I am as sick as a dog physically, and even sicker at soul...

So much for change we can believe in....


You Can Forget Prosecutions For Torture Orders Now

As I wrote over the weekend, progressives who really hoped the Obama administration would roll back the Bush years' secrecy over illegal renditions and torture were waiting with intense interest to see what would happen in a key court case today. Five men were suing Boeing subsidiary, Jeppesen Dataplan, accusing the flight-planning company of aiding the CIA in flying them to other countries and secret CIA camps where they were tortured.
One of those men is Binyam Mohamed, who was illegally kidnapped and had his penis sliced to bits because he read a spoof online about how to make an H-bomb and who is now still held at Gitmo, where he is on hunger-strike, even though he is no longer accused of any crime. He made headlines at the end of last week because two British judges accused the Bush and Obama administrations of threatening the British government to keep evidence of torture supressed. Two other plaintiffs are in jail in Egypt and Morocco, both countries known to practise torture, after being sent there by the US and the other two are free after being held for years.MORE

Sliced his Genitals with a Scalpel? Waterboarding was the Least of it

Think Progress has found a London Daily Telegraph article that will make your blood run cold. Remember last week the British High Court ruled that documents describing the treatment of Binyam Mohamed, a British resident and prisoner at Guantanamo Bay, could not be released to the public because the Bush Administration had threatened to stop sharing intelligence with England ?
Story not true.

UK government suppressed evidence on Binyam Mohamed torture because MI6 helped his interrogators

So when the Britsh Foreign Secretary asked the court to withold information it was to hide this:

A British official, who is regularly briefed on intelligence operations, said: "The concern was that the document revealed that intelligence from the British agencies was used by the Americans and that there were British questions asked while Binyam Mohamed was being tortured.
"Miliband is being pushed hard by the intelligence agencies to protect the identity of those involved."
The 25 lines edited out of the court papers contained details of how Mr Mohamed's genitals were sliced with a scalpel and other torture methods so extreme that waterboarding, the controversial technique of simulated drowning, "is very far down the list of things they did," the official said.

MORE

Breaking News: Obama Continuing Bush Policy re State Secrets In Torture Rendition Case (7 updates)

On Monday, the Obama administration may answer some lingering questions about the parameters of our torture policies now that Bush is history. Oral argument is scheduled to address whether Boeing subsidiary Jeppesen Dataplan can face trial on civil liability for torture based on its role in extraordinary rendition flights (pdf file). Five men claiming that they were tortured by the US alleged that Jeppesen transported the rendered prisoners to countries known for torture or to CIA black site prisons. A federal district court dismissed the lawsuit when Bush invoked the state secrets privilege. The issue is now on appeal before the 9th Circuit. This is not an either/or issue: The courts have authority to protect our national security, promote governmental transparency and redress harms to torture victims.
The complaint alleges that the US rendered Ethiopian citizen Binyam Mohamed first to a Moroccan prison and then to a secret CIA prison in Afghanistan. He was tortured at both prisons. Mohamed is now at Guantánamo. Additional plaintiffs include Italian citizen Abou Elkassim Britel, who was rendered from Pakistan to Moroccan agents who tortured him and Egyptian citizen Ahmed Agiza was rendered from Sweden to Egypt, where he was tortured.
Please listen to families telling what happened to these men:

This case raises a few questions:
(1) Do torture victims have a right to a trial to determine the civil liability of a company that knew it was aiding or abetting torture?
A former Jeppesen employee quit after learning first hand that he worked in the outsourcing torture business. During an internal corporate meeting, Bob Overby, a managing director, stated:

"We do all of the extraordinary rendition flights—you know, the torture flights. Let’s face it, some of these flights end up that way."

The Jeppsen employee was informed that two of its trip planners worked on the rendition flights, or, as another employee stated, "We do the spook flights."MORE

Obama fails his first test on civil liberties and accountability -- resoundingly and disgracefully

As I wrote after interviewing Wizner two weeks ago: "This is the first real test of the authenticity of Obama's commitment to reverse the abuses of executive power over the last eight years." Today, the Obama administration failed that test -- resoundingly and disgracefully:

Obama Administration Maintains Bush Position on 'Extraordinary Rendition' Lawsuit
The Obama Administration today announced that it would keep the same position as the Bush Administration in the lawsuit Mohamed et al v Jeppesen Dataplan, Inc.
A source inside of the Ninth U.S. District Court tells ABC News that a representative of the Justice Department stood up to say that its position hasn't changed, that new administration stands behind arguments that previous administration made, with no ambiguity at all. The DOJ lawyer said the entire subject matter remains a state secret.
This is not going to please civil libertarians and human rights activists who had hoped the Obama administration would allow the lawsuit to proceed.

....


Finally, Wizner noted one last fact that is rather remarkable. The entire claim of "state secrets" in this case is based on two sworn Declarations from CIA Director Michael Hayden -- one public and one filed secretly with the court. In them, Hayden argues that courts cannot adjudicate this case because to do so would be to disclose and thus degrade key CIA programs of rendition and interrogation -- the very policies which Obama, in his first week in office, ordered shall no longer exist. How, then, could continuation of this case possibly jeopardize national security when the rendition and interrogation practices which gave rise to these lawsuits are the very ones that the U.S. Government, under the new administration, claims to have banned?
What this is clearly about is shielding the U.S. Government and Bush officials from any accountability. Worse, by keeping Bush's secrecy architecture in place, it ensures that any future President -- Obama or any other -- can continue to operate behind an impenetrable wall of secrecy, with no transparency or accountability even for blatantly criminal acts.MORE

can't breathe....

Am so fucking stuffed up that I can't close my mouth at all, I need it to breathe. Which is quite a problem since my throat is as parched as a desert and I need to keep drinking water every 2 minutes, or I swear that it will shred and bleed and crack. Mom and sis have taken to their beds with the flu. I have sinusitis, not the flu, but Lord, its no fun. My fucking tonsils were swollen as hell for gods sake.


Being sick sucks.


Have some informative articles on the flu and your government's preparedness for the same while I try to figure out a way to swallow without feel as if I am suffocating...
Flu And You - Part I

Let's be clear: what makes it a bad flu season is if you (or your family) get it. With that in mind, let's talk about the upcoming flu season, what you need to know about it, and (more next week in Part II) relate it to pandemics and pandemic preparedness and what you need to know about that.
How do we know flu season is coming? It comes every year around this time, from Florida to Maine. Flu can hit any time between November and March, but the last few years, February has been the month.

The seasonal flu impact is huge. And just imagine our straining health care system as is... and then add a seasonal flu epidemic (data from CDC.)MORE

( Read more... )