Amen & Hallelujah

Habeus survives :

"To hold that the political branches may switch the Constitution on and off at will would lead to a regime in which they, not this Court, say "what the law is... Security subsists, too, in fidelity to freedom's first principles. Chief among these are freedom from arbitrary and unlawful restraint and the personal liberty that is secured by adherence to the separation of powers ... Within the Constitution's separation-of-powers structure, few exercises of judicial power are as legitimate or as necessary as the responsibility to hear challenges to the authority of the Executive to imprison a person."


NY TIMES link

update on military contractor abuses

Update on Previous Post:

I received this reply today from Senator Durbin:

April 25, 2008


Ms. L___Z____
_____

Dear Ms. Z___:

Thank you for contacting me regarding alleged sexual assaults by military contractors working in Iraq. I appreciate hearing from you and share your concerns.

Private military contractors, including roughly 180,000 in Iraq, are involved in U.S. military operations ranging from security and logistics to transportation and the feeding of our troops. As you know, there have been reports of sexual violence by some employees of these contractors. Other reckless behavior also has been reported, including military contractor involvement in a large number of civilian deaths and injuries.

In the course of the war in Iraq, it has been difficult to bring
contractors who may have committed crimes to trial. The laws that govern contractors are not clear, and they are not bound by the United States Military's Code of Conduct. If our military is to rely so heavily on private companies, a much more credible system of oversight must be put in place. The U.S. government must be able to hold accountable any military contractor who commits a sexual assault or any other brutal crime, no matter where it occurs.

I am a cosponsor of S. 674, the Transparency and Accountability in
Military and Security Contracting Act of 2007, which was introduced by Senator Barack Obama. This measure would make it easier to bring contractor employees to justice if they are involved in wrongdoing. It also would direct the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to issue rules of engagement regarding the use of force by contractor personnel and require the FBI to establish Theater Investigative Units to investigate allegations of misconduct by contractor personnel. In addition, the bill would require much stricter reporting about federal military and security contracts being performed in Iraq and Afghanistan,
and it would set standards for the hiring, training and equipping of
contractors.

The Transparency and Accountability in Military and Security Contracting Act has been referred to the Senate Armed Services
Committee. Although I am not a member of this committee, I will keep your thoughts in minds as steps are taken to bring this legislation to the floor of the Senate for a vote.

Thank you for taking the time to contact me. Please feel free to stay in touch.

Sincerely,


Richard J. Durbin
United States Senator

RJD/ds

Senate- torture approved?

Per an action request here, I sent this to members of the Senate's Select Committee on Intelligence:

Dear Senator:

President Bush has admitted to torture. Even more, he has admitted recently that his cabal has been involved in every detail of it. Nobody is shocked to the point of taking legislative action to remedy this? God help us! As a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, I believe you can still do something. Please, won't you?

According to a published letter from your colleague on this committee, Senator Chambliss, the committee has “thoroughly reviewed this program's history, continues to monitor the CIA's interrogation methods and has found it both legal and effective.” (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/4/14/104220/785/951/495347)

Since you know about the CIA torture program, do you personally approve of the United States engaging in acts of torture? If you do not approve of President Bush’s illegal actions, will you go on record to speak out against them?

Torture is a war crime and crime against humanity. By not taking any action to bring about justice, we, average citizens and senators alike, are all complicit in these atrocities.

Sincerely,
L___ Z____

Obama correspondence

Here's a reply I received on Friday, to an email I sent to Senator Obama awhile ago

Dear L____:

Thank you for advising me of your concern about the Bush Administration's use of Executive power. I share your frustration that Congress has acquiesced too much in the President's use of his Executive authority and agree this must change if we are going to get the country back on the right track.

The President and his advisors have shown a willingness to at worst ignore, and at best stretch, the limits of the law in countless instances. But the elections last November have given Congress the opportunity to restore balance within the Federal government.

Under its new chairman, Senator Patrick Leahy, the Senate Judiciary Committee for the first time in nearly six years exercised its responsibility to investigate and expose wrongdoing in the U.S. Department of Justice. As a result, Attorney General Gonzales was forced to resign over the politically motivated firing of U.S. Attorneys. In addition, the faults of a constitutionally ambiguous domestic surveillance program were exposed.

Also, this Congress has forced the President to defend his Iraq policy. While we are not making progress as quickly as I would like in removing our troops from Iraq, public sentiment has turned against the President's war in Iraq.

In the coming weeks, Congress will have additional opportunities to challenge the ill-conceived policies and heavy handed practices of this administration. With regard to intelligence gathering, Congress has seized the opportunity to do what the President would not. I have been working with my colleagues to craft an effective surveillance program that both combats terrorism and contains meaningful judicial review of wiretapping. This would most effectively address the tension between the battle against terrorism and the rule of law.

Although we have a long way to go to restore the correct constitutional balance between the President and Congress, I believe we are on the right track. However, like you, I remain unsatisfied. I will continue to use my position in Congress to oppose those policies and practices with which I do not agree. My focus is on doing what I can in this environment to address the many challenges facing America and Illinois, some of which will likely test us like never before. Our ultimate objective should always be to get this country back on the right track. While that challenge may seem more daunting as the days pass, I am confident that we can meet it.

Thank you for writing and please stay in touch in the days ahead.

Sincerely,

Barack Obama

United States Senator

Congress = Captain Renault from "Casablanca"

I had to chuckle when I heard Ken Olbermann's guest Jonathan Turley from George Washington University make this comment regarding the Torture Principals meetings in the White House and whether or not their will ever be a war crimes trial:

" Congress is like a convention of Claude Raines actors -- everyone is saying we're "shocked, Shocked!" that there's torture being discussed at the White House - nobody's doing anything about it"



I had a similar thought in a earlier post back in December (watch the clip!). I love the actor Claude Rains so much, Congress would be giving him a bad rap in the comparison. Still, the character Capt. Renault redeems himself by the end of the movie so let's hope its a somewhat apt comparison...

Jeff Zurawski & Sarah Hartfield update

Update on previous posts:

Well it looks like this is going to trial in June, unfortunately. (Chicago Tribune):

" Two DuPage County residents charged with disorderly conduct for displaying an anti-war sign over an expressway near Glen Ellyn last year will go to trial in June after a judge Thursday declined to dismiss their case.

Judge Ronald Sutter said there is sufficient evidence to show probable cause for the arrest of Jeff Zurawski, 40, of Downers Grove, and Sarah Hartfield, 45, of Naperville. For several hours on May 6, the pair placed a banner that read "IMPEACH Bush and Cheney—LIARS" on a footbridge on the Great Western Trail overlooking Interstate Highway 355.

The charge against them claims that they were seen making a throwing motion that alarmed and disturbed motorists. Zurawski and Hartfield contend they were only practicing their right to free speech as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.

DuPage County State's Atty. Joseph Birkett has said "this has nothing to do with political expression" but rather that highways are dangerous places and that this is an issue of public safety.

The maximum penalty for misdemeanor disorderly conduct is 1 year in jail."

Its difficult for me to give the State's Attorney the benefit of the doubt and think this is NOT political, only a public safety issue!? I guess protesters who were counting on raising their hands and/or pumping their fists when they are exercizing their right to free speech won't be able to do that in DuPage county. ( I guess Birkett wants protestors to protest at a forest preserve or somewhere where there are no cars or people who can possibly envision a peaceful protest as a threat. Oh yeah, darn, there would probably be very few people there to hear them! ) Anywhere you would want to speak out to a reasonably sized audience will have roads and cars nearby! So anyone who raises their arms/hands must be assumed to have a rock or weapon in it? Jeez Louise. Idiotic. Look at the picture again... these are pretty high fences (~ >8ft) above the praire path bridge over I-355 -- it doesn't make sense to me that the protestors would throw something over it.

And finally, I just have to note that since this happened almost a year ago the Bush administration has admitted to lying about torture since last May. Their sign was absolutely 100% true - Bush & Cheney ARE Liars. (but even if the sign wasn't true- that's still not a reason to limit free speech protests. )

Since I was on a vent/roll ... I just submitted this to the comments section of the story in the Daily Herald:

I can only assume that Mr Birkett wants all protestors to protest at locations where there are no people around to erroneously assume a "threat" of rock throwing or some such nonsense if they happen to have their arm raised ... maybe he wants them all to go meekly to a forest preserve -instead of a road or street corner or interstate - where there are NO cars or people around to hear them? C'mon. This IS definitely political. No protestor in DuPage can make a hand gesture, raise their hand or shake their fists? ... maybe Jeff & Sarah were just waving at someone who honked in support of their protest - I would have honked if I'd seen them!

Maybe if there were MORE such peaceful protests in DuPage then people wouldn't get so freaked out when they see a protestor with their hand raised! I support Jeff & Sarah 100%. If Birkett doesn't back down I think he will see more protests in response to his chill on the 1st Amendment. DuPage is turning Blue and they better get used to some changes coming ....

Matthew Diaz

Heroic- I hadn't heard this story about a military lawyer at Guantanamo:

"The decision to withhold the information had been taken, in defiance of law, by senior political figures in the Bush Administration. Diaz was aware of it, and he knew it was unlawful. He printed out a copy of the names and sent them to a civil rights lawyer who had requested them in federal court proceedings. "

Wow - he's brave. Really brave. RTWT. I love how it was sent with a Valentine's card. Indeed.

Misc. updates from last week

Well I'm back after a break for a beach vacation in FL. Yeah! I wasn't on a total news blackout, but it felt like it. Its strange not to be surfing the web and having news come at you all day every day. I need to make a concerted effort to be more diligent about controlling the amount of time I spend on being a news junkie and internet addict. Ugh.

That said here are the top links I've read today, some about things I didn't hear much about last week.

(1) The Yoo memos: There was an excerpt in the Trib today about evilness (my summary) of John Yoo and his ideas that all bets are off wrt Torture if President Bush wants to be in a perpetual state of war. If I was a student on his campus I would protest all of his classes at Berkeley.
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/04/the-guilty-men.html
(fortunately for me, but not him, AS was not blogging much last week either!)
plus http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/04/yoo_i_thought_torture_was_a_ba.php
http://harpers.org/archive/2008/04/hbc-90002785
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2008/04/memo_justified_warrantless_sur.php
http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/convictions/archive/2008/04/01/yoo-s-utter-glib-certainty.aspx
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/05/guantanamo200805?currentPage=1
looks like a must read

(2) http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/04/worse-case.html
ooh - a great quote, from 1954:
"There is something about this quest for absolute security that is self-defeating. It is an exercise which, like every form of perfectionism, undermines and destroys its own basic purpose. The French have their wonderful proverb: Le mieux est l'ennemi du bien--the absolute best is the enemy of the good. Nothing truer has ever been said . A foreign policy aimed at the achievement of total security is the one thing I can think of that is entirely capable of bringing this country to a point where it will have no security at all. And a ruthless, reckless insistence on attempting to stamp out everything that could conceivably constitute a reflection of improper foreign influence in our national life, regardless of the actual damage it is doing to the cost of eliminating it, in terms of other American values, is the one thing I can think of that should reduce us all to a point where the very independence we are seeking to defend would be meaningless, for we would be doing things to ourselves as vicious and tyrannical as any that might be brought to us from outside.
" -George F. Kennan's 1954 The Illusion of Security

(3) http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/04/by-patrick-toda.html
MLK Letter from Birmingham jail excerpt - more to come about our detour stop in Montgomery AL...

(4) and speaking of Alabama....Siegelman released!
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/03/siegelman_released_from_prison.php
I actually saw the headline in the paper WHILE I was checking into a hotel in Montgomery. Just a litte factoid... the Dexter Ave Baptist church where MLK preached is less than 2 blocks from the AL statehouse... Its on the same street! -in view of each other. More on this later once I get my pictures uploaded. Anyway it just struck me as a personal coincidence that this happened while I was there - in the town of the scene of the crime, so to speak.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSeL9Pkmt2M
Wow and I thought IL & Chicago politics took the cake.

Libby MT

I was glad to hear about this on the radio this morning:

" W. R. Grace & Company, a worldwide chemical company driven into bankruptcy by hundreds of millions of dollars in asbestos poisoning claims, has agreed to pay the federal government $250 million for environmental cleanup around its mining operations in Libby, Mont. ....

The settlement announced on Tuesday takes account of that payment and directs that future payments be directed to a special E.P.A. account to be used to clean schools, homes and businesses in Libby that are contaminated with carcinogenic asbestos dust.

The material came from a vermiculite mine and processing plant the company operated in and near Libby from 1963 to 1990. The vermiculite, which is used in insulation and other building materials, was contaminated with high levels of asbestos.

Asbestos is known to cause lung cancer and mesothelioma, a fatal tumor of the lining of the chest and abdomen. Exposure to asbestos also causes scarring of lung tissue."

There is still a criminal case pending... I saw a documentary about this case awhile ago. Its probably on Netflix now. As much as I am for environmentalism and health, I also have a fondness for small-town Montana and Montanans because my sister was born there and we lived there a little while when I was a young child.

NSA Domestic Spying

So its all here in the left-wing ;~) Wall Street Journal...

" Two former officials familiar with the data-sifting efforts said they work by starting withsome sort of lead, like a phone number or Internet address. In partnership with the FBI,the systems then can track all domestic and foreign transactions of people associated withthat item -- and then the people who associated with them, and so on, casting a gradually wider net. An intelligence official described more of a rapid-response effect: If a person suspected of terrorist connections is believed to be in a U.S. city -- for instance, Detroit, a community with a high concentration of Muslim Americans -- the government's spy systems may be directed to collect and analyze all electronic communications into and out of the city.

The haul can include records of phone calls, email headers and destinations, data on financial transactions and records of Internet browsing. The system also would collect information about other people, including those in the U.S., who communicated with people in Detroit.

The information doesn't generally include the contents of conversations or emails. But it can give such transactional information as a cellphone's location, whom a person is calling, and what Web sites he or she is visiting. For an email, the data haul can include the identities of the sender and recipient and the subject line, but not the content of the message.

Intelligence agencies have used administrative subpoenas issued by the FBI -- which don't need a judge's signature -- to collect and analyze such data, current and former intelligence officials said. If that data provided "reasonable suspicion" that a person, whether foreign or from the U.S., was linked to al Qaeda, intelligence officers could eavesdrop under the NSA's Terrorist Surveillance Program."

So what is "REASONABLE SUSPICION"? Having an Arabic sounding last name? What I'm even more worried about is oh I don't know, law enforcement officers/politicians having a reasonable suspicion to link each other with a foreign government or hmmm maybe even a prostitute that can allieve a certain NY governor's stress illegally. Besides wanting to fight terrorism, its also all about who is open to bribery and ruining careers etc.

The Republicans aren't going to be concerned about privacy until a Democrat is in the White House... then maybe they'll start worrying about who is spying on whom. Don't get me wrong, I certainly don't think the Dems should have this surveillance power either. This could get very nasty and we wouldn't even know about it... politicians would 'retire' or be humiliated in public... an effective coup d' etat. How could whistleblowers get information to government officials that could publicize it if they know their phone and emails are going to be spied on? Deep freeze on democracy if you ask me.... not to mention the 4th amendment.

This makes me so angry!

Letter to Senator Durbin -Rule of Law?

Dear Senator Durbin:

In light of our recent correspondence regarding the Mukasey nomination and his subsequent legal support of President Bush's unconsitutional policies....Here's an interesting editorial I whole-heartedly agree with:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-turley4mar04,0,4839406.story

I don't know what you can do, but you must do something. We need to have rule of law, not a king who can have his minions tell us what the law is or is not.

"Check and Balance" the Executive branch!!! Tell your Democratic colleagues not to capitulate. Somebody needs to call them out and call "a spade a spade". Ask him to explain this paradox. Is there ANY situation in which he would find any hypothetical crime the President committed worthy of the Justice Dept's investigation --if the President's lawyers told him it was legal?

Speaking of rule of law back in Illinois... did you see this in the Trib? http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-prison-rape-04mar04,0,739400.story
Do you know this warden Mary Sigler, or Roger Walker the person who runs IDOC. It appears that this tragic woman and perhaps many others are being illegally submitted to "cruel and unusual" punishment -- by that I mean, repeatedly gang-raped and impregnated (!) by state officers. Can you do anything about this??

Sincerely,
L

Spying on Americans

Kevin Poulson at Wired.com :

As first reported by Wired.com, the software, called a "computer and internet protocol address verifier," is designed to infiltrate a suspect's computer and collect various information, including the IP address, Ethernet MAC addresses, a list of open TCP and UDP ports, running programs, operating system type and serial number, default browser, the registered user of the operating system and the last visited URL, among other things.

That information is sent covertly to an FBI computer in Quantico, Virginia. The CIPAV then monitors and reports on all the target's internet use, logging every IP address to which the machine connects.

While the FBI FOIA official did not remark on the quantity or details of the CIPAV affidavits, it's likely the surveillance requests were granted Through the end of 2004, the court approved 18,761 warrants, and rejected only five. It approved 2,072, in 2005, and 2,181 in 2006, rejecting none. Five were withdrawn before a ruling.

OK everybody - this is really happening.... And these are just the ones they get rubber-stamp "permission" for. Our voices need to be heard to protest this... call your Congressman and Senators.

Electronic Frontier Foundation, FISA & privacy

I'm on the EFF email list... lot's of stuff going down this week.

Since I already know that Durbin's fighting against the FISA Telecom Immunity Bill I just called a left a message with Obama's offices -at his DC office, his Chicago office, and an #800 they gave me to pass along my feedback to the campaign. This would be a very good way to demonstrate "presidential-ness". No lame excuses to avoid the vote even if they don't have enough votes. He could be in there influencing the vote of his colleagues right now- as could Senator Clinton!

Glenn Greenwald from Salon.com is also on the case!

6 years of Guantanamo

6 years on ... This sucks!
6 years of Guantanamo.... Scott Horton@ Harpers:

Around the world, Guantánamo is viewed as a stain on the honor and reputation of the United States. It stands as visual evidence of a decision by the United States to repudiate its human rights commitments and the human rights standards that every modern American administration up to the arrival of George W. Bush had championed. Britain’s Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer, the senior law officer in the English-speaking world, called the existence of Guantánamo a “shocking affront to the principles of democracy.” And he and others have pointed to the opinions handed down in American courts that sustain and nurture Guantánamo as evidence of the corruption and collapse of the integrity and independence of American courts. This criticism is painful for American lawyers. Doubly painful because of its certain truth.

And clear evidence of the putrefaction that has set in came on Friday. The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, which has emerged as a bastion of Republican movement conservative jurisprudence, picked the anniversary of the opening of the Gitmo camps as the day to celebrate them and the abuses perpetrated there.

Santa tries to deliver the Constitution to the White House

Apparently President didn't need any extra copies of the Constitution as a gift from Santa, or ...?. Santa knows who is naughty or nice!

Cheney & Secrets

2 items I've read today so far:

(1) Newsweek, Michael Isikoff "Challenging Cheney: A National Archives official reveals what the veep wanted to keep classified--and how he tried to challenge the rules"

Newsweek:So how did matters escalate?
Leonard: The challenge arose last year when the Chicago Tribune was looking at [ISOO's annual report] and saw the asterisk [reporting that it contained no information from OVP] and decided to follow up. And that's when the spokesperson from the OVP made public this idea that because they have both legislative and executive functions, that requirement doesn't apply to them.…They were saying the basic rules didn't apply to them. I thought that was a rather remarkable position. So I wrote my letter to the Attorney General [asking for a ruling that Cheney's office had to comply.] Then it was shortly after that there were [email] recommendations [from OVP to a National Security Council task force] to change the executive order that would effectively abolish [my] office.

(2) Congressman wants Cheney impeached
I sent an email to Amy at O:TDB and several other friends. Hopefully they will spread the word.

FISA & Civil Liberties

This is a great piece by Glen Greenwald at Salon.com

" Ultimately, what is most significant about all of this is how the most consequential steps our government takes -- such as endless expansion of its domestic spying programs with literally no oversight and constraints of law -- occur with virtually no public debate or awareness. By contrast, the pettiest of matters -- every sneeze of a campaign aide and every trite, catty gossip item from our moronic travelling press corps -- receives endless, mindless herd-like attention.

The very nature of our country and our government fundamentally transforms step by step, with little opposition. We all were inculcated with the notion that what distinguished our free country from those horrendous authoritarian tyrannies, both right and left, of the Soviet bloc, Latin America and the Middle East were things like executive detentions, torture, secret prisons, spying on their own citizens, unprovoked invasions of sovereign countries, and exemptions from the law for the most powerful -- precisely the abuses which increasingly characterize our government and shape our political values."

I'm really glad Senator Dodd is on the case- a filibuster....ooohh! Yes. We need more "Mr.Smith's" in Washington. Just when I'm wondering what will Obama do.. I check my email and here's the reply to my EFF-prompted email the other day.



Dear L___:

Thank you for contacting me concerning the President’s domestic surveillance program. I appreciate hearing from you.Providing any president with the flexibility necessary to fight terrorism without compromising our constitutional rights can be a delicate balance. I agree that technological advances and changes in the nature of the threat we face may require that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), enacted in 1978, be updated to reflect the reality of the post 9/11 world. But that does not absolve the President of the responsibility to fully brief Congress on the new security challenge and to work cooperatively with Congress to address it.

As you know, Congress has been considering the issue of domestic surveillance since the last Congress. The debate is still ongoing, but the shift in party control on Capitol Hill has clearly had an impact on this critical discussion over the balance of power in our system of government. On January 17, 2007, after conducting its wiretapping program without court approval for over 5 years, the Justice Department announced that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court had approved its program to listen to communications between people in the U.S. and other countries if there is probable cause to believe one or the other is involved in terrorism. Then, in early February, the Justice Department announced that it will give the Intelligence and Judiciary Committees of both chambers of Congress access to previously withheld documents on the NSA program. The congressional committees with jurisdiction over this issue hailed the agreement as a step in the right direction.

However, there is still significant work to be done. Just before the August recess, Congress passed hastily crafted legislation to expand the authority of Attorney General and the director of National Intelligence to conduct surveillance of suspected foreign terrorists without a warrant or real oversight, even if the targets are communicating with someone in the United States. This legislation was signed into law by the President on August 5, 2007, and expires after six months.

Congress is working on reforms to the FISA bill to be enacted before the expiration of the current legislation. On November 15, 2007, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 3773, the “Responsible Electronic Surveillance That is Overseen, Reviewed, and Effective Act of 2007” (RESTORE Act) by a vote of 227-189. The House bill does not provide retroactive immunity for private companies that may have participated in the illegal collection of personal information, nor does it provide immunity for administration officials who may have acted illegally. The Senate committees on Intelligence and the Judiciary have since approved proposals with their own reforms to FISA. The debate over retroactive immunity is still ongoing, and I will support a filibuster should legislation that includes such a provision come to the Senate floor.

The American people understand that new threats require flexible responses to keep them safe, and that our intelligence gathering capability needs to be improved. What they do not want is for the President or the Congress to use these imperatives as a pretext for promoting policies that not only go further than necessary to meet a real threat, but also violate some of the most basic tenets of our democracy. Like most members of Congress, I continue to believe the essential objective of conducting effective domestic surveillance in the war on terror can be achieved without discarding our constitutionally protected civil liberties. I look forward to working with my colleagues in Congress, and with the President, to meet this uniquely American challenge.

Thank you again for writing. Please stay in touch as this debate continues.

Sincerely,
Barack Obama
United States Senator

Reject Retroactive Amnesty for Telecoms in S. 2248, the FISA Amendments Act

Email from the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) to send to our Senators... this showdown will happen on Monday. Form letter email to Obama & Durbin:

I urge you to vote against retroactive amnesty for telecommunications companies in S. 2248, the FISA Amendments Act.

I urge you to support Senator Dodd and others by allowing them to have a full debate on this issue. On Monday, vote "no" for cloture on the motion to proceed to the FISA bill.

I also urge you to support Senator Leahy, Senator Dodd, and others in an amendment to strip retroactive amnesty from the bill. Legislation updating and amending FISA should not include amnesty for telecoms. Companies involved in the NSA's spying have broken the law, and they should be held accountable.

Lawsuits against the telecommunications companies may be the only way for the victims of illegal spying to see justice for the infringement of their constitutional rights. The telecoms are the first line of defense against governmental abuse -- if Congress sends the message that they are not liable for breaking privacy laws, then their interest in protecting customers' privacy may diminish. Finally, the court is entirely capable of protecting legitimate state secrets, while ensuring that the Americans' whose rights have been violated see justice.

Please vote to preserve the rule of law and Americans' privacy rights. Reject any legislative efforts to give lawbreaking telecoms amnesty.

Asking more from the Trib

I just sent an email to the Trib/LATimes reporters and the national news editor at the Trib who put this up today:

Hello : I read your article in the Chicago Tribune today.http://www.chicagotribune.com/services/newspaper/printedition/monday/chi-cia_10dec10,0,5736500.storyI hope this will story and its follow-up will continue to receive significant coverage!

I was wondering if any Tribune reporters are following up to try and find out what details/information were ON the videotapes ( .... BESIDES the actual torture scenes) and what happened after that information was "procured", ie was it reliable information or not? For "news" reporting in the TRIB I hope we don't only have to solely rely on whatever "news" the Justice Dept decides to release or some statement that a Congressperson has already said on TV, Meet The Press or whatever. The public is relying on you, the Fourth Estate, to get to the bottom of this ( and fast! if possible).

I've read some speculation on various sites on the internet and it seems to me they merit some investigation to find out if true: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gerald-posner/the-cias-destroyed-inter_b_75850.htmlPosner: Zubaydah named 3 Saudi Princes and Pakistani general during interrogation whom he thought would help him and who knew about 9/11 before 9/11. They all died "accidentally" shortly afterwards.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Zubaydah
Risen: Re investigating Zubaydah's credit cards: "the timing of the reported seizure of records by Saudi intelligence closely coincided with the timing of Abu Zubaydah's capture...." (p. 177).

Just writing this I feel like I'm sounding like a kookie conspiracy theorist... but I'm not.... Mainly just curious and also I wish I were in your shoes to track this down! I believe many more people would know about it if it was investigated by a major news outlet such as the Trib/Times and printed in the paper. I have a feeling that this destruction of evidence case is finally going to be the big mistake that brings down ALL the corruption and illegal tactics of the Bush administration, ...and it could even link back to 9/11?

Good Luck from your loyal subsciber,

CIA torture evidence update

Ugh- politics as usual... I wish I had a crystal ball to find out what's going to happen about this..., if anything.

C & I watched "Casablanca" on Saturday night... watching this it just made me think... oh they're "rounding up the usual suspects"/ talking heads. Who can actually do anything?

The NYT's article today states re the CIA agent that destroyed the video:

Mr. Rodriguez’s role in the destruction of hundreds of hours of videotape of harsh interrogations of two operatives of Al Qaeda is at the center of an inquiry by Mr. Reyes’s committee on Capitol Hill. With a separate Justice Department inquiry that could lead to a full criminal investigation into the matter, the man who spent a career in the shadows has been thrust uneasily into the spotlight.
Mr. Rodriguez is hardly the only current or former agency official under scrutiny. In the months ahead, investigators will try to reconstruct the chain of events leading up to the decision in November 2005 to destroy the interrogation tapes, and to determine who else inside the agency may have approved the decision.
According to a former top intelligence official who has spoken to Mr. Rodriguez in recent days, Mr. Rodriguez remains confident that he acted lawfully and had the authority to destroy the tapes. He could not be reached for comment.

I hope there will be some justice coming from the Justice dept. Also CCR is worried that more evidence will be destroyed, which would hamper their defense cases.