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Obama Introduces Sonia Sotomayor As His Nominee For Supreme Court Continue reading
martin-patrick
Spanish judge keeps Guantanamo probe alive + Waterboarded 183 Times + More revelations from Bush torture memos
Reuters
Fri Apr 17, 2009 9:30pm EDT
MADRID (Reuters) – A Spanish judge considering possible criminal action against six former Bush administration officials for torture at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay defied pressure to drop the case Friday.
[…]
via Spanish judge keeps Guantanamo probe alive | International | Reuters
h/t: CLG
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Torture memos reveal brutality of US imperialism
By Tom Eley
http://www.wsws.org
18 April 2009
On Thursday, the US Justice Department released four legal memos crafted during the Bush administration that authorized agents of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to commit specific acts of torture against prisoners swept up in the “war on terror.” The Obama administration faced a Thursday deadline to release the memos after a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
The release of the legal opinions, written by lawyers in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel in 2002 and 2005, adds to an overwhelming body of evidence that proves the Bush administration carried out a large-scale and systematic torture operation in flagrant violation of domestic and international law. The public record already included accounts from victims, a recently leaked International Committee of the Red Cross report documenting various instance of torture, and numerous media accounts that include quotes from interrogators and Bush administration officials endorsing torture.
[…]
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Khalid Sheikh Mohammed Was Waterboarded 183 Times in One Month
By: emptywheel Saturday April 18, 2009 11:57 am
I’ve put this detail in a series of posts, but it really deserves a full post. According to the May 30, 2005 Bradbury memo, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was waterboarded 183 times in March 2003 and Abu Zubaydah was waterboarded 83 times in August 2002.
On page 37 of the OLC memo, in a passage discussing the differences between SERE techniques and the torture used with detainees, the memo explains:
The CIA used the waterboard “at least 83 times during August 2002” in the interrogation of Zubaydah. IG Report at 90, and 183 times during March 2003 in the interrogation of KSM, see id. at 91.
Note, the information comes from the CIA IG report which, in the case of Abu Zubaydah, is based on having viewed the torture tapes as well as other materials. So this is presumably a number that was once backed up by video evidence.
[…]
via Emptywheel » Khalid Sheikh Mohammed Was Waterboarded 183 Times in One Month.
h/t: CLG
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From insects to waterboarding: 10 ‘torture’ techniques blessed by Bush
Times Online
April 17, 2009
In this August 1, 2002 memo, Jay S Bybee of the US Department of Justice approves ten methods of “enhanced interrogation” on the suspected terrorist Abu Zubaydah. He was writing to John Rizzo, CIA acting general counsel
These ten techniques are: (l) attention grasp, (2) walling, (3) facial hold, (4) facial slap (insult slap), (5) cramped confinement, (6) wall standing, (7) stress positions, (8) sleep deprivation, (9) insects placed in a confinement box, and (10) the waterboard.
You have informed us that the use of these techniques would be on an as-needed basis and that not all of these techniques will necessarily be used.
[…]
via From insects to waterboarding: 10 ‘torture’ techniques blessed by Bush – Times Online.
h/t: CLG
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More revelations from Bush torture memos
By Tom Eley
http://www.wsws.org
20 April 2009
The Bush administration memos released last Thursday by the US Justice Department demonstrate that Washington carried out a studied and systematic torture operation for years.
The documents, written by lawyers in the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) to a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) counsel, make clear that the CIA was carrying out torture prior to, and during the time the memos were written in 2002 and 2005.
They also show that Bush administration officials were well aware that the methods discussed could be construed as torture. They therefore sought to develop an ex post facto and pseudo-legal rationale for specific acts of torture, in defiance of US and international laws.
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White House bars prosecution of Bush officials who authorized torture
By Patrick Martin
http://www.wsws.org
20 April 2009
In the wake of last week’s release of the top-secret Bush administration documents setting out a pseudo-legal justification for torture, the Obama administration is caught in a devastating political contradiction.
The documents, legal memos drafted by the US Department of Justice in 2002 and 2005, clearly establish that acts of torture which are criminal under both US and international law were authorized and justified by the highest levels of the Bush administration. But while making the documents public, Obama has asserted that both those responsible for devising the torture policy and those who carried it out will not be prosecuted.
via White House bars prosecution of Bush officials who authorized torture.
see
Fault Lines: Richard Armitage on torture
In address to Congress – Obama pledges bigger Wall Street bailout
By Patrick Martin
http://www.wsws.org
25 February 2009
In his first presidential address to a joint session of Congress, President Barack Obama defended the ongoing federal bailout of the banks and pledged that even greater sums would be funneled from the US Treasury to support Wall Street.
The nationally-televised speech Tuesday night had two main themes. Obama sought to defuse the enormous public hostility to the financial interests responsible for the deepening economic crisis, declaring that he could not “govern out of anger.”
And he advanced a reactionary nationalistic rationale for his major domestic policy initiatives on energy, health care and education, going so far as to suggest that young people who drop out of high school were committing a crime against the country.
The speech was suffused with patriotism and invocations of the supposed unique greatness of American society, a tone which contrasted sharply with the stark character of the economic crisis that he was compelled to acknowledge, and the failings in health care and education that he outlined.
[…]
Working people had neither the resources nor the demented drive for personal wealth accumulation required to participate in the looting spree conducted by the American financial elite over the past three decades. Any account of the crisis that equates bankrupt billionaire financiers and foreclosed working class homeowners as equally “irresponsible” is a travesty.
[…]
This was expressed in perhaps the most chilling passage of the speech, when he declared, “dropping out of high school is no longer an option. It’s not just quitting on yourself, it’s quitting on your country.” This was followed by a call for “a renewed spirit of national service” and the passage of legislation to expand programs that pay for college education for youth who join the military or enroll in other government service programs.
The real meaning of this extraordinary statement can be summarized as follows: Young people who drop out of school are not victims of a social crisis produced by the failure of the profit system. On the contrary, they are criminals who are undermining the viability of American capitalism by their refusal to be educated to the level required to become productive (i.e., to generate profits for the capitalist class). And they will pay for their “crime” by being drafted into the military to serve as cannon fodder in the imperialist which Obama, like Bush, will continue and escalate.
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see
President Barack Obama: Address to Joint Session of Congress
I Want You To Be Responsible by Bruce Gagnon
A Blessing in Disguise – Economic Freefall By Jon Ronnquist
How the US Economy Was Lost By Paul Craig Roberts
Orwellian Doublethink: “Nationalize the banks.” “Free Markets.” by Prof. Michael Hudson
The Economy Sucks and or Collapse 2
Senate agrees to pass reduced version of Obama “stimulus” plan
By Patrick Martin
http://www.wsws.org
7 February 2009
The Obama administration reached a tentative agreement Friday with a group of Senate Republicans and conservative Democrats to cut the planned economic stimulus package by tens of billions of dollars, paving the way for the Senate’s passage of the legislation over the weekend. Floor debate began Friday evening on a measure to cut $110 billion in spending from the bill, reducing the measure to a total of $780 billion.
The nature of the “compromise” agreement is best illustrated by considering the political physiognomy of the five senators who negotiated it. They include three Republicans—Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania—Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska, the most conservative member of the Democratic caucus, and independent Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, an all-out supporter of the war in Iraq who was one of the most vitriolic supporters of defeated Republican presidential candidate John McCain in the 2008 elections.
The final deal was reached in face-to-face talks between Collins and Specter, speaking for the group of five, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, after the Senate Democratic caucus approved the package Friday evening
[…]
via Senate agrees to pass reduced version of Obama “stimulus” plan.
see
Will Obama Start the Next Trade War? by Shamus Cooke
Open Letter to Dr. Joseph Stiglitz and Challenge to Debate By Richard C. Cook
It’s Not Going to Be OK, By Chris Hedges
President Obama’s Weekly Address 01.24.09
In his first weekly address since being sworn in as the 44th president of the United States, President Barack Obama discussed how the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan will jump-start the economy.
(This video is public domain per White House copyright policy.)
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updated
Congressional office admits:
Obama stimulus plan won’t meet job-creation target
By Patrick Martin
http://www.wsws.org
26 January 2009
The Obama administration and congressional Democrats began the final push for passage of an $825 billion economic stimulus plan this weekend, but an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) conceded that the measure would pump far less money into the economy over the next two years and create far fewer jobs than promised.
Obama devoted his first Saturday morning radio address to the legislation, which is to be voted on in the House of Representatives Wednesday. Senate consideration would begin after House passage, with the first action scheduled for Monday, February 2.
[…]
see
“Same as it ever was” Talking Heads: Once in a Lifetime
The Daily Show: Obama Closing Gitmo
Dandelion Salad 