Breaking: Specter-probe of Guantanamo & ties to Roberts

[jojo54]

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/12221561.htm

<snip>WASHINGTON - Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter said yesterday that he was considering pushing for the creation of a commission to investigate the administration's incarceration policies at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp.

<snip>One issue that has arisen between Democrats and Republicans is whether writings and memoradums produced by Roberts while working at the White House counsel's office in the Reagan administration and in the Solicitor General's Office under President George H.W. Bush should be made available. Leahy said Sunday on a television news show that there was "no lawyer-client privilege" that Roberts could assert about his work.

[Trevelyan]

1. Will email Specter to let him know he has plenty of support

and what happened to the photos of US soldiers raping children at Abu Ghraib that were due to be released at the end of June but a lame excuse about the 4th of July pushed it back until July 22 or 23 which they knew was the time of Rep. Conyers' House Parties on the Downing Street Memos (By the way, why is no one who attended or hosted the parties blogging on http://www.conyersblog.us/? Some people have written they had trouble getting through but still, DU should have the Conyers House Party reports on the Home Page and DUers should be blogging either to the thread reserved for those who attended or the one beneath it.

Conyers has written to the White House about the torture and tried to set up Hearings also. The more that get involved, the better chance that this inhumanity will stop.

http://www.tpmcafe.com/story/2005/7/23/192934/969

Torturing the Constitution
By Jack Balkin
From: Supreme Court Watch

Executive power is the hidden issue in the fight over the Supreme Court.

In the past five years President Bush has pushed hard to maximize his power and limit any oversight, either by Congress or by the courts. Last week Senators Graham, McCain and Warner signaled that they wanted Congress to regulate how the Administration will conduct its military tribunals, who the President can detain as an enemy combatant free from the constraints of the ordinary justice system, and what kind of interrogation techniques the military can use both at Guantanamo Bay and at the secret CIA detention centers around the world.
~~~~~~~~~

http://www.southcoasttoday.com/daily/07-05/07-26-05/a10op325.htm

From Amnesty International's report, Guantánamo and beyond: The continuing pursuit of unchecked executive power, available at

http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAMR510632005

"In late December 2001, a memorandum was sent from the United States Justice Department to the Department of Defense. It advised the Pentagon that no US District Court could 'properly entertain' appeals from 'enemy aliens' detained at the US Naval Base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Because Cuba has 'ultimate sovereignty' over Guantánamo, the memorandum asserted, US Supreme Court jurisprudence meant that a foreign national in custody in the naval base should not have access to the US courts. The first 'war on terror' detainees were transferred to the base two weeks later. The memorandum remained secret until it was leaked to the media in mid-2004 in the wake of the Abu Ghraib torture scandal.....

And, we're not talking a handful of detainees, either... per sources cited by Amnesty International, as of April 2005:

USA: Naval Brig, Charleston, South Carolina; 2 "enemy combatants"

Cuba: Guantánamo Bay naval base; 520
(234 releases/transfers)

Afghanistan: Bagram air base; 300

Afghanistan: Kandahar air base; 250

Afghanistan: other US facilities (forward operating bases); unknown: estimated at scores of detainees

Iraq: Camp Bucca; 6,300

Iraq: Abu Ghraib prison; 3,500

Iraq: Camp Cropper; 110

Iraq: Other US facilities; 1,300

Worldwide: CIA facilities, undisclosed locations; unknown: estimated at 40 detainees

Worldwide: In custody of other governments at behest of USA; unknown: estimated at several thousand detainees

Worldwide: Secret transfers of detainees to third countries; Unknown: estimated at 100 to 150 detainees

Foreign nationals held outside the USA and charged for trial; 4

Trials of foreign nationals held in US custody outside the USA; 0

Total number of detainees held outside the USA by the US during "war on terror"; 70,000

Sources: US to expand prison facilities in Iraq. Washington Post, 9 May 2005; Detainee transfer announced, Department of Defense News Release, 26 April 2005; ICRC operational update. International Committee of the Red Cross, 29 March 2005; Department of Defense Briefing on Detention Operations and Interrogation Techniques, US Department of Defense, 10 March 2005; Rule change lets CIA freely send suspects abroad to jails. New York Times, 6 March 2005.

* * * * *
It it any wonder that much of the world has difficulty distinguishing between the United States and "real" terrorist regimes these days?

[opihimoimoi]

2. Bush has accomplished his mission. He has made millions mad at us

by being stupid and being led by stupid peeps....who think/believe they know better.

[jojo54]

3. Wow!! That's some good detective work you've done there.

Emailing him is also a good idea. Thanks for the suggestion Trevelyan.

[bunny planet]

4. I think Spector has changed since the days he promised to make nice with

the other Republicans after they threatened to take his leadership of the Senate Judiciary Committee away from him (for saying * should appoint moderate Supremes). He's had a debilitating bout with cancer, still fighting it obviously, and * is refusing to budge on his stem cell rhetoric, something that Spector is very serious about (of course, now that it affects him). Perhaps he will stick it to them this way, by using the leadership position they let him keep, to create this commission and investigate Gitmo abuses (perhaps get those Abu Ghraib pics out too). I think Spector now knows he has nothing to lose by pushing back, they could of course remove him from the Judiciary Committee if he makes trouble for them, but he is sick anyway, he may feel it is worth the risk to his political career. Besides, it will be embarrassing for * is Spector is fired from this position and sidelined, he begins to talk, talk, talk, about 'inconvenient' things he may know. I think Spector lost his hair, but in exchange, may have grown a set of balls. Let's hope so anyway.

[realFedUp]

5. considering pushing.....

Hey Arlen, just do it.

[Supersedeas]

6. the WH demands that Congress waive all oversight in the matter