The New York Times today reports that the CIA has used harsh, coercive measures against Al Qaeda detainees. We think that's a gross understatement. If the article is true, why not call it what it is: torture:

In the case of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, a high-level detainee who is believed to have helped plan the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, C.I.A. interrogators used graduated levels of force, including a technique known as "water boarding," in which a prisoner is strapped down, forcibly pushed under water and made to believe he might drown.

....Counterrorism officials say detainees have also been sent to third countries, where they are convinced that they might be executed, or tricked into believing they were being sent to such places. Some have been hooded, roughed up, soaked with water and deprived of food, light and medications.

These techniques were authorized by a set of secret rules for the interrogation of high-level Qaeda prisoners, none known to be housed in Iraq, that were endorsed by the Justice Department and the C.I.A. The rules were among the first adopted by the Bush administration after the Sept. 11 attacks for handling detainees and may have helped establish a new understanding throughout the government that officials would have greater freedom to deal harshly with detainees.

The FBI won't participate in the conduct:

John Kerry said in a radio interview Wednesday he would choose Republican SenatorJohn McCain as Defense Secretary--or possibly Republican John Warner. We think Gary Hart would be a much better choice....for Defense Secretary or for Secretary of State.

McCain said "no thanks" when he heard about Kerry's comments.

TalkLeft received over 25,000 unique visitors Wednesday. That's a new record for us. Thanks to all for stopping by.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld testified Wednesday before the Senate Appropriations Committee on the Pentagon's request for an additional $25 billion to fund the Iraq war. For the first time publicly, he admitted the U.S. might lose the war in Iraq.

Rumsfeld said the prison abuse scandal had delivered a "body blow" to the nation-building effort in Iraq that has cost the lives of more than 770 U.S. troops. "Will it happen right on time? I think so. I hope so. Will it be perfect? No ... Is it possible it won't work? Yes," Rumsfeld said.

There was a great exchange between Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Rumsfeld and Generaly Myers--we've posted the transcript here--in which Rumsfeld defends the treatment of Guantanamo prisoners and engages in legal hair-splitting over the Adminstration's refusal to apply the Geneva Convention to them.

We've reproduced an exhibit introduced at the hearing consisting of the Interrogation Rules for Prisoners in Iraq (pdf.) Rumsfeld insisted they complied with the Geneva Convention. Durbin vociferously disagrees. Monday, Sen. Durbin delivered a blistering floor speech on the Iraq War and Bush's judicial nomination of William Haynes for a lifetime seat on the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Some of the most flagrant legal violations have taken place at Guantanamo Bay. The administration claims that the detainees are not entitled to the protections of the Geneva Conventions, though they may be treated in accordance with some provisions of the conventions ``to the extent appropriate and consistent with military necessity.'' There is no room for hairsplitting when it comes to the law. This kind of policy sends a signal to lower ranking officials that the law is an obstacle to be overcome, not a bright line that cannot be crossed.

Contrary to this position, the Geneva Conventions protect all captured combatants and civilians. The official commentary on the conventions explains: ``There is no intermediate status; nobody in enemy hands can fall outside the law.'' The Geneva Conventions do not allow the hairsplitting which this administration has engaged in at Guantanamo and other places where there are detainees in this war on terrorism.

James J. Smith, former FBI supervisor and handler of accused spy Katrina Leung pleaded guilty in federal court in LA today. He most likely will avoid jail because he cut a deal to testify against his former lover and asset, Ms. Leung.

A former FBI counterintelligence supervisor pleaded guilty yesterday to lying about a long-running sexual affair he had with a prized bureau informant now accused of spying for China.....Smith, 60, agreed to cooperate with the government's ongoing investigation into Leung's suspected 20-year penetration of FBI counterintelligence efforts, which could include testifying against her if she is tried next year. In exchange, charges involving mail fraud and mishandling of classified documents against Smith will be dropped.

In addition to not telling the bureau of his affair with Leung, Smith also was accused of withholding his discovery in 1991 that the Chinese government knew that the FBI had her on its payroll as an informant....By agreeing to the unusually light sentence, officials said, the government hopes to build a stronger case against Leung, speed its damage assessment and avoid having to air more national security information during a trial....Four remaining counts of the indictment against Smith will be dismissed when he is sentenced in January if the government is satisfied with his cooperation. He faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison, but U.S. District Court Judge Florence-Marie Cooper said she did not "anticipate this punishment will be imposed in this case." Smith, who retired at 57, also will be allowed to keep his FBI pension.

Here's a press release (pdf) from the World Tribunal on Iraq--New York Session held on May 8, 2004. An international jury of conscience found the Bush Administration guilty of a wide range of war crimes in Iraq and demanded accountability.

The thirteen-member jury considered evidence on a range of violations
including the continued arbitrary detention and torture of Iraqi civilians, the use of cluster munitions in heavily populated civilian areas, the extrajudicial killings of Iraqi civilians, and the destruction of vital services.

The jurors found that "instead of caring for Iraqi people, the US authorities have killed, starved, maimed and tortured thousands of Iraqi people, destroying their infrastructure, including their water and health facilities. ... This was done by the US government. The people of the US are responsible and must hold their government accountable."

As outrage over the torture of Iraqi prisoners by the U.S. military continues to grow both domestically and internationally, the evidence at the tribunal highlighted the systematic brutality of the U.S. invasion and military occupation for the people of Iraq....The Jury's statement (pdf) emphasizes that "the responsibility for defining the future of their country has always rested with the people of Iraq and not with any outside power, or external military force, let alone one that previously encouraged and collaborated with Saddam Hussein in some of his most violent escapades."

Blogger Terry L. Welch (Nitpicker) has been deployed to Afganistan. He writes in:

Seems that the children of Afghanistan want nothing more than they want a pen. It was explained to me that the villages through which I traveled (near Kandahar, where I'm based) are so poor that a pen is like a scholarship to these children. They desperately want to learn but, without a pen, they simply won't. It's a long story. I won't bore you with it. Trust me, though, when I say that it would be a big deal if even a few of you could put up the call for pens for me. Anyone interested in helping out could either send some directly to me or go to Office Depot or any other office supply site and send them, where you can find them for as cheap as $.89 a dozen.

Here's the address to send them:

Terry L. Welch
105th MPAD
Kandahar Public Affairs Office
APO AE 09355

Come home safe and sound Terry, and thanks for looking out for the children.

by TChris

An earlier post refers to Air Force translator Ahmad Al Halabi, who is accused of espionage and misusing classified information. Halabi got good news today: new evidence persuaded a military judge to release Halabi from custody. Judge Col. Barbara Brand ruled that Halabi is not a flight risk, so he will not be detained pending his court martial.

Many of the original charges against Halabi have been dismissed, and Halabi's lawyer is confident that more dismissals are coming, presumably on the basis of the undisclosed "new evidence." The judge's ruling today sends a strong signal that Halabi's lawyer has it right.

by TChris

A snapshot of recent opinion:

From CBS News (Tuesday):

President Bush's overall approval rating has fallen to the lowest level of his presidency, 44 percent, in the latest CBS News poll, reflecting the weight of instability in Iraq on public opinion of Mr. Bush even as the economy shows signs of improvement.

From the Pew Center (May 3-9):

President George W. Bush's job approval rating fell to 44 percent, a 4-point drop, following revelations that U.S. soldiers abused Iraqi prisoners, a poll by the Pew Center for the People and the Press shows.

An MSNBC headline, reporting on the Pew poll: Pollsters: Kerry aside, Bush is in trouble.

Reuters: Bush's poll numbers hitting the danger zone. From the article:

Low approval and re-election numbers are particularly bad for an incumbent, who already is well known to voters. Undecided voters, who have had plenty of time to evaluate the incumbent, often break heavily for the challenger.

But it's only May.

by TChris

Once again, the credibility of the Bush administration has been questioned. The family of Nicholas Berg insists that he had been had been held by U.S. authorities in Iraq, causing him to miss his scheduled departure. Berg was captured shortly after his release. He was later beheaded.

U.S. officials admit that Berg was visited by the FBI while being held by the Iraqi police, but deny tht he was ever held by U.S. forces.

A State Department official in Washington told the Associated Press that Berg had turned down an invitation to fly out of Iraq. Spokeswoman Kelly Shannon said that a few days after he was released by Iraqi police, Berg spoke to a U.S. consular officer, who offered him a chance to fly back to the United States. "He told the consular officer that he planned to travel over land to Kuwait and would call the family from there," Shannon said.

Berg's family sees it differently. They say Berg was taken into custody by Iraqi police on March 24 and that U.S. officials eventually took custody of him. Berg was detained for 13 days, causing him to miss his scheduled March 30 departure. On April 5, Berg's family filed a federal lawsuit seeking his release. Berg was released on April 6, and his family last heard from him April 9. (Helpful timeline here.)

by TChris

We know at least some of the things that happened at Abu Ghraib. We will soon know more about allegations of abuse at Camp Bucca. We've also heard about abuse at Bagram in Afghanistan. Information about abuse at Guantanamo Bay has so far been limited, but it looks like there's more to come.

A lawyer for a Syrian-born U.S. airman accused of espionage said on Tuesday that potentially damaging evidence of how detainees were treated at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba may surface during his client's court-martial hearing.

Ahmad Al Halabi's court marial is scheduled to begin in mid-June. Whether Guantanamo abuse will become an issue at the court martial, and whether that evidence will be made public, remains to be seen.

But not to worry. Donald Rumsfeld assures us that U.S. interrogation techniques neither violate the Geneva Conventions nor endanger the soldiers and civilians in Iraq (and elsewhere) who must deal with the repurcussions of prisoner abuse. Feel relieved?

by TChris

For years, the right has effectively intimidated the mainstream media with false claims of a "left wing bias" in media coverage. Fearful of further criticism, much of the media rather uncritically reported everything President Bush said until it could no longer ignore evidence of deception and incompetence in the White House.

Nobody can accuse the Appleton (Wisconsin) Post-Cresent of a left wing bias. In an editorial last week, the paper asked readers to send in letters of support for Bush to help "balance" all the letters to the editor complaining about the President and his policies. Things are pretty sad when a newspaper serving a Republican district has to plead for letters that support a Republican president. It's even sadder that the editor doesn't realize that the letters the paper received reflected how its readers feel, and that others weren't writing in support of the President because there's just not much to say in his defense.

The paper ran a second editorial this week, backing away from its earlier request "amid complaints of blatant politics."