Human Rights Blog

More news of human rights abuses by the Bush Administration --
Call for Cheney's Resignation Now

January 20, 2006: "The gloves are coming off. . . "
A soldier is on trial for the murder of a former Iraqi general during interrogation. Radio Havana Cuba (RHC) reported on air this evening that Lewis Weishofer's supervisor said "the gloves are coming off," when he okayed the use of the 'sleeping bag' technique for interrogation in Iraq. Whether the technique was permitted by the Army Field Manual is at issue in his trial. Of course it's not in there. The Army Field Manual is designed to prevent torture during interrogations. That's why Senator John McCain fought to get a law passed saying that the US has to go by the book -- the Army Field Manual -- in interrogations (see my previous blog). Who ordered what? The normal meaning of "the gloves are coming off" is to throw out the rule book and fight dirty. In my book that means you go after the big fish in court, not the minnows.
Now that we know our government spies on us, the great thing about listening to RHC or BBC on air is that our government can't put a cookie in your shortwave receiver to track what you're listening to. You could even listen to the latest on bird flu on the Voice of Vietnam or Radio China International. But I enjoy RHC because the reception is good, and the news has a very different slant from any domestic source. RHC reads the news on the hour and half hour between 2:00 and 4:00 GMT. That's 8 to 10 pm central standard time. The frequency is 6000 or 9550.

January 12, 2006:
#1: Court martial proceedings over Abu Ghraib. The front page of the Washington Post reports that Maj. Gen. Miller is refusing to answer questions about whether he ordered the use of dogs on prisoners of war in Abu Ghraib. I agree that taking the 5th amendment is the right of every citizen, even in military court. But in this case it causes me to think that it is very important for military prosecutors to get to the bottom of "who ordered what" in both Iraq and the Guantanamo prison. Miller is the one who supposedly "Gitmo-ized" Abu Ghraib.
A number of other questions come to mind as the soldiers who handled the dogs attempt to defend themselves in military court. Are dogs being used to intimidate POWs in Guantanamo now? Why do we still have 500 POWs in Guantanamo from Afghanistan when the "war" in Afghanistan is over and the country has held elections? According to the Geneva Conventions, these POWs should never have been removed to such a distance from their countries of origin, and they should have been repatriated by now.
Remember that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales (when he was Counsel to the President) is the one who wrote the memo restricting the definition of torture so that, er, um, torture could be used. There's no other way to say it. The memo justifies rather torturous methods. The Washington Post, the nation's real newspaper (not the NY Times), has posted all 50 pages of the memo.
Alito was an attorney with the Reagan administration, and he wrote a lot of memos presenting positions that the Reaganists wanted to hear. Now he says he doesn't agree with them all. That's good. But has he been asked about his own definition of torture under the Geneva Conventions?
#2: Guantanamo war crimes tribunal begins trying Omar Khadr, who was 15 years old when he threw a grenade that killed a US medic. According to Reuters, the judge ordered the prosecutor to use the defendant's last name with the title "Mister", rather than calling him by his first name. Does this remind you of how African Americans were once treated in this country? There seems to be a respect issue.
The grenade that Mr. Khadr threw was allegedly thrown during a pitched battle between US soldiers and their enemies. Since when is it a war crime to toss a grenade in the middle of a battle?
How about trying someone who was a teenager in a war crimes court? Some think this violates international law. But violations of international law by the Bushies aren't something the public is paying close attention to.
How about trying someone who is the leader of one of the most powerful nations of the world in a war crimes court?
The Dutch minister of defense and the new German Chancellor have both called for the US to close the Guantanamo prison as soon as possible.
Meantime, reports are that the US is building a more permanent prison in Guantanamo. Oops, looks like the Bushies are going to keep the place open. And Amnesty International released some new transcripts detailing allegations of abusive treatment in Guantanamo.

November 4, 2005:
#1:Cheney tells McCain to stuff it. McCain's bill prohibiting cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment of prisoners by U.S. personnel was passed overwhelmingly by the U.S. Senate. But the Bushies, apparently lead by Cheney, are trying to exempt the CIA from the rules. Do you want an agency of your government to be allowed to administer cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment to prisoners? And the House of Representatives is dragging its feet.
There are two things you can do. First, write your representative in the House and ask for a vote in favor of McCain's amendment prohibiting cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment of prisoners held by the United States. Second, write VP Cheney a quick note and explain to him that 'torture is torture' whether it is committed by the CIA or the KGB, and that any form of torture is morally reprehensible. How can it be possible that the Vice President of the US favors allowing torture? The kind of moral climate we have under the Bushies is one in which it is wrong to marry someone you love if that person is the same gender as yourself, but that it is right to torture.
#2: I'm calling for Cheney's resignation. And while you're writing to Mr. Cheney about torture, how about asking him to resign. My own opinion is that he should resign because of the indictment of his top aide, Libby. It stretches credulity to think that Libby talked to reporters without the permission of the big. Cheney's resignation would solve two problems -- it would remove one of the administration's strongest advocates of torture, and would remove one of the administration's strongest advocates of distorting information about Iraq.
#3: Charge Jose Padilla. The Republican opponent to Rep. Tammy Baldwin in the last election kept saying that no American citizen's rights had been violated under the Patriot Act. Padilla, a US citizen who has not been charged with a crime still sits in a Navy brig. But Jose Padilla just wants the government to file charges so he can defend himself. He has asked the Supreme Court to hear his case. If this can happen to Jose Padilla, it can happen to you or me, or even Lewis Libby. Lewis Libby is a genuine security threat. Maybe Libby should have been imprisoned while his national security case was under investigation. Shudder at this thought -- if Libby had been a member of a liberal activist group, he might have been imprisoned without charge by the Bushies. The tools of political repression are in place.
#4: Jimmy Carter Speaks Out. Carter takes on the Christian Right in his new book on "Our Endangered Values". Obviously not an advocate of torture, Carter doesn't think much of mixing Christianity with war-mongering.

September 2, 2005:
#1: Guantanamo Hunger Strike. The BBC reported on air yesterday that over 200 POWs from the Afghanistan war who are in prison at Guantanamo are on a hunger strike. The prisoners are asking to be charged and tried or released. They say they are being abused. Some are near death and are hospitalized. The British newspaper The Guardian reports that some of them have been on the hunger strike since August 8. Many of them have been held for over 3 years -- without charge or access to attorneys. Let's remember that the atrocities at Abu Ghraib occurred after personnel were transferred from Guantanamo to Abu Ghraib with explicit instructions to "Gitmo-ize" the interrogation of prisoners at Abu Ghraib. The holding and treatment of the POWs at Guantanamo is in violation of the "quaint" Geneva Conventions on the treatment of POWs. The Bush administration shows no sign of compliance with the Geneva Conventions with respect to the Guantanamo prisoners. Write your U.S. Senator and ask for full compliance with the Geneva Conventions. The Bush administration is violating treaties -- this is impeachable.
#2: Poor Blacks Left Behind in New Orleans. Hurricane Katrina is a natural disaster, but where was the evacuation plan for the poor who can't afford a bus ticket out of town? Left behind. Radio Netherlands reported on air this evening that there are dead bodies floating in the water in New Orleans, and that one of the Dutch papers showed a photo of such a scene. What will it take to get faster action? After the Chernobyl nuclear reactor blew up in 1986, the Soviets moved a city of 50,000 in a few days time -- fleets of buses came in. Of course the roads were still there after that event, but there are buses reaching New Orleans now, just not enough of them. Many children have been left behind by the failure to plan for levee failure. Many people have been left behind by failure of the federal government to fund the improvements of the levee and pumping system that keeps New Orleans above water.
As an environmentalist, I oppose new construction in flood plains. But New Orleans was perhaps both the most extraordinarily beautiful and historically significant city in the U.S. And we didn't do what was necessary both to preserve the city and prevent a human catastrophe.

June 16, 2005: Where is Jose Padilla? Still in South Carolina in solitary confinement. He's been in solitary confinement since May 8, 2002. Mr. Padilla is a U.S. citizen, and he has not been charged with any crime. He was arrested in the U.S. He was declared to be an enemy combatant (a designation with no legal status in international law), and has been held without charges ever since. The Supreme Court refused to hear his case until after the Appeals Court in South Carolina hears whether the Bush administration has the right to detain a U.S. citizen in a military prison indefinitely without charges. Read it in the L.A. Times.
The Padilla case is an affront to the constitution. The indefinite imprisonment of Mr. Padilla is not based on the so-called Patriot Act. It is just based on the 'king of the universe' attitude of the Bushies.
How about the Patriot Act--whose rights have been violated as a result of the Patriot Act? In Wisconsin last fall the GOP (an acronym that describes the appeal of the organization) challenger to Rep. Tammy Baldwin claimed that no one's civil rights had been violated as a result of the Patriot Act. NPR aired a report today about photographers who have been detained for hours without explanation, had their film confiscated, and have been denied the permission to make a phone call to an attorney or a family member. Download
In Louisiana, a group of students and their teachers from Antioch New England Graduate School were detained for taking photos of chemical plants in the infamous 'cancer alley'. Read the first hand report in the Antioch website. One of the disturbing things about this incident is the kinds of threats and misinformation given by the security guards (who were off-duty sheriff's deputies wearing their official uniforms but working for ExxonMobil. They threatened to call 'Homeland Security' people who would detain the group over night. Tell me this incident didn't have something to do with ExxonMobil's environmental record in Louisiana as opposed to 'security' -- maybe the price of the company's securities is what they mean, but not our national security which is threatened by unregulated pollution. Download Attorney Krages handy-dandy guide to your photography rights.
'Security' was used as an excuse to sweep pedestrians from whole blocks during the GOP convention in 2004 in NYC. Bystanders and protesters alike were swept up and detained, many never charged. One Madison man was visiting his daughter in NYC when he got caught in the snow fence.
So what's wrong with a few hours of detention in the service of a safer country? First, there isn't any evidence it makes the country safer. Second, detention for several hours can be a health threat to people with certain health conditions such as diabetes or heart disease. Third, you shouldn't be detained for exercising your constitutional and legal rights to do things like carry a sign saying you disagree with the Bushies' policies (an incident that occurred here in Wisconsin a couple of years ago) or taking photos of bridges or interesting patterns made by electrical wires, or taking photos of police officers while they are working (as long as you are not getting in their way). So be a real patriot, and write your congressional representatives and tell them you are outraged by the conduct of police officers across the country in illegally and unnecessarily detaining people for doing nothing wrong.

June 4, 2005: Pentagon says soldier pissed on prisoner and his Quran in Guantanamo. A guard stepped outside to urinate, and his urine went in an air vent, wetting both a prisoner and his holy book. The prisoner was issued a new uniform and a new Koran. The L.A. Times version of the story doesn't say whether the prisoner was allowed to bathe. The guard was relieved, not just of his bladder pressure, but also of duty on that cell block. The Pentagon report also documents abuse of the Koran by prisoners themselves, as if that justifies abuse by the guards. If I want to tear up my Bible and declare myself no longer a Christian, that's my choice. But abusing the religions or religious books of prisoners of war is a violation of the Geneva Conventions. The Pentagon report was issued late Friday, the time for news releases that the government wants to be under the radar. But earlier in the week Rumsfeld got a lot of press by criticizing an Amnesty International report and saying that the U.S. had issued a lot of free Korans to the POWs in Guantanamo. Rumsfeld's criticisms of the Amnesty International report on Guantanamo seem disingenuous to me -- if things are so ducky in Gitmo, why not let the ICRC have full access to the POWs being held there? Oh, and remember that the problems at Abu Ghraib occured after our government decided to "Gitmo-ize" the interrogations in Iraq. A stench is emanating from the top offices of the administration.
The Bush administration is setting an example of immorality for the rest of the world to follow -- renditions of prisoners to other countries for interrogation, failure to repatriate POWs from the Afghanistan war (they had an election there, have a legitimate government, and the majority of U.S. forces have left), an attorney general who wrote the memo justifying torture of prisoners at Guantanamo because they somehow aren't POWs, unconstitutionally holding U.S. citizens without charge (Jose Padilla has been held for 3 years now without being charged with any crime), the list goes on.
The only positive news is that Sen. Arlen Specter (a republican) has called for Senate hearings on how 'enemy combatants' are to be treated. That's a step forward, but be a patriot and write Specter an email reminding him that there is no such thing as an 'enemy combatant' according to international treaties and agreements. The U.S. Senate should demand that the Bush administration abide by the treaties ratified by the Senate, treaties that require humane treatment of POWs.

March 6, 2005: CIA orders prisoner stripped; Prisoner dies of hypothermia. The incident happened in Afghanistan in 2002 in a prison called The Salt Pit. The CIA agent got promoted. The prisoner was 'disappeared', not listed anywhere as a captive. Read about it here in the Washington Post article by Dana Priest. It seems to me that the Washington Post is the only paper doing a decent job of investigative reporting.
Voting and Democratic Reform. Let's see some of this here. The odds are 1 to 662,000 that the exit polls were all off in the same direction by pure chance last November. "Give me one hour with the ballot boxes and I can have you singing home sweet home." You can read reports of election incidents here at VoteProtect.org. Kind of disturbing to have your ballot 'set aside' for unknown reasons. Exit polls are often used to detect fraud, but the mainstream media is ignoring the fact that exit polls projected John Kerry to be the winner by 3% of the popular vote, and garnering a decisive 316 electoral votes. Read about it at USCountVotes.org, a volunteer group of statisticians.
The only way to straighten this out is for the Democrats to hire the best hackers on the planet to steal the next election. Once this rumor is out of the bag, the Republicans will go along with a verifiable paper-trail balloting system rather than touch-screen fraud.
Remember Jose Padilla, the U.S. citizen born and raised in Chicago, imprisoned without charges in a Navy Brig in South Carolina? He's been there since 2002 and has not been charged with a crime. The courts have ruled that our rogue government must charge him or release him within 45 days. Attorney Gen. Gonzales says that the President can detain Padilla indefinitely! Mr. Gonzales, you are not the judge and jury in this case, and the court has ordered you to charge him or release him. Please obey the law. Blog readers, be true patriots and write Atty. Gen Gonzales an email demanding that he obey the law. Am I brave enough to do this myself? This man could come and 'disappear' me along with Mr. Padilla.

Feb. 20, 2005: Bushies Oppose Iraq Compensation for Gulf War US POWs.
During the 1991 Gulf war some US pilots were captured, held in Abu Ghraib, and tortured. 17 US POWs have sued Iraq for damages in US federal court. The US POWs claim that US courts have jurisdiction over "state sponsors of terrorism". A Congressional act in 1996 allows such lawsuits, so the Gulf War POWs have an excellent case. The Bushies are opposing the claim. They say Iraq needs the money to rebuild. Wow.
I think the real motivation of the Bush administration is that the case might set a precedent that would allow compensation for torture in foreign countries at the direction of the US, or carried out by the US. Eventually the courts will be dealing with claims by the Guantanamo prisoners. There are a lot more than 17 of them. Just my opinion.
Negroponte is alleged to have known about death squads operating around Central America when he was US Ambassador to Honduras 1981 to 1985. Now he's going to be in charge of coordinating all US intelligence agencies. Read about it in The Nation.

Feb. 13, 2005: Another former Guantanamo prisoner claims sexual abuse; soldiers are victims of sexual abuse. The world's newspapers are buzzing with allegations by Australian citizen Mamoude Habib that he was tortured by U.S. captors in Egypt, transported to Afghanistan for more torture, and finally to Guantanamo where he says a woman interrogator threw menstrual blood on him. Other torture included electric shocks, cigarette burns, faked images of his wife, and the threat of sex with dogs. Read about it in The Austrailian. The CIA has a little fleet of private jets that it uses for 'renditions', jargon for taking a captive to a foreign country for torture. Also the Toronto Star is reporting some details about FBI concerns about the military torture at Guantanamo, and how the torture will prevent bringing any true terrorists to justice.
Military-ordered sexual abuse is a two-edged sword, slicing deeply into the psyches of both the prisoner and soldier ordered to do it. Think about the young women involved in the sexualized torture scenes at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo -- throwing (fake or real) menstrual blood on the prisoners, touching in sexually provocative ways (repeatedly), and viewing the prisoners naked. My personal opinion is that these women soldiers are being ordered to carry out these acts of sexual abuse. We all know that the U.S. military has a problem with sexual assault within the ranks. But being ordered to touch someone sexually is itself sexual abuse. Just replay it in your mind with an authority figure ordering someone to sexually touch another person. Try imagining that the authority figure is a priest, or maybe a male adult ordering a girl to sexually touch a boy. Imagining such a scene is horrifying. There is no doubt that both the person who is ordered to commit the sexual abuse and the recipient of it are both victims. That's true even if it involves a sargent and a private. That's true even if the orders are vague -- "Do some sexy," or "You know that certain women's body products are taboo to Muslims. Now go soften that prisoner up for interrogation." These soldiers are going to need some therapy later in order to come to terms with what they have done. And all this is overseen by the supposedly-christian leadership of George W. Bush, the man that the christian right wingers voted for because of his Values, with a capital V. Let's restore American values of respect for human dignity and freedom.
Be a patriot and write your Senators and Congressional Representatives now. Tell them "Let torture cease" at the hands of U.S. interrogators, stop the renditions, and process the POWs at Guantanamo as required by the Geneva Convention.

Torture works real well at getting people to say exactly what the interrogator tells them to say, but doesn't get at the truth. The right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness depends on having a just government. Necessary protections that must be equally applied to citizens include the right to -- a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury, to be tried by a jury in the district where the crime was committed, to be informed of the nature of the accusation, and to be confronted by one's accusers during the trial. And also a just government is one in which citizens 'shall not be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against" themselves.

Feb. 5, 2005: UN inspectors who visited the Guantanamo prison camp say they are concerned about the possibility of permanent psychological damage to the prisoners of war being held there. A glimpse at the research on WWII, Korea and Vietnam POWs shows that a lot can go wrong. Vietnam POWs have a higher rate of numbness and pain in the arms and hands, probably from being put in the so-called 'stress positions'. Look at the photos and think about what would happen to the circulatory and nerve function in the positions the prisoners are forced into or handcuffed into. Now Mr. Gonzales, Attorney General, do you think it is torture to have numbness and pain in your hands for the rest of your life? How about it you try out some 'stress positions' and report back to us all about the numbness?
A 40-year followup of WWII POWs found that two-thirds had post-traumatic stress disorder, and more than 35% of them still had moderate symptoms. Only about 30% fully recovered from their mistreatment.
The serious life-long after-effects of the mistreatment of POWs is part of what led to the adoption of the Geneva Conventions. The UN committee expressed serious concerns about the need for the U.S. to follow the Geneva accords in the treatment of the POWs in Guantanamo prison camp. The war in Afghanistan is over and elections were held, but the POWs taken in Afghanistan have not been repatriated. How would we feel if these were our soldiers?
Oh, and Mr. Bush, I have a message for you too -- There is an international test for the conduct of the U. S. It is called the Geneva Conventions, and your administration has flunked the test. You are leading an 'outlaw' government.
Ok Bloggers, speak out now -- contact your Senators and Congressional representative in the House. Republicans and Democrats alike, let's have the rule of law restored to the treatment of prisoners by the United States government. E pluribus unum.

Jan 27, 2005: The Bush administration released four British citizens from the prison at Guantanamo. They had been held there for approximately 3 years. The UK police questioned them and released them without filing any charges. On air last night, the BBC reported that the men's doctors were concerned about their health because they had lost a lot of weight, and said that it might be some time before they are able to discuss their experiences. Only one of them was arrested originally in Afghanistan, where the war was. Two were arrested in Pakistan, and one in Zambia. Why was a British citizen 'disappeared' from Zambia or Pakistan to the U.S.?

General Children's pollution issues
Collaborative on Health and the Environment	http://www.cheforhealth.org/index.html
Institute for Children's Environmental Health	http://www.iceh.org/Pages/basics.html
RiskWorld -- covering risk news and views	http://www.riskworld.com/BOOKS/topics/children.htm
Lead poisoning
CDC lead screening guidelines	http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/lead/guide/guide97.htm
Lead screening questionnaire	http://www.keepkidshealthy.com/welcome/lead/leadscreening.html
Lead in food containers	http://www.nncc.org/Health/dc25_child.lead.pois.html
Mercury
EPA freshwater fish advice	http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/fishadvice/advice.html
FDA's 2001 mercury in fish advisory	http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/admehg.html
PCBs
ATSDR's fact sheet on PCBs	http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/tfacts17.html
Resource guide to children's environmental health -- PCBs	http://www.cehn.org/cehn/resourceguide/pcbs.html
On endocrine disruptors:generally "Our Stolen Future"	http://www.ourstolenfuture.org/
Pesticides
EPA's pesticides and children page	http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/health/children.htm
Canadians against pesticides	http://www.caps.20m.com/facts.htm
Noise
League for the Hard of Hearing page on noise and children's learning	http://www.lhh.org/noise/children/learning.htm
Noise pollution clearinghouse	http://www.nonoise.org/
Classroom acoustical booklet from the Acoustical Society of America	http://asa.aip.org/classroom/booklet.html
Community Pollution Disasters
American Academy of Pediatrics statement on children and radiation disasters	http://www.aap.org/policy/radiation.htm
EPA's 'history of Love Canal" page	http://www.epa.gov/history/topics/lovecanal/
First 30 yrs of radiation protection at the EPA	http://www.epa.gov/radiation/docs/history.pdf
EPA's 20th anniversary report for Superfund	http://www.epa.gov/superfund/action/20years/index
Link to Marshall Islands, site of US nuclear bomb tests I highly recommend purchase of the video "Radio Bikini"	http://www.yokwe.net/

Human Rights Blog -- Promoting the dignity of all political prisoners and prisoners of war. Stop the sexual abuse and religious humiliation of all prisoners.

How are you going to feel in 20 years if you don't speak out now?