CIA contractors played big role in interrogations

Morning Edition, May 15, 2009 · Congressional testimony this week showed that private CIA contractors were a driving force behind harsh interrogations. Although there are lawsuits against military contractors involved in detainee abuse, there has been far less legal action against contractors who worked for the CIA.

American Civil Liberties Union attorney Ben Wisner believes this is largely because of the secrecy that has surrounded the CIA's interrogation and detention program.

"There simply have not been a lot of lawsuits related to the CIA's torture program against either the CIA or its contractors, because courts have almost universally been shutting these lawsuits down on the basis of overbroad secrecy claims made by the CIA," says Wisner.

President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder have said CIA agents who followed the Justice Department's legal advice won't be prosecuted criminally, but they have said nothing about contractors.

Criminal or civil lawsuits against CIA contractors would present their own unique legal challenges.

In 2006, Congress passed a bill called the Military Commissions Act that includes a provision immunizing contractors from lawsuits. Some lawyers believe that provision is unconstitutional, but no court has weighed in on the law.

The Justice Department memos defining torture are silent about contractors. At a congressional hearing Wednesday, subcommittee Chairman Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) asked Georgetown Law professor David Luban about the omission.

"I don't recall any specific mention of private contractors" in the memos, said Luban.

"I don't recall it either," replied Whitehouse, "and it would seem that might raise legal issues. It's interesting that would be a fact in the lengthy opinions that never appears to have surfaced."

When Leon Panetta took charge of the CIA a few months ago, he banned contractors from interrogating detainees. Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair talked about the decision at a roundtable with reporters.

"It seems to me that those who do these sorts of interrogations of the most important detainees should be government employees," said Blair. "They shouldn't be contractors; they should be highly trained — very supervised."

The full significance of the decision to bar contractors from CIA interrogations was not immediately clear. Then on Wednesday, a former FBI interrogator testified that CIA contractors were the people on the ground who pushed hardest for abusive interrogations in 2002.

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FKN Newz: 'I am the NWO'

'The Roma are the most discriminated ethnic group in Europe'

Class 55 Campaign

Translations: Español

On 17 May 1954, the United States Supreme Court delivered a landmark decision in the case of “Brown v. Board of Education” thus bringing an end to the segregation of black students in the American education system. While America is celebrating the 55th anniversary of the judgment, Central and Eastern European countries segregate their own second class citizens – the Roma. Civil Society organizations repeatedly point at the segregation practices, as well as direct and indirect discrimination of the Roma, however their voices are rarely heard. Class 55 is an advocacy group of Roma and pro-Roma activists making an effort to bring an end to the segregation of Roma at schools.

The Roma are the most discriminated ethnic group in Europe in all spheres of life, including education. Various excuses are used by teachers, directors and education authorities to segregate Roma, instead of simply admitting that schools are mono-cultural, and unable to cope with any kind of difference. Due to their differences, various labels are given to Roma children: “socially disadvantaged”, “of low cultural background”, “lacking socio-cultural capital”, etc, often meaning that the child is not suitable for mainstream education.

In the well known case of “D.H. and others vs. the Czech Republic” the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg confirmed in November 2007 that in the Czech Republic, Roma children were misdiagnosed and sent to special schools for mentally handicapped children. A year and half after the decision, which obliged the Czech Republic as well as other Council of Europe member states to stop and prevent ethnically biased diagnosis’, the placement of Roma children into schools of lower quality education remains in practice. Even though the schools are not called “special” anymore, the majority of pupils still follow the special curriculum, different and at a lower intellectual level the normal curriculum.

“All kinds of excuses are used to segregate Roma children and put them into Roma-only schools or classes in Central and Eastern European countries. This practice is wrong and has absolutely no justification. For example in the United Kingdom the same children, after emigrating with their parents, attend mainstream schools in a language they never spoke before,” says Scott Elliott, Canadian pro-Roma activist from the Roma Rights Network.

Class55.org believes that the 55th anniversary of one victory in human rights is the right time to show the governments of Europe that segregation of Roma is not acceptable in any way, and this practice must end immediately. Anyone can join Class 55 and support the cause by sending a message to the ministers of education, signing the petition and spreading information among their friends and family using whatever technologies they choose. The website will be available in various languages in order to be accessible to anyone interested in supporting the initiative. “It is about the time to show the politicians that it is not bad to speak in favour of Roma. It may not be popular to defend Roma, but it is right! And we want to do the right thing!” encourages Stano Daniel, Slovak Roma activist in support of Class55.org.

Still Separate, Still Unequal


Romani children in Slovakia are being denied the right to a proper education by a system that routinely discriminates against them.


More Information

• Study: Czech Roma still segregated at school - Aktualne.cz
• Ministry maps school segregation - Prague Post
• Roma welcome anti-segregation ruling - BBC
• Europe's Highest Court Finds Racial Discrimination in Czech Schools - ERRC
• OSTRAVA CASE: Case Files on DH and others v. Czech Republic - ERRC
• D.H. and Others v. the Czech Republic - Justice Initiative
• DH and Others v Czech Republic - Interights
• The Impact of Legislation and Policies on School Segregation - ERRC
• Romani children denied proper education in Slovakia- AI
• Country Profile: Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia - RRN

Japan: Back UN action on Sri Lanka

Robust Security Council measures urgently needed to save civilian lives

New York, 11 May 2009: Japan needs to “play a more active role” in confronting the worsening humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka, four international organisations said today in a letter to Prime Minister Taro Aso of Japan. Ahead of today's ministerial-level meeting at the United Nations Security Council, the groups urged Japan, as a council member, to support urgent formal action on the situation.

In the letter, Human Rights Watch, the International Crisis Group, Amnesty International, and the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, all of which work closely on Sri Lanka, said:

“We believe that Japan, a powerful player on the humanitarian stage and the largest international donor to Sri Lanka, has an important role to play in saving countless civilian lives, as well as to implement aid policies that ensure sustainable peace, human rights and development in Sri Lanka. It is time for Japan to show that it is prepared to shoulder its responsibilities.”

The organisations said that both the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Sri Lankan government “have shown wanton disregard for human life in violation of international humanitarian law.” They said that the Security Council's informal consideration of the situation in Sri Lanka was not sufficient and that “formal meetings of the Security Council must be held urgently so that the Council can take the necessary measures to address the humanitarian and human rights crisis.”

The organisations called on Japan “to take a more robust stance on the continuing suffering of the civilian population in Sri Lanka” and “to support action at the Security Council in New York, and to support prompt consideration of the situation in Sri Lanka by the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.”

To read the letter from the organisations to Prime Minister Taro Aso, please visit:
http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=6096&l=1&m=1

To read more about the current crisis in Sri Lanka, please visit:
http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=6070&l=1

For more information, please contact:

In Tokyo, for Human Rights Watch, Kanae Doi (Japanese, English): +81-3-5282-5160; or +81-90-2301-4372 (mobile)

In New York, for Human Rights Watch, Steve Crawshaw (English, French, German, Russian): +1-212-217-1217

In New York, for Amnesty International, Yvonne Terlingen: +1-917-406-1185 (mobile)

In Brussels, for International Crisis Group, Andrew Stroehlein: +32-2-541-1635

In Washington, DC, for International Crisis Group, Kimberly Abbott: +1-202-785-1601

In New York, for Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, Jim Traub: +1-212-627-4736

G8-Luxury liner drops its anchor in earthquake area

From Gipfelsoli:

The news about moving the G8 meeting to the earthquake region of Abruzzo puts National Security Agency under pressure.

The latest announcement of Berlusconi, to locate this years G8 meeting, under the responsibility of the Italian presidency, in the earthquake region of Abruzzo instead of hosting it on the Sardinian island of La Maddalena (1) puts great pressure on the National Security Agency. After 8 months of preparation work for La Maddalena (2) Berlusconi ditched it. The decision has the support of the Italian cabinet. To argue his case Berlusconi said (3) that with the relocation huge costs would be saved and demonstrators would be held away: “I don’t believe that anti-globalisation demonstrators will have the nerve to organize violent demonstrations in this region so hard hit by the earthquakes”.

The new meeting place will be in the customs and tax police “Fiamme Gialle” (Yellow flame) academy “Maresciallo Vincenzo Giudice” in Coppito at the west side of L’Aquila. Coppito is the biggest police academy of Italy.

At a 48 hectare area with 1500 video camera guarded parking places and with modern accommodations and buildings (4) . This facility has a lecture hall for 1500 people, a cantine for 3500 people and a conference hall for 450 people. There are 2.300 sleeping spaces in rooms of 4 beds, 300 single bedrooms and single apartments on top of that. All types of helicopters can land on the facility. As can fighter jets with short runway take off and landing capacity. A high ranking person, Colonel Paolo Carretta is quoted to say that the US army is impressed by the complex: ”When the marines came here to be educated by the mountain infantry for the war in Afghanistan they told us: ‘if we only had a barracks like this one!’”.

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And here's a video for the occasion by dreamaboutrevolution:

"Our so-called 'Leaders' are meeting again to hold another G8 summit. Another demonstration of capitalist avarice and hipocrisy. We must be there to stop them. We must be there to save the planet. We must be there to build the better future"