at-Largely

Yes, We Do Body Counts

Posted By Cernig

Over at Salon today there's a disturbing story of the kind of hyperkinetic and ultimately harmful counter-insurgency tactics which are being driven by a top-down demand for results in Iraq. The article explores the events surrounding the murder of an Iraqi farmer by a U.S. sniper team and relates it to pressure for body counts by commanders who then walk away untouched by the legal fallout of their subordinates' actions.

A review of thousands of pages of documents from the legal proceedings obtained by Salon shows that in the months prior to [the Iraqi farmer, Genei Nesir Khudair al-Janabi]’s death, the young snipers, already frustrated by guerrilla tactics, were pressed to their physical limits and pushed by officers to stretch the bounds of the laws of war in order to increase the enemy body count. When the United States wallowed in Vietnam’s counterinsurgency quagmire decades ago, the same pressure placed on soldiers resulted in some of the worst atrocities of that war.[…]

The pressure from above for more bodies was also toxic in Iraq, where the isolated, outnumbered and outgunned snipers of the 1st Battalion had to make split-second life-or-death decisions. When those decisions landed them in a military court, it was the lowest-ranking soldiers, not the brass, who paid the price, and a sergeant who said he was pushed into taking a fatal shot who wound up with a long prison sentence. It was battalion commander Lt. Col Robert Balcavage, who pushed for a higher body count, who initiated the prosecution of three of the battalion’s snipers.

The original article is several pages long and bears reading carefully. Matt Duss at The Wonk Room observes:

I think we’ve seen this “dead bodies=success” mentality bleed out into pro-war blogs as well, where the numbers of insurgent dead are credulously relayed and uncritically reported as progress, irrespective of the collateral damage incurred in those deaths and of the galvanizing effects that this has on support for insurgency. (Of course, if you’re someone who believes that trying not to create more insurgents is irrelevant to the task of counterinsurgency, then no big deal. I suppose one could always apply the Bush Doctrine on the ground in Iraq, and justify the murder of Genei Nesir Khudair al-Janabi on the theory that he might, one day, have joined the insurgency. But then you’d have to kill his son, and then all his friends, too. Nice war we’ve got going here, huh?)

The murder of Genei Nesir Khudair al-Janabi, and the atmosphere in which it occurred, is reminiscent of the Abu Ghraib abuses. In both cases, a high-pressure environment, hazy rules of engagement, and pressure from above to produce usable intelligence/dead “insurgents” led to atrocity. In both cases, the lowest men down were punished for carrying out the directives of their commanders (and Commander-in-Chief), while those commanders were left untouched.

It appears that the Vietnamization of the military is inevitable whenever the officer corps is decimated by principled junior officers quitting after multiple stressful tours, leaving too many tough guy/big ego/inferiority complex guys in command who are unfit for leading COIN operations. The moral is to not get into wars of choice in the first place, but the damage may take a generation to repair.

Bloch shut down Siegelman investigation?

I suggest that Karl Rove and Noel Hillman not stray too far from home in the near future. For whatever reason - either because Bush wants to leave office with at least one scandal resolved or what - But Mukasey's DOJ/FBI may actually be doing their job on this one:

"WASHINGTON (AP) ” The U.S. Office of Special Counsel last year shut down a previously undisclosed investigation into the federal prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, according to an internal memo made public Wednesday.

The investigation was being conducted by a task force formed at the agency a year ago to pursue high-profile political investigations in Washington, most notably whether the White House played politics in firing U.S. attorneys. It began gathering information on the Siegelman case in September and was planning to request documents from the Justice Department in October before Special Counsel Scott Bloch ordered the case closed, according to the Jan. 18 draft memo, made public by the Project on Government Oversight, a watchdog group.

The investigation was one of many that the task force had taken up, and the memo shows that Bloch frequently differed with investigators about which cases to pursue.

<snip>

An attorney for Bloch, who himself is under a federal investigation, declined comment. But a person familiar with the origins of the POGO draft document said the decision to not pursue Siegelman or other cases stemmed mostly from a shortage of time and resources. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation.

Siegelman, a Democrat, said the memo suggests further political interference in his case and reiterated his call for the Justice Department to appoint a special prosecutor to take up the matter.

"The question is who told them to shut it down," Siegelman said Wednesday when told of the memo. "Why would you start an investigation and let it proceed and then shut it down? The logical conclusion is that somebody intervened and told them to shut down the investigation."

Siegelman has long claimed that Republicans engineered his prosecution on bribery and other corruption charges to kill his chances for re-election, a claim repeatedly denied by federal prosecutors. His attorneys requested earlier this year that the Justice Department appoint a special prosecutor to investigate whether White House appointees in Washington, including former Bush adviser Karl Rove, influenced the case. Rove also has denied any involvement.

The Special Counsel's office is an independent agency charged with investigating unlawful political activity by government employees and ensuring that government whistle-blowers are not subjected to reprisals."

Who would have the authority to tell Bloch to shut down the investigation? Guesses? You only get one. One more point, what are the odds that Bloch is being thrown on his sword to stop the bleeding upward in the chain of command? Okay, I think it time me and Scott Horton won the Pulitzer for our reporting on this case.

Can you spot the corrupt officials in this story?

Sorry folks, I have been on deadline. Now, some very strange news today that I have no idea what to make of and since it is by way of Foxified WSJ, it really provides me with little ability to even speculate as to why this happened:

"WASHINGTON -- Federal agents raided the Office of Special Counsel, a government agency involved in several high-profile and politically sensitive investigations. The agents seized computer files and documents from its chief, Scott Bloch, and his staff.

Mr. Bloch, who was appointed by President Bush, has been under investigation since 2005 by the Office of Personnel Management for employee claims that he abused his agency's authority, retaliated against its staff and dismissed whistleblower cases without adequate examination. Mr. Bloch couldn't be reached to comment.

<snip>

In the Journal article, Mr. Bloch confirmed the Geeks on Call visit but said it was needed to eradicate a software virus. He said that none of the documents sought in the inquiry were affected and that the employee claims against him were "unfounded and unfair."

The Justice Department had no comment about Tuesday's raid. A Special Counsel spokesman said, "we are cooperating with law enforcement. We do not yet know what this is about." He said the agency "is continuing to perform the independent mission of this office."

In the Tuesday raid, 20 agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and an inspector general's office served grand jury subpoenas on Mr. Bloch and searched his office and home. At least 17 employees were asked to appear before the grand jury next week and answer questions about possible obstruction of justice and destruction of federal records during an investigation.

The Office of Special Counsel, created in the 1970s in the wake of the Watergate scandal, probes sensitive personnel and whistleblower claims by government workers. It also enforces the Hatch Act, which forbids the use of federal resources for partisan political purposes.

Among the office's recent inquiries was whether former White House political director Karl Rove and others improperly used U.S. agencies to help elect Republicans.

Mr. Bloch's investigation of the White House political operation began after a Rove deputy gave a series of political presentations to government agencies on Republican prospects in specific congressional races."

Is this related to the series Raw Story and Harpers has been doing on political prosecutions in the deep South? I don't know. Can we trust the DOJ - after everything - to police itself and actually investigate someone helping out the Rove machine? I don't know. Is Bloch a patsy target or corrupt? I don't know. Honestly, this is where things have gotten to. When you cannot tell if the alleged criminals are those making the arrests and raiding offices or the ones whose offices are being raided and who are arrested. Justice is the true victim of this administration and on every level.

Bush Punts The Gitmo Trials

Posted By Cernig

Via Jeralyn at Talk Left comes the news that the Bush administration has punted the entire thorny problem of Gitmo, its detainees and their trails to the next incumbent.

Nearly seven years later, however, not one of the approximately 775 terrorism suspects who have been held on this island has faced a jury trial inside the new complex, and U.S. officials think it is highly unlikely that any of the Sept. 11 suspects will before the Bush administration ends.

Though men such as Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the alleged Sept. 11 mastermind, are expected to be arraigned in coming months -- appearing publicly for the first time after years of secret detention and harsh interrogations -- officials say it could be a year or longer before worldwide audiences will see even the first piece of evidence or testimony against them.

Jeralyn thinks it likely that any of the three candidates will close Gitmo and then scrap the military tribunals system which has made such a sick joke of American justice in favor of civil trials or trials under the full panoply of military law.

Personally, I'm doubtful about that. Arraignments before Bush's time ends are a pretty transparent attempt to "lock in" the tribunals system for the next President, who would be faced with either going with the current system or arraigning anew and then holding trails that would be even further delayed. Worse, the next President has to know that fair trials will lead to most, if not all, of those charged being released because evidence against them will be tainted by torture allegations. It will be a straight-on contest between doing the right thing and caving in the face of a certain political storm rightwing outrage when "confessed terrorists" walk free. Given their records to date, I've no confidence whatsoever in any of the three deciding to do the right thing.

Media Alert: I will be on the Thom Hartmann show today...

 I will be on the Thom Hartmann show at 2:30 PM EST (National) on Air America Radio. We will be discussing my interview with Mississippi Supreme Court Justice, Oliver E. Diaz Jr., and the continued imprisonment of attorney Paul Minor. I believe the phone lines will be open during the discussion (I am not entirely sure on this). You can call at 866-303-2270.

US Special Forces Doused Detainees with cold water and sent them out into freezing cold to die...

Again, from the ACLU - which in these last 7 years has been one of the few organizations to fight for the legacy of this country and its Constitution - I got the following via presser (emphasis mine). The document-links are available at the end of the release:

Newly Released Government Documents Show Special Forces Used Illegal Interrogation Techniques In Afghanistan

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: (212) 549-2666 or (646) 785-1894; media@aclu.org

NEW YORK – The American Civil Liberties Union obtained documents today from the Department of Defense confirming the military’s use of unlawful interrogation methods on detainees held in U.S. custody in Afghanistan. The documents from the military’s Criminal Investigation Division (CID), obtained as a result of the ACLU’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit, include the first on-the-ground reports of torture in Gardez, Afghanistan to be publicly released.

“These documents make it clear that the military was using unlawful interrogation techniques in Afghanistan,” said Amrit Singh, an attorney with the ACLU. “Rather than putting a stop to these systemic abuses, senior officials appear to have turned a blind eye to them.”

Special Operations officers in Gardez admitted to using what are known as Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) techniques, which for decades American service members experienced as training to prepare for the brutal treatment they might face if captured.

Today’s documents reveal charges that Special Forces beat, burned, and doused eight prisoners with cold water before sending them into freezing weather conditions. One of the eight prisoners, Jamal Naseer, died in U.S. custody in March 2003. In late 2004, the military opened a criminal investigation into charges of torture at Gardez. Despite numerous witness statements describing the evidence of torture, the military’s investigation concluded that the charges of torture were unsupported. It also concluded that Naseer’s death was the result of a “stomach ailment,” even though no autopsy had been conducted in his case. Documents uncovered today also refer to sodomy committed by prison guards; the victims’ identities are redacted.

“These documents raise serious questions about the adequacy of the military’s investigations into prisoner abuse,” added Singh.

The ACLU also obtained today a file today related to the death of Muhammad Al Kanan, a prisoner held at Camp Bucca in Iraq. The file reveals that British doctors refused to issue a death certificate for fear of being sued for malpractice:
www.aclu.org/pdfs/safefree/20080416/CID_ROI_Bucca.pdf

In October 2003, the ACLU – along with the Center for Constitutional Rights, Physicians for Human Rights, Veterans for Common Sense, and Veterans for Peace – filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act for records concerning the treatment of prisoners in U.S. custody abroad. To date, more than 100,000 pages of government documents have been released in response to the ACLU's FOIA lawsuit.

Attorneys in the FOIA case are Lawrence S. Lustberg and Melanca D. Clark of the New Jersey-based law firm Gibbons, P.C.; Jameel Jaffer, Singh and Judy Rabinovitz of the ACLU; Arthur Eisenberg and Beth Haroules of the New York Civil Liberties Union; and Shayana Kadidal and Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights.

In addition, many of the FOIA documents are also located and summarized in a recently published book by Jaffer and Singh, Administration of Torture. More information is available online at:
www.aclu.org/administrationoftorture

The documents received in the ACLU’s FOIA litigation are online at:
www.aclu.org/torturefoia

All of today’s documents are available at:
www.aclu.org/safefree/torture/34922res20080416.html              

Just remember, the people directly responsible for these horrors and so many others known and still unknown are the following:

George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, John Ashcroft, Alberto Gonzales, John Yoo, Jay Bybee, David Addington, George Tenent, Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleezza Rice, General Geoffrey Miller, General William Boykin, Lt. General Ricardo Sanchez, Contractors from Titan, and CACI.

At every opportunity list the people responsible for these crimes so that their names become synonymous with the atrocities they are responsible for.

The Liberty City Seven: Mistrial

Apparently Alberto Gonzales - the former US Attorney General (who will hopefully someday soon be standing with John Yoo at the Hague) - did not think anyone would notice his hyped up terra arrests before the elections or before important anti-civil liberties measures were to be passed by the Bush cabal.  But as with all of the cases that Gonzo helped push and his underlings helped deliver (with the exception of Jose Padilla), the case of the Miami six, does not hold up in court as today's mistrial has demonstrated. Remember, all six men were whisked into harsh detention and their arrest so hyped up in the media that the government's case should have been a slam dunk, right? Wrong!

"MIAMI, April 16 (Reuters) - A U.S. judge declared a mistrial on Wednesday for six men accused of joining forces with al Qaeda to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago as part of an Islamic jihad against the United States.

The decision was a setback for U.S. prosecutors. It was the second mistrial declared by District Court Judge Joan Lenard in the case involving the men from Miami's impoverished Liberty City neighborhood."

Shall we wager that the DOJ will now target Judge Lenard, the way they have with other judges not to their liking (Teel, Whitfield, Diaz, etc.)? Any bets?

"U.S. authorities had billed the arrest of the men as a breakthrough in their efforts to detect and smash home-grown terrorism plots in their earliest stages, and said the defendants conspired to bomb America's tallest skyscraper, the Sears Tower, the FBI's Miami office and other federal buildings."

The operative word here is "billed."

"But after 13 days of deliberations, and three notes from the jury members to the judge saying they were unable to reach a verdict, Lenard declared a mistrial.

The defendants were filmed swearing an oath of allegiance to Osama bin Laden's militant al Qaeda group, but their lawyers argued that they were only playing along in the hope of getting money out of a man claiming to have links to al Qaeda but who was actually an FBI informant."

Entrapment anyone?

"Lenard scheduled a status conference for next Wednesday to decide whether there will be another trial for the men, who faced four terrorism-related conspiracy charges that carried a combined maximum of 70 years in prison.

The first trial in the so-called "Liberty City Seven" case ended in a mistrial in December when jurors said they were unable to reach a verdict for the same six defendants. A seventh man won acquittal at that trial.

At the time of their arrests in June 2006, federal agents said the men, who operated out of a ramshackle warehouse in Liberty City, had terrorist plans that were "aspirational rather than operational" because they had neither al Qaeda contacts nor the means of carrying out actual attacks."

Thought crime, oh my.

"Nevertheless, the arrests were presented as a major blow against terrorism. U.S. officials denied there was any political link between the Miami case and the midterm U.S. congressional election in November 2006."

They can deny it all they want to, the evidence - or lack there of - speaks for itself. Think about this, would you put so much effort in "billing" a case entirely based on a trap you set where the crime to be committed was one of "aspiration?"

Died hanging from wrists and gagged, with over 25 rib fractures

Posted by Kathy

I want to bring to your attention an important blog entry by bewart. Keep in mind the recent revelations that George W. Bush authorized the use of torture. See Larisa's post here:

This is my first of a series of diaries about prisoners murdered by US forces. It will tell the story of an Iraqi man who died hanging by his cuffed wrists from a door frame, gagged, and beaten to death by his US interrogators. As the Final Autopsy Report noted:

The remains are received clad in a white shirt, white pajama type pants, and white undershorts. Feces covers the clothing from the waist down....There is gauze dressing on the left wrist. No other evidence of medical intervention is noted.... The right chest wall has fractures of ribs three through seven anteriorly and ribs six through twelve posteriorly. The left chest wall has fractures of ribs two through nine anteriorly and ribs seven through twelve posteriorly. There are fractures of the lateral aspect of ribs nine and ten on the left side. There is a horizontal fracture through the mid-portion of the body of the sternum.

Yes, our tax dollars are paying for this. Hung up by the wrists and beaten so badly that he not only had over 25 separate rib fractures, many slicing into his lungs, he also had a fractured sternum. The thick, solid bone protecting your heart.

From the Final Autopsy Report:

Circumstances of Death: Iraqi detainee died while in U.S. custody.

Authorization for Autopsy: Office of the Armed Forces Medical Examiner, lAW 10 USC 1471

Identification: Identification by accompanying paperwork and wristband, both of which include his name and a detainee number, 3ACR1582

CAUSE OF DEATH: Blunt Force. Injuries and Asphyxia

MANNER OF DEATH: Homicide

FINAL AUTOPSY DIAGNOSES:
I. Multiple Blunt Force Injuries
A. Cutaneous abrasions and contusions of the scalp, torso, and extremities
B. Deep contusions of the chest wall musculature and abdominal wall
C. Multiple, bilateral, displaced and comminuted rib fractures, with lacerations of the pleura.
D. Bilateral lung contusions
E. Bilateral hemothoraces
F. Hemorrhage into the mesentery of the small and large bowel
G. Hemorrhage into the left sternohyoid muscle with associated fractures of the thyroid cartilage and hyoid bone
II. History of Asphyxia, Secondary to Occlusion of the Oral Airway
III. Pleural and Pulmonary Adhesions
IV. Hypertensive Cardiovascular Disease
A. Hypertrophy of the left ventricle of the heart (2.0-centimeters)
B. Cardiomegaly (450-grams)
V. Enlarged, Nodular Prostate Gland
VI. Toxicology is negative for ethanol, drugs of abuse, select therapeutic
medications, and cyanide

OPINION

This 47-year-old White male, , died of blunt force injuries and asphyxia. The autopsy disclosed multiple blunt force injuries,including deep contusions of the chest wall, numerous displaced rib fractures, lung contusions, and hemorrhage into the mesentery of the small and large intestine. An examination of the neck structures revealed hemorrhage into the strap muscles and fractures of the thyroid cartilage and hyoid bone. According to the investigative report provided by U.S. Army CID, the decedent was shackled to the top of a doorframe with a gag in his mouth at the time he lost consciousness and became pulseless.

The severe blunt force injuries, the hanging position, and the obstruction of the oral cavity with a gag contributed to this individual's death. The manner of death is homicide."

##
Much more at the ACLU

Your Legacy Mr. President - Chapter One: War Crimes

Bush has said continuously that it is not us who should judge him, but history.

"The true history of my administration will be written 50 years from now, and you and I will not be around to see it."

Neither Bush or anyone else has to wait for the judgment of tomorrow.  One of the most notorious chapters of the Bush reign, if not THE  most notorious, is the order given by Bush and carried out by his loyalists to torment, torture, and nearly kill prisoners of war in violation of Geneva conventions, international law and domestic law.

The crimes committed on his order, in our name, have already been judged in the past, when other, morally bankrupt leaders engaged in extreme human rights abuses.

What this president and his cabal have done will haunt this nation until the end of history. Bush need not, however,  point to some future historian as deciding the legacy of his administration, because we already know now what his legacy will be and what it already is. We now know without doubt the following:

It's official, Alabama is the Soviet Union...

When I lived behind the iron curtain, my parents taught me never to talk anyone about anything. This caveat was not restricted to the typical warning given by regular parents to their regular children about the regular concerns of every day life.

No, the lecture I got, as did so many others like me, was a sober lecture given by Soviet parents to their Soviet children, who had to begin schooling in big brother's tactics at an early age. One wrong word could send an entire family to a work camp or prison. This was not the fear of over-protective parents, or even parents who have to live in a reality of constant Amber alerts blaring across their screen and fear that some sick, lone pedophile will abduct their child in broad daylight, as so often happens in the West these days. No, this was the reality of life under the Soviet regime, knowing that everything was watched, everyone was listening, no one could be trusted, and children were often the targets for inquiry into what their parents say behind closed doors. Friends were the next best thing, which may explain what we are about to hear out of the halls of the state legislature of Alabama.

Alabama is the Soviet Union

Although the whole of the United States appears to be collapsing into this type of model, Alabama in particular appears to be leaping in that direction at a faster pace.  When I first blogged about the subpoenas that were served en masse to Democrats in the Alabama state legislature last month, it was crickets from across the blogs of both isles, the corporate press, and the general public. Now the New York Times has thankfully noticed this very brazen act of political intimidation and I hope that others might follow. Here is the news from Soviet Alabama today:

"MONTGOMERY, Ala. — There is fear in the halls of the Alabama State House. Your colleague may be wired. Somebody may be watching you. An indictment looms.

After a dozen legislators received subpoenas one day last month in a criminal investigation, an atmosphere of paranoia and anxiety has descended on the gleaming white building that houses the State Legislature, many of its occupants say.

Legislators are sweeping their offices for bugs. Routine horse-trading for votes is stymied, for fear it could be misinterpreted. A wary lawmaker agrees to meet a reporter only in a wide-open parking lot. After-hours get-togethers are off.

The concern is a result of a long-running federal investigation into corruption within the state’s system of two-year colleges that has led to guilty pleas on bribery and corruption charges by one state lawmaker and the system’s former chancellor. The Birmingham News reported in 2006 that a quarter of the 140 members of the Legislature had financial ties to the college system, with most of the jobs or contracts going to lawmakers or their relatives. Recent reports indicate the number has grown to nearly a third of the Legislature."

Let me include some of the details that the Times article, however, left out, which I cited in my earlier discussion of this massive intimidation tactic:

"Reporters were apparently tipped off by calls stating U.S. Marshals were coming to the Alabama Statehouse to serve some legislators.   "The drama surrounding these actions and the U.S.

Department of Justice's disruption of a legislative session for the routine serving of a summons to appear in court sends a poor signal to Alabama citizens who are already complaining about partisan political interference into the federal prosecution of former Democratic Governor Don Siegelman," says Spearman.

These ladies and gentlemen have not been charged with a crime and could have been served by other means in their local communities, not in Montgomery during a legislative session in front of TV cameras and reporters." Spearman stated. State law actually prohibits serving members of the legislature while they are in session. Section 29-1-7 of the Alabama Code protects members from this kind of action by U.S. Marshals yesterday. In fact, the Marshals could have violated this law by their disruption of the session and have been charged with a misdemeanor."