Lindsay Graham Peddles Gitmo Lies To Greta

Simply appearing on Fox News does not give someone the authority to blatantly lie (even though it happens all the time there) about the status of detainees at Guantanamo Bay. Yet Senator Lindsay Graham did just that when he spoke to Greta Van Susteren earlier today:



Graham may be trying to look tough for his constituents and fellow Republican kool-aid drinkers, but the status of the detainees is not as clear cut as he might hope for.

Rachel Maddow Goes Over Obama's Second Day

Just like the first day....oh, what a day it was:

Obama Publicly And Officially Signs The Order To Close Guantanamo

To those that oppose torture, remember that elections have consequences...and here is one o them:

And Now The Work Begins

Yesterday was a lot of fun, even if I did get the stomach flu sometime in the afternoon. The crowd in D.C. was incredible, the speeches and songs were inspiring (save for parts of Warren's invocation) and the day was filled with joy. From the time Obama went to have coffee with Bush to the last inaugural ball, it was truly a National Day of Renewal and Reconciliation. Now that the parties are over, it is time to get to work. Thankfully, President Obama already knows that and is doing a fair amount already.

So far:

He's halted the trials at Guantanamo Bay as to review the entire process and get ready to change it.

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel has put a halt to all of George Bush's last minute regulation changes.

The United States now helps other countries with birth control efforts again.

And it isn't even ten in the morning here on the East Coast. There is so much to be accomplished in the next four to eight years, but I am confident that we are well on our way to mending the damage done to our country by the Bush Presidency, and hopefully the Bush Sr. and Reagan Administrations as well. As long as we work alongside the President and push for a progressive mandate, the possibilities are endless.

Olbermann Catches O'Reilly's Contradiction On Guantanamo

Not that it is too hard to call bullshit on Bill O'Reilly, but Olbermann did just that on his show yesterday over remarks made about Guantanamo Bay. It's a tricky subject for Bill O....then again, so is pretty much every topic that he opens his mouth about.

On 60 Minutes, Obama Backs Up His Pledge To End America's Torture

One of the many topics covered in last night's interview, the question of torture and closing Guantanamo Bay is extremely important to Americans and the way we are seen as a nation around the world. Going after OBL is also pertinent, though in my opinion going after the root causes of that terrorist and all that wish harm on us is the key.

Finally Closing Guantanamo

For a while now, George Bush has claimed he wants to close Guantanamo Bay but like the possibility for anything positive happening under the worst President ever, nothing happened. On the campaign trail Barack Obama and other Democratic candidates promised to close the misbegotten facility where Bush suspended the laws of our democracy for those he and members of his Administration wanted to torture detainees without a fair trial. Republicans claimed that Obama was all words and no action, but when he becomes our 44th President, he'll have a plan of action waiting so that we can end the life of that miserable prison in Cuba.

From The Huffington Post:

Under plans being put together in Obama's camp, some detainees would be released and many others would be prosecuted in U.S. criminal courts.

A third group of detainees _ the ones whose cases are most entangled in highly classified information _ might have to go before a new court designed especially to handle sensitive national security cases, according to advisers and Democrats involved in the talks. Advisers participating directly in the planning spoke on condition of anonymity because the plans aren't final.

The move would be a sharp deviation from the Bush administration, which established military tribunals to prosecute detainees at the Navy base in Cuba and strongly opposes bringing prisoners to the United States. Obama's Republican challenger, John McCain, had also pledged to close Guantanamo. But McCain opposed criminal trials, saying the Bush administration's tribunals should continue on U.S. soil.

The plan being developed by Obama's team has been championed by legal scholars from both political parties. But it is almost certain to face opposition from Republicans who oppose bringing terrorism suspects to the U.S. and from Democrats who oppose creating a new court system with fewer rights for detainees.

President-Elect Obama realizes the importance of closing the prison. Not only does it help those wrongly detained without access to our justice system, it is a stain upon our nation and can be seen throughout the world. The beacon of freedom, democracy and the rule of law that we once were before George Bush can be restored, and Barack Obama is the man to do it. The remaining Republicans in Congress and the Senate may try to oppose it, but the best remember many of them will be up for re-election in just two years' time.

Detainees Still Guilty After Proven Innocent

Our nation has gone from endorsing the "innocent until proven guilty" motto to a more authoritarian "We'll imprison whoever the f*ck we want," especially so under the Bush Administration. If the Bushies don't give a rat's ass about the rule of law for their own crimes, why should it apply to the innocent that they just happen to not like (or those that they like to keep around as convenient boogeymen). Of course, they have a bullshit argument for keeping those proven innocent in jail.

From RawStory:

Some detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba will likely never be released because of the danger they pose, and those tried and acquitted will still be subject to continued detention as enemy combatants, a Pentagon spokesman said Tuesday.

Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary, made the remarks as Salim Hamdan, a Yemeni, awaited a verdict in the first war crimes trial to be held under a special regime created for "war on terror" suspects.

Morrell said Hamdan, a former driver of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, could appeal the verdict in US courts.

"But in the near term, at least, we would consider him an enemy combatant and still a danger and would likely still be detained for some period of time thereafter," he said.

Morrell said there were plans for at least 20 more such trials at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba but he said a significant portion of the detainees being held there would neither be tried nor released.

Ah, how comforting does that make you feel? Basically the Pentagon (vis a vis the Bush Administration) is trying to set the precedent that they can detain anyone for whatever reason and not try them, shattering the laws our framers wrote for the Constitution. The only danger here is the fact that with the government we have now, Americans can kiss their liberties and rights goodbye.

Rep. Hasting Catches "White-washing" At Guantanamo

Whenever a Congressman, Senator or investigative agency heads down to Guantanamo Bay, they are looking for what most clear-thinking people assume is going on there. Yet when the big names go to inspect the jails, the prisoners and what they are eating, everything looks great. Prisoners are getting great health care, five-star dining and nothing looks like there could be torture going on...but there's a reason for it, and Rep. Alcee Hastings caught the prison officials red-handed.

From ThinkProgress:

Yesterday, the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe held a hearing regarding the future of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility. During the hearing, Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL) recounted his experiences visiting the detention center. Hastings, who arrived at the facility “two hours early one day” during his visit, said he witnessed Guantanamo staffers “whitewashing the walls” in anticipation of the arrival of the other members of congress:

I know that they had washed it that day. Cleaned it up. And the prisoners were eating the best meal that they had gotten in a week. And I could go on and on and on and on. I even remember I got there — I did so deliberately — two hours early one day. And they were still whitewashing the walls and what have you.

Hastings said he “wasn’t impressed” by the “dog and pony show.”

The dog and pony show down in Cuba is emblematic of the entire Bush Administration. Not only does George Bush use smoke and mirrors to get the American people to believe him (or at least they used to) but the Congress and anyone else he and his Administration thinks needs a heavy sheet of wool to be pulled over their eyes. Everyone knows what goes on in that prison is not legit. Thank you Congressman Hastings for refusing to believe their BS...and for going the distance to uncover it first-hand.

The "Interrogation" Of 15 Yr Old Omar Khadr

This is what your government does in your name:



This was five years ago, imagine what they've done down there since.

George Bush Is Guilty Of War Crimes

Yes that is correct, George Bush was found guilty of war crimes. Unfortunately it was determined by the Red Cross and not the Hague, Congress or any facet of our justice system that could physically detain him. If only the Red Cross had the power to do that, how much better the world would be. Nevertheless, it is the first time a major, well-respected world body has done this and has hard evidence to back it up.

From RawStory:

The Red Cross determined the culpability of the Bush administration after interviewing prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, according to the article.

Prisoner Abu Zubaydahwho said he had been waterboarded, "slammed against the walls" and confined in boxes "so small he said he had to double up his limbs in the fetal position."

The information comes from a new book written by Jane Meyer, who has frequently published articles concerning counter-terrorism in The New Yorker.

The book is titled "The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals," and will be released next week.

Mayer cited "sources familiar with the report" to explain the confidential document as a warning "that the abuse constituted war crimes, placing the highest officials in the U.S. government in jeopardy of being prosecuted."

So we have damning proof that George Bush is a war criminal, yet he remains free to destroy the planet as he pleases. Our democracy is truly falling apart before our eyes, and all Congress does is drag it's feet and stall when a few brave souls speak out and try to act for the sake of us all. Not only will George Bush's name go down in infamy (that happened a long time ago) but those in the legislative branch that enabled his nefarious ways.

Brownback Does Flips For McCain

The former Presidential candidate and now Vice-Presidential hopeful is playing politics with his constituents because ultimately, pleasing John McCain comes before the Kansans he represents. Yesterday he was passionately against moving the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay to Ft. Leavenworth, perhaps to uphold the sanctity of Jayhawks or something along those lines. But because McCain is for the same thing, Brownback dutifully performs for the Republican nominee.

From ThinkProgress:

Yesterday, the Center for American Progress released a report advocating closing Guantanamo and relocating remaining detainees to the “Supermax” prison in Colorado or to the U.S. Military Detention Barracks at Ft. Leavenworth, KS.

Soon after, Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS) sent out a press release attacking the report, calling it “misleading and inaccurate.” “Fort Leavenworth has neither the space nor the security arrangements to handle detainees from Guantanamo Bay,” he said, criticizing advocates of this position:

I am disappointed that policy makers and analysts continue to talk about Fort Leavenworth as a place to house detainees without visiting the facility. In person visits will confirm why the Disciplinary Barracks do not meet the security requirements necessary to perform this mission, even if Guantanamo Bay were to close.

But an outspoken advocate of relocating Guantanamo detainees to Ft. Leavenworth is Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). In his statement, Brownback — who says he would be “honored” to be McCain’s vice president — left out any mention of McCain’s stance on the issue. McCain, in fact, has long supported relocating all Gitmo detainees to Ft. Leavenworth:

– Q: How would you fight the War on Terror differently than it’s being fought now?
McCAIN: I would probably announce the closing of Guantanamo Bay. I would move those detainees to Fort Leavenworth. I would announce we will not torture anyone. [4/29/07]

– McCAIN: I would immediately close Guantanamo Bay, move all the prisoners to Fort Leavenworth and truly expedite the judicial proceedings in their cases. [3/18/07]

But after McCain made these statements, Brownback’s office did not level similar attacks at him. In April, Brownback wrote an op-ed titled, “Don’t put detainees at Ft. Leavenworth” criticizing an article stating Ft. Leavenworth “could work” for detainees. “If the goal is improving America’s security, Ft. Leavenworth is not the solution,” he said. Not surprisingly, Brownback didn’t mention McCain in that op-ed either.

Nothing about this is surprising. Senator Brownback, along with John McCain have no principles to their names except for making sure they try and stay in office, in power and do whatever they can to obtain more power. Covering for McCain on this issue might not get him a spot on the ticket, but it definitely counts as brownie points for Senator Sam.

The Case Of Mohammad Ahktiar And The Failure Of Our Gov't

Before McClatchy Newspapers investigated the case of Mohammad Ahktiar, barely anyone knew his name in the American or even international public. Ahktiar has been imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay for years now and for no good reason other than that terrorist groups passed false information to the United States. He has been attacked in prison for helping the Afghan government, not fighting it, U.S. forces or anyone of the kind.

From McClatchy:

GARDEZ, Afghanistan — The militants crept up behind Mohammed Akhtiar as he squatted at the spigot to wash his hands before evening prayers at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.

They shouted "Allahu Akbar" — God is great — as one of them hefted a metal mop squeezer into the air, slammed it into Akhtiar's head and sent thick streams of blood running down his face.

Akhtiar was among the more than 770 terrorism suspects imprisoned at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. They are the men the Bush administration described as "the worst of the worst."

But Akhtiar was no terrorist. American troops had dragged him out of his Afghanistan home in 2003 and held him in Guantanamo for three years in the belief that he was an insurgent involved in rocket attacks on U.S. forces. The Islamic radicals in Guantanamo's Camp Four who hissed "infidel" and spat at Akhtiar, however, knew something his captors didn't: The U.S. government had the wrong guy.

The worst thing is that they knew Ahktiar and many others were wrongly imprisoned and did nothing to help them with their situation. On top of that troops beat the prisoners often and without regard for presumed guilt or innocence. The Bush Administration helped to form this culture of snatching up people who were completely innocent or had little intelligence value. Instead of trying to make things right and send the wrongly accused back home to their families, secrets and lies were added to the mix from the lowly prison guards all the way on up to the President himself.

The whole article is a damning account of what has and does go on at Guantanamo Bay. McClatchy has been investigating the prison for months and has interviewed dozens. Check their site for continuing stories on Guantanamo throughout the week.

Supreme Court Takes A Step Towards Restoring The Constitution

It truly is an amazing time in our country where it took a 5-4 decision to rule the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 unconstitutional. This Act from the last Republican Congress was a smack in the face to the tenets of our democracy, that everyone get a fair trial within the United States. Of course Republicans argued then as did the four dissenters on the Court today (Chief Justice Roberts, Alito, Thomas and Scalia) that Guantanamo Bay isn't technically the United States. Thankfully the other five justices had warm hearts and clearly-thinking heads when they came down with the decision.

From The Huffington Post:

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that foreign terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay have rights under the Constitution to challenge their detention in U.S. civilian courts.

The justices handed the Bush administration its third setback at the high court since 2004 over its treatment of prisoners who are being held indefinitely and without charges at the U.S. naval base in Cuba. The vote was 5-4, with the court's liberal justices in the majority.

Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the court, said, "The laws and Constitution are designed to survive, and remain in force, in extraordinary times."

The extraordinary time is that George Bush is in power, not so much the fact that the United States has enemies that aren't nation-states. We were fighting pirates in the late 1700s off the Barbary Coast and have repelled other threats since then. September 11th does not give Bush the right to strip our Constitution and allow unequal rights to detainees merely because they are not taken to one of the fifty states. We have had Guantanamo in our possession for over 100 years without interruption and in the minds of the five justices (and most Americans) that counts as being under the jurisdiction of the United States.

Pentagon Tells Interrogators To Shred Evidence

While President Bush and his minions have constantly told us that the United States does not torture, many of us know better. The international community certainly knows better. The Bush Administration should know better, but chooses to torture those they capture anyway. Now we have news that the Pentagon told its interrogators to destroy evidence of what exactly they did with their prisoners.

From The Huffington Post:

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — The Pentagon urged interrogators at Guantanamo Bay to destroy handwritten notes in case they were called to testify about potentially harsh treatment of detainees, a military defense lawyer said Sunday.

The lawyer for Toronto-born Omar Khadr, Lt. Cmdr. William Kuebler, said the instructions were included in an operations manual shown to him by prosecutors and suggest the U.S. deliberately thwarted evidence that could help terror suspects defend themselves at trial.

Kuebler said the apparent destruction of evidence prevents him from challenging the reliability of any alleged confessions. He said he will use the document to seek a dismissal of charges against Khadr.

Now I am all for prosecuting those that do harm against our soldiers and our country, but torturing them or those that are alleged to have done harm is highly unnecessary. It has already been proven over and over again that it doesn't work. Not only is it ineffective, but the practice goes against human decency and was outlawed by the Geneva Conventions (something Bush has no regard for). If there was evidence covered up, it shows that the Pentagon is fully aware of their actions and the consequences if definitive proof surfaced about their policy on torture.

Pentagon Propaganda Machine Caught In The Act

Most of what the Pentagon says to the press is propaganda, but sometimes its hard to tell when they are just trying to be boastful or purposefully deceitful. The Pentagon Propaganda story has been deliberatively hidden by the traditional media and for good reason (because they played along and are culpable for bowing down for the Pentagon). Now via a special document dump, there is at least one email proving that something fishy is going on.

From ThinkProgress:

In a Feb. 16, 2006 email exchange, Pentagon media staffers discussed coordinating with the Heritage Foundation to identify someone to speak about detainee treatment at Gitmo. An anonymous employee suggested retired Army Sergeant Major Steve Short because “he seems to be on message and very articulate.”

Pentagon public affairs official Allison Barber responded by warning that the DoD could not officially “endorse” one particular speaker over another. “Important to remember that heritage can invite anyone to present and that we don’t really have an opinion on anyone,” Barber wrote.

The anonymous author then suggested he or she might lie and pretend not to have ever heard of Short:

Just two weeks after this email exchange — on March 1, 2006 — Short was invited by Heritage to participate on a panel entitled “GITMO: What You Read Vs. What You See.” And he was indeed “on message.”

Surely that is just a coincidence. Short wouldn't deliberatively lie to his faithful choir at the Heritage Foundation, would he? And there is no way that the press would follow their lead like a little puppy does its new friend that pours food into the kibble tray, right?

Sigh.

Even Fox News Helps Pile On Against Guantanamo

I generally cannot stand Shepard Smith and someone that argues to keep the torture facility in Cuba Guantanamo Bay open, especially this kook down below. Though I'm glad to see Fox giving people like Spencer Boyer of C.A.P. the opportunity to show the tards' who watch the channel some insight into what goes on down there and why it should be closed for good.

Happy Anniversary Guantanamo!

Isn't it amazing how we've stuck together after all of these years. All of the torture, dehumanization, stripping of habeus corpus and destroying the Constitution. It sure has been good times for the Bush Administration and their one and only Guantanamo Bay facility. In most loving relationships those around them seek to foster more good years to come, but I'd rather pledge for the two to be divorced immediately and commit Guantanamo so that no one gets hurt from this day forward.

In all seriousness, six years is far too long for the U.S. to condone torture and prohibit the due process of law for the detainees on our military base in Cuba. Six years ago today the military brought the first 20 men over and since then hundreds more to follow. Many of these detainees were sold to the military from Pakistan and local warlords to profit off of the "war on terror." Many have never even seen a court room, let alone the evidence that is supposedly holding them away from their families and their country.

Today, New Yorkers will be praying during the lunch hour down at Foley Square for this sad chapter of American history to come to an end. Across the country, from Maine to Hawaii, Americans are standing up and having their voices heard. Will George Bush listen? Of course not, but the candidates hear us and while some want to double or triple Guantanamo, thankfully all of the Democratic candidates pledge to shut down the facility along with some of the Republicans.

It'll be a great day when we won't have to commiserate over a seventh anniversary for these terrible two.

More Obstruction Of Justice From The White House

As we learn that one man in the White House has given up his appeal of being found guilty of obstruction of justice, another count can be levied against the White House. The last one was for uncovering the identity of undercover agent Valerie Plame. This one is for destroying evidence of torture, despite being told by a judge not to erase the tapes.

From The Huffington Post:

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration was under court order not to discard evidence of detainee torture and abuse months before the CIA destroyed videotapes that revealed some of its harshest interrogation tactics[...].

The CIA destroyed the tapes in November 2005. That June, U.S. District Judge Henry H. Kennedy Jr. had ordered the Bush administration to safeguard "all evidence and information regarding the torture, mistreatment, and abuse of detainees now at the United States Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay."

U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler issued a nearly identical order that July.

At the time, that seemed to cover all detainees in U.S. custody. But Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the terrorism suspects whose interrogations were videotaped and then destroyed, weren't at Guantanamo Bay. They were prisoners that existed off the books _ and apparently beyond the scope of the court's order.

Attorneys say that might not matter. David H. Remes, a lawyer for Yemeni citizen Mahmoad Abdah and others, asked Kennedy this week to schedule a hearing on the issue.

Though Remes acknowledged the tapes might not be covered by Kennedy's order, he said, "It is still unlawful for the government to destroy evidence, and it had every reason to believe that these interrogation records would be relevant to pending litigation concerning our client."

Now President Bush is claiming that he only heard about the matter last week. This proves yet again that George is either lying or cannot control his White House. I'm gonna go with the former on this, the President had to know what was going on. His track record for telling the truth is far too f%*ked up to believe him now. I'd believe that he quit drinking cold turkey for twenty years before I'd take his word on not torturing people.

Colin Powell Would Close Guantanamo This Afternoon

If Colin Powell had his way on the Sunday talk shows, Guantanamo Bay detention facility would have been shut down already. Of course he has absolutely no power at the moment so it doesn't do us much good. However it is nice to see one of the former insiders admit what a failure this Administration is.