Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Vanity Fair: Senior Bush Advisers Pressured Underlings To Use Torture Tactics At Guantanamo. The abuse, rising to the level of torture, of those captured and detained in the war on terror is a defining feature of the presidency of George W. Bush. Its military beginnings, however, lie not in Abu Ghraib, as is commonly thought, or in the "rendition" of prisoners to other countries for questioning, but in the treatment of the very first prisoners at GuantÃ[infinity]¡namo. Starting in late 2002 a detainee bearing the number 063 was tortured over a period of more than seven weeks. In his story lies the answer to a crucial question: How was the decision made to let the U.S. military start using coercive interrogations at GuantÃ[infinity]¡namo? [The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com] 11:40:34 AM    comment []

'George W Bush Sewage Plant' Proposed In San Francisco. "Looking to honor the forty-third President of the United States of America, George W. Bush, the recently formed Presidential Memorial Commission of San Francisco is looking to change the name of the Oceanside Wastewater Treatment Facility. It seems the group would like to rename the SF Zoo adjacent facility to the 'George W Bush Sewage Plant,' SFist reports. The grassroots movement is "proposing an ordinance initiative for the November 2008 San Francisco ballot" -- check out their web site here. [The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com] 7:29:29 AM    comment []

Pressure on Bush to skip Olympics. Fifteen U.S. House members asked President Bush Tuesday not to attend the Olympic Games in Beijing to protest China's human rights records. [CNN.com] 7:26:03 AM    comment []

Jane Harman | Rapists in the Ranks. Rep. Jane Harman (D-Venice) writes for the Los Angeles Times: "The stories are shocking in their simplicity and brutality: A female military recruit is pinned down at knifepoint and raped repeatedly in her own barracks. Her attackers hid their faces but she identified them by their uniforms; they were her fellow soldiers. During a routine gynecological exam, a female soldier is attacked and raped by her military physician. Yet another young soldier, still adapting to life in a war zone, is raped by her commanding officer.... These are true stories, and, sadly, not isolated incidents. Women serving in the US military are more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire in Iraq." [t r u t h o u t] 7:25:06 AM    comment []

Centers Tap Into Personal Databases. Robert O'Harrow Jr. reports for The Washington Post, "Intelligence centers run by states across the country have access to personal information about millions of Americans, including unlisted cellphone numbers, insurance claims, driver's license photographs and credit reports, according to a document obtained by The Washington Post." [t r u t h o u t] 7:24:26 AM    comment []

Terrorism Interrogators Immune From Prosecution, 2003 Memo Says. Dan Eggen and Josh White report for The Washington Post, "Federal laws prohibiting assault and other crimes did not apply to military interrogators who questioned al-Qaeda captives because the president's ultimate authority as commander-in-chief overrode such statutes, according to a newly declassified 2003 Justice Department memo released today." [t r u t h o u t] 7:23:57 AM    comment []