by TChris

This one can't be blamed on the Bush administration, although there is a tie-in to Iraq.

Declassified government documents shed new light on the secret protection and support given to former Nazi officials and Nazi collaborators by U.S. intelligence agencies in the years following World War II, according to a book released yesterday by historians who have been reviewing the records for the government.

One of the villians in this story is J. Edgar Hoover.

A set of FBI files analyzed in the book by historian Norman J.W. Goda of Ohio University shows that former FBI director J. Edgar Hoover resisted taking action against Viorel Trifa, a former officer in the pro-Hitler Romanian Iron Guard who emigrated to the United States in 1950. This helped Trifa stay in the country until he was stripped of his U.S. citizenship in 1984.

The CIA subsidized a group of former SS officers who acted as intelligence sources in post-war West Germany, but failed to produce good intelligence. Therein lies the link to Iraq, says Timothy Naftali of the University of Virginia.

"This is the most troubling for me," Naftali said in an interview, "given the context of Iraq, where we once again have to reconstruct a foreign national security system, and we have to do it fast."

by TChris

If you have a taste for the absurd, you might enjoy The Poetry of Donald Rumsfeld. The defense secretary's ramblings are set to music "in an accessible style based in classical music, with strong popular influences from cabaret to pop music." You can listen to sound clips on this page.

by TChris

This is William C. Costopoulos describing his days as a prosecutor:

"I thought I was great in front of a jury as a prosecutor. I honestly believed it had something to do with my oratory skills and preparation. My blue suits, exotic boots, and briefcase added to my confidence. I was fighting evil, winning the war between right and wrong, with a meaningful purpose in life as one of God's chosen. I didn't have a clue."

by TChris

Oh darn. One of the President's pet money drains doesn't work. Maybe he'll do better with his plan to occupy Mars.

The multibillion-dollar U.S. ballistic missile shield due to start operating by Sept. 30 appears incapable of shooting down any incoming warheads, an independent scientists' group said on Thursday.

Hey, it's a measley $53 billion over the next five years. Small change compared to the cost of the war in Iraq.

by TChris

If the Bush administration had its way, we wouldn't know anything about the ACLU's lawsuit challenging a provision of the Patriot Act that requires telephone companies and ISP's to hand over a customer's records to the FBI without notice to the customer. Because the law prohibits the communications company from revealing the existence of the FBI's demand, the ACLU filed its suit "under seal," keeping it out of the public record of court filings. The ACLU then asked the court to unseal the lawsuit. Predictably, the government doesn't think it's use (or abuse) of the Patriot Act is anybody's business; it asked the court to keep everything about the case a secret.

Judge Victor Marrero is looking for a middle ground. He's likely to release those documents (in whole or in part) that would not jeopardize national security. Of course, the government will argue that releasing anything but the ACLU's address will jeopardize national security, but it's likely that enough information will be released to provide a better sense of the facts upon which the suit is based.

The ACLU is joined in the suit by an unidentified recipient of a demand for records -- presumably a communications company.

The A.C.L.U. argues that the F.B.I. letters are unconstitutional because they violate the due process rights of the businesses and people who receive them, and because the order prohibiting discussion of the investigation violates free expression rights. The group contends that the government should be required to seek approval from a judge before issuing a letter and recipients should have a way to question the order.

When the ACLU posted a general description of the lawsuit on its website and included some scheduling information, the government told the ACLU to remove the scheduling information -- in the apparent belief that the public has no right to know whether or when the court will act in the lawsuit. After Judge Marrero allowed the release of some documents, the ACLU restored a statement that the suit will probably be heard at the end of the summer.

Just in time for the election. No wonder the Justice Department wants to keep it quiet.

by TChris

MSNBC is catching up with TalkLeft in its coverage of one of the vital stories of our time. Back on April 23, TalkLeft let you know that the State of Louisiana is trying to protect the state's aesthetic interests by outlawing plumber's butt. Today, MSNBC reports that the Louisiana House Criminal Justice Committee approved the bill. This crucial piece of fashion legislation should go before the full House within the next two months.

by TChris

As Talkleft noted a few days ago, the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board recommended clemency for Osbaldo Torres, whose pending execution violates the Vienna Convention according to the Mexican government and the International Court of Justice. Clemency would provide assurance that Torres won't be killed, but Torres' life might be spared even if the Governor rejects his clemency request.

The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals stayed Torres' execution indefinitely while it considers whether the death sentence violates international law because Torres wasn't given access to the Mexican consulate after his arrest. The court ordered an evidentiary hearing on that issue within 60 days.

The Governor is likely to let the court system do its thing before he acts on Torres' clemency request. If the court invalidates the death sentence, the clemency request becomes moot and the Governor doesn't risk taking political heat by granting or denying the request. He has no incentive to decide a question that the courts might decide for him.

UPDATE: Wrong again. Rather than waiting, Governor Brad Henry had the courage to commute Torres' sentence to life imprisonment.

by TChris

TalkLeft reported yesterday on another credibility problem in the Bush administration: Nicholas Berg's family says that Berg was detained by the U.S. military, causing him to delay his departure from Iraq, while the government claims that Berg was detained by the Iraqi police but was never by the U.S. military. The family complains that Berg might be alive if the military hadn't detained him without cause. Today, Berg's family produced evidence to support their version of events.

A U.S. diplomatic official in Iraq told the family of slain American Nicholas Berg in early April that he was being detained by the U.S. military, according to e-mails provided by the family Thursday.

"I have confirmed that your son, Nick, is being detained by the U.S. military in Mosul. He is safe. He was picked up approximately one week ago. We will try to obtain additional information regarding his detention and a contact person you can communicate with directly," the e-mail said.

Is the Bush government programmed to deny every fact that might be unfavorable to the administration, without bothering to investigate?

Update: According to Reuters, the Iraqi police chief has also contradicted the government's story. The Reuters report contains harsh words for the Bush administration from Nick's father, Michael Berg.

"My son died for the sins of George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld. This administration did this," Berg said in an interview with radio station KYW-AM.

Today the AP reports on alleged prior prisoner abuse by Abu Ghraib prison guard Charles Graner (purported father of the child expected by Lynndie England.)

His ex-wife once accused him of dragging her out of a room by her hair and trying to throw her down the stairs during a fight over their breakup. At the Pennsylvania prison where he worked as a low-level guard in civilian life, the Army reservist was accused in two lawsuits of brutality. In one, an inmate said Graner planted a razor blade in a plate of his potatoes. The lawsuits were dismissed and no charges were ever filed in the dispute with his wife, but the accusations continue to haunt Graner now that he faces court-martial in the abuse scandal.

We reported Graner's ex-wife's comments here:

Graner married Staci Dean in 1990, after she had become pregnant with the first of their two children. Their marriage ended in 2002 in a bitter divorce. Police were called to the home in March 2001, after the couple had separated. In Fayette County court papers, Staci Graner, who has since remarried and declined to be interviewed, reported that her husband came into the room where she was sleeping and yanked her head by the hair, banged her head against a wall, and tried to throw her down the steps. Criminal charges were not filed.

We also reported this abuse allegation a few days ago :

Bump and Update: Among the photos seen by Congress were many depicting Lynndie England having consensual sex with numerous soldiers in front of the Iraqi prisoners:

Shocking shots of sexcapades involving Pfc. Lynndie England were among the hundreds of X-rated photos and videos from the Abu Ghraib prison scandal shown to lawmakers in a top-secret Capitol conference room yesterday.
"She was having sex with numerous partners. It appeared to be consensual," said a lawmaker who saw the photos. And, videos showed the disgraced soldier - made notorious in a photo showing her holding a leash looped around an Iraqi prisoner's neck - engaged in graphic sex acts with other soldiers in front of Iraqi prisoners, Pentagon officials told NBC Nightly News. "Almost everybody was naked all the time," another lawmaker said.

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Original Post 5/12 9:15 pm

Members of Congress today were provided additional photos depicting abuse of Iraqi prisoners. What did they see? According to the Dallas Morning News:

• Military dogs snarling at cowering prisoners.

• Iraqi women forced to expose their breasts.

• Sex acts between male and female U.S. soldiers and forced homosexual acts between prisoners.

• A prisoner forced to violate himself with an object.

• A man beating himself against a wall as though to knock himself unconscious.

"I don't know how the hell these people got into our Army," said Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo., after viewing what he called a fraction of the images.

Law Prof Eric Muller of Is That Legal? asks, "Did the Justice Department Lie to the Supreme Court?" Check out the April 28 oral argument exchange Eric cites in the Hamdi and Padilla cases, between Justice Ginsburg and Paul Clement, the Deputy Solicitor General.

Eric says:

...we now know that the Justice Department has been involved in reviewing and approving methods of interrogation that have been used in at least some post-9/11 cases. Given that, I think it now fair to inquire--and I hope a relevant
congressional committee will do so--whether the Solicitor General's office knew, or could have known through the exercise of ordinary diligence, that our executive was using techniques of "mild torture" in interrogating prisoners of war and enemy combatants. Did Deputy Solicitor General Paul Clement make a knowingly or recklessly false assertion to the United States Supreme Court in order to bolster the government's legal position?

by TChris

Another story of one person taking a stand and making a difference: Kenneth Lavon Johnson sat at a "whites only" lunch counter in 1960. He stayed at the counter after being refused service, was arrested, convicted, sentenced to jail, and expelled from Southern University School of Law. A unanimous Supreme Court reversed his conviction in 1961. In Johnson's words: "The civil rights movement was on the move."

Johnson entered Howard University School of Law, graduated, and eventually became a judge in Baltimore. Now he's returning to Southern University. The school that expelled him is awarding him an honorary juris doctrate degree.

It is a sweet honor because I lived through it; I thought I was going to get killed when we sat at that counter. It's sweet also because, I hope, it will teach young people they can take stands in life for a cause greater than themselves. They probably will lose today, but if they are patient and persevere and endure as we did, they probably will win tomorrow. And the world will be better for their efforts.