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Rice admits torture okayed
Secretary of State Rice become the first Bush administration official to admit that high-level discussion of the use of tortue took place in 2002 and 2003. Secretary of State Rice become the first Bush administration official to admit that high-level discussion of the use of tortue took pl... more
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The right to assembly
The American Civil Liberties Union is representing dozens of protestors arrested at the RNC.
Chuck Samuelson of the ACLU says much of the police repression during the RNC was based on law coming out of the Patriot Act.
Charles (Chuck) Samuelson is the Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota. He graduated from Syracuse University with a B.A. in Medieval History and a minor in political science. He studied at Freiburg University in Germany and pursued a doctorate in Medieval History at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He moved to the Twin Cities in 1977 and has pursued a career in the non-profit sector for the past 25 years. The American Civil Liberties Union is representing dozens of protestors arrested at the RNC. ... more -
Ashcroft Falsely Claims Waterboarding Has Been Seen as Legal
During a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee today, former Attorney General John Ashcroft falsely claimed that waterboarding has “consistently” been defined as “not torture” and refused to agree that the use of enhanced interrogation techniques — including waterboarding — on captured U.S. soldiers is “unacceptable” or “criminal.”
REP. MAXINE WATERS: Do you think that if these techniques were used on American soldiers that they would be totally unacceptable and even criminal? […]
ASHCROFT: My job, as Attorney General, was to try and elicit from the experts and the best people in the Department definitions that comported with the statues enacted by the Congress and the Constitution of the United States. And those statutes have consistently been interpreted so as to say, by the definitions that, waterboarding, as described in the CIA’s request, is not torture.
Watch it: During a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee today, former Attorney General John Ashcroft falsely claimed that waterboarding ... more -
Ashcroft testifies on 'torture' memos
"It was not a hard decision for me."
That was the way former U.S. Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft today described his decision to back off controversial Justice Department legal opinions produced by then-Deputy Assistant Atty. Gen. John Yoo. The memoranda, written in 2002 and 2003, you may remember, spelled out the use of interrogation techniques that described torture as "extreme acts" that cause pain similar in intensity to that caused by death or organ failure.
The memos said, in effect, that anything short of that was OK. They have been among the most controversial documents to come to light in the Bush administration in its campaign against terrorism.
The former attorney general, who ran the Justice Department from 2001 to 2005, was the man who originally approved the memos.
But testifying before the House Judiciary Committee today, he said: “It became apparent in the further examination of those opinions, when made in another time frame, that there were matters of concerns that were brought to my opinion."
Democrats challenged Ashcroft, according to the Associated Press account of the hearing, with questions about the frequency of waterboarding -- and he said he did not think that the procedure, as the CIA then described it, was torture.
--James Gerstenzang
Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images "It was not a hard decision for me." ... more -
Ashcroft: Waterboarding doesn't constitute torture
The controversial interrogation technique of waterboarding has served a "valuable" purpose and does not constitute torture, former Attorney General John Ashcroft told a House committee Thursday.
Testifying on the Bush administration's interrogation rules before the House Judiciary Committee, Ashcroft defended the technique while answering a question from Rep. Howard Coble, R-North Carolina.
"Waterboarding, as we all know, is a controversial issue. Do you think it served a beneficial purpose?" the congressman asked.
"The reports that I have heard, and I have no reason to disbelieve them, indicate that they were very valuable," Ashcroft said, adding that CIA Director George Tenet indicated the "value of the information received from the use of enhanced interrogation techniques -- I don't know whether he was saying waterboarding or not, but assume that he was for a moment -- the value of that information exceeded the value of information that was received from all other sources."
Ashcroft, who stated his opposition to torture, said the Justice Department has determined that waterboarding, as defined and described by the CIA, doesn't constitute torture.
"I believe a report of waterboarding would be serious, but I do not believe it would define torture," Ashcroft said, responding to questions from Rep. Maxine Waters, D-California. The controversial interrogation technique of waterboarding has served a "valuable" purpose and does not constitute torture, ... more -
U.S. to Settle Lawsuit of Man Investigated in Anthrax Case
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department announced Friday that it would pay $4.6 million to settle a lawsuit filed by Steven J. Hatfill, a former Army biodefense researcher intensively investigated as a “person of interest” in the deadly anthrax letters of 2001.
The settlement, consisting of $2.825 million in cash and an annuity paying Dr. Hatfill $150,000 a year for 20 years, brings to an end a five-year legal battle that had recently threatened a reporter with large fines for declining to name sources she said she did not recall.
Dr. Hatfill, who worked at the Army’s laboratory at Fort Detrick in Frederick, Md., in the late 1990s, was the subject of a flood of media coverage beginning in mid-2002, after television cameras showed F.B.I. agents in biohazard suits searching his apartment near the Army base. He was later named a “person of interest” in the case by then Attorney General John Ashcroft, speaking on national television.
In a news conference in August 2002, Dr. Hatfill tearfully denied that he had anything to do with the anthrax letters and said irresponsible media coverage based on government leaks had destroyed his reputation.
Dr. Hatfill’s lawsuit, filed in 2003, alleged that F.B.I. agents and Justice Department officials involved in the criminal investigation of the anthrax mailings had leaked information about him to the news media in violation of the Privacy Act. In order to prove their case, his lawyers took depositions from key F.B.I. investigators, senior officials and a number of reporters who had covered the investigation.
Mark Grannis, a lawyer for Dr. Hatfill, said his client was pleased with the settlement.
“This case has been about how the press behaves and how the government behaves,” Mr. Grannis said. “The good news is that we still live in a country where a guy who’s been horribly abused can go to a judge and say ‘I need your help,’ and maybe it takes a while, but he gets justice.”
The settlement, Mr. Grannis said, “means that Steven Hatfill is finally an ex-person of interest.”
The settlement called new attention to the fact that nearly seven years after the toxic letters were mailed, killing five people and sickening at least 17 others, the case has not been solved. WASHINGTON — The Justice Department announced Friday that it would pay $4.6 million to settle a lawsuit filed by Steven J. Hatfill, a ... more -
Supreme Court to decide on a lawsuit against John Ashcroft
Four days after handing the Bush administration a major setback in its approach to the war on terror, the US Supreme Court has set the stage for another showdown over controversial antiterror policies.
On Monday, the nation's highest court agreed to decide how much evidence is needed to sustain a lawsuit seeking to hold former Attorney General John Ashcroft and current FBI Director Robert Mueller personally responsible for harsh antiterror policies that allegedly led to abuses of detainees in US prisons.
The issue arises in a suit filed by a Pakistani Muslim held for seven months in solitary confinement in a Brooklyn prison after being wrongly suspected of involvement in terrorism after 9/11. Javaid Iqbal was deported to Pakistan after the FBI determined he was not a terrorist.
Government lawyers asked that the suit be thrown out. But a federal judge and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York have allowed the case to move forward. Four days after handing the Bush administration a major setback in its approach to the war on terror, the US Supreme Court has set the... more -
Torture and the Law
"This disclosure presents a nested series of legal implications. "I predict that there will be calls for top administration officials to be prosecuted in an international court for war crimes," said Erwin Chemerinsky, a civil liberties expert who teaches at Duke University Law School. "This meeting supports the involvement of top officials -- including the president -- in approving torture."
New pressure for top Bush administration officials to be prosecuted in an international court of war crimes. Hard to imagine the McCain campaign seriously considering Condoleezza Rice as a vice presidential candidate given this information. "This disclosure presents a nested series of legal implications. "I predict that there will be calls for top administration ... more -
Crashing Ashcroft
40 demonstrators wearing black hoods crashed a speech by former Attorney General John Ashcroft in November 2007. Ashcroft seemed a bit rattled, but continued his talk anyway. Audience members interrupted to ask him about court rulings and the prison at Guantanamo Bay. The interruptions were limited, and Ashcroft delivered the bulk of his speech without any problems. A tame question and answer session followed. 40 demonstrators wearing black hoods crashed a speech by former Attorney General John Ashcroft in November 2007. Ashcroft seemed a bit... more
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Crashing Ashcroft
40 demonstrators wearing black hoods crashed a speech by former Attorney General John Ashcroft at Cornell University in November 2007. Ashcroft seemed a bit rattled, but continued his talk anyway. Audience members interrupted to ask him about court rulings and the prison at Guantanamo Bay. The interruptions were limited, and Ashcroft delivered the bulk of his speech without any problems. A tame question and answer session followed.
Produced by Evan Engel at Ithaca College. 40 demonstrators wearing black hoods crashed a speech by former Attorney General John Ashcroft at Cornell University in November 2007.... more -
Did Gonzales lie about meeting w/Ashcroft?
According to notes from FBI Director Robert Mueller, former Attorney General John Ashcroft was "feeble, barely articulate, clearly stressed" when Alberto Gonzales and Andrew Card came to his hospital room in March '04 to try and get him to reauthorize the secret wiretap program. Gonzales testified before Congress that Ashcroft had been "lucid" and done most of the talking during the encounter. According to notes from FBI Director Robert Mueller, former Attorney General John Ashcroft was "feeble, barely articulate, clearl... more
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John Ashcroft
