|
CORRUPTION UPDATES 80 June 20, 2007: Draft Posting: Stay Tuned for More! The CORRUPTION UPDATES posts corruption news stories from California, the Nation and the World, and gives you the straight story. |
CORRUPTION UPDATES 80
Previous Corruption Updates: Page 79
Next Corruption Updates: Page 81
Contact Us: Committeefordemocracy.org
1) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE:
Nominee for C.I.A. Counsel Offers Few Details in His Senate Confirmation Hearing
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/20/washington
/20intel.html
WASHINGTON, June 19 — As a 31-year veteran of the
Central Intelligence Agency, John A. Rizzo is privy to some of the nation’s most closely held secrets. As the top lawyer at the agency for much of the last six years, he had a central role in C.I.A. detention and interrogation of prisoners in secret jails abroad.
Mr. Rizzo has been nominated to become general counsel of the agency. His nearly two-hour session before the Senate Intelligence Committee was a cautious affair. Few inquisitors asked barbed questions, and the man being questioned delivered answers noteworthy for their lack of detail.
Democrats on the committee, who spent years in the minority saying Republicans were muzzling them from asking tough questions about the Bush administration’s most controversial policies since the Sept. 11 attacks, generally did not press Mr. Rizzo for details about the secret detention program of the intelligence agency.
Mr. Rizzo has been acting general counsel on and off for much of the last six years, working without Senate confirmation.
The most pointed moments of the hearing occurred when lawmakers asked Mr. Rizzo whether he had endorsed a 2002 Justice Department memorandum that gave legal guidance for the detention program.
The memorandum argued that nothing short of the pain associated with organ failure constituted illegal torture.
Mr. Rizzo said that he raised no objections at the time to the legal reasoning in the memorandum. But he said the language was “overbroad for the issue that it was intended to cover.”
Mr. Rizzo has been acting general counsel on and off for much of the last six years, working without Senate confirmation.
The most pointed moments of the hearing occurred when lawmakers asked Mr. Rizzo whether he had endorsed a 2002 Justice Department memorandum that gave legal guidance for the detention program.
The memorandum argued that nothing short of the pain associated with organ failure constituted illegal torture.
Mr. Rizzo said that he raised no objections at the time to the legal reasoning in the memorandum. But he said the language was “overbroad for the issue that it was intended to cover.”
“It was not the kind of questioning that could either produce more information on what the C.I.A. has done or that would result in people being held accountable,” said Christopher Anders, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union.
Mr. Anders said Mr. Rizzo was “up to his eyeballs in developing and implementing the government’s detention and torture program” and added that his promotion “should have been a nonstarter.”
The lone committee member who expressed reservations about voting for Mr. Rizzo was Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California.
Ms. Feinstein said she had concerns about Mr. Rizzo’s role in creating the detention program.
“I believe that one of the reasons we are so hated abroad is because we appear to be hypocrites,” she said. “We say one thing and we practice another.”
Toward the end, Mr. Rizzo agreed with Senator Christopher S. Bond of Missouri, ranking Republican on the panel, that too many classified details were leaking out to the news media.
Mr. Rizzo said that trend was causing significant damage to intelligence operations.
He added that members of the executive branch needed to be more disciplined about protecting classified information.
“Far too many people,” Mr. Rizzo said, “know far too much.”
CIA Lawyer who Justifies Toture-Kidnapping-Endless Detention Appears Unfazed before the Senate
Ask me no questions, I'll tell you no lies:
Senate Monkeys hear no evil, because they ask no question.
A CIA lawyer who is a critical aider and abettor of the CIA's secret kidnapping, endless imprisonment, and torture has been proposed for promotion as head lawyer for Central Intelligence Agency.
John Rizzo's appearance before the Senate for confirmation was a disgrace to American Values, and remarkable for even happening.
How can a torturer appear before the Senate for promotion? It appears that we are in Germany during 1944, watching Nazis appear before the Reichstag, to be tossed easy questions about conditions on the Eastern Front.
Rizzo's nomination hearing was made ridiculous by the passive tone and questions of the Democrats who run the Committee.
It is an insult to our country and Constitution that this man, who's service to our country consists of creating a legal basis for illegal acts, to justify our government committing serious crimes in secret, was sitting before the Senate to be promoted for his crimes.
During Rizzo's tenure at the CIA, a series of secret prisons was established, and is still being stocked with victims kidnapped and held extra judicially by American agents.
The "living" conditions in these prisons amounts to torture, and our agents are also individually torturing their victims. Mr. Rizzo is deeply implicated in all of these crimes. But Rizzo is guilty of greater crimes.
Rizzo's greatest crime is not kidnapping and torture, it is acting against our Constitution. Rizzo is working under the authority of a tyrant, and all of Rizzo's work is based on actualizing the notion that the President has unlimited power to run extrajudicial prison and torture programs. No need for proof, warrant, court or law: The President alone decides.
And Rizzo is getting promoted for his work, for exactly the same reason Gonzales was made Attorney General. Both Rizzo and Gonzales are willing to commit crimes to protect the crimes of the President.
Rizzo, when he is called to account for his role in these crimes, will claim he was just following orders. The Congress and Senate do not have even this weak cover.
The Senate, the American people, the Corporate press, and the whole world are aware of the crimes we are committing with our secret illegal "terror" programs, but Congress and the Senate has said virtually nothing about the crimes the CIA has committed under the Bush Administration.
The Democrats have been in power for eight months, and their lack of action to identify, reveal, investigate, and prosecute the series of crimes this Administration has been committing since 911 makes them complicit in these crimes. The list is long.
The Administration has operated a number of domestic searching programs through the NSA, the FBI, and the CIA that are are clearly illegal, if you bother to read the Constitution.
Bush has illegally manipulated the rules of war, set by Congress, to give himself unchecked, arbitrary power to designate any foreigners he deems "bad people" to be beyond the law, subject to endless detention without any legal recourse.
Bush has claimed the same power over American citizens, endlessly detaining Padilla until the sensationalized charges were proven false, and he was finally returned to civilian custody.
Bush only relented in Padilla's case to avoid having a Federal Court rule the President had no right to seize a citizen, and hold them beyond the law, without proper warrants and probable cause, or recourse to judicial review. Bush transferred Padilla to Federal Courts to maintain his claims to these illegal powers.
This did not help Padilla, as after years of torturous detention, he was driven insane.
Bush's claim to be able to arbitrarily void parts of Congressional legislation clearly breaks the rules of the Constitution. The Constitution requires that valid law be originated in Congress, and either be approved or rejected by the President. The Constitution gives the President no authority to selectively put himself above the law.
Bush's US Attorneys are domestic examples of Bush's abuse of the rule of law.
Bush has made a mockery of our democracy and our Constitution, but he was not alone.
The Senators and Congressmen of the last Congress, like this Congress, have sat by, silent, as Bush committed, and continues to commit, high crimes and misdemeanors against our people and Constitution, and crimes against humanity in the middle east, and in his secret prison system. All this is done in our name, while Congress and the Senate continue to sit silent, and respectfully entertain Rizzo, and tolerate Gonzales' criminal use of the Department of Justice.
I can't see Senate approval for Rizzo, but neither do I see moral outrage at a man who has disgraced our country and Constitution. I see no moral outrage at a man who has torn our flag to shreds, and soaked it in the blood of murder and torture.
Although Rizzo may not get approved as the top lawyer at the CIA, the Senate will not stop the torture programs, nor will they question, let alone challenge, the justifications crafted by Rizzo in support of these crimes.
The only problem Rizzo sees, is that "far too many people know far too much."
Apparently if Rizzo's crimes are secret, they are not crimes.
The real problem here is that far too many people are doing far too little to stop these crimes, and hold people like Rizzo accountable for their crimes.
Also See:
Corruption Updates 21, 7th article on page, "Ex-judges: Detainee law unconstitutional"
Corruption Updates 31, 7th article on page,“DETANIEE” TORTURE, HEARSAY, AND NO HABIUS CORPUS:CRIMINALS ARE RUNNING THE COURTS"
Corruption Updates 36, 4th article on page, "IRAQI GOV FOLLOWS AMERICAN EXAMPLE: KIDNAPPING-TORTURE"
Corruption Updates 69, 1st article on page, "Rights Groups Call for End to Secret Detentions"
Corruption Updates 71, 1st article on page, "CIA rejects secret jails report: CIA Admits Prisons, While Denying Prisons
Corruption Updates 73, 1st article on page, "Appeals court rules against Bush's enemy combatant policy: Bush cannot "say" a person is guilty, and put them in jail without legal process
Search the Corruption Database under
Kidnapping
Illegal Detentions
Torture
Illegal Trials
2) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE :
China building more power plants
Tuesday, 19 June 2007, 22:22 GMT 23:22 UK
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/world/asia-pacific/6769743.stm
By Roger Harrabin
BBC Environment Analyst
China is now building about two power stations every week, the top climate change official at the UK Foreign Office, John Ashton, has said.
He said there was no point blaming China for rising global CO2 emissions.
Rich nations had to set an example of low-carbon development for China to follow, Mr Ashton told the BBC.
His statement came as a new report suggested that China may have already become the world's biggest polluter - much earlier than expected.
The Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency said China's CO2 emissions had risen by 9% last year, compared with 1.4% in the US.
Mr Ashton added that the Chinese had put out their first climate strategy, in an effort "to get to grips with their emissions and use energy efficiently".
He pointed out that much of China's emissions growth was being driven by consumers in the West buying Chinese goods, and noted that China's emissions per person were still well below those of rich nations.
THE COMMITTEE SAYS:
China is Just Following Our Lead
America has refused to stop expanding our population, our consumption, or our pollution. America refuses to address the source of our pollution or our changing weather, let alone their ramifications on our environment.
America will continue to fuel China's growing pollution, as we have for the last 35 years, while simultanously offering China international political cover against CO2 limiting treaties.
In return, China will continue to help the US gut international agreements to curb greenhouse gases.
Both countries will continue to expand their economies, populations, and pollution, in lockstep.
Also See:
Corruption Updates 36, 6th article on page, "AMERICAN GREED-CONSUMPTION FUELS MANUFACTURING (POLLUTION) IN CHINA"
Corruption Updates 47, 9th article on page, "Earth Faces a Grim Future: UN Report"
Corruption Updates 48, 3rd article on page, "U.S., China Got UN Climate Warnings Toned Down: Corporate Media Whitewash American suppression of climate report"
Corruption Updates 65, 7th article on page, "China puts economy before climate"
Search the Corruption Database under
China
Environment
3) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE :
UK 'in Afghanistan for decades'
BBC Wednesday, 20 June 2007, 13:09 GMT 14:09 UK
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/uk/6220856.stm
The UK presence in Afghanistan will need to remain for decades to help rebuild the country, British ambassador Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles has said.
"The task of standing up a government of Afghanistan that is sustainable is going to take a very long time," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.The BBC learned in January that the government planned to send as many as 35 extra diplomatic staff to Afghanistan.
The priorities would be to combat corruption, help build government institutions in the south and to tackle the production of opium, the Foreign Office said.
The number of UK troops in Afghanistan is also being boosted to about 7,700 this year. They will be mainly based in the volatile Helmand province, where they have been fighting the Taleban.
"It's a marathon rather than a sprint"
Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles
BBC world affairs editor John Simpson said the British embassy in Kabul was likely to become the UK's biggest anywhere.
"It's a huge commitment," he said.
'Troops stretched'
Meanwhile, a soldier serving in Afghanistan has complained that forces are fighting the Taleban without enough men or equipment, making them vulnerable to attack.
The Ministry of Defence has admitted the armed forces are stretched and says it hopes troop reductions in Iraq, Bosnia and Northern Ireland will ease the situation.
THE COMMITTEE SAYS:
British preparing to stay Decades in Afghanistan
How do Americans feel about that? Decades of troops on the ground in the middle east? The Dems are silent about this one. What does this mean for Iraq, where conditions are considerably worse?
What does this say about our press, who have failed, from 911 until now, to report on the actual issues behind, or the serious repercussions of our wars?
At least the British Military and the BBC are telling their people, belatedly, that they are never going to leave Afghanastan. The American Press just strings us along.
Watch out for Bush to spark a war with Iran, as notice to Americans that we are NEVER going to leave the middle east.
Also See:
Corruption Updates, th article on page,
Search the Corruption Database under
War
Iraq
Generals
4) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE :
General Says Prison Inquiry Led to His Forced Retirement
June 17, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/17/washington/17ghraib.html
WASHINGTON, June 16 — The Army general who investigated the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal has said he was forced into retirement by civilian Pentagon officials because he had been “overzealous.”
In an interview with The New Yorker, his first since retiring in January, Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba said that former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and other senior civilian and military officials had treated him brusquely after the investigation into the formerly American-run prison outside Baghdad was completed in 2004. He also said that in early 2006 he was ordered, without explanation, to retire within a year.
“They always shoot the messenger,” General Taguba said. “To be accused of being overzealous and disloyal — that cuts deep into me. I was ostracized for doing what I was asked to do.”
. His March 2004 report on the scandal found that “numerous incidents of sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses were inflicted on several detainees” at Abu Ghraib by soldiers from the 372nd Military Police Company from October to December 2003.
He also questioned Mr. Rumsfeld’s claims that he had been unaware of the extent of the abuse and that he had not seen photographs documenting it until months after the Army began an investigation into the allegations in January 2004. General Taguba said senior Pentagon officials had been briefed on the case and given accounts of the pictures early in the investigation.
While his inquiry was limited to the conduct of the military police guarding the prison, he said he had strongly suspected that the guards had been influenced by military intelligence units, who were in charge of interrogating prisoners. Seven members of the military police, all enlisted soldiers, were convicted for their role in the abuse.
THE COMMITTEE SAYS:
Tacuba: Top Staff Knew of Torture
The top staff in the Pentagon implimented the torture policy, long before its abuses were exposed at Abu Garib.
Also See:
The New Yorker, 6-25-07,The General’s Report
Search the Corruption Database under
Torture
Illegal Detentions
Illegal Trials
5) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE :
F.D.A. Tracked Poisoned Drugs, but Trail Went Cold in China
June 17, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/17/health/17poison.html?ref
After a drug ingredient from China killed dozens of Haitian children a decade ago, a senior American health official sent a cable to her investigators: find out who made the poisonous ingredient and why a state-owned company in China exported it as safe, pharmaceutical-grade glycerin.
The Chinese were of little help. Requests to find the manufacturer were ignored. Business records were withheld or destroyed.
The Americans had reason for alarm. “The U.S. imports a lot of Chinese glycerin and it is used in ingested products such as toothpaste,” Mary K. Pendergast, then deputy commissioner for the Food and Drug Administration, wrote on Oct. 27, 1997. Learning how diethylene glycol, a syrupy poison used in some antifreeze, ended up in Haitian fever medicine might “prevent this tragedy from happening again,” she wrote.
The F.D.A.’s mission ultimately failed. By the time an F.D.A. agent visited the suspected manufacturer, the plant was shut down and Chinese companies said they bore no responsibility for the mass poisoning.
Ten years later it happened again, this time in Panama. Chinese-made diethylene glycol, masquerading as its more expensive chemical cousin glycerin, was mixed into medicine, killing at least 100 people there last year. And recently, Chinese toothpaste containing diethylene glycol was found in the United States and seven other countries, prompting tens of thousands of tubes to be recalled.
The F.D.A.’s efforts to investigate the Haiti poisonings, documented in internal F.D.A. memorandums obtained by The New York Times, demonstrate not only the intransigence of Chinese officials, but also the same regulatory failings that allowed a virtually identical poisoning to occur 10 years later. The cases further illustrate what happens when nations fail to police the global pipeline of pharmaceutical ingredients.
Beyond the three incidents linked to Chinese diethylene glycol, there have been at least five other mass poisonings involving the mislabeled chemical in the past two decades — in Bangladesh, Nigeria, Argentina and twice in India.
“This problem keeps coming back,” said Dr. Joshua G. Schier, a toxicologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And no wonder: the counterfeiters are rarely identified, much less prosecuted.
In a global economy, ingredients for drugs are often bought and sold many times in different countries, sometimes without proper paperwork, all of which increases the risk of fraud, the authorities say.
Finding counterfeiters often means pursuing leads across foreign borders, and no international authority has the power to do that. Dr. Howard Zucker, who helps to oversee drug issues for the W.H.O., said individual countries must conduct their own trace-back investigations.
Dr. Mohammed Hanif, a prominent physician in Dhaka, Bangladesh, said the foreign suppliers of diethylene glycol were never prosecuted for the deaths of thousands of children from 1982 to 1992. “The traumatizing memories of those days still torment me,” said Dr. Hanif, who wrote a paper about the deaths from toxic medicine.
In Argentina, a court official said no one had been prosecuted for supplying the diethylene glycol that ended up in a health supplement, killing 29 people in 1992.
In 1995, the same year babies began to die in Haiti, 284 barrels of a chemical labeled glycerin arrived in New York on container ships. Although the chemical was not intended for use in drugs, it was labeled 98 percent pure. An official with the company that bought the barrels, Dastech International, of Great Neck, N.Y., would later say, “It smelled like glycerin, it looked like glycerin.” But after one of its customers complained, Dastech took a closer look.
Although the chemical was labeled 98 percent pure glycerin, Dastech said in court records that the syrup actually contained sugar compounds — as well as diethylene glycol.
The exporter was Sinochem.
THE COMMITTEE SAYS:
China's Long History of Poisoned Exports Unaddressed in Face of Massive Corporate Profits:
Globalism Kills
But that's not a problem, compared to the massive profits of Corporations.
Also See:
Corruption Updates 55, 7th article on the Page, "China Tells Little About Illness That Kills Pigs, Officials Say
Corruption Updates 59, 3rd article on page, "F.D.A. to Test Toothpaste Sent to U.S. From China"
Corruption Updates 60, 8th article on page, "China:Recall Is Issued for Frozen Fish"
Corruption Updates 67, 5th article on page, "When Fakery Turns Fatal"
Corruption Updates 77, 5th article on page, "Thomas the Tank Engine Toys Recalled Because of Lead Paint"
Search the Corruption Database under
China
Previous Corruption Updates: Page 79
Next Corruption Updates: Page 81
Contact Us: Committeefordemocracy.org
