torture
Democracy Now! Thursday, August 11, 2011
On Monday, a federal appeals court refused to dismiss a lawsuit filed by two U.S. citizens against former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and unnamed others for developing, authorizing and using harsh interrogation techniques against detainees in Iraq. Donald Vance and Nathan Ertel were working for a private U.S. government contractor, Shield Group Security, in 2006 when they witnessed the sale of U.S. government weapons to Iraqi rebel groups for money and alcohol. Some 45,000 workers at Verizon have entered their fifth day on strike after negotiations between Verizon and two unions representing the workers broke down when the company attempted to cut health and pension benefits for workers and make it easier to fire workers. A new exposé on Haiti reveals how the United States led a vast international campaign to prevent former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide from returning to his country while he was exiled in South Africa. Democracy Now!, a daily independent newshour
Email this pageFSTV Newswire July 12th, 2011: CALL TO PROSECUTE BUSH FOR TORTURE & ANONYMOUS HITS US MILITARY CONTRACTOR
Human Rights Watch, a group based in New York, is calling on foreign governments to prosecute George W. Bush for war crimes. The group has accused the Bush administration of engaging in torture and other violations of international law. Anonymous, the international cyberactivist network, has completed one of its biggest hacking operations ever. The group announced the release of 90,000 military email logins that were obtained when the group hacked in to the database of a Virginia based firm. Scientists on an algae farm in the Netherlands are working to advance biofuel technology.
GRITtv: Vince Warren: WikiLeaks Exposes Guantanamo Truth
"The real issue is who was actually at Guantanamo, how were they treated, and this revelation gives us another chance to look at that," says Vince Warren of the Center for Constitutional Rights, who joins Laura in studio to discuss the latest disclosures from WikiLeaks--nearly 800 files on the detainees at the infamous Guantanamo Bay detention facility. Though President Obama promised to close the prison when he was elected, it remains open and 172 people remain imprisoned there, Warren notes, and argues that this disclosure could be another opportunity to rethink that policy.
GRITtv: The F Word: Guantanamo Files Show Media Priorities
As I perused the latest WikiLeaks releases this morning, a retweet from their Twitter feed caught my eye: “Gitmo: Compare the first paragraph of these two stories about the same thing.” One was a link to the BBC and one was CNN. At the BBC, the title is “Wikileaks: Many at Guantanamo 'Not dangerous'” and the first graf points out that the US believed many were innocent or only low-level operatives. CNN's piece, by contrast, says that the released documents “reveal extraordinary details about the alleged terrorist activities of Al Qaeda operatives” at Gitmo. Distributed by Tubemogul.
GRITtv: Nancy Goldstein: Losing Sleep over Bradley Manning
Phone home, Mr. President. Laurence Tribe, the legendary constitutional law professor, is really ticked off with you. That should be some kind of wake up call. Because he was your constitutional law professor. One of the key backers of your 2008 presidential campaign. Even joined your justice department as a legal adviser in 2010—briefly. Distributed by Tubemogul.
GRITtv: Matthew Alexander: Interrogators and Accountability
As the news comes that Mubarak may be gone from Egypt, attention has turned to his newly appointed Vice President (and possibly soon President) Omar Suleiman. Suleiman came up through the ranks of Egypt's intelligence service, and Jane Mayer and others have pointed out his role in American rendition programs. Meanwhile at home, several former CIA officers involved in some of the most egregious human rights offenses of the "war on terror" have not only not faced charges--they've been promoted. To discuss this and more, we have former US Air Force interrogator and author of the new book Kill or Capture, Matthew Alexander.
GRITtv: Medea Benjamin: Learning from Cairo
"I had the feeling it might happen," says Medea Benjamin of CodePink of the ongoing revolution in Egypt. Recently back from Cairo, Medea has been traveling through Egypt to get to Gaza for a while, and she says that the feeling in that country was of too many people angry, frustrated, and willing to fight their government to go on another 30 years without fighting back.Medea joins Laura in studio to discuss her recent experience in Egypt, including nearly being arrested at gunpoint, and having had friends detained for hours by state security forces.
GRITtv: The F Word: Army Mental Health Care Failed Manning
The uprisings in Egypt have inspired all sorts of people, including Private Bradley Manning, the young man being held in solitary confinement in Quantico, accused of being the source for Wikileaks. Manning's friend David House, tweeted after visiting him this week, "Bradley's mood and mind soared" at the news from Egypt. Manning's mental health has been the subject of much debate, the putative explanation for his isolation and extreme treatment, but a new report on an Army investigation finds that a mental health specialist recommended Manning not be deployed to Iraq in the first place. Distributed by Tubemogul.
GRITtv: Philip Rizk: Everyday Egyptians Protesting in Cairo
"People are sick and tired of the way things have been for the past 30 years," says Philip Rizk, a blogger and filmmaker based in Cairo. In 2009, Philip was detained by state security after taking part in a protest in support of Gaza, and so has intimate awareness of the control and terror inflicted by the state on its people--who are only escalating, with a general strike called for today and a "Million March" for Tuesday. Despite reports on some media outlets of increasing chaos, Philip says he feels very safe in Cairo, and joins us via phone to tell us the latest from where he is.
GRITtv: Jane Hamsher: Detained for Supporting Manning
Monday night NBC reported that Quantico Brig Commander James Averhart had improperly classified alleged WikiLeaks source Bradley Manning as a “suicide risk” in order to punish him for refusing to follow orders. Already on Prevention of Injury watch, Manning's conditions were tightened further last week against the recommendations of psychiatrists. At the same time, officials admitted that they could find no connection between Manning and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. This Sunday, Jane Hamsher and David House, who has been Bradley Manning's only regular visitor at Quantico, were detained for several hours at the Marine Corps base while attempting to visit Manning and deliver a petition to the brig protesting his conditions. Jane joins us via Skype to discuss what happened, their ongoing fight to improve Manning's treatment. Distributed by Tubemogul.
