by TChris

Can one person make a difference? It's easy to feel hopeless and overwhelmed, but Dick Dorworth reminds us that it's possible for one person to change the world.

Gandhi broke the back and spirit of British imperialism and created modern India.

Martin Luther King broke the back (but, sad to say, not the spirit) of institutionalized racism in America.

David Brower kept the Grand Canyon from being dammed.

Renee Askins got wolves re-introduced into Yellowstone and the American West.

An unknown Chinese man once stopped a tank in Tienanmen Square by simply standing his ground.

Daniel Ellesberg shortened the war in Vietnam by many months, if not years.

Someone leaked the photos of American military personnel torturing Iraqi prisoners in the Abu Ghraib prison.

Some changes can only be made if we act together, but the individual act of voting can make a profound difference. Remember that, in November, a few minutes of your time can change the direction of our country.

Vote Kerry.

by TChris

Speaking before the Seventh Circuit Bar Association, Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens said Monday: "I think this country would be much better off if we did not have capital punishment." He asked states to "really consider whether they think the benefits outweigh the very serious potential injustice, because in these cases the emotions are very, very high on both sides and to have stakes as high as you do in these cases, there is the special potential for error."

Stevens' statement ... appears to be the most pronounced statement against capital punishment made by a Supreme Court justice since the late Harry Blackmun wrote in 1994: "From this day forward, I no longer shall tinker with the machinery of death."

by TChris

Abuse of military prisoners may not be limited to Iraq, as the U.S. is finally paying attention to reports of abused prisoners in Afghanistan.

The U.S. embassy in Kabul said an Afghan police officer, reportedly held by U.S.-led forces in the city of Gardez and the U.S. base at Bagram in 2003, said he had been stripped naked, photographed, kicked and subjected to "sexual taunting."

It is not known how many prisoners are held at Bagram or who they are. An investigation into the deaths of two prisoners while in U.S. detention in December, 2002, has yet to be completed.

In a report late last year, Amnesty International criticized the United States for its failure to make public any details of the investigation, saying it showed a "chilling disregard for human life."

Update: Chalabi changes his story. Now he says Saddam won't be turned over by June 30 and won't be tried before 2005. [post title changed to reflect this]

Salem Chalabi, the chief director of the Iraqi tribunal that will try Saddam Hussein, says he and other top members of the regime now in U.S. custody will be turned over to the tribunal before June 30, and that the death penalty may be used.

US-led forces will hand over Saddam Hussein and top officials of his former regime to the Iraqis before the handover of power, a top lawyer who is coordinating the toppled dictator's trial said today. ''The coalition forces now have more than 100 detained former regime officials,'' Salem Chalabi told reporters in Kuwait. ''They will be transferred to us before the transfer of power, and they include Saddam Hussein, Ali Hassan al-Majid and Tareq Aziz.'' Washington has pledged to hand sovereignty to an unelected Iraqi government by June 30.

Chalabi says trials are expected to begin early next year, and that Saddam may not be first in the dock. Excuse us for being cynical, but we won't be shocked if President Bush convinces the tribunal to move the trials up to October, try Saddam first to get a quick death verdict against him just in time for the election. Then again, if Bush pulls Osama out of his hat in July or August as we expect he will, he may feel he doesn't need Saddam for that purpose. Unless, of course, the polls show him and Kerry still in a statistical dead heat.

Farhad Manjoo, writing for Salon (free day pass available) theorizes why Nick Berg did not become a media story until his horrible decapitation was played on an Arab website:

Before Tuesday, none of us knew about the missing American in Iraq named Nick Berg. His family had been agonizing over his fate for weeks and had been hounding the U.S. government for any information it had about the 26-year-old freelance contractor who'd gone to Iraq just to do his patriotic duty, but Berg's story failed to captivate us the way other disappearances in Iraq have pulled us in. In retrospect it's obvious why we didn't pay attention: There were no pictures of Nick Berg's capture, as there were of the former hostage Thomas Hamill or the Japanese civilians caught by militants. Nick Berg disappeared without any of us noticing, and he remained anonymous until Tuesday morning, when, on a Web site affiliated with al-Qaida, the unspeakably gruesome video of his decapitation became available to us all.....

A few people have asked us what it means that Spc. Jeremy Sivits' court martial proceeding set for May 19 in Baghdad is being referred to as a "special court martial" and why it only carries a maximum penalty of a year in jail.

The answer: A "Special Court Martial" is the equivalent of a trial on a misdemeanor in civilian court.

Sivits will be tried before what the Army calls a special court-martial, a proceeding without direct parallel in the civilian world but similar in some ways to a misdemeanor trial. Conviction before a special court-martial carries a maximum of one year in prison. Sivits' punishment also could include reduction in rank to private, forfeiture of two-thirds of his pay for a year, a fine and a bad conduct discharge.

Why is Sivits, who was with the 372nd Military Police Company getting such a break? Probably because he's cooperating with authorities and promising to name others:

Neal Sonnett, a Miami defense lawyer who has represented civilian and military defendants, said the speed with which the trial was scheduled and the decision to try a relatively low-level defendant first suggest a plea bargain is in the works. Military prosecutors might be eager for that outcome, Sonnett said....

Others charged in the Abu Ghraib affair probably will face general courts-martial, which can yield more severe punishments. Seven soldiers currently face charges. Sivits is charged with conspiracy to mistreat detainees, dereliction of duty for failing to protect prisoners and maltreatment of detainees.

Here's more on the "special court martial" rules:

Bush has nominated the Pentagon's top lawyer, William Haynes, to a seat on the ultra-conservative 4th Circuit Court of Appeals. Haynes' nomination is now in jeopardy, due to the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal:

Sen. Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill., said yesterday that senators want to determine what role, if any, the Pentagon general counsel, William J. Haynes II, had in establishing "interrogation tactics and techniques which have now been dramatized so negatively to the world." Durbin contended that Haynes had been evasive in response to key, earlier questions.

He also quoted Haynes as having told the Federalist Society, a conservative legal group, "'Congress specifically authorized the president not only to use deadly force, but also any lesser force needed, to capture and detain enemy combatants to prevent them from engaging in continued hostilities against the United States.'"

Durbin is calling for a new confirmation hearing for Haynes. Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) is calling for further investigation into Haynes:

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., called yesterday for the Senate Judiciary Committee to summon Haynes and other responsible legal officials at the Department of Defense to testify about legal issues raised by the prisoner-abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad. Until a hearing is held, further action on Haynes' nomination would be inappropriate, Kennedy wrote to Sen. Orrin G. Hatch, R-Utah, the Judiciary Committee chairman. And after a hearing the panel should talk about its favorable report on Haynes' nomination, Kennedy added.

Kennedy submitted another five pages of questions he wants put to Haynes, "related to the prisoner-abuse scandal, linked investigations and related issues." A Republican on the Committee acknowledged the scandal has hurt Haynes' chances for confirmation:

Thanks to Patriot Watch for this lesson today--secrecy sucks:

"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we
are to stand by the president right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and
servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." - Theodore
Roosevelt (1918)

Remember -- "Democracies die behind closed doors." That's a quote from 6th Circuit Judge Damon Keith in Detroit Free Press v. John Ashcroft--you can read the full opinion here. Two more quotes from the opinion:

Hawaii's sole African-American Judge, Sandra Simms, has been told by the Judicial Selection Commission that she will not be retained as a Judge. The Commission did not give a reason, but there is speculation as to the unstated reason: She's too soft on criminals.

Defense attorneys who have appeared before Simms praised her judicial demeanor and said her rulings are based on the facts of the case and the law, regardless of how it might affect her position on the court. "She gives everyone who came before her a level playing field," said attorney William Harrison. "She made decisions on what she thought was right and showed a lot of integrity."

An African-American community leader said the decision not to reappoint Simms "sends a terrible message. "I think it is shameful when you have a person who is a double minority and is not reappointed," said Faye Kennedy, first vice president of the NAACP. "There are so few African-American jurists, and very few women," said Kennedy. "It is a sad commentary on the state of a diverse and fair court."

Both the NAACP and the Hawaii Women's Political Caucus had sent supportive letters to the Commission on Sims' behalf. The process is done in secret, so no one really can say why Sims wasn't retained. One defense attorney said:

....the perception by many of Simms as being soft on defendants "is totally incorrect, and that's based on people disagreeing with a handful of cases -- and that's not indicative of how she handles her calendar," he said.

But no one's come up with another explanation for her ouster. And in other Hawaii developments, the State Attorney General has called for four constitutional amendments that will benefit prosecutors.

by TChris

The Bush administration is guilty of mind-boggling incompetence says David Corn, manifested most recently in Abu Ghraib. But that's only the latest example.

The Bush gang has bungled so many aspects of the Iraq occupation that its actions border on criminal recklessness. The most stunning revelation of Bob Woodward’s Plan of Attack is not that Bush ordered the Pentagon to begin planning an invasion of Iraq in November 2001; it is what is absent from the book: any indication that Bush and his lieutenants engaged in high-level planning concerning what to do after the invasion. ... If anyone else began such a complex and unprecedented project without mulling over the obvious pitfalls and complications, he or she would be out of work.

With Cheney and Rumsfeld, arrogance replaced deliberation. With Bush, incompetence replaced management. The result has been a disaster. Indeed, they should all lose their jobs.

Fire them in November. Vote Kerry.

"60 Minutes II" will air new abuse material in the form of a soldier's videotaped diary Wednesday night:

The CBS newsmagazine (8 p.m. EDT Wednesday) obtained the video diary of a soldier, whose name was withheld, talking about conditions at Camp Bucca and Abu Ghraib in Iraq where Iraqi prisoners were held. "We've already had two prisoners die ... but who cares?" the soldier says on the tape. "That's two less for me to worry about."

The tape reflects the soldier's dislike for the prison camp and the prisoners, according to CBS. "I hate it here," she says. "I want to come home. I want to be a civilian again. We actually shot two prisoners today. One got shot in the chest for swinging a pole against our people on the feed team. One got shot in the arm. We don't know if the one we shot in the chest is dead yet."

From the '60 Minutes' show site:

Throughout the tape, the soldier records her anger at the thousands of Iraqi prisoners under U.S. control at Camp Bucca. "They usually have three a week that break out and, of course, every time that I'm working they never do it," she says. "It's 'cause they are scared of me. I actually got in trouble the other day because I was throwing rocks at them."

...[Guards] Lisa Girman's and Canjar's families tried to bring attention to the problems at Camp Bucca last year. They called Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's office repeatedly and talked to his staff, but got no response. Their letters to the White House and two senators were also unanswered.

The AP reports that Lisa Girman's commander said she engaged in vigilante just to revenge the rape of Pvt. Jessica Lynch:

A female Army soldier in the notorious 320th Military Police Battalion meted out "vigilante justice" on Iraqi prisoners she believed had raped former POW Jessica Lynch, according to a letter from her battalion commander obtained by The Associated Press. Lt. Col. Jerry L. Phillabaum, the troubled battalion's commander, leveled the allegation in a rebuttal to charges against his leadership of the 320th, some of whose soldiers were charged with abusing prisoners last fall at the Abu Ghraib prison west of Baghdad.

The soldier Phillabaum named, then-Master Sgt. Lisa Girman, 35, called her former commander's description of the incident "completely false" and said Phillabaum was an "incompetent" leader trying to cover up his shortcomings by blaming others.

The guards and commanders can fingerpoint all they want. We think the fault lies with Bush and Rumsfeld. The buck stops there. Boot Bush.

by TChris

While ruling that suspects in criminal cases don't have a constitional right to have the police record their statements, the New Jersey Supreme Court created a committee to consider whether the court should require judges to exclude statements from evidence that were produced by unrecorded interrogations.

"The proverbial time has arrived for this court to evaluate fully the protections that electronic (recording) affords to both the state and to criminal defendants," the court said in a 5-1 decision written by Justice Jaynee LaVecchia. It stressed the judiciary bears the responsibility to guarantee "the proper administration of ... criminal justice."

Recording interrogations -- a practice required in only three states -- has obvious benefits for both prosecutors and defendants. Recordings make it difficult for a defendant to claim "I never said that" or to argue that a confession was coerced. By the same token, they prevent the police from placing their own spin on the defendant's statement, and they discourage police from using coercive interrogation tactics.

New Jersey's Attorney General believes that "New Jersey will develop policies and procedures that will stand as a model for the nation." If so, it can't happen quickly enough.