declared independent by the white minority government of South Africa during the 1970s in the hope of staving off the collapse of the apartheid system.
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Bush has said it was "unrealistic" to expect Israel to quit larger West Bank settlement blocs and that Palestinian refugees should not expect to return to homes lost when Israel was created in 1948.

The comment, made during a recent Sharon visit to Washington, has infuriated many Arab leaders, prompting charges of US complicity with Israel.
- posted by Editor @ 7:21 PM

Haaretz - Israel News: "06/06/2004 03:44 | Jewish communities planned to 'block Bedouin expansion' | By Zafrir Rinat, Haaretz Correspondent

The Housing Ministry is not waiting for the planned solutions for the Bedouin community in the Negev to be completed. It is advancing the establishment of Jewish settlements near the Bedouin communities to 'block' their 'expansion.'

Tens of thousands of Bedouin live in the Negev in dire conditions, in 45 villages that continue to grow. Unrecognized by the state, the villages are not connected to the national water and sewage systems, their garbage is not collected and they do they enjoy other community services.

The state and the Bedouin have not yet reached an agreement on solving the problems of the Bedouin community. Regardless of this, the ministerial committee for the development of the Negev and the Galilee decided some three months ago, at the instruction of Housing Minister Effi Eitam, to form a team to locate lands for new Jewish settlements in the region to block the Bedouin's expansion.
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The team checked 18 Negev sites for various "qualities," including their ability to block the expansion of the nearby Bedouin villages. For example, in the case of a settlement planned near the Bedouin village Beit Pelet, the team wrote, "It forms a settlement contiguity and prevents the expansion of the Bedouin community northward."
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"The process the Housing Ministry is advancing is illegitimate, because it is not based on planning considerations but on giving priority to Jewish citizens over Bedouin ones," she said.

"This is being done without considering the consequences, which will be increasing the gaps and alienation between Bedouin and Jews, and adding further injustice in the allocation of resources," she added.

- posted by Editor @ 6:21 PM

UN's Brahimi: Bremer the 'Dictator of Iraq' in Shaping Iraqi Government: "June 3, 2004 by Knight-Ridder by Tom Lasseter

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Lakhdar Brahimi, wrapping up his U.N. mission to bring an interim government to Iraq, looked a little tired and disheartened Wednesday as he said the compromise he negotiated was the best possible under American control.
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Asked how big a role the American administration had in forming the government and selecting the prime minister and president, Brahimi reminded reporters that American Ambassador L. Paul Bremer runs things in Iraq.

"Bremer is the dictator of Iraq," he said. "He has the money. He has the signature."


- posted by Editor @ 6:10 PM

TomPaine.com - Code Red (States): "Code Red (States) Ray McGovern | June 01, 2004

The Department of Homeland Security's Tom Ridge wasn't aware of the terrorist threat until he saw his colleague John Ashcroft announce it on national television. CIA veteran McGovern outlines the evidence suggesting Ashcroft's pronouncement was more motivated by politics than intelligence.

Ray McGovern was a CIA analyst for 27 years�from the John F. Kennedy administration to that of George H. W. Bush.

Last Wednesday, it was Attorney General John Ashcroft—joined Friday by me-too Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge—claiming that “credible intelligence from multiple sources indicates that Al Qaeda plans to attempt an attack on the United States” between now and the November election.

If “credible intelligence” sounds to you like protesting too much, there is ample reason to be skeptical. Overshadowing Ashcroft’s dramatic warning that Al Qaeda planned to “hit the United States hard” was the headline-grabbing, specific claim that “an Al Qaeda spokesman announced that 90 percent of the arrangements for an attack on the United States were complete.”

Had Ashcroft thought to check this out with the CIA—or even NBC—he would have learned that the “Al Qaeda spokesman” was actually “Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades”— a fact later conceded with some embarrassment by the FBI. According to a senior U.S. intelligence official, this “group” may consist of no more than one person with a fax machine. ...
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- posted by Editor @ 10:46 AM

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | US marines plead guilty to prisoner abuse: "Agencies | Thursday June 3, 2004

Two US marines have pleaded guilty to giving electric shocks to an Iraqi prisoner they were guarding at a temporary detention centre south of Baghdad, the US military announced today.
The torture occurred in early April inside the Al Mahmudiya prison, several months after the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison, military officials said.

Private first class Andrew J Sting and private first class Jeremiah J Trefney, both 19, entered their pleas at a May 14 court-martial in Iraq, according to a statement by the US 1st Marine Expeditionary Force in Iraq.

According to the statement, which was released today by a Marine spokesman, Sting, Trefney and two other Marines decided to shock a detainee in order to discipline him for throwing trash outside his cell and speaking loudly.

The Marines attached wires to a power converter, which was used to shock the detainee with 110 volts of electricity as he returned from a trip to the bathroom, the statement said. "
- posted by Editor @ 5:55 PM

The New York Times > Opinion > Iraq's Interim Government: "Published: June 2, 2004

For weeks, Washington encouraged the world to believe that the United Nations was putting together Iraq's new interim government. Instead, the most critical appointments were made by the outgoing Iraqi Governing Council, an American-appointed body heavy with exile politicians that has limited public support and a dismal record of nonperformance. That messy process will now become the interim government's first burden as it tries to set up elections for a legislature and constitutional assembly early next year.

The Bush administration was genuinely, if shortsightedly, delighted with last Friday's disappointing choice of Iyad Allawi, a longtime ally of the Central Intelligence Agency, for prime minister. It was far less pleased with yesterday's naming of Sheik Ghazi al-Yawar, recently a vocal critic of American occupation policies, for the ceremonial job of president. The United Nations envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi, had strongly favored other candidates for both jobs."
- posted by Editor @ 8:33 PM

The New York Times > Washington > Polygraph Testing Starts at Pentagon in Chalabi Inquiry: "By DAVID JOHNSTONand JAMES RISEN | Published: June 3, 2004

WASHINGTON, June 2 � Federal investigators have begun administering polygraph examinations to civilian employees at the Pentagon to determine who may have disclosed highly classified intelligence to Ahmad Chalabi, the Iraqi who authorities suspect turned the information over to Iran, government officials said Wednesday.
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Government officials say they started the investigation of Pentagon officials after learning that Mr. Chalabi had told the Baghdad station chief of Iran's intelligence service that the United States was reading their communications. Mr. Chalabi, American officials say, gave the information to the Iranians about six weeks ago, apparently because he wanted to ensure that his secret conversations with the Iranians were not revealed to the Americans.
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Richard N. Perle, the former chairman of the Defense Policy Board and an influential Chalabi supporter, said Wednesday that the notion that Mr. Chalabi would compromise the American code-breaking operation "doesn't pass the laugh test." ...
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In the 1990's, the Iraqi National Congress was part of a C.I.A. covert action program designed to undermine Saddam Hussein's rule. But Mr. Chalabi had a falling out with the C.I.A., and agency officials concluded that he was untrustworthy. He subsequently forged an alliance with major conservative Republicans in Washington. When President Bush took office, Mr. Chalabi and the Iraqi National Congress were embraced by senior policy makers at the Pentagon, which became his main point of contact in the American government. ...
- posted by Editor @ 8:28 PM

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Chalabi accused of spy codes tip-off to Iran: "FBI inquiry focuses on Pentagon officials as Iraqi National Congress leader denies warning Tehran that US was intercepting messages | Julian Borger in Washington | Thursday June 3, 2004 | The Guardian

Ahmad Chalabi, the embattled leader of the Iraqi National Congress (INC), was accused yesterday of tipping off Iran that the US had broken the codes used by its intelligence service and was eavesdropping on its communications.

The allegation, which has been denied by Mr Chalabi, was reported in the New York Times and Los Angeles Times, quoting unnamed US intelligence officials.

If confirmed, the leak would represent one of the most serious US intelligence breaches in recent years. Electronic eavesdropping and code-breaking is handled by America's most secret intelligence organisation, the national security agency (NSA).
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A regular monthly payment of roughly $340,000 (£185,000), which the Pentagon had been paying the INC for intelligence, was discontinued last month, and Iraqi police accompanied by American instructors raided Mr Chalabi's home and INC offices in Baghdad.
- posted by Editor @ 8:21 PM