How Judge Huvelle Humiliated The Government In Guantánamo Case by Andy Worthington

by Andy Worthington
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.andyworthington.co.uk
31 July 2009

On Thursday, as I reported in a separate article, “As Judge Orders Release Of Tortured Guantánamo Prisoner, Government Refuses To Concede Defeat,” District Court Judge Ellen Segan Huvelle granted the habeas corpus petition of Mohamed Jawad, one of Guantánamo’s youngest prisoners, seized when he was just a teenager. That article provides detailed background on the shocking story of Jawad’s mistreatment and the refusal of both the Bush and Obama administrations to concede that there was — and is — no viable case against Jawad, but in this article I am reproducing highlights from a habeas hearing on July 16 (PDF), in which Judge Huvelle subjected Justice Department lawyers to one of the most sustained outpourings of derision in the whole sorry history of the Bush administration’s woefully inept detention policies in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. For some reason known only to itself, the Obama administration seems hell-bent on defending its predecessor’s policies in federal courts, even though all that awaits it, in the majority of cases, is humiliation, embarrassment and worldwide scorn.

The hearing began as follows:

As Judge Orders Release Of Tortured Guantánamo Prisoner, Government Refuses To Concede Defeat by Andy Worthington

by Andy Worthington
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.andyworthington.co.uk
31 July 2009

On Thursday, in a long-anticipated ruling (PDF), Judge Ellen Segan Huvelle granted the habeas corpus petition of Mohamed Jawad, an Afghan teenager seized after a grenade attack on a jeep containing two US soldiers and an Afghan translator in December 2002, and ordered the government to transfer him to the custody of the Afghan authorities, who have already stated that he will be released on arrival.

Even if the government accepts Judge Huvelle’s ruling, Jawad will not be released immediately, because, under the terms of legislation recently forced on the government by Congress, the administration will have to provide lawmakers with “an assessment of any risk to the national security” posed by Jawad before he can be freed, which, it said, would take 22 days.

Waxman to Weiner: Pelosi Will Allow Single-Payer Full House Vote! + Kucinich: Ready to change this system!

Dandelion Salad

This is fabulous news! Single Payer has a chance. Contact your Congress people when they are home for their Aug vacation. Keep on them! ~ DS

VoiceofAmericans2008
July 31, 2009

Anthony Weiner (D-NY) House Energy & Commerce Committee
Weiner/Welch amendment to get Single-Payer on agenda again.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

more about “Waxman to Weiner: Pelosi Will Allow S…“, posted with vodpod

h/t: Connie

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Weiner Pushes for Single-Payer Plan

Chris Hedges: How did such a sizable portion of modern society develop into a post-literate, fantasy-fueled, perma-reality show?

Interview with Chris Hedges
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad

by Laura Flanders
Grit TV
July 31, 2009
lauraflanders

Dmitry Orlov on “On the Edge” with Max Keiser

Dandelion Salad

MaxKeiserTV
July 31, 2009

http://maxkeiser.com

Bombshell: Bin Laden worked for US till 9/11 by Luke Ryland

by Luke Ryland
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Luke’s blog post
July 31, 2009

Former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds dropped a bombshell on the Mike Malloy radio show, guest-hosted by Brad Friedman (audio, partial transcript).

In the interview, Sibel says that the US maintained ‘intimate relations’ with Bin Laden, and the Taliban, “all the way until that day of September 11.”

These ‘intimate relations’ included using Bin Laden for ‘operations’ in Central Asia, including Xinjiang, China. These ‘operations’ involved using al Qaeda and the Taliban in the same manner “as we did during the Afghan and Soviet conflict,” that is, fighting ‘enemies’ via proxies.

As Sibel has previously described, and as she reiterates in this latest interview, this process involved using Turkey (with assistance from ‘actors from Pakistan, and Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia’) as a proxy, which in turn used Bin Laden and the Taliban and others as a proxy terrorist army.

A Determined Spirit: Myth America Tour Wrap-up by Cindy Sheehan

By Cindy Sheehan
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox Blog
Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox
July 31, 2009

Once upon a time, a small bird named Tasoo lived in a vast jungle.
One hot summer day, a terrible wildfire erupted and the flames devoured many trees and animals living in the jungle. Other birds flew high into the sky and far away to safety, but Tasoo couldn’t bear to leave her precious jungle home to burn.

Day and night, she flew with all her might back and forth to the river, filling her tiny beak with water to drop on the raging fires.

Tasoo’s rare heart of courage and unshakable determination moved the heavenly gods to shed tears, and a great rain poured down upon the jungle, extinguishing the flames. And so it is that even the smallest actions of a determined spirit can change the world.

Back in February, I was feeling extremely low. I was trying to recover mentally, financially and physically from a very strenuous, humiliating and stressful campaign against House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi. I ran a very good race that was ignored by virtually everyone and and I was trying to figure out where the anti-war movement was going to find relevance in a Post-Bush, current Obama worshiping nation.

I was lying in bed one morning about 3am struggling with the issue that the wars were still raging, but there was very little movement in the “movement.” I came up with the theory that the only reason we allow ourselves to be co-opted or lulled to a false sense of security by the US Empire is because the country we actually live in has very little resemblance to the one that actually exists in the paradigm of the Myth of America. So I came up with the title of an article: “Myth America.”

“Great title”, I thought, so I got up and started to write it, but soon realized it was far more detailed than a mere article.

The Police, the Judiciary, and Stereotyping by Steven Jonas, MD, MPH

by Steven Jonas, MD, MPH
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
crossposted on Buzzflash.com
July 31, 2009

Much has been written about Prof. “Skip” Gates and his trial-by-Crowley. I have a few comments to add on the matter, possibly even an original thought or two. But first, I would like to share with you a long-ago personal experience with stereotyping and the cops, in this case the New York City variety, as a white person.

In the early 1970s, I took part in an unauthorized anti-war march from City Hall in New York City up Sixth Avenue. While it was unauthorized, the cops did not try to break it up, but rather controlled traffic as long as we kept moving. We reached about 39th Street and Sixth and came to a halt. Word went round that the march leadership was negotiating a peaceful end to it, through Bryant Park that lies on Sixth, between 40th and 42nd streets. At that point, needing to get back soon to my job at the Morrisania City Hospital, I left the body of the march and was watching events from the sidewalk on the east side of the avenue.