by TChris

Did Army Reserve Staff Sgt. Ivan "Chip" Frederick violate military rules by abusing Iraqi prisoners of war, or is he a scapegoat who merely followed orders? Frederick's journal entries indicate that he complained to the acting battalion commander about conditions at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, including confinement of prisoners in damp and unventillated three-by-three foot cells. He says the commander responded: "I don't care if he has to sleep standing up."

The claim that "I was following orders" doesn't justify humiliating and degrading prisoners, or inflicting the kind of abuse reported here. Nor can the abuse of prisoners be written off as harmless "pranks" as some family members of the accused soldiers have suggested. But responsibility doesn't rest solely with soldiers like Frederick if his superiors knew what was happening and did nothing to prevent it, or if they required him to be abusive. Frederick's civilian lawyer, Gary Myers, said Frederick didn't intend to humiliate any prisoners until higher-ranking officers told him what to do.

Frederick's journal entries may be self-serving -- he didn't start the journal until military investigators questioned him in January -- but, if true, the entries support his claim that his requests for guidance were met with indifference.

He wrote that he questioned the inmates' treatment and asked for standard operating procedures when his unit relieved the 72nd Military Police Company at the prison last fall. His requests were ignored until Jan. 19, five days after his first visit from investigators, when he found the Geneva Convention rules for handling prisoners of war on the Internet, Frederick wrote.

by TChris

Even adults sometimes respond to police interrogations by confessing to crimes they didn't commit. When the police interrogate a child, without a parent or lawyer present, the risk of a false confession is alarming.

Georgia attorney Gerald Word says the police questioned his twelve year old client for four hours, outside the presence of his parents and without a lawyer, before the twelve year old allegedly admitted his involvement in strangling an eight year old neighbor.

Word said it was only after lengthy questioning Tuesday that the boy made a statement that led investigators to believe he killed Amy Yates. The boy, whose name is not being released by authorities, was then charged with murder.

The boy claims he was "repeatedly called a liar" during the interrogation, and was not read his rights before being questioned, Word said. He never admitted to harming the girl, he said.

Few adults are capable of withstanding coercive interrogation techniques, and they often have trouble grasping the meaning of a Miranda warning. It is absurd to think that a twelve year old would understand his constitutional right to remain silent or his right to counsel, and it is equally absurd to think that a twelve year old's decision to participate in a police interview is truly voluntary. When the police interrogate a young child without a parent's permission, any resulting statements should be presumed to be unreliable.

Word thinks the Georgia legislature should enact a law that requires the police to obtain a parent's permission before interrogating a child. He's right, and other states should do the same.

by TChris

The latest book to shed light on the dark innards of the Bush administration is (take a deep breath) The Politics of Truth: Inside the Lies that Led to War and Betrayed My Wife's CIA Identity by Joseph Wilson. The wife in question is Valerie Plame, famously outed to Bob Novak as a CIA agent by persons as yet unknown in the Bush administration.

So who gave Novak the goods? Wilson points to Dick Cheney's office as a sensible place to start the investigation.

In the book, he named four administration aides, including Libby, who might have leaked the information. But he did not accuse any of them of doing so. Wilson said he has based his allegations on information supplied to him from multiple sources inside and outside the Bush administration.

Wilson connects Cheney to the events involving his wife through a meeting he said occurred in March 2003. He charged that Cheney's staff — with at least the "implicit" involvement of the vice president — met and decided to investigate his background. The investigation, he said, uncovered his wife's role at the CIA.

Plame's cover was blown after Wilson publicly accused the administration of lying about intelligence findings in order to exaggerate the threat posed by Iraq. Wilson says his wife's identity was revealed to intimidate other potential critics.

Update (TL): Buzzflash interviews Joe Wilson here.

by TChris

Small towns and rural areas with prisons look larger in the census because the inmates count as local residents. A report by the Urban institute concludes that this practice affects outcomes "in matters as diverse as political representation to state and federal funding."

Twenty-plus years of aggressive prison construction have left states with bloated budgets, but prisons provide welcome jobs in the small towns and counties that host them.

"There is a growing trend in rural areas to pursue prisons and jails as a tool for economic development," said Joe Weedon, legislative director for American Correctional Association.

Building more prisons is not a healthy solution to the economic hardships suffered in rural America. Nobody should be sent to prison so that someone else will have a job.

A narcotics officer in New York City pleaded guilty today in federal court to stealing more than $100k from a drug dealer. He is the 8th officer to be implicated in the scandal. He faces up to five years in prison.

So many of our clients tell us the cops took more money than they reported on the evidence form. Usually, it's too hard to prove and the client has no recourse. Who's going to believe a drug dealer over a cop?

But sometimes, the cops get undone over something else and it comes to light. That happened to one of our clients in a Ft. Lauderdale drug case some years back...by the end of the case, a Customs agent and three members of the Hallendale police department went to jail for several years, and our client, who they had tricked into buying (not selling) drugs, taking $200k from him, got freed from jail....after serving a year in the county jail while awaiting trial.

Cops are like everyone else. There are good ones and bad ones. And sometimes, just like other people, good cops do bad things. It's why we never understand why juries seem so ready to believe the word of a police officer over other witnesses.

From the Miami Herald, 10/29/97 (available on Lexis.com):

Where we last left off with Lea Fastow, wife of former Enron CEO Andrew Fastow, her plea agreement for a five month sentence had fallen apart when the Judge refused to go along. She withdrew her guilty plea and trial was set to begin June 2.

But, where there's a will, there's a way. The Government has now dismissed the felony charges against her and obtained a Superseding Indictment charging Lea with a misdemeanor tax count, which carries a maximum penalty of one year in jail.

Say hello to Memeorandum, which tracks the most popular news topics covered by bloggers, and links to the blogger's posts about them. Liberal bloggers are well-represented on the site.

Memeorandum presents a distinctly readable and relevant hourly synopsis of the latest online news and opinion, combining weblog commentary with traditional news reports.

by TChris

The jury deciding the fate of former NBA player and analyst Jayson Williams advised the court that it has agreed on six of eight charges, but cannot reach a unanimous verdict on the rest. The jury may be finding it difficult to decide on the two most serious charges -- aggravated and reckless manslaughter -- after agreeing that Williams committed less serious crimes as he tried to cover up his role in the shooting of driver Costas "Gus" Christofi.

Judge Edward Coleman instructed the jurors to continue their effort to reach a verdict on all counts. The jurors will enter their third day of deliberations tomorrow. TalkLeft background on the case is here and here.

by TChris

TalkLeft has reported on the sad state of affairs at the California Youth Authority, including the practice of caging children and ignoring their mental health problems. Yesterday was a statewide day of protest concerning juvenile justice in California. Protestors in Watsonville, Santa Cruz, and other parts of the state held a candlelight vigil to call attention to the deplorable conditions for offenders detained in California Youth Authority jails.

In central California, protestors focused on another aspect of youth corrections: the disproportionate tendency to incarcerate Latino children.

In recent years, the state has incarcerated a remarkable percentage of Lindsay's young people, a fact that is little known outside the town's Latino migrant-family community, said vigil organizer Victor Cervantes.

The protest focused attention on the state's warped priorities.

In Central Valley communities it's perceived California is choosing to spend to build prisons and to lock up Latino youth instead of spending any money on much-needed social programs and job creation to assist families of immigrants.

Those attending a candlelight vigil in Lindsay agreed that California should stop using the prison industry as a job creation program, and should focus instead on root causes of crime, including poverty, discrimination, and a lack of resources for the mentally ill.

by TChris

Your tax dollars at work:

Sen. Evan Bayh said Wednesday the Army needs to buy more Indiana-made Humvees to better protect soldiers in Iraq.

A cynic might say that Sen. Bayh is more interested in helping his home state's economy than in protecting troops -- hence the desire to buy "Indiana-made" vehicles rather than other forms of armored transportation.

There are better ways to protect our soldiers. One option is to accede to the desires of the Iraqi citizenry, 60 percent of whom "want the US and its allies to leave immediately, even if it means the security situation will deteriorate." Another option is to stop killing innocent Iraqi civilians, which can only result in ill-will and increased violence against U.S. soldiers.

US troops ... are seen by most Iraqis as "uncaring, dangerous and lacking in respect for the country's people, religion and traditions."

"One specific Iraqi complaint against US troops is the widespread perception – whether correct or incorrect – that they have been indiscriminate in their use of force when civilians are nearby," said Gallup's director of international polling, Richard Burkholder.

by TChris

War, deficits, public education, national security, and environmental destruction are among the issues that should give politicians a full plate, leaving little time to fret about the inconsequential. And so, naturally enough, some Republicans found time to criticize Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA) for omitting the phrase "under God" when he led the Pledge of Allegiance in the House yesterday.

McDermott's people say the omission was inadvertent, that McDermott was merely reciting the pledge in the form that he learned as a child. In an interview last month, however, McDermott suggested that his omission of "under God" when he recites the pledge is a matter of principle.

"I personally don't think it adds anything to the Pledge of Allegiance, and I personally don't say, 'under God,'" McDermott is quoted as saying. "I consider it an infringement that I don't like. I don't like infringements of church and state. And so I don't know that I'm rigid, but I try to be consistent."

Good for McDermott, but he should have the courage to stand behind his belief, even if it affords Republicans an opportunity to avoid more pressing issues while taking shots at him.

by TChris

There never seems to be a shortage of stories about judicial corruption or incompetence in Louisiana (recent TalkLeft posts on the subject are here, here, and here). Here's another:

U.S. District Judge Ginger Berrigan on Wednesday ordered former [Louisiana] District Judge Ronald Bodenheimer to serve three years and 10 months in prison and pay $50,000 for taking bribes from a bail bondsman, scheming to plant drugs on an FBI informant and plotting to fix a child custody case.

Prosecutors agreed to recommend a 3-1/2 year prison term in exchange for the judge's cooperation in its investigation of courthouse corruption, but Judge Berrigan busted the deal by adding four months to the recommended sentence.

Berrigan ... said Bodenheimer's cooperation wasn't enough and increased his sentence to reflect the seriousness of trying to get someone falsely arrested. She gave Bodenheimer a chance to withdraw his guilty plea, but he turned it down.