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October 20, 2009 PBS News Hour

The tenure of Berkeley law professor John Yoo has come under fire amid a backlash over the role he played in the Bush administration, advising on the legalities of now-controversial interrogation tactics used on terror suspects. Spencer Michels reports.

SPENCER MICHELS: Since the beginning of the school year, protesters dressed as prisoners or detainees have dogged law professor John Yoo at the University of California at Berkeley. They want the university to fire him for advising the Bush administration, as an attorney in the Justice Department, that it could legally torture suspected terrorists to get information.

PROTESTER: This is a not just a question of academic opinions. This is a question of war crimes. People like John Yoo, these people should be fired.

SPENCER MICHELS: Forty-two-year-old John Yoo has taught here since 1993, except for 2001 to 2003, when he worked for the Justice Department in the Office of Legal Counsel.

During those years, after 9/11, the U.S. was interrogating prisoners, suspected terrorists, at places like Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. Yoo wrote several memos on how far the interrogators could go in pressuring prisoners to reveal information. Those memos argued that techniques such as water- boarding, sleep deprivation, and exploiting a detainee's fear of insects were, in fact, legal.

Yoo's actions have reverberated throughout Boalt Hall, the Berkeley law school where Yoo teaches. Students and faculty are debating the bounds of academic freedom, and whether a professor should be held responsible for controversial work done outside the university.

DAVID ARABELLA, law student: I believe that he does have a right to teach here, because people can have controversial views. But, personally, I'm not going to enroll in his class.

SPENCER MICHELS: The law school dean, Christopher Edley, who has served in several Democratic administrations, has been besieged by messages, the majority against Professor Yoo.

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September 08, 2009 News Corp

Dave N.: Bill O'Reilly sent out one of his ambush news crews, led by a young shaved-head punk named Dan Bank, to attack Nina Ginsberg, who is a legal counsel for the ACLU's John Adams Project, as she walked out of a drugstore.

She managed to ask him (without it being edited out) why he was confronting her while she was out doing her shopping. It's also clear that a substantial part of the conversation was cut, since it resumes when she is out at her car.

Mostly, she keeps pointing out that Bank's questions are based on factual falsehoods -- lies. Yet he keeps asking them anyway. Like a good Fox right-wing propaganda attack dog.

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August 25, 2009 World Focus News

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August 25, 2009 ABC News--Deaths, Missing Detainees Still Blacked Out in New CIA Report:

The CIA and the Obama Administration continue to keep secret some of the most shocking allegations involving the spy agency's interrogation program: three deaths and several other detainees whose whereabouts could not be determined, according to a former senior intelligence official who has read the full, unredacted version.

Of the 109 pages in the 2004 report, 36 were completely blacked out in the version made public Monday, and another 30 were substantially redacted for "national security" reasons.

The blacked-out portions hide the Inspector General's findings on the circumstances that led to the deaths of at least three of the detainees in the CIA's program, the official said. Two of the men reportedly died in CIA in Iraq and the third died in Afghanistan.

The Inspector General's findings about a fourth death involving a prisoner in Afghanistan were made public in the report. A CIA contract employee was convicted of assault in that case and is now in prison.

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August 24, 2009 News Corp

VAN SUSTEREN: Well, an ugly battle just got a little bit worse today. Today, the White House released parts of a classified, now declassified, CIA report on detainee interrogation, new allegations of prisoner abuse, a detainee allegedly threatened with an unloaded gun and a power drill. The report also states that the detention and interrogation programs prevented terrorist activity.

Meanwhile, across the Potomac at the Justice Department, the attorney general launched a preliminary investigation to see if crimes were committed by interrogators. As you might imagine, lines are being drawn in the sand here in Washington.

Joining us live is Congressman Pete Hoekstra. He is the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee. Congressman, this certainly is the talk of the nation today, or the talk of Washington, at least. Your thoughts on the -- it's actually sort of a -- it's a preliminary investigation to see whether or not there should be an investigation or even a prosecution.

REP. PETE HOEKSTRA (R), MICHIGAN: Well, I -- you know, this is really a time for the president to start showing some leadership. You know, the attorney general is now freelancing. The president for months has been saying, We need to look forward, we need to look ahead, I don't want to look back. Today there were press reports that his director of the CIA, Leon Panetta, supposedly has threatened to quit. You have Nancy Pelosi saying that the CIA lied, that they lie all the time.

And the most important thing is we still have men and women in combat. Things in Afghanistan aren't going that well. Just when we need a very, very strong CIA to give our men and women in the field the kind of intelligence that they need to stay safe and to defeat our enemy, it appears that different parts of the administration are attacking the very organization that we need to keep America safe!

These aren't new allegations. Our intelligence committee -- we had these reports in 2004, 2005. Eric Holder wants to go over old ground. This ground has been gone over before. It's not time to reopen the book on this.

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From Newsweek: Report Reveals CIA Conducted Mock Executions:

A long-suppressed report by the Central Intelligence Agency's inspector general to be released next week reveals that CIA interrogators staged mock executions as part of the agency's post-9/11 program to detain and question terror suspects, NEWSWEEK has learned.

According to two sources—one who has read a draft of the paper and one who was briefed on it—the report describes how one detainee, suspected USS Cole bomber Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, was threatened with a gun and a power drill during the course of CIA interrogation. According to the sources, who like others quoted in this article asked not to be named while discussing sensitive information, Nashiri's interrogators brandished the gun in an effort to convince him that he was going to be shot. Interrogators also turned on a power drill and held it near him. "The purpose was to scare him into giving [information] up," said one of the sources. A federal law banning the use of torture expressly forbids threatening a detainee with "imminent death."

The report also says, according to the sources, that a mock execution was staged in a room next to a detainee, during which a gunshot was fired in an effort to make the suspect believe that another prisoner had been killed. The inspector general's report alludes to more than one mock execution.

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Transcript:

MADDOW: But we are beginning tonight with some breaking news. NBC News has learned that as early as Monday, the Obama administration plans to release what we on this show have been calling the big kahuna. It`s the report on the Bush administration`s torture program that was made while the program was still going on in 2004. This is the report that supposedly stopped the torture program in its tracks when the report circulated inside the administration.

The CIA inspector general`s report has been described as sickening by some who have seen it. The only version of it that`s been publicly released so far looks like this -- it was released last year, and as you can see, it`s almost completely redacted.

In her book, "The Dark Side," Jane Mayer quotes a source who read the report as saying, quote, "You couldn`t read the documents without wondering why didn`t someone say, `Stop.`"

Well, on Monday, we`ll get a chance to read this report, although we don`t yet know how much of it is going to be redacted this time. Michael Isikoff of "Newsweek" magazine has sources who have both read a version of the report and who have been briefed on it. He has just posted an account at Newsweek.com based on those sources, which says that we`re about to learn from this report that in CIA interrogations, at least one prisoner "was threatened with a gun and a power drill" was fired up next to his head to terrify him that he was going to be killed.

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July 29, 2009 ABC Nightline

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Hats off to GottaLaff at The Political Carnival for her work on bringing this travesty of justice to light, and for prodding David Shuster to put Gitmo lawyer Barry Wingard on the air to tell his client's story. Hats off to David Shuster as well for recognizing that this was something that has flown below the radar of most of the main stream media and deserved to be covered. You can read more on her exchange with Shuster via Twitter here.

Prior to this interview, Barry Wingard had given up on the media being willing to allow the public know what has happened to his client and why he ended up in Gitmo in the first place. From GottaLaff:

I recently watched a chunk of so-called cable “news”. A tiff between Sarah Palin and David Letterman monopolized all three hours.

Meanwhile, not one word was uttered about a Kuwaiti man named Fayiz al-Kandari who has been “detained” (read: tortured) in three different prisons for nearly 8 years.

I’ve had the good fortune to talk with Al-Kandari’s lawyer. I’d link to his op-eds, but I can’t, because, despite commitments from major newspapers, they were never published. I’ll provide substantial quotes from him, instead.

With that, allow me to introduce you to Barry Wingard and Fayiz al-Kandari:

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As more information comes out on the illegal torture program carried out by the Bush administration, the more hollow Dick Cheney and his daughter's rhetoric becomes. Rachel sat down with the ACLU's Ben Wizner to discuss the recently released detainee statements which showed we got wrong information from torture. The ACLU has more on the case here. Rachel summed it up better than I ever could with this statement:

They can no longer brag about torturing Abu Zubaydah. Now, it appears they can no longer brag about torturing Khalid Shaikh Mohammed either. But not only was it illegal, but it was also ill-advised, self-destructive, counterproductive.

Sadly, I don't think it will get Liz Cheney off my television screen. She and her father have little use for allowing something like a few facts to interfere with their lying.

Maddow: But we begin tonight with some breaking news about the Bush administration‘s self-titled “enhanced interrogation techniques,” which are increasingly widely known as torture. Tonight, thanks to an ACLU lawsuit, we have obtained less redacted CIA transcripts released from the tribunals at Guantanamo. These are the parts of the transcripts in which prisoners explained how they had been treated since being in U.S. custody.

In addition to revealing some new details of what was done to the prisoners, this newly-revealed testimony refutes one of the Bush administration‘s still-used justifications for their torture program.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, FMR. U.S. PRESIDENT: Once in our custody, KSM was questioned by the CIA using these procedures. And he soon provided information that helped us stop another planned attack on the United States.

RICHARD CHENEY, FMR. U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: The information we‘ve collected from the detainees, from people like Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the mastermind of 9/11, has probably been some of the most valuable intelligence we‘ve had in the last five years.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MADDOW: The claim from the Bush administration has been that by torturing Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, they got actionable intelligence that saved American lives. Well, in these new less redacted transcripts, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed describes a very different scenario. During his 2007 hearing at Guantanamo, in very broken English he says, quote, “I make up stories, just location, Osama bin Laden, where is he? I don‘t know. Then he torture me. Then I said, ‘Yes, he‘s in this area.‘”

In other words, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed says he lied when he was tortured. “I make up stories.” He says he‘s giving up bad information. He gave up wrong information while being tortured.

And that puts a much different torque on the folks, prominently members of the Cheney family, who are still using the supposed utility of what we learned by torturing Khalid Shaikh Mohammed in their public defense of the torture program.

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June 11, 2009 C-SPAN

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Heather: Matthews brings in torture apologist David Rivkin to debate the ACLU's Jameel Jaffer on whether the U.S. should release the photos depicting torture of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Of course the CIA is arguing against the release of the documents. Their disclosure would mean that someone at the CIA (or those that gave the orders to torture) is either going to be held criminally liable or at the very least get sued in civil court. The only danger here that Rivkin is crying about is that someone will be held accountable for their actions.

I just want to know when Rivkin is going to let Jesse Ventura waterboard him? Hannity wouldn't do it. I have no doubt Rivkin wouldn't either but he sure loves telling everyone how harmless waterboarding is at every opportunity.

The media rolls this guy out every time they need someone to defend the indefensible. Listening to him and the Cheney's defending torture is becoming something akin to fingers down a chalk board of late.

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Joan Walsh and Liz Cheney in Campbell Brown's "Great Debate" segment. Good on Joan Walsh for not allowing Liz Cheney to talk over for the entire segment. More pundits who go up against her could take a few lessons from Joan. She hit back at Cheney for interrupting her right out of the box and never let up for the rest of the interview.

BROWN: Time for our time for our "Great Debate."

And tonight's premise: Bringing Guantanamo Bay detainees to America is a security risk.

Some Republicans say that is exactly what happened today, when Ahmed Ghailani was brought from Guantanamo to New York to face trial.

And joining us to debate tonight, Liz Cheney, the former vice president's daughter, who also served in President Bush's State Department. She thinks Gitmo prisoners do not belong on American soil. On the other side, Joan Walsh, who is editor in chief of Salon -- Salon.com.

And we want your opinion too. Vote by calling the number on the bottom of your screen.

First, we're going to have opening statements from each, 30 seconds on the clock.

Liz Cheney, the premise is: Bringing Guantanamo detainees to America is a security risk. Make your case.

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June 08, 2009 ABC News:

For 7½ years, Lakhdar Boumediene was known simply by a number: "10005."

These were the digits assigned to him when he arrived at the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, swept up in a post-Sept. 11 dragnet and accused of plotting to blow up the U.S. and British Embassies in Sarajevo.

In an exclusive interview with ABC News, Boumediene said the interrogators at Gitmo never once asked him about this alleged plot, which he denied playing any part it.

"I'm a normal man," said Boumediene, who at the time of his arrest worked for the Red Crescent, providing help to orphans and others in need. "I'm not a terrorist."

The 43-year-old Algerian is now back with his wife and two daughters, a free man in France after a Republican judge found the evidence against Boumediene lacking. He is best known from the landmark Supreme Court case last year, Boumediene v. Bush, which said detainees have the right to challenge their detention in court.

That decision was a stunning rebuke of the Bush administration's policies on terror suspects. It set up a ruling by District Court Judge Richard Leon, a former counsel to Republicans in Congress appointed to the bench by Bush, that there was no credible evidence to keep Boumediene detained.

After what Boumediene described as a 7½ year nightmare, he is now a free man. Boumediene: "I don't think. I'm sure" about torture.

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TalkLeft: Rosen recants on Sotomayor, Turley takes up his standard, but who will represent white males on the court?

The Pump Handle: The Climate Bill is less than ideal, but the best we're gonna get right now

The Big Picture: The back story to "Bailout Nation" (h/t swimgirl)

TPMMuckraker: A sketchy DOD report does not attempt to establish the original status of the detainees it claims "reengaged" in terrorism, and does not consider the possibility that some of the 540 men released from Gitmo just might have been radicalized during their imprisonment.

American Street: Death rattle of the cult of Intelligence?

OFF THE BEATEN PATH: Scoop44, Alien Truth, Politics In Color, Michigan Liberal

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Will Rogers famously said that he wasn't a part of an organized group, he was a Democrat. Sadly, when it comes to Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE), that's even more true. I understand that Nelson is a conservative Democrat and comes from a historically conservative state, but there's no excuse for his abject stupidity in discussing Guantanamo and how to deal with the detainees there.

What's so odd about Nelson's NIMBY attitude is that he himself points out the flaws in his logic: we have and are successfully housing some really dangerous men (including both foreign and domestic terrorists, like Moussaoui and Eric Rudolph) in prisons on American soil without incident. Nelson just doesn't want them here.

Well, Sen. Nelson, I'd prefer that we have a country that wasn't full of criminals and people who wish us harm too. But unfortunately, that isn't reality. I live within 30 miles of San Quentin prison and Bay Area residents (for as liberal and hippy as our reputation is) do not seem to be all that concerned about our collective safety. The fear that these people will be on American soil so that we deal with them as befitting our justice system forgets that they will also be under heavy lock and guard as well.

And then in another annoyingly wrong nod to bipartisanship, Nelson lends credit to the Republican meme of Jack Bauer/the-ends-justify-the-means issue of keeping American safe is somehow the moral equivalent of respecting the rule of law:

WALLACE: Senator Nelson, who’s right about the balance between, on the one hand, keeping the country safe and, on the other hand, living up to our values?

NELSON: Well, they probably both are in some -- to one degree or another. I don’t think anybody wants to see this country attacked again. And I think it’s also a question about whether or not it is held against us because these tactics have been used.

But look, the president, when he was running, said that we’re going to stop waterboarding. John McCain has said it’s torture. I think what we have to do is understand that this decision apparently was decided last -- last November.

But what we need to do is make sure that the intelligence information that’s gathered is accurate, that we do everything within our power to get good intelligence, and it may or may not consist of coming from enhanced techniques.

Oh holy FSM. I'm so tired of this dishonesty. NOTHING of value came from torture, and to suggest that it might is accepting the Republican framing of this issue. Nelson should be ashamed of his ignorance. If we had to torture three people over 30 days more than 200 times looking for some way to connect Iraq to 9/11 (unsuccessfully, too), then how can anyone with the least bit of common sense much less intelligence think that it kept us safe? Does Nelson actually think that the 108 detainees killed via "enhanced interrogation techniques" have actually deterred terrorism?

Think about it, Sen. Nelson, before you spout off on television again, hurting your party and the President's stance: If your son, brother, cousin or friend (even if he had jihadist tendencies--something we have not yet proven) was killed in the name of the American "War on Terror", would you be inclined to be sympathetic to the American cause, or would you too seek revenge for the US's dehumanizing treatment?

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