Civil Liberties, Extraordinary Rendition, Supreme Court, Surveillance, Truth to Power
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State Secrets Panel – Center forState Secrets Panel – Center for Constitutional Rights
We bring the voices of lawyers who are suing the government for keeping state secrets. What is a state secrets privilege and why should we be concerned? State secrets have been used by the Bush administration to dismiss public interest lawsuits, such as when in April of this year the Electronic Frontier Foundation challenged the legality of the NSA’s domestic spying program or the wrongfully-accused and tortured victim Maher Arar who sought to sue Attorney General John Ashcroft for his role in deporting him to Syria to face torture and extract false confessions.
Most recent, the Justice Department moved to preempt the Center for Constitutional Rights challenge to warrantless domestic surveillance by invoking the state secrets privilege. The Bush Administration is arguing that CCR’s case could reveal secrets regarding U.S. national security, and thus the presiding judge must dismiss it without reviewing the evidence. We go now and listen to a segment of the State Secrets panel.
We play excerpts from a speech by Bill Goodman, legal director with the Center for Constitutional Rights where he’s led a team of attorneys challenging the worst excesses of the Bush administration since 9/11 and representing Guantanamo detainees before the Supreme Court. Bill Goodman was one of the first to take on the Patriot act and having a portion of it ruled unconstitutional. He also sued against private military contractors at Abu Garaib.
We also hear from Center for Constitutional Rights staff attorney Shane Kadidal. He breaks down the history of the state secrets privilege and how the Bush administration is using it. Shane has worked on a number of cases since September 11th, including working on two cases of citizens detained as enemy combatants and a case on behalf of a class of hundreds of immigrants held in detention long after their final deportation. He’s also counsel on CCRs pending challenge to the NSA’s warrantless surveillance program in CCR versus Bush.
Amnesty International’s General Meeting – Audio Collage
During this year’s Amnesty International’s General Meeting in Portland, Oregon, Law and Disorder co-host Dalia Hashad and producer Geoff Brady collected audio from various interviews, panels and rallies being held at the 2006 General Meeting.
In this recording many Amnesty International staff members and activists gathered to speak out, listen and share their stories. This is an audio compilation from the anti-torture rally in Portland’s historic Pioneer Square mixed and produced by Geoff Brady
Attorney Paul L. Mills on Tasers – Part III
In our last interview from the Law and Disorder Taser series, co-host Dalia Hashad talked with Paul L. Mills, attorney and co-director with L.A. Police Watch about how police misuse the Taser weapon, the case of a 33 year old man who while being handcuffed was stunned by police with a Taser and later died and the future of Taser include wireless implants into human beings.
Lynne Stewart – Part 2
Law and Disorder recently sat down with convicted civil rights attorney Lynne Stewart to talk about her health, her approaching sentencing this September and the details leading up to her indictment and conviction. We play the second part of that interview.
Civil Liberties, Extraordinary Rendition, Guantanamo, Supreme Court, Torture, Truth to Power
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Updates:
- Supreme Court Update – Hamden v. Rumsfeld.
- Signing Statements
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Israel’s Massive Assault Targeting Lebanese Civilians
Israel has warned hundreds of thousands of Lebanese to leave Southern Lebanon as they continue to target Lebanon’s infrastructure and bomb civilian neighborhoods. Meanwhile, a ground invasion begins, and more than 340 Lebanese have been killed most of have been civilians. We talk with author Phyllis Bennis, a Middle East analyst for Foreign Policy In Focus. She is also a senior analyst at the Institute for Policy Studies and a member of the Iraq Speakers Bureau. Among the issues discussed in this interview are the US origins of Israel’s weaponry and fuel, the language of propaganda from Israel and the Geneva convention law in the context of “an occupying power.” Links – http://www.electronicintifada.net/lebanon/
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During the Law and Disorder panel, Ten Minutes To Midnight, at the Left Forum in New York, our hosts covered a range of issues, among them presidential signing statements. While many people may not have heard of signing statements, they represent a signifcant threat to the separation of powers. The President, literally attaches a statement when he signs newly enacted legislation. These statements lay out his interpretation of the law, which may unfairly influence how the judiciary perceive these laws in the future.
In a report to be released today, an American Bar Association task force will recommend that Congress pass legislation providing for some sort of judicial review of presidential signing statements. Some task force members want to give Congress the right to sue over the signing statements; other task force members will not characterize what sort of judicial review might ultimately emerge.
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Lynne Stewart – Part 1
Law and Disorder recently sat down with convicted civil rights attorney Lynne Stewart to talk about her health, her approaching sentencing this September and the details leading up to her indictment and conviction.
Civil Liberties, Extraordinary Rendition, Guantanamo, Truth to Power
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Reverse Rendition Update
Ahmed Omar Abu Ali was originally charged with plotting with Middle East terrorists to assassinate President Bush. An American student who studied abroad in Saudi Arabia, was kidnapped and tortured by Saudis and brought back to the United States. (Read New York Times article here)
Abu Ali is a Houston-born American citizen and the valedictorian of his high school class in suburban Virginia. Back in the U.S. Abu Ali faced trial based on alleged tortured confessions in Saudi Arabia. Abu Ali’s description of Saudi torture tactics are consistent with known Saudi torture interrogation techniques. The evidence of torture was not admitted into the courtroom and Ahmed Omar Abu Ali was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison.
In this Law and Disorder exclusive interview, the hosts speak with Tasneem Abu Ali, the sister of Ahmed. She is now trying to get her brother out of prison.
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Uiger Muslims Transferred From Guantanamo To Albania
Recently, the Uiger Muslims were quietly sent to the economically depressed country of Albania, they do not know the language and are being held in a large compound. It was explained to Law and Disorder that in Albania, the Uigers can move about freely within the compound and cannot leave. Listen to the Jan. 2 show with Uiger segment – Guest – attorney Sabin Willet.
Guest – Neil McGaraghan – an attorney with Bingham McCutchen, representing the Uigers.
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Iraq: The Logic of Withdrawal
How it is possible to end the Iraq occupation? Hosts look at the intentionality of stirring up an unnatural conflict among the Sunnis, Kurds and Shiites and later pull back to discuss the larger picture of the Iraq occupation.
Anthony Arnove, author of Iraq: The Logic of Withdrawal, He his also the editor, with Howard Zinn, of Voices of a People’s History of the United States (Seven Stories), the long-awaited primary-source companion to A People’s History of the United States. Read more about Anthony Arnove here.
Civil Liberties, Extraordinary Rendition, Surveillance, Torture, Truth to Power
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Muhammad Salah, accused of funding Mideast terrorism, says his confession to Israeli Security Agents is false and actually the end product of 53 days in custody, during which Salah’s lawyers say he was often kept cold and awake, threatened and beaten and forced to sit in painful positions. Another example of coerced confessions through torture.
Guest – Attorney Michael Deutsch from the People’s Law Office. Read the latest story in the Chicago Tribune here
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Storming The Court
Before Guantanamo Bay, Cuba became notorious for its human rights violations against Muslims, it was the holding center for thousands of HIV-positive Haitian refugees. More than ten years ago a team of Yale law students and activists took up this cause. They worked victoriously to stop the US government from detaining these refugees indefinitely at Guant?namo, without charges or access to counsel.
Guest – Lawyer Brandt Goldstein, author of Storming the Court, a look inside the controversy surrounding this story of the US Supreme Court and Haitians who were discharged from Guantanamo.
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Google Refuses To Turn Over Internet Data – The Bush Administration’s effort to scoop up and comb through massive amounts of internet data met the “firewall” when Google refused to turn over search engine data to the NSA. However, several other companies such as Yahoo has complied. A White House subpoena is still seeking the requests made using Google’s search engine.
Guest – Sherwin Siy – Siy works as Staff Counsel through EPIC’s Internet Public Interest Opportunities Program. EPIC – Electronic Information Privacy Center. Siy tells Law and Disorder hosts that while Google refuses to turn over search engine archives, there are privacy implications that loom in the future regarding the privacy of public internet activity.
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Music To Get Tortured By
In our second part of Music To Get Tortured By we’re joined by author and filmmaker Jon Ronson. Jon is the creator of a number of films, radio features and books, but among them is the book “Men Who Stare At Goats” which uniquely explores exotic and horrific interrogation techniques by the US military. Jon Ronson explains how these techniques were collected by the US military from the New Age movement in the 1970s.
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Extraordinary Rendition, Guantanamo, Surveillance
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Council of Europe, Dick Marty Condemns Renditions
Dick Marty stressed that the aim of the Parliamentary Assembly, as the Council of Europe’s political/parliamentary organ, was to defend the values shared by the member states and combat terrorism resolutely and thoroughly, while however, complying with the fundamental principles of states founded on the rule of law and the observance of human rights.
Guest – John Sifton with Human Rights Watch
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Congressional officials want to investigate the disclosure that the NSA had gained access to main telephone arteries in parts of the U.S.
Guest – Lisa Graves, senior counsel with the American Civil Liberties Union says, “There’s no data-mining loophole in the Fourth Amendment.” Ms.Graves added, “We’re seeing an administration that’s engaging in a lot of legal hair-splitting to justify behavior that’s not authorized by the law.”
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Uigers – NW Chinese held at Guantanamo – They can’t be returned, yet the Pentagon has declared them “NLEC” meaning no longer enemy combatants. In fact it appears they never were enemy combatants to begin with — they were caught for the bounty. Now they are being held indefinitely and STILL being treated like prisoners strictly because the administration thinks that is the most convenient solution.
Guest – Sabin Willet – a partner with the law firm of Bingham McCutchen. He is the author of two previous novels, The Deal and The Betrayal.
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CAIR Files FOIA Request On Radiation Monitoring of Muslim Sites A prominent national Islamic civil rights and advocacy group today announced the filing of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for all government records relating to a secret government program that monitored the radiation levels at more than 100 Muslim homes, businesses and mosques in the capital region and in other areas nationwide.
Guest – Arsalan Iftikar, the National Legal Director of CAIR
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Extraordinary Rendition, Guantanamo, Torture, Truth to Power
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Letters from Young Activists
In letters addressed to their parents, to past generations, to each other, to the youth of tomorrow and to their future selves, the authors articulate their vision for the world as they work towards racial, economic, gender, environmental and global justice. As the editors write in their introduction: “From globalization to the war on terrorism and beyond, our generation is impelled to action in the midst of a rapidly changing and unique political moment. Our challenge, and yours, is to live our lives in a way that does not make a mockery of our values.
Guest – Chesa Boudin – a Rhodes Scholar, is a student at Yale Law School and author of Gringo: A Coming-of-Age in Latin America (Scribner)
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Recent Ruling In Jose Padilla’s Case
Guest – Attorney Andy Patel, Padilla’s lawyer.
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Anatomy of a Dirty Bomb
“According to Dr. Thomas Cochran, in order to shield a 130 gram cobalt 60 source — the size needed to simulate Sandia’s worst case Manhattan scenario — to make it safe for human handling would require a one-and-a-half to two metric ton lead shield. Not exactly carry-on luggage.”….
Guest – Dr. Thomas Cochran, a physicist at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
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Abu Ali Case – Reverse Rendition
– Follow up – Exchange student who traveled to Saudi Arabia – was held and tortured at the request of the U.S. He confessed to having a plan to single handedly free all the GTMO detainees and shoot President Bush on the sidewalk while being tortured.
Guest – Attorney Khurrum Wahid
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Witness To Torture
Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice at a press conference from her European tour that focused on US torture and abuse. Rice’s visit drew protests across Europe. The story deepened last week with reports of a revealed US Defense Department memo that proves an explicit policy of rendition for torture.
Last week a group of 25 US Christians called Witness Against Torture illegally entered Cuba and embarked on a 4-5 day hike intent on arriving to the US Naval Base at Guant?namo to visit the prisoners are on the doorstep of the base.
We go now to hear excerpts from a Witness Against Torture press conference held last week. Among the speakers are the Center for Constitutional Rights attorney Gita Guiterezz and CCR president and co-host Michael Ratner.
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