Justice at the Price of Safety

By Courtney Ann Jackson-Talk Radio News Service

A unified approach to closing the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay will be crucial in order to meet the one-year deadline signed into law in January by President Obama, according to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, who testified before the House Judiciary Committee Thursday.

Holder said the Department has "no choice but to release" some of the detainees. He said they must be released because otherwise an order from the In terms of release, we have to release them or an order from the U.S. courts would be defied.

The Department of Justice is taking the lead from the work set out by President Barack Obama to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay and ensure that the policies going forward “live up to our nation’s value,” said Holder.

The Guantanamo Review Task Force will make decisions about where detainees will be housed on an individual basis. Holder said that Task Force's decisions will be guided by “what is in the interest of national security, the foreign policy interests of the United States and the interests of justice.”

Ranking Member U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) said “the President has announced the closure of Guantanamo Bay without any plan for the terrorists detained there and has admitted that he cannot guarantee that those detainees who are released will not seek to attack our country again.”

In response, Holder reiterated that the Department isn’t going “to do anything, anything that would put the American people at risk. Nothing.”

FBI Agent: Bush Lied On Torture

By Celia Canon- Talk Radio News service

Ali Soufan, a former FBI supervisory agent, confirms that the George W. Bush administration lied on its use of torture in its interrogation
processes.

In 2005, President Bush said that “America does not condone torture”,
a statement that has been put into question following the recent
decision by President Barack Obama to publish four memos which detail
the legal justification used by the Bush administration to justify the
methods employed in the interrogation process led by the CIA.

Chairman of the Subcommittee on Administrative Oversight and the
Courts Sheldon Whitehouse said “John Yoo (former official in the Department of Justice) told Esquire Magazine that waterboarding was only done ‘three times’ when public reports now indicate that two detainees were waterboarded 83 and 183 times”.

This revelation has hindered the American reputation abroad, resulting
in a struggle between institutions of the government such as the
intelligence agencies and the Department of Justice on who is to blame
the most for having carried out these seances.

Philip Zelikow, former counselor of the State Department, said that “
Attorney General John Ashcroft and his Department of Justice, along
with the White House Counsel, Alberto Gonzalez, assured the
government’s leaders that the proposed program was lawful.”

Whitehouse said that “We were told that waterboarding was
determined to be legal, but were not told how badly the law was
ignored, bastardized and manipulated by the Department of Justice’s
Office of Legal Counsel, nor were we told how furiously government and military lawyers rejected the defective OLC opinions-but we ignored.”

In parallel, Soufan said that “The interrogation team was a
combination between the FBI and the CIA. All of us had the same
opinion that contradicted with the contractor.”

Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said “I’m also proud of the fact that
the United states of America, when its made mistakes, has not been
afraid to admit these mistakes and learn from them and pledge not to
make the same mistakes again.”

38,000 + signatures against Arizona Sheriff brought to DC

by Christina Lovato, University of New Mexico-Talk Radio News Service

“All I want to do is except these petitions, welcome you, advise you that the Department of Justice has an investigation going on surrounding activities in Maricopa County and guess what, your not the only ones that have a sheriff that needs to be investigated in this country.” said Congressman John Conyers (D-MI) at a press conference to present a petition of more than 38,000 signatures calling on the Department of Justice and Homeland Security to investigate Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s alleged civil rights abuses.

Arpaio has 2,700 lawsuits filed against him and this month the House Judiciary Committee called for the Justice Department to conduct a federal investigation on Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio's enforcement tactics.

Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) expressed that the sheriff's tactics are examples of police power and are a violation of federal law. Nadler said, “In 2009, in the United States, we simply cannot tolerate such patterns of discrimination and denial of due process. Sheriff Arpaio’s malicious and vigilante practices are not immigration enforcement.” stated Nadler.

“We carry the burden of being stuck with this man but it is not an Arizona problem, this is a national disgrace...It can’t be tolerated.” said Congressman Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.). Grijalva said he never supported the 287(g) program which trains local officers to enforce immigration law. “Put it in the wrong hands, it becomes abusive, discriminatory, and breaks the law and that's what happened here...That particular program, the worst case scenario was in front of you and that Sheriff Arpaio.” he said.

Pablo Alvarado, Executive Director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, said that the 287(g) program is the Bush Administration’s failed experiment to outsource federal responsibility and expressed that the change we all voted for last November will soon bring order to the broken immigration system. “We must turn the page and we must together restore the nation’s promise for life, liberty and for the pursuit of happiness for all.” concluded Alvarado.

McCain campaign recommends sending criminal lawyers to swing states

John Danforth, former U.S. Senator and Co-Chair of the McCain-Palin Honest and Open Election Committee, described the conduct of Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) as “particularly outrageous,” and offered recommendations for a fair election. These included having ACORN submit their database to election authorities, reporting canvassers who turned in false information, and having the Department of Justice send criminal lawyers along with the initially planned civil rights lawyers to battleground states.

“Some say ‘well, the presence of lawyers throughout the country is itself intimidation’. We don’t understand how it can be viewed as intimidation if lawyers from the criminal division show up, but not when lawyers from the civil division showed up,” said Danforth during a McCain-Palin conference call.

“These are not people who appear in windbreakers that say FBI on the back. These are simply attorneys who are making sure the process is working well.”

Danforth noted the seriousness of the allegations against ACORN.

“When the registration system is subverted to the tune of 400,000 applications submitted by one organization, that really undermines the whole process of conducting elections.”

According to Danforth, the McCain campaign has reached out to the Obama campaign to find a joint solution to voter fraud concerns, but have been essentially been “stiffed”.

Dept. of Justice disgraced by hiring discrimination

The Senate Judiciary Committee discussed a report on politicized hiring at the Department of Justice in favor of conservative candidates. Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said the report realizes his worst fears - pervasive partisan hiring in the Department of Justice.

Glenn Fine, the Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Justice, said his investigation revealed that qualified candidates for hire at the Department were deselected because of liberal political beliefs. Politically conservative or neutral, yet under-qualified and junior applicants, were preferred. Fine said Monica Goodling, the Department’s former White House Liaison, regularly considered political affiliations in making hiring decisions.

Fine said the discrimination performed by Goodling and others in the Department violated the Constitution and civil law, but not criminal law, therefore criminal prosecution is not possible. But, Fine said the actions of those transgressors were revealed, and they have since left the Department so disciplinary actions are impossible as well.

Fine said inadequate supervision of the Department’s hiring practices led to the discrimination and as a result inexperienced candidates were hired into not only intern positions, but career positions as well. Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) called the details of the report a “despicable” and “beyond disgraceful.” Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) said he was disturbed that the Department of Justice had become so tainted.