Legal advisers, high-level officials, covert operatives
By HARVEY SILVERGLATE | August 17, 2006
To date, there are at least 600 covert operatives who may find themselves in need of a pardon |
Abuse of prisoners and detainees by US personnel has occurred, at the very least, at three overseas sites: Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad, in Iraq; Guantánamo Bay, in Cuba; and Bagram Air Base, in Afghanistan. As of April, more than 330 cases have surfaced in which US military and civilian personnel are alleged to have abused, tortured, or killed detainees, implicating more than 600 US personnel and involving more than 460 detainees.We still do not know how widespread, severe, and systemic the abuse was. Thanks to the Washington Post’s Dana Priest’s pioneering reporting, the public learned last November that the US government is operating a “covert prison system set up by the CIA nearly four years ago that at various times has included sites in eight countries, including Thailand, Afghanistan and several democracies in Eastern Europe.” But what exactly has transpired at these sites remains unclear. Nor do we know what transpired during the first few years at Guantánamo Bay, since US officials wouldn’t let lawyers or human-rights advocates survey the facility until 2004 — more than two years after the detention facility opened — after the Supreme Court ruled that inmates have the right to receive visits from their lawyers.
So far, only lower-echelon military personnel and one civilian contractor have been charged with abuse-related offenses, all committed at Abu Ghraib. Yet federal prosecutors have numerous resources at their disposal to uncover what happened, and to work their way up the ladder toward prosecution of any of the president’s men responsible for allowing the military and intelligence services to step outside the traditional laws of war.
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Republican dirty tricks, Criminalizing the war, Resolution of the Maine Democratic State Committee, More 
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Lieutenant Ehren Watada seems to know his chances are slim.
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Whereas, the Maine Democratic State Committee strongly supports the brave men and women serving in the United States Armed Forces in Iraq and recognizes the sacrifices that each of them is making; the Democratic State Committee stands ready to help these servicemen and women in any way it can.
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Maybe the Democrats in Washington owe the anti-war activists in America something.
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While interviewing Paul Greengrass, I was determined not to ask the question that has dogged United 93 like a tag line: “Is it too soon?” It didn’t matter; within five minutes he would ask it himself.
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It’s tempting, five years into the Iraq War, to regard that conflict with fatalistic resignation.
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News Features
, Politics, Criminal Sentencing and Punishment, Prisons, More
, Politics, Criminal Sentencing and Punishment, Prisons, Espionage and Intelligence, War and Conflict, U.S. Armed Forces, Central Intelligence Agency, torture, Iraq War, Afghanistan War, Less
