Pelosi: The CIA Lied

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) explains how the CIA has repeatedly lied to the American people, whether in Iraq or in regards to torture, and how they are now trying to shift the blame onto the American people. (0:24)

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.”

Tortured On The Order Of U.S. Government

By Kayleigh Harvey - Talk Radio News Service

If you were being tortured, both physically and mentally to the point of near-death, if your wife had been threatened with rape and your family with abuse would you sign a statement admitting to criminal offenses that you did not commit?

This may be the situation with Naji Hamdan, 47, a U.S. citizen, who claims that he admitted to perpetrating terror related crimes whilst under torture.

“[Hamdan] was placed in a blindingly white room, where he was unable to differentiate the day from the night for three months. In the room the AC was constantly on full-blast and Naji was denied a blanket or even a jacket to keep warm. For the three months that Naji was in state security custody the U.A.E. interrogators would alternate between placing him in solitary confinement for weeks at a time and taking him out blind-folded and handcuffed and torturing him,” said Reem Salahi, Hamdan’s lawyer from ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union).

According to Salahi the only evidence against Hamdan that the U.A.E. will present are confessions to crimes signed under torture.

Hamdan who lived for 20-years in Southern California, moved to the United Arab Emirates to expand his business in 2008. Today he faces life imprisonment under U.A.E. law for terror related crimes.

The FBI first investigated Hamdan in 1999, when he was placed under surveillance and taken in for questioning. Hamdan was never charged for any crime, but his lawyers say he was unfairly questioned because he is a Muslim activist.

In August 2008, after visiting family in Lebanon, Hamdan was taken and detained by U.A.E. security forces for three months. Salahi said “During that time he was interrogated about the years he spent in the U.S. and about information only U.S. federal agents would have. He was tortured severely. At least one American official participated in his interrogation and witnessed his torture,” Salahi said.

Salahi accuses the American government of allowing the U.A.E. to detain and interrogate Hamdan “knowing he would be subject to torture.”

In November 2008, the ACLU filed a habeas petition in the D.C. District Court alleging that the U.S. government was responsible for his improper detention and subjection to torture. One week after filing the petition Hamdan was charged in the U.A.E with “terror related crimes, based on nothing more than his forced confessions,” Salahi said.

On November 26, 2008 Hamdan was transferred to the U.A.E. criminal custody, a normal prison, where he was able to speak to family and legal representatives for the first time in three months since being detained. Salahi said, “the timing of this transfer is most certainly not coincidence, but a clear attempt of the U.S. government to avoid the reach of our lawsuit.”

Salahi added, “Naji Hamdan is a victim of the U.S. government’s policy and practice under the Bush administration, of requesting a foreign government to arrest and detain terrorism suspects, who we cannot arrest and detain ourselves under our laws.”

Salahi accused the American government of “asking another government to do its dirty work.”

Hamdan’s case will be heard in the U.A.E Supreme Court and no appeal following the decision will be granted.

Salahi is currently in Washington D.C. talking to Member’s of Congress about Hamdan’s trial. The ACLU is asking Congress for “Mr. Hamdan’s release because he is a victim of torture and the evidence against him was obtained through torture....If prosecuted in the U.A.E., ensure that Mr. Hamdan receives a fair trial and that evidence obtained under torture is not used against him....Investigate the role of the United States in Mr. Hamdan’s detention and torture.”

Speaking in support of Hamdan’s case, Dbraham Romey from The Muslim American Society (MAS) said, “We are saying to the Congress of the United States, to the President of the United States, to the Attorney General, to the Secretary of State, to leaders of the U.S. military, that we will not be silent and complicit in the ongoing abomination that is torture.”

The ACLU has made contact with Congressman Howard Berman (D-Calif.) who, as Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has written to Attorney General Eric Holder and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton concerning this case. A response is still forthcoming from both Cabinet members.

Whilst in D.C. Salahi will contact other Members’ to ask for their support in releasing her client.

An U.A.E. Supreme Court trial date for Hamdan looks set to be given in the near future.

Holder: No Jail Time For Torturers

Jonathan Bronstein, Talk Radio News Service

The Obama Administration's release of formally classified memos detailing alleged pre-meditated torture techniques approved by Bush Administration officials has placed many lawmakers at a crossroads. President Obama recently delegated the monumental task of deciding whether to prosecute any formal high ranking officials who knowingly allowed for the use of torture against so-called enemy combatants to Attorney General Eric Holder.

Today while testifying in front of the House Appropriation Committee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies, Holder stated "With regard to those members of the intelligence community who acted in good faith and on the reliance of Justice Department opinions that were shared with them, it is not our intention to prosecute those individuals."

Holder's comments were nearly identical to Obama's recent remarks at CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia, where he pledged his support to those officials who followed the orders of their superiors.

But U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) said that he wanted ensure that Americans understood all the facts behind the use of torture as a means of getting vital intelligence information for enemy combatants. Wold asked Holder if anymore memos existed, like those alluding to unreleased memos referenced to by former Vice President Dick Cheney which he says prove that the harsh tactics yielded positive results, Wolf asked Holder if any such memos existed.

"In fairness to the American people, once you (the Obama administration) made a decision to release the existing memos that you put out then you have an obligation to release the rest of the memos," said Wolf

Holder responded forcefully. "I am the Attorney General and I do not control many of these memos that you are referring to."

Yet, at the conclusion of the hearing, Committee Chairman David Obey (D-WI) stated his hope, "At the Justice Department politics is out and justice is back," he said.

Families Of Torture Victims Sue Iraqi Government

In 1993, Kenneth Beaty, a U.S. citizen who was working as an oil-rig drilling supervisor in Kuwait was arrested by Iraqi border guards when he asked for directions at an Iraqi check-point. In 1995, William Barloon, who held a job as an aircraft maintenance supervisor in Kuwait, was also arrested by Iraqi border guards for entering Iraq. Both were taken to the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, where they were allegedly denied food, water, medical care and toilet facilities.

Beaty and Barloon brought suits against Iraq and won the case. Then in 2003, the families of these so-called victims filed a case to sue the Iraqi government for emotional distress caused to the children of these men.

According to U.S. law, foreign states cannot, generally, be sued by individuals in the U.S., but there are exceptions - namely if the country is designated as a sponsor of terror by the U.S.

In 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait and was put on the U.S. list of countries that sponsor terror. As a result Iraq’s immunity was taken away, and United States courts were able to file lawsuits against the nation.

However, with the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 and subsequent collapse of Saddam Hussein’s government, the status of Iraq as a terror state became unclear. That year, Congress enacted the Emergency Wartime Supplemental Appropriations Act, which repealed certain restrictions against terrorist states. The point of this act was to assist Iraq in reconstruction efforts. However, the EWSAA included arguably unclear wording, stating that “any other provision of law that applies to countries that have supported terrorism” should be made inapplicable in Iraq.

The Supreme Court heard from both sides of the argument - victims of torture who believe they deserve retribution from Iraq, and those who think that Iraq is classified as a sovereign nation and that individuals in the U.S. have no right to sue. The case is titled Republic of Iraq v. Beaty, and the decision is forthcoming.

In total, there are $3 billion worth of lawsuits pending, if the Supreme Court rules that U.S. courts have jurisdiction to hear suits against Iraq.