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Jason Leopold is Deputy Managing Editor of Truthout.org and the founding editor of the online investigative news magazine The Public Record, http://www.pubrecord.org. He is the author of the National Bestseller, "News Junkie," a memoir. Visit www.newsjunkiebook.com for a preview. He is also a two-time winner of the Project Censored award, most recently, in 2007, for an investigative story related to Halliburton's work in Iran. He was recently named the recipient of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation's Thomas Jefferson Award for a series of stories he wrote that exposed how soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan have been pressured to accept fundamentalist Christianity.
Friday, January 7, 2011 Army's "Spiritual Fitness" Test Comes Under Fire (8 comments)
An experimental, Army mental-health, fitness initiative designed by the same psychologist whose work heavily influenced the psychological aspects of the Bush administration's torture program is under fire by civil rights groups and hundreds of active-duty soldiers. They say it unconstitutionally requires enlistees to believe in God or a "higher power" in order to be deemed "spiritually fit" to serve in the Army.
Thursday, December 2, 2010 Controversial Drug Given to All Guantanamo Detainees Akin to "Pharmacologic Waterboarding" (4 comments)
The government has refused to release Guantanamo detainees' medical records. The few medical records that have been released have been heavily redacted. An absolute prohibition against experiments on prisoners of war is contained in the Geneva Conventions, but President George W. Bush stripped war on terror detainees of those protections.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010 Special Prosecutor Declines to File Criminal Charges Over Destruction of CIA Torture Tapes
Nearly three years after he was appointed to investigate the destruction of at least 92 interrogation videotapes, a dozen of which showed two high-value detainees being subjected to various torture techniques by CIA interrogators, Special Prosecutor John Durham has determined that he does not have enough evidence to secure an indictment against anyone responsible for the purge.
Thursday, October 14, 2010 Wolfowitz Directive Gave Legal Cover to Detainee Experimentation Program
A former Pentagon official, who worked closely with the agency's ex-general counsel William Haynes, said the Wolfowitz directive provided legal cover for a top-secret Special Access Program at the Guantanamo Bay prison, which experimented on ways to glean information from unwilling subjects and to achieve "deception detection."
Wednesday, August 4, 2010 Confidential Report Blames BP Executive For Distress at Alyeska Pipeline
Alyeska Pipeline, the BP-led consortium that operates the 800-mile Trans Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS), has implemented deep budget cuts, deferred work on a number of important maintenance and upgrade projects threatening the integrity of the pipeline and is led by a chief executive who was described by the company's five vice presidents as "vulgar" and "inappropriate.
Friday, July 16, 2010 Author of Torture Memos Admits Some Techniques Were Not Approved By DOJ (1 comments)
Bybee's statements to the committee appeared to be an attempt to shift the blame for some illegal torturing onto the CIA. "If the CIA departed from anything that it told us here, if it had any other information that it didn't share with us or if it came into any information that would differ from what they told us here, then the CIA did not have an opinion from OLC," Bybee said.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010 Dangerous Cost Cuts at Alyeska Pipeline: "Yet Another Example of How BP Runs Things"
It's no coincidence that Alyeska has been accused of taking similar risks with TAPS and lashing out at employees who speak up. BP is the largest shareholder of Alyeska and Hostler is a BP executive "on loan" to the company. BP exerts significant control and influence over the way Alyeska is operated, senior BP and Alyeska officials said.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010 EXCLUSIVE: Documents, Employees Reveal BP's Alaska Oilfield Plagued By Major Safety Issues
Nearly 5,000 miles from the oil-spill catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico, BP and its culture of cost-cutting are contributing to another environmental mess. According to internal BP documents obtained by Truthout, and after interviewing more than a dozen employees over the past month, the Prudhoe Bay oil field, in a remote corner of North America on Alaska's north shore, is in danger.
Monday, June 7, 2010 Human Experimentation at the Heart of Bush Administration's Torture Program (1 comments)
The report said the research and experimentation of detainees its authors have documented is not only a violation of the Geneva Conventions, but is a grave breach of international laws, such as the Nuremberg Code, established after atrocities committed by Nazis were exposed in the aftermath of World War II.
Saturday, June 5, 2010 Israeli Naval Forces Seize Gaza Bound Aid Ship, "Rachel Corrie" (1 comments)
Much of Israel's claims about the events that lead up to the raid aboard the Mavi Marmara and the circumstances behind the deaths of the activists have been wholly discredited. Rep. Dennis Kucinich has called for an independent investigation of the incident.
Friday, May 28, 2010 Ex-EPA Officials: Why Isn't BP Under Criminal Investigation? (5 comments)
"BP is a convicted serial environmental criminal," West said. "So, where are the criminal investigators? The well head is a crime scene and yet the potential criminals are in charge of that crime scene. Have we learned nothing from this company's past behavior?"
Wednesday, May 19, 2010 How Bush's DOJ Killed a Criminal Probe Into BP That Threatened to Net Top Officials (2 comments)
Mention the name of the corporation BP to Scott West and two words immediately come to mind: Beyond Prosecution. West was the special agent in charge with the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) criminal division who had been probing alleged crimes committed by BP and the company's senior officials in connection with a March 2006 pipeline rupture at the company's Prudhoe Bay operations in Alaska's North Slope.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010 BP Flouted US Safety Rules
The oil conglomerate is also facing serious charges from the Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) that it "willfully" failed to implement safety measures at its Texas City refinery, the third largest in the country, following an explosion that killed 15 employees and injured 170 others five years ago.
Friday, April 30, 2010 Whistleblower: BP Risks More Massive Catastrophes in Gulf (8 comments)
The issues related to the repeated spills in Prudhoe Bay and elsewhere were revealed by more than 100 whistleblowers who, since as far back as 1999, said the company failed to take seriously their warnings about shoddy safety practices and instead retaliated against whistleblowers who registered complaints with their superiors.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010 Zubaydah's Torture, Detention Subject of Senate Intelligence Inquiry
The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence has launched an investigation into the torture and detention of Abu Zubaydah, the "high-value" detainee captured in March 2002 that the Bush administration wrongly claimed was one of the planners of 9/11 and a top al-Qaeda operative.
Thursday, April 1, 2010 US Recants Zubaydah's Terror Charges (1 comments)
The Justice Department has quietly recanted nearly every major claim the Bush administration made about Abu Zubaydah, the alleged al-Qaeda leader who was the first suspected terrorist subjected to the torture of waterboarding and other White House-approved "enhanced interrogation techniques."
Monday, March 29, 2010 Torture Diaries, Drawings and the Special Prosecutor (2 comments)
Zubaydah was one of two high-value detainees whose interrogations between April and August of 2002 were captured on 90 videotapes that the CIA destroyed in November 2005 as public attention began focusing on allegations that the Bush administration had subjected "war on terror" prisoners to brutal interrogations that crossed the line into torture.
Saturday, March 13, 2010 Final Health Care Bill Vote Due As Early As Next Week (2 comments)
On Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid formally notified Sen. Mitch McConnell that he he will use the budgetary process of reconciliation to try to pass a final round of changes to the health care bill in the Senate with a simple majority and avoid a Republican-led filibuster.
Friday, February 26, 2010 National Archives, Watchdog Demand DOJ Probe Destruction of John Yoo's Emails
most of "Yoo's email records" as well as "Philbin's email records from July 2002 through August 5, 2002 - the time period in which the Bybee Memo was completed and the Classified Bybee Memo ... was created" were deleted and "reportedly" not recoverable.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010 Cheney Admits to War Crimes, Media Yawns, Obama Turns the Other Cheek (8 comments)
The Times and Post did not report that Cheney's comments about waterboarding and his enthusiastic support of torturing detainees amounted to an admission of war crimes given that the president has publicly stated that waterboarding is torture.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010 Obama's Budget Calls for Billions in New Spending for Drones (1 comments)
the base spending plan for 2011 is 3.5 percent of gross domestic product. Adding in war costs, it comes out to 4.6 percent of GDP. Obama has called a three-year spending freeze on domestic programs, but the Defense Department is exempt from the proposal.
Saturday, December 12, 2009 Blistering Indictment Leveled Against Obama Over His Handling of Bush-Era War Crimes (12 comments)
"Obama has substituted words for action on issues surrounding torture since his first days in office nearly one year ago. That's the point the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) made shortly after Obama's acceptance Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech. Officials from the civil rights organization issued a withering indictment of the Obama administration's handling of clear-cut cases of Bush-era war crimes.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009 Obama's DOJ May Appeal Ruling Ordering Release of Cheney's CIA Leak Transcript (3 comments)
The Obama administration indicated in court papers it may appeal a federal judge's ruling ordering the Justice Department to release portions of the transcribed interview between former Vice President Dick Cheney and Patrick Fitzgerald, the special prosecutor appointed to probe the roles Bush administration officials played in the leak of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson six years ago.
Thursday, October 8, 2009 Spending Bill Includes Provision to Block Release of Abuse Photos (1 comments)
the Obama administration petitioned the US Supreme Court to hear the case at the same time the president privately told Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Connecticut) and Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) he would work with Congress to help get a measure passed aimed at blocking the photographs from being released.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009 Court Documents Reveal Existence of New Torture Tapes (1 comments)
A federal court judge on Monday revealed that the brutal interrogation of an alleged "war on terror" detainee imprisoned at Guantanamo for more than seven years was videotaped and she ordered the government to turn over the materials to the prisoner's lawyers.
Friday, September 11, 2009 High Court Urged to Reject White House Appeal to Keep Abuse Photos Secret (1 comments)
Obama indicated he would abide by the court's decision to release the photographs, but he abruptly shifted his stance after he was publicly criticized by the likes of Dick Cheney and Cheney's daughter, Liz.
Friday, August 14, 2009 Rove "Driving Force" Behind US Attorney Firings (3 comments)
Rove downplayed his role in the firings, saying he only acted as a "conduit" for complaints that Republican Party officials and GOP lawmakers sent to him about the federal prosecutors. The documents tell a different story.
Sunday, August 2, 2009 Holder Ponders Limited Torture Probe (8 comments)
By targeting just CIA interrogators who exceeded the torture guidelines, the Obama administration also would be shutting the door on new internal investigations that might reach higher levels - the Justice Department lawyers who established the parameters and the White House officials who encouraged the brutal tactics - including the near-drowning of waterboarding.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009 Obama Lawyers Shield Cheney on Leak
Though Judge Sullivan didn't issue a ruling in the case, he didn't appear swayed by the government's arguments. He said the Justice Department was, in effect, requesting that he "legislate" by issuing some sort of special Freedom of Information Act exemption for vice presidents.
Thursday, July 16, 2009 Bush May Have Continued to Secretly Operate John Poindexter's TIA Program
"Suspicionless Surveillance" was developed by the Pentagon's controversial Total Information Awareness department, led by Admiral John Poindexter, the former national security adviser who secretly sold weapons to Middle Eastern terrorists in 1980s during the Iran-Contra affair and was convicted of a felony for lying to Congress and destroying evidence. The convictions were later overturned on appeal.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009 NSA Turned Over Names of Americans Wiretapped to Ex-State Dept. Official (1 comments)
Hayden, who was interviewed by "Nightline," said it was absolutely untrue that the agency was monitoring Americans who are suspected of being agents of a foreign power without first seeking a special warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009 Top Democrat Says Bush Broke the Law By Authorizing Surveillance (5 comments)
George W. Bush justified his warrantless wiretapping by relying on Justice Department attorney John Yoo's theories of unlimited presidential wartime powers, and started the spying operation even before Yoo issued a formal opinion, a government investigation discovered.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009 NSA Gave Up Names of Americans Wiretapped to Ex-State Dept. Official (3 comments)
The names of American citizens that are blacked out can be revealed to government officials if they ask for them in writing and only if they're needed to help the official better understand the context of the intelligence information they were included in.
But that wasn't the case with Bolton or other government officials and agencies.
Sunday, July 12, 2009 Bush Spying Relied on Faulty Theories
After the inspectors generals' report was released Friday, Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Democratic chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, renewed his calls for a bipartisan "truth commission" to examine abuses of power during the Bush administration.
Saturday, July 11, 2009 How Rove Said He'd Answer Siegelman Prosecution Queries (1 comments)
Rove indicated during his Fox News interview that he doesn't intend to stray from the responses to questions he had already provided to Smith, which were clearly written to elicit denials from Rove about his involvement in Siegelman's prosecution.
Saturday, July 11, 2009 Yoo Gave Bush White House Retroactive Legal Cover to Spy on Americans (4 comments)
The President's Surveillance Program (PSP) was far more expansive than the Terrorist Surveillance Program (TSP), the report said, while the TSP allowed the NSA to spy on Americans' telephone calls without a warrant. The PSP went much further and remains classified and Yoo worked directly with White House officials on the PSP as he was the only official in the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel who was aware of progra
Friday, July 10, 2009 More Than $600 Billion And Counting: Iraq War Lies Revisited
Editor's Note: As the war in Iraq surpassed its sixth year, a common refrain from politicians who supported the invasion is "don't dwell on the past, think about the future." It is an argument that distracts Americans from the important lessons that this history can teach.
Friday, July 10, 2009 Ex-Senator Graham: Cheney, CIA Lied to Congress About Domestic Spying (8 comments)
The history of the CIA is replete with examples of agency officials obscuring key details when telling members of Congress about controversial programs. In the 1980s, CIA Director William Casey was famous for mumbling over such points and gruffly reacting when asked to repeat himself.
Thursday, July 9, 2009 How Rove Said He Would Answer Conyers's Siegelman Prosecution Queri (1 comments)
While the details of Karl Rove's eight-hour deposition Tuesday before the House Judiciary Committee regarding his role in the firings of nine U.S. Attorneys and the alleged political prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman remain unknown, Rove has provided insight into how he said he intended to answer the panel's questions in the Siegelman matter.
Friday, July 3, 2009 Bush-Cheney Linked to CIA Leak Case (4 comments)
..filing in a federal court case also makes clear that Cheney was at the center of White Housemachinations rebutting criticism from former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who charged in summer 2003 that the Bush administration had "twisted" intelligence to justify invading Iraq in March 2003. While seeking to discredit Wilson, administration officials disclosed to reporters that Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, worked for the CIA
Friday, July 3, 2009 Eager to Tap Iraq's Vast Oil Reserves, Industry Execs Suggested Invasion (2 comments)
Two years before the invasion of Iraq, oil executives and foreign policy advisers told the Bush administration that the United States would remain "a prisoner of its energy dilemma" as long as Saddam Hussein was in power.
Thursday, July 2, 2009 Watchdog Group Obtains More Documents In 'Missing' Bush-Era E-Mails Case
The government watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) released additional documents Thursday related to the organization's long-running lawsuit over the "disappearance" of as many as 15 million Bush administration e-mails.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009 Obama's Torture Hypocrisy (3 comments)
Taking office in January, Obama announced that his administration would not condone or practice torture, but he also opposed holding Bush administration officials accountable out of fear that his actions might be deemed vindictive.
Friday, June 26, 2009 Author Calls For DOJ's Ethics Watchdog to Probe Patrick Fitzgerald
An Emmy Award-winning journalist whose recent book sharply criticized U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald for failing to stop a key al-Qaeda figure during his tenure directing the elite bin Laden squad, filed a complaint with the DOJ's ethics watchdog requesting an investigation into Fitzgerald for allegedly using government resources to try and kill the publication of the book.
Friday, June 19, 2009 Secret CIA File Tests Obama's Pledge (1 comments)
President Barack Obama's promise of a more open government faces a new test this week as his administration weighs whether to release details of a May 2004 internal CIA report about the agency's use of torture, including how at least three detainees were killed in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009 Yoo, Bybee Rendition Memo Drafted Specifically For Zubaydah's Torture (1 comments)
Orange County Register interview: "I wish they weren't doing it, but I understand why they are," Yoo told the OC Register in response to a question about Jarrett's probe. "It is something one would expect. You have to make these kinds of decisions in an unprecedented kind of war with legal questions we've never had to think about before. We didn't seek out those questions. 9/11 kind of thrust them on us.
Thursday, June 11, 2009 Why Obama is Fighting to Keep the Detainee Abuse Photographs Secret (8 comments)
By trying to block the release of photographs depicting US soldiers abusing detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan, President Obama is essentially killing any meaningful chance of opening the door to an investigation or independent inquiry of senior Pentagon officials who were responsible for implementing the policies that directly led to the abuses captured in the images.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009 The CIA's Shifting Reasons For Withholding Documents in the Torture Tapes Case
"It is extremely difficult for any outsider to make his mark within a bureaucracy as parochial and insular as the one at CIA," said Goodman, who spent more than two decades at the agency. "Panetta, unfortunately, has tried to ingratiate himself with the negative elements. Panetta's first mistake was to keep in place all of the holdovers from the era of George Tenet and Porter Goss, who were responsible for a coverup culture
Monday, June 8, 2009 Newly Released E-Mails Reveal Cheney Pressured DOJ to Approve Torture (3 comments)
Dick Cheney and his lawyer, David Addington, pressured the Justice Department in 2005 to quickly approve a torture memo that authorized CIA interrogators to use a combination of barbaric techniques during interrogations of "high-value" detainees, despite objections from senior officials in the Department of Justice, according to e-mails written by James Comey, the DOJ's former Deputy Attorney General.
Friday, June 5, 2009 Crisis at the VA as Benefits Claims Backlog Nearly Tops One Million (5 comments)
The VA's claims backlog, which includes all benefits claims and all appeals at the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) and the Board of Veterans Appeals at VA, was 803,000 on January 5, 2009. The backlog hit 915,000 on May 4, 2009, a staggering 14 percent increase in four months.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009 Red Cross Informed Powell About Torture (2 comments)
The International Committee of the Red Cross began an investigation of US war crimes in Iraq from the first days of the invasion, interviewing Iraqi captives from March to November 2003. Powell is quoted as saying, "we are confident of our legal position, but we also know the world is watching us."
Tuesday, June 2, 2009 Powell Told U.S. Tortured Detainees, But He Failed to Act (2 comments)
On Jan. 15, 2004, ICRC president Jakob Kellenberger expressed his concern to Secretary of State Colin Powell about the Bush administration's attitude regarding international law. The next month, February 2004, the ICRC gave Bush administration officials a confidential report which found that U.S. occupation forces in Iraq often arrested Iraqis without good reason and subjected them to abuse and humiliation....
Monday, June 1, 2009 Crisis at the VA as Benefits Claims Backlog Nearly Tops One Million (2 comments)
In January and February, for the first time in military history, the number of battlefield suicides was higher than the number of combat deaths in the war zones, according to the Pentagon. Last year, 140 U.S. soldiers committed suicide, a record high, and during the first four months of 2009, 64 U.S. soldiers have committed suicide.
Saturday, May 30, 2009 Taguba Said He Saw Video of Male Soldier Sodomizing Female Detainee (1 comments)
In April, the Obama administration had agreed to release the photos because the Justice Department said it did not believe it could convince the Supreme Court to review the case. In court papers filed Thursday, the Justice Department indicated that it now intends to appeal the case to the Supreme Court.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009 Claims Graham Briefed About Domestic Spying in 2001 and 2002 Also Bogus (5 comments)
Graham said he was not told about the torture techniques used that the CIA claimed it had briefed him and Sen. Shelby on, echoing the statements he made back in 2005 about being kept in the dark regarding the domestic surveillance program.
The document also alleged that Pelosi was given a full accounting of the torture program during in 2002 and 2003. But Pelosi said last week she was mislead by the CIA about waterboarding
Saturday, May 16, 2009 Obama Pressured Into Withholding Prisoner Abuse Photos (2 comments)
In reversing an earlier commitment to release photos of U.S. soldiers abusing prisoners, President Barack Obama succumbed to a propaganda barrage unleashed by former Bush administration officials, their congressional allies, the right-wing news media and holdovers who retain key jobs under Obama.
Saturday, May 16, 2009 Ex-CIA Official: Agency Brass Lied to Congress About Interrogations (1 comments)
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who had been the ranking minority member of the House Intelligence Committee, vehemently denied that she was told the CIA planned on waterboarding detainees or intended to use other brutal techniques to try and extract information from "war on terror" prisoners."My colleague[Porter Goss], the chairman of the committee, has said 'if they say that it's legal you have to know they are going to use them
Saturday, May 16, 2009 EXCLUSIVE: Documents Describe Prisoner Abuse Photos Obama is Withholding (2 comments)
Obama said that his decision to withhold the photographs stemmed from his personal review of the photos and his concern that their release would endanger American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. But pressure from Bush administration holdovers, the media and two senators also played a role.
Friday, May 15, 2009 Cheney Intervened in CIA Inspector General's Torture Probe (1 comments)
Former Vice President Dick Cheney intervened in CIA Inspector General John Helgerson investigation into the agency's use of torture against alleged "high-value"- detainees, but the watchdog was still able to prepare a report that concluded the interrogation program violated some provisions of the International Convention Against Torture.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009 Army's Prescription to Combat Solider Suicides: Christianity (3 comments)
A recent edition of the U.S. Army's suicide prevention manual advises military chaplains to promote "religiosity,"- specifically Christianity, as a way to deter distraught soldiers from committing suicide, which in recent months, according to one veterans advocacy group, has reached epidemic proportions
Saturday, May 9, 2009 Ex-Sen. Domenici Under Increased Scrutiny in US Attorney Firings Probe
It appears that former New Mexico Sen. Pete Domenici has come under increased scrutiny over his role in the politically motivated firing of the state's former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias.
Saturday, May 9, 2009 CIA Refuses to Turn Over Torture Tape Documents to ACLU (1 comments)
Amrit Singh, an ACLU staff attorney, said the move is "a classic CIA delay tactic." In court papers, she said the government is using the criminal investigation "as a pretext for indefinitely postponing" its obligation to produce documents related to the destruction of the videotapes.
Thursday, May 7, 2009 DOJ Report Reaches "Damning" Conclusions for Bybee and Yoo (6 comments)
Bush's line of defense could collapse if it were determined that the lawyers were colluding with administration officials in setting policy, rather than providing objective legal analysis. Already, extensive evidence exists, including Yoo's own writings, showing that he participated in high-level administration meetings to discuss and set policy.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009 Top CIA Officials Were Given Daily Torture Updates of Zubaydah
CIA interrogators provided top agency officials in Langley with daily "torture" updates of Abu Zubaydah, the alleged "high-level" terrorist detainee who was held at a secret "black site" prison and waterboarded 83 times in August 2002, according to newly released court documents obtained by The Public Record.
Saturday, May 2, 2009 How a Health Benefits Law Formed the Basis For the 'Torture Memo'
Yoo's legal opinions virtually gave President Bush unilateral authority to launch preemptive military strikes against any regime suspected of having ties to terrorist groups, provided Bush with the power to begin a covert domestic surveillance program, and authorized the president to allow CIA agents to interrogate alleged terrorist detainees using brutal methods of interrogation as long as it didn't result in death or maiming
Friday, May 1, 2009 Senate Panel's Report Links Detainees' Murders to Bush's Torture Policy (6 comments)
A combination of "enhanced interrogation" techniques approved by high-level Bush administration officials coupled with a series of brutal beatings administered by military interrogators were directly responsible for the December 2002 deaths of two detainees at Bagram airbase in Afghanistan, according to a report released last week by the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009 Conyers, Nadler Formally Request DOJ Appoint Torture Special Prosecutor (5 comments)
House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers and Rep Jerrold Nadler, (D-NY), formally requested that Attorney General Eric Holder appoint a special prosecutor to probe and, "where appropriate, prosecute," Bush administration officials responsible for the torture of detainees at Guantanamo Bay prison and Iraq.
Thursday, civil liberties groups presented Holder with a petition signed by 250,000 people demanding he appoint
Monday, April 27, 2009 Reagan's DOJ Prosecuted Texas Sheriff for Waterboarding Prisoners (3 comments)
George W. Bush's Justice Department said subjecting a person to the near drowning of waterboarding was not a crime and didn't even cause pain, but Ronald Reagan's Justice Department thought otherwise, prosecuting a Texas sheriff and three deputies for using the practice to get confessions.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009 CIA Watchdog Report Says Detainees Died During Interrogations (14 comments)
Last week, after the four "torture" memos were released, Attorney General Eric Holder said he told the CIA that the federal government would provide legal representation "to any employee, at no cost to the employee, in any state or federal judicial or administrative proceeding brought against the employee based on such conduct and would take measures to respond to any proceeding initiated against the employee.
Saturday, April 18, 2009 What Did Democrats Really Know About Bush's Torture Program? (5 comments)
What does the silence on the question of accountability among a large majority of Democrats mean? It begs the question: were Democrats aware of the CIA's "enhanced interrogation" program and are refusing to call for a wide-ranging probe because they approved of the torture?
Friday, April 17, 2009 Bush's Hypocrisy on War Crimes (29 comments)
In March 2003, after Iraqi troops captured several U.S. soldiers and let them be interviewed on Iraqi TV, senior Bush administration officials expressed outrage over this violation of the Geneva Convention.
Monday, April 13, 2009 CIA Videos Predated Bush Legal Memo
The ACLU is suing the CIA to release documents related to 92 interrogation videotapes that were destroyed by the CIA in 2005 as public attention began focusing on allegations that the Bush administration had subjected "war on terror" detainees to brutal interrogations that crossed the line into torture.
Thursday, April 9, 2009 Doug Feith: "I Was a Major Player" in Bush's Torture Policies (2 comments)
Last weekend, Spain's investigating magistrate Baltasar Garzon, who issued an arrest warrant for former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet in 1998, ordered prosecutors to investigate Feith and five other senior Bush administration officials for sanctioning torture at the prison facility.
Thursday, April 9, 2009 Bush's CIA Suspected of More Torture
The publication of the ICRC's report led to renewed demands by human rights and civil liberties organizations that Attorney General Eric Holder appoint a special prosecutor with the mandate to launch a criminal inquiry.
"It's imperative that the Justice Department appoint an independent prosecutor to conduct a criminal investigation,"- said Jameel Jaffer, Director of the ACLU National Security Project.
Sunday, April 5, 2009 'Torture Memo' May Finally Go Public (2 comments)
In the first months of the Obama administration, release of the interrogation memos has been the subject of a fierce bureaucratic battle, with former CIA Director Michael Hayden reportedly incensed over their possible disclosure and Attorney General Eric Holder arguing for their declassification.
Thursday, April 2, 2009 Leahy Faults GOP Partisanship on Bush (2 comments)
The Leahy staffer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that if the truth commission does not come to fruition, that doesn't mean there wouldn't be oversight into the Bush administration's policies through "more traditional means," such as congressional hearings
Wednesday, April 1, 2009 Bush Aides Changed Watchdog Report (3 comments)
Last weekend, it was disclosed that Spanish investigative judge Baltasar Garzon had taken initial steps for launching a criminal probe of torture that was allegedly made possible by the work of six former Bush administration officials, including Yoo, Bybee and Addington as well as former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
Garzon, whose court is famous for dealing with high-profile terrorism and torture cases...
Tuesday, March 31, 2009 Democrats Duck Bush Torture Probe (3 comments)
Despite now overwhelming evidence that ex-President George W. Bush and many top aides engaged in a systematic policy of illegal torture, national Democrats appear to be shying away from their recommendation last year for a special prosecutor to investigate these apparent war crimes.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009 Bush's 'Lawyer-Shopping' for Torture
In 2005, after pushing out the Justice Department lawyer who had overturned President George W. Bush's claimed authority to abuse "war on terror"- prisoners, his administration reinstated key elements of the memos granting Bush virtually unlimited powers over the detainees, according to a list of still-secret documents.
I obtained the list of legal memos about Bush's "enhanced interrogation techniques"- from the ACLU,
Saturday, March 21, 2009 CIA Has 3,000 Docs on Torture Tapes (2 comments)
The Justice Department's restrictive handling of the 3,000 documents comes one day after Attorney General Holder issued sweeping new Freedom of Information guidelines for all Executive Branch agencies to "apply a presumption of openness when administering the FOIA."
"The American people have the right to information about their government's activities, and these new guidelines will ensure they are able to obtain information.
Friday, March 20, 2009 Torture Memo Author John Yoo Blames Ruined Reputation on "Hippies, Protesters and Left-wing Activists" (19 comments)
According to people familiar with the OPR report, Yoo was briefed on the report in January. Yoo is said to have informed officials at the University of California at Berkeley, where he is a tenured law professor, according to two senior law school officials. He took a leave of absence in January to teach foreign relations law at Chapman.
Friday, March 20, 2009 CIA Reveals it Has E-Mails, Transcripts Related to Videotaped Torture of Prisoners (1 comments)
The Justice Department disclosed in a letter late Friday that the CIA has about 3,000 documents, including e-mails, transcripts and cables to officials in Washington, related to the videotaped interrogations of alleged "high-value" prisoners that the agency destroyed.
Thursday, March 19, 2009 Marine Capt. Tyler E. Boudreau Puts a Human Face on War (2 comments)
If Tyler Boudreau's brutally honest, devastatingly accurate, hard-hitting memoir, Packing Inferno: The Unmaking of a Marine, were read by the powers that be in Washington, D.C. and by the journalists assigned to cover both military conflicts, there is absolutely no way in hell the plight of our nation's veterans would take a backseat to the issues currently dominating the evening news coverage.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 Bush Administration Engaged in a Conscious Policy of Torture (5 comments)
As more pieces of a very ugly mosaic fall into place including new details from a confidential 2007 report by the International Committee of the Red Cross about interrogations at CIA "black sites" any remaining doubt that the Bush administration engaged in a conscious policy of torture is disappearing.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009 CIA Confirms 12 of 92 Videotapes Destroyed Showed Prisoners Tortured (1 comments)
Less than a month after the meeting, on August 1, 2002, Yoo drafted a memo to Gonzales that was signed by Jay Bybee, the assistant attorney general in charge of the Office of Legal Counsel. That memo declared that President Bush had the legal authority to allow CIA interrogators to employ harsh tactics to extract information from detainees.
Friday, March 6, 2009 Rendition Memo Drafted Days Before Prisoner Sent to Thailand and Tortured (5 comments)
Two weeks before U.S. intelligence agents captured a "high-value" terrorist detainee in Pakistan in March 2002 and whisked him off to a "black site" prison in Thailand where he was allegedly tortured, the Department of Justice prepared a legal memorandum for George W. Bush stating he could ignore a law that prohibited the transfer of prisoners to countries that engage in torture.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009 John Yoo: Legal Memos Not Intended For 'Public Consumption' (8 comments)
John Yoo doesn't have any regrets about the controversial legal opinions he wrote for the White House--many of which were later withdrawn and repudiated--that gave former President George W. Bush unfettered and unchecked power in the aftermath of 9/11.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009 CIA Destroyed More Torture Videos (10 comments)
Dassin's letter said some information sought by the ACLU may be classified or "protected from disclosure, such as the names of the CIA employees who viewed the videotapes."
Dassin said the CIA "intends to produce all of the information requested to the court and to produce as much information as possible on the public record to the plaintiffs."
Thursday, February 26, 2009 Pelosi Disagrees With Immunity Proposal for 'Truth Commission' Witnesses (15 comments)
In an interview with Rachel Maddow on her MSNBC program Wednesday, Pelosi called Leahy's investigative plan "a good idea," but objected to immunity that could prevent prosecutors from holding Bush administration officials accountable for crimes in a court of law.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009 Leahy, Pelosi Differ on Bush Probe (13 comments)
Over the next few weeks, several critical documents about the Bush administration's torture practices are expected to be released. Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, is set to make public a voluminous, declassified report about the U.S. military's role in harsh interrogations. In an interview with Rachel Maddow on her MSNBC program Wednesday, Pelosi called Leahy's investigative plan "a good idea
Tuesday, February 24, 2009 Yoo's Memos Gave Retroactive Cover (1 comments)
As more becomes known about the genesis of those OLC opinions, the evidence increasingly points to a different reality, that Bush and his top aides essentially worked with Yoo and the OLC to fix the legal opinions around their desired policy, even to justify actions that had already occurred. The report is now being reviewed by Barack Obama's Attorney General Eric Holder, who may not accept some of the report's conclusions
Thursday, February 19, 2009 Bush Attorney, DOJ in Intense Talks Over Rove's Congressional Testimony (8 comments)
DoJ and White House lawyers are engaged in intense negotiations with attorneys for George W. Bush and three of his former advisers over demands that they testify before Congress and turn over documents about their alleged roles in the firings of nine U.S. Attorneys in 2006, according to court papers filed Thursday, lawmakers who serve on the House Judiciary Committee, and the House Counsel.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009 Obama Seeks Deal on Bush Privilege
"These tripartite discussions have been complicated and time-consuming," the Justice Department said in its court motion. "The requested 14-day extension is appropriate to permit these negotiations an opportunity to succeed, potentially obviating the need for this Court to address the sensitive separation-of-powers questions presented in this appeal."
Sunday, February 15, 2009 Torture Report Erodes Bush's Defense (3 comments)
A key line in George W. Bush's defense against war crimes charges has weakened with the disclosure that an internal Justice Department watchdog has concluded that the legal advice, which cleared the way for Bush's policies on torture and other abuse of detainees, was tainted by political influence.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009 Newly Declassified DOD Documents Reveal Detainees Tortured To Death (17 comments)
Newly declassified Defense Department documents describe a pattern of "abusive" behavior by U.S. military interrogators that directly led to the deaths of several suspected terrorists imprisoned at a detention center in Afghanistan in December 2002.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009 Leahy Calls for Truth Commission (9 comments)
Leahy is expected to introduce a bill soon that would create his proposed truth commission. Last month, Leahy's counterpart in the House, Rep. John Conyers, sponsored similar legislation to create a blue-ribbon panel of outside experts to probe the "broad range" of policies pursued by the Bush administration "under claims of unreviewable war powers."
Monday, February 2, 2009 More Pressure for Bush Torture Probe (4 comments)
"We need to follow this thing into those dense weeds and shine a bright light into what was done,"- Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-Rhode Island, said in a speech at Brown University on Saturday. "We can paper it over if we choose, but the blueprint is still lying there for others to do it all over again. It's important that we not let this moment pass."
