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The Daily Muck
According to transcripts released by the US Court of Appeals, Abdallah Higazy confessed to a crime he did not commit because the FBI threatened his family with torture in Egypt. According to Andrew Sullivan, “the Court tried to keep this part of the judgment classified, yanking it from the official site after mistakenly posting it - but not till the interrogation details were exposed. Higazy's false confession - that he was using a radio transmitter in his hotel room to converse with terrorists in airplanes - was rendered moot by the owner of the transmitter, an airline pilot who had also stayed in the room, subsequently claiming it from the hotel as his own. But that didn't stop the threat of torture. And that didn't stop the conviction.” (Atlantic, “The Daily Dish”)
The U.S. State Department believes in second chances when it deals with problematic private contractors. First Kuwaiti General Trading & Contracting Co., the firm attempting to complete the massive U.S. Embassy complex in Baghdad, is part of team that recently won a $122 million State Department contract to build a U.S. consulate in Saudi Arabia. Never mind the massive construction defects, allegations of criminal misconduct, forced labor, and cost overruns in the Baghdad project, the Kuwaiti company is run by a Lebanese businessman who is an ally of Syria and the Iranian-backed Islamic militant group Hezbollah. (McClatchy)
Secretary Rice admitted yesterday that the U.S. government was a poor host to a Canadian citizen (Maher Arar) whom it sent to Syria where he was allegedly tortured. Rice clarified the U.S. position in this case of mistaken extraordinary rendition by stating, “we do absolutely not wish to transfer anyone to any place in which they might be tortured.” (New York Times)
The U.S. government has spent $38 million dollars on a computerized accounting system to help the Iraqi government move beyond Saddam Hussein's bookkeeping methods but now the project is on hold because the Ministry of Finance in Baghdad prefers paper. Stuart Bowen, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, stated that “nobody noticed” when the information system was inoperable for an entire month because nobody uses it to produce reports. (Washington Post, New York Times)
A new government report states that it would take four years to test the thousands of people who might be exposed to radiation if a "dirty bomb" detonated in a major city. According to the House Committee on Science and Technology report, there are few labs capable of doing this testing, and the tests available would be unable to identify more than half the radiological isotopes that would likely be used in a dirty bomb. (USA Today)
You know you’re in trouble when “Heckuva job Brownie” says you are in denial about the country’s compromised disaster response due to deployment of National Guard to war zones. (Politico)
Fred Thompson’s bundler in his cash-cow home state, Beth Harwell, has a history of campaign finance trouble. As chair of the Tennessee Republican Party (2001-2004), her organization was fined $30,000 in a settlement with the Federal Elections Commission. Harwell insists that it was just an accounting error and blamed the McCain-Feingold law. (Politico)
As we noted yesterday, the White House drastically altered Center for Disease Control and Prevention Director Julie L. Gerberding's testimony to Congress on global warming. Gerberding's testimony shrank from 12 to 6 pages after portions about the effect of global warming on Americans, including sentences like, “CDC considers climate change a serious public concern." White House spokeswoman Dana Perino defended the scientific merits of the edits, and Gerberding insists she is “perfectly happy” with the testimony she delivered. (Washington Post)
Comments (13)
Jake D. wrote on October 25, 2007 11:00 AM:Is someone disputing that Gerberding is “perfectly happy” with the testimony she delivered? I would be happy if I could shrink 12 posts here at TPM to only six ; )
jerri wrote on October 25, 2007 11:25 AM:The $38 million computer program...was that delivered to the Iraqis with instructions written in arabic or farci???. How much you want to bet it was english?
Redshift wrote on October 25, 2007 11:34 AM:"Harwell insists that it was just an accounting error and blamed the McCain-Feingold law."
So it's the law's fault if you break the law? Why didn't I ever think of that? "No, officer, it's just a driver error; I blame the traffic laws."
don de drain wrote on October 25, 2007 11:35 AM:Fascists like to censor things. If some people had their wish, the government would be able to censor a lot more than it does now. I'd just like say a big "Thank You" to the folks here at TPM for doing such a wonderful job. And thanks for not censoring comments of mine and those who disagree with me. We are all better off allowing freedom of expression so people can listen to all ideas and make their own choices.
don de drain wrote on October 25, 2007 11:36 AM:Fascists like to censor things. If some people had their wish, the government would be able to censor a lot more than it does now. I'd just like say a big "Thank You" to the folks here at TPM for doing such a wonderful job. And thanks for not censoring comments of mine and those who disagree with me. We are all better off allowing freedom of expression so people can listen to all ideas and make their own choices.
Jake D. wrote on October 25, 2007 11:44 AM:don de drain:
I you mistaken if you think TPM doesn't censor (just look at all the calls for me to be banned here).
anonymous wrote on October 25, 2007 11:49 AM:re the Second Circuit trying to withdraw the un-redacted opinion in which the FBI interrogator threatened to send a captive's family to be tortured (item #1 above) - please give credit for the story where credit is due. Howard Bashman, over at his appellate law blog "How Appealing", was the first one I've seen to post the un-censored opinion. The Second Circuit tried (hard) to lean on him to get him to take it down, but, as a member of the press, he refused.
Mike wrote on October 25, 2007 12:23 PM:Jake D.,
Calls for you to be banned?
Who gives a rat's ass?
Have you ever actually been banned?
No?
Then, STFU.
If you don't understand the difference between "calling for banning," and "banning," please re-attend 8th grade.
Alternately, if you haven't gotten that far:
www.dictionary.com
Look it up.
Mary wrote on October 25, 2007 12:36 PM:Good for Bashman. In any event, all of that information was public record prior to the court proceeding. I guess what has made it suddenly "classified" is the revelation that they've now admitted that they use family torture as an incentive.
Two of the roundups are about US and US DOJ involvement with torture. To heck with Monica Goodling and politicizing DOJ, those lawyers who helped make DOJ the vehicle to solicit, coverup and participate in kidnap and torture of innocent people - and who were willing to openly violate the "public" version of the Executive Order on classification, which promised no illegal behaviour would ever be stamped classified, are the ones who forever changed DOJ.
And you'll find a large chunk of the "left wing blogosphere" (whatever that is supposed to be) giving some of those very same lawyers praises and accolades. I believe that the then USAtty's response to the the Higazy coerced confessions, all 1, 2, 3 of them, was that he couldn't be prouder of the interrogations or results. Go look up who that USA was.
Anonymous wrote on October 25, 2007 1:21 PM:U.S. Attorney James B. Comey.
Dee Illuminati wrote on October 25, 2007 2:13 PM:Abdallah Higazy while I'm sure an 'unsavory character', has nonetheless demonstrated why the USA must return to the rule of law. We cannot lower ourselves to Abdallah Higazy's status and behaviors and expect to win a war of ideas. You combat idealogical etremists with ideas that they cannot themselves ante up to, you provide a clear alternative to a worldview outlook, these extremists can be marginalized if we act responsible and the 'violence' that extremists would evoke cannot be deterred effectively by these coercive actions.
I recall a documentary: "The commanding heights" by PBS, and I have to wonder? How are these policies consistent with "The battle for the world economy."
We cannot short sell the ideas that made us the beacon of the world economy for security, as we will end up with neither.
Sec. Def. Gates has proposed closing GITMO, but we have a dilema, how to square the treatment of these detainees and move forward without using the 'torture' word. Well the truth of the matter is that we should repudiate the practice and re-establish the principles that have served us well for so long.
This whole issue is like a pile of sh1t under the carpet, and we need to clean it up, or reminds me of a turd in the puncbowl.. avoided and unnoticed as we laddle out rhetoric, Americans are better than this. We deserve better representation of whom we are as a people in a similar fashion as moderates in the islamic world need to speak out and say: "these acts do not define us" we reject these ideas.
PBen wrote on October 25, 2007 2:37 PM:Jake D. :
"I would be happy if I could shrink 12 posts here at TPM to only six ; )"
If they were your posts, then yes, we would all agree to shrinking them in half.
Eric Ferguson wrote on October 25, 2007 6:28 PM:The NY Times story about Rice's testimony about Maher Arar left out that she would only acknowledge that government to government communications between the US and Canada was mishandled. When asked repeatedly about him being imprisoned a year and tortured, she answered repeatedly that she's heard there are claims. The CBC program As It Happens carried that bit of testimony, and noted Rice's claims of "claims".
Why is this woman still in her job? just like with Gonzo, it's amazing how many screw-ups are tolerable.