EMAIL SIGN UP!
Most Popular This Week
Popular content
Today's Top News
Obama Administration Demands Amnesia From Reporters Covering Gitmo
Jack Newfield, the legendary investigative reporter, once wrote that if government officials had their way, journalists would be "stenographers with amnesia."
The "amnesia" part, at least, was generally considered a bit of an exaggeration.
But now, the Pentagon has banned four reporters from covering the military commissions at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, because they refused to forget something that had already been reported to the world.
The four reporters were covering military commission hearings at which defense attorneys for Canadian detainee Omar Khadr argued that confessions he made as a gravely wounded 15-year-old shouldn't be admissible in his upcoming trial because they were made under duress.
And indeed, witnesses earlier this week described how Khadr's interrogation began when he was still sedated and lying wounded on a stretcher. A medic testified that he once found Khadr chained by his arms to the door of his cage-like cell, hooded and in tears
But the defense's star witness, on Thursday, was the first U.S. Army interrogator to question Khadr. The interrogator admitted that in an attempt to get Khadr to talk, he told the boy a "fictitious" tale of an Afghan youth who was gang-raped in an American prison and died.
And it wasn't just what he said that was significant, it was also who he was. The interrogator was Army Sgt. Joshua Claus, who pleaded guilty in September 2005 to mistreatment and assault of detainees at the Bagram prison in Afghanistan.
Claus was a central figures in the interrogation of an Afghan taxi driver named Dilawar whose death in U.S. custody in 2002 was ruled a homicide by military investigators and was the subject of a New York Times investigation and the Oscar-winning documentary, "Taxi to the Dark Side".
The military judge presiding over the hearing insisted that Claus's name was protected information, and that he should only be referred to as Interrogator # 1.
But since it was already public record that Claus was Khadr's first interrogator -- and he'd even given an interview last year about his desire to testify -- the four reporters used his name in their Wednesday reports, previewing his testimony.
That was enough to get them thrown off the island.
"That reporters are being punished for disclosing information that has been publicly available for years is nothing short of absurd," Jameel Jaffer, deputy legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement. "Any gag order that covers this kind of information is not just overbroad but nonsensical. Plainly, no legitimate government interest is served by suppressing information that is already well known. "
The decision was announced by Col. Dave Lapan, the Pentagon's director of press operations. He emailed the four news organizations that they could send other reporters to cover military commissions in the future, but that another violation would get their organizations banned entirely.
The decision Is being appealed.
"The company lawyers are looking at the ground rules, the timing of this, and Carol's reporting, in preparation for appealing this decision," said John Walcott, Washington bureau chief for McClatchy Newspapers. Carol Rosenberg, one of the four banned reporters, works for McClatchy's Miami Herald.
The other three reporters are Michelle Shephard of the Toronto Star, Paul Koring of Toronto's Globe and Mail and Steven Edwards of CanWest Newspapers.
"I'm not sure I understand the logic of trying to redact a name that has been in public for some time, of a man who has granted at least one major interview, and been convicted and sentenced," Walcott told HuffPost.
"I hope that this decision is about what the Pentagon said it's about, and that is an attempt to protect a witness -- and not about some of the embarrassing testimony that emerged in the tribunal this week.
"I also hope it is not intended to have a chilling effect of tribunals going forward," he said. "It won't on us... In fact, it may have the opposite effect."
John Stackhouse, editor in chief of the Globe and Mail, was also skeptical. "Banning the information now -- when it is already known around the world -- serves no apparent purpose other than to raise more questions about the credibility of the Guantanamo courts," he said in a statement.
Khadr was shot twice in the back during a Special Forces raid on a suspected al Qaida compound in Afghanistan. He confessed under interrogation to having thrown a hand grenade that killed U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Speer, 28, and has been charged with murder as a war crime and conspiring with al Qaida. Khadr is now 23.
Claus gave an interview to Michelle Shepard of the Toronto Star (one of the four banished reporters) in March 2008. Shepard wrote:
A former U.S. soldier who spent weeks interrogating Omar Khadr says he wants to testify before a Guantanamo Bay court and rejects any accusations that he harshly treated the Canadian detainee.In the first interview he has given since leaving the army, Joshua Claus told the Toronto Star that he feels he has been unfairly portrayed concerning his work as an interrogator at the U.S. base in Bagram, Afghanistan.
"They're trying to imply I'm beating or torturing everybody I ever talked to," Claus said by telephone yesterday. "I really don't care what people think of me. I know what I did and I know what I didn't do."
Shepard also reported in that story:
Khadr's lawyers fought to get access to Claus at a Guantanamo hearing earlier this month after the prosecution had dropped him from a previous witness list.Navy Lt.-Cmdr. Bill Kuebler accused the prosecution of trying to hide Claus' identity because he had been involved in the interrogation of an Afghan detainee who died in U.S. custody.
Nancy A. Youssef reported Thurdsay for McClatchy Newspapers:
On Wednesday, the judge in the case, Col. Patrick Parrish, reminded reporters that even though Claus' name was public, a protective order intended to keep him anonymous applied to journalists as well.Rosenberg's report that day included the following sentences: "Canadian reports have identified that interrogator as Army Sgt. Joshua Claus, who pleaded guilty in September 2005 to mistreatment and assault of detainees at Bagram. He was sentenced to five months in jail."
Rosenberg said her story was filed before the judge's warning. She said Claus' name had already been revealed.
"All I did was report what was in the public domain," Rosenberg said....
Pentagon officials said it didn't matter that Claus' name was already widely known. "If his name was out there, it was not related to this hearing. Identifying him with Interrogator No. 1 was the problem," Lapan said.
"The judge shouldn't have had to remind them. The stories that appeared before violated the rules."
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press on Friday announced it is seeking a meeting with Department of Defense officials to discuss the banishment. The committee also notes that the president judge had previously insisted that a video of an interrogation of Khadr be played in a closed session with no spectators, despite the video's availability to the public on YouTube.
President Obama severely criticized the Bush administration's military commissions during his presidential campaign, and immediately suspended them upon taking office. But five months later, he reopened the door to their use, and now they're up and running again.
The White House is widely expected to overrule Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to try the highest-profile terror suspects, including alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, in federal court, and send them to military commissions instead. Holder, for his part, is gamely trying to defend military commissions to skeptics.
But nothing says "kangaroo court" quite like banning the free press.
- Posted in
Comments
Note: Disqus 2012 is best viewed on an up to date browser. Click here for information. Instructions for how to sign up to comment can be viewed here. Our Comment Policy can be viewed here. Please follow the guidelines. Note to Readers: Spam Filter May Capture Legitimate Comments...
41 Comments so far
Show AllEvery branch of the Empirical state is corrupt. The military is not on your side. Don't expect them to defend your freedom.
Bush signed orders creating a US military command responsible for mobilizing US troops for active duty *against* US citizens on American soil, a violation of the US Constitution and the Posse Commitatus Act.
Obama has never rescinded this order.
Do the math.
Think Waco or Ruby Ridge or Ludlow or Pine Ridge......
Bush just formalized it.
Let me see if I understand:
A 15 yr. old kid, who was almost certainly tortured in violation of the Genevea Conventions, is a war criminal for allegedly throwing a grenade at illegal occupying forces who were most likely trying to kill him.
An interrogator (whose name can't be spoken) may have murdered a prisoner in U.S. custody and tortured the 15 yr. old kid, but for some reason isn't under investigation.
The judge in the case, Col. Patrick Parrish, demands that reporters be silenced and threatened from doing their constitutionally protected duties.
Barack Obama, the President of the U.S. and a constitutional scholar has revived and legitimized the kangaroo courts that Bush was unable to and that he promised as a candidate not to.
And George Bush, Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld and all their psychopathic war criminal friends walk free, enjoy their lives and continue living in prosperity.
Everybody have a good day!
Just a reminder: the Obama administration, and Attorney General Eric Holder, specifically, has subpoenaed James Risen, a New York Times reporter, to testify about his 2006 book, focused on the CIA, and titled, State of War. The authorities want Mr. Risen to disclose his confidential sources. The New York Times reported this on April 29, 2010.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/29/us/29justice.html
Banning four reporters from the military tribunal courtroom seems, to me, more of the same, and also absurd, to ban these four writers for reporting facts that are already in the public record. The authorities are continuously chipping away at the Constitution, etc., transparency, and our right to know, as citizens of this country. In addition, our misrepresentatives have sold their souls to the highest bidder -- corporations. As Bill Moyers, et. al., have pointed out, this country is an oligarchy, and our very weak Democracy is further compromised daily. In fact, for several years, I have felt that we citizens are NOT represented. I agree with Buck, "Every branch of the Empirical state is corrupt."
"But nothing says "kangaroo court" quite like banning the free press." -- Dan Froomkin
I agree!
.torrent?
Sioux Rose
We have always been at war with Eurasia.
We have never been at war with Eurasia.
Winston, is that you?
Winston should've stayed in Wales.
Winston Churchill was a war pig (cue Sabbath tune)
The 'Winston' in question is the main character from George Orwell's prophetic novel '1984', Winston Smith, a victim of the government and 'Big Brother', who was tortured until he became a willing member of the Party.
Good gods, just how culturally ignorant are you people?
Teabaggers singing We Shall Overcome.
Does that answer your question?
Sadly, tragically, yes.
Easy now. Don't think you are special because you have read a book.
Now, here is a very brief piece G Orwell's history. Orwell worked for the BBC when there was only radio. He was stationed in India and at times was supposed to do live interviews with people of importance, military officers, government officials and the like. Here's the rub, the interviews were scripted. Orwell had first hand knowledge of governmental bs and the media's complicity. He saw it coming through experience.
Not all of us Americans are that ignorant. Speaking of "1984", isn't it strange that virtually nobody who ever refers to JULIA ? She was uncompromising all throughout even when O'Brien lied about her caving in to the party. Winston, on the other hand, always had a knack of conceding all too often. If the electorate would be more like Julia instead of Winston, this country would actually be a real numero uno already.
Actually, Julia caved to the torture also. Had she not caved, she'd have been killed. Some argue that the scar on her forehead is a reference to having had a lobotomy. Re-read the last part of the book again, the scene where the two of them meet up after Winston goes to room 101 is rather bleak.
If one performs lobotomy against a patient, then they are forcing that patient to "change". In that case, Julia in her true and original form would never cave in. I read this novel a few years ago but will be happy to reread what you referred to. The way I interpreted Julia and Winston was that Julia wanted to change the party from the outside whereas Winston always wanted to attack the party from the center without trying to rock the boat. One could compare Julia and Winston to Nader and Kucinich, and yes I heard all about Kucinich's caving in on that disaster health care legislation which I will read more about as I visit the archives. I have read different versions of analyzing Julia and Winston. Some of the reviews would blame Julia for Winston's downfall but I would disagree. Even in moments where Winston showed his fear of Big Brother being able to remotely read his mind, Julia made it clear to him that they can't take away his heart. Obviously, Winston did not have that true heart to be his brave self that Julia did. Of course, Julia was cunning and knew how to outwit the Party. Winston's weaknesses which included caving in destroyed not only him but also her. This is similar to how the Democratic Party's tendancy to cave in has essentially made it so easy for Wall $treet and the political elites to economically infiltrate Europe and cause turbulence in people's minds. I understand that Julia was more self-centered compared to Winston but ironically, her strengths in cunning and survival offset that weakness.
Of course, it is possible that maybe she caved in because she wanted to go back to doing her dirty "business" with the Party members that she used to do before meeting Winston. In that case, she is more libertarian in nature.
Julia by herself was no threat to the Party, aka the status quo, and neither was Winston by himself. The Party could have easily held Julia for her crimes in sleeping with the Party members and/or Winston for always hating Big Brother but neither of those happened because neither one of them by themselves was perceived as a "threat" to the status quo. Put together, the Party had feared a possible change could be in the making and they had sent out spies to break them up before any possible team work against the Party could be carried out. Winston could have been more self-confident and Julia could have helped him catch up except that her tendency to be self-centered kept her from getting him on the right foot to victory. While that is no guarantee that both of them together would have been successful in defeating the Party, the defeat would not have come too soon.
The reference may not have been to Americans. (Good to see you back!)
Thanks bardamu. :)
I have a lot of reading to catch up to, a little over 4 months to be precise, and I won't mind reading it all no matter how depressing the news.
I thought Galens was Canadian but he probably knows that this nation's electorate is cornfed for the most part. It is wishful thinking to expect George Orwell's "1984" or "Animal Farm" to ever make it to required school reading in any school curriculm, btw.
Galen is Canadian, same with me.
[It is wishful thinking to expect George Orwell's "1984" or "Animal Farm" to ever make it to required school reading in any school curriculm, btw.]
WHAT! You're joking right? They were required in Canada when I went to school, I remember being pissed off that I had already read books that we were supposed to study in English class. I argued that studying the book would spoil the things, the teacher laughed at me; I'm still scarred. (grin)
On the topic of Julia and Winston, yah, there's lots of ways you can interpret the actions of each character. I always saw both of them as Don Quixote types, but ones who knew in their hearts that the windmills against which they tilted were never going to be destroyed by their efforts.
I am not joking. In fact, I only came to know of George Orwell via the Internet a few years ago. I live in the heartland part of the US.
[Good gods, just how culturally ignorant are you people?]
Sorry, I don't mean any disrespect to you, but good goddess. Is it any wonder that most of the people who aren't accessing websites like this one... I mean, biscuits...
Orwell was writing books that damned communism and other forms of totalitarianism, why on earth wouldn't the powers that be at the school boards not want to have his books studied? I don't think he was an 'evolutionist' or anything like that, maybe he wasn't as religious as they'd have liked him to be, I dunno.
See no evil (documented evidence of torture).
Hear no evil (the screams of agony recorded for posterity).
Speak no evil (toe the Corporate/Government line).
Omar Khadr is lucky, compared to the innocent US citizen who was tortured *TO DEATH* by the FBI who was trying to get him to confess to being the 'second suspect' in the Oklahoma City bombing.
http://www.kennethtrentadue.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Michael_Trentadue
http://motherjones.com/politics/2007/07/search-john-doe-no-2-story-feds-never-told-about-oklahoma-city-bombing
http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts05262005.html
Torture is a long standing policy of the US Government, no matter which meat puppet is acting as President.
Speaking of controlling the press, I wonder if Amy Goodman was invited to the White House Press Gala a week or so ago.
Not in the Bush/Obama world, one aptly titled "Access of Evil" by Ms. Goodman.
"You're dancin' with whom they tell you to or you don't dance at all."
- Bob Dylan, High Water
One good Dylan quote deserves another:
"All the truth in the world adds up to one big lie."
-Things Have Changed
I suppose the press should be happy that there weren't any helicopter gunships overhead, eh?
["But nothing says "kangaroo court" quite like banning the free press." -- Dan Froomkin
I agree!]
Worth a ditto.
Guaranteed. Obama WANTS the Lieberman/McCain bill that would ultimately allow military tribunals for American citizens.
Not a peep from him against it no? Or is just a Bush Administration hold-out responsible for that too (sarcasm directed at those "progressives" who explain away everything Obama is doing through his DOJ, by blaming the Bush Adm leftovers in the DOJ)
I'm learning to despise Obama even more than I did Bush.
Those complicit in 9/11 in our government have to be pleased at how the complete cover-up is proceeding.
Blowing the lid off the fact that we have NO ONE in custody that can be proved to have participated in the claimed Al-Queada plot on 9/11 would severely impact the already Swiss Cheese official mythology of 9/11.
That is why, there will never be a real trial for any of the so-called 9/11 high value detainees. There is no there there.
Yes, all of this insanity, the Patriot Act, Torture, Wars that are bankrupting this country, all hinge on the events of 9/11.
Surely, if nothing else, WTC7 causes a tiny bit of suspicion right?
The reporters are not the only people this administration wants forgetting what happened in Dubya's time. It should be obvious that this man is angling for a second term and this administration is probably using reporters for experimenting purposes. From there, a strategy would be formed in trying to once again make the electorate, already cornfed, forget what happened and see Obama as running for president as an "outsider" and not as an incumbent. Well, it worked for Dubya in 2004 so it might work for Barry this time around. But Barry or GOP, it's all a lose-lose.
Once a person is falsely labeled a terrorist or linked to a terrorist that child or adult will be put away for life unless he has a connection to a friend of the presidents such as the friendship between Bush and the Saudi Arabian Prince or other wealthy oil Billionaires.
America has been waging war against children for decades.The Iraqi children died by the hundreds of thousands due to U.S. foreign policy of war and economic sanctions and war again.
Military Tribunal or U.S. Court Trial, it makes no difference , it will be a Kangaroo Court. Government agents are allowed to lie during the investigation and don't know where the boundary is that requires them to stop lying and tell the truth. If it is the word of a U.S. agent and that of a suspected terrorist, who will the jury believe?
Obama Expands Military Involvement in Africa;
Following Bush's GWOT, Obama's Drones Continue;
Obama education plan boosts privatization, victimizes teachers;
ACLU to Obama: ‘Entire World is Not a War Zone’;
Obama Packs Debt Commission with Social Security Looters;
Obama Puts Pesticide Pusher in Charge of Agricultural Trade Relations;
Obama In Afghanistan: '9/11', 'More Troops on the Way', '9/11';
Obama doesn't "begrudge" Dimon, Blankfein bonuses;
Obama to indefinitely imprison detainees without charges;
Obama broke these 6 health care promises;
Change We Can Believe In: Obama Honors George H.W. Bush for Public Service;
Obama vows to use power to thwart terrorists;
Obama Continues to Privatize America's Imperial Wars;
Obama's Role in the Militarization of Mexico;
Obama Double-Crossed Progressives on Health Care;
Obama and the Permanent War Budget;
President Obama 'creating torture impunity';
Padilla v. Yoo: Obama administration backs appeal of Bush torture memo author;
Mercenaries and assassins: The real face of Obama’s “good war”;
The "Obama Doctrine": Eternal War For Imperfect MankindObama Far Outdoes Bush in Escalating War -- The Numbers Will Surprise You;
Obama Administration OKs Oil Drilling in Arctic off Alaska;
Af-Pak War Racket: The Obama Illusion Comes Crashing Down;
In many respects, a year of President Barack Obama feels much the same as...a year of George Bush. Wars metastasize, prisons migrate from Cuba to Illinois, bankers get richer – 2009 had many elements of deja vu. Barack Obama has firmly established the continuation of Bush regime domestic, foreign and economic policy.
The military, the colonel, and by default President Barack Obama are acting like fascists, not at all like they're members of a Democracy with a Constitution and freedom of the press...they should be ashamed for pathetically prosecuting a one-time child soldier.
I'm angry Barack Obama sold us a bill of goods during the Presidential election as he promised to be so different from Bush and his shredding of the Constitution...and we naievely believed Obama was serious about ending the shame of Gitmo...what a fraud.
It hurts just to hear such things. Our heroes.
"That reporters are being punished for disclosing information that has been publicly available for years is nothing short of absurd," Jameel Jaffer, deputy legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement. "Any gag order that covers this kind of information is not just overbroad but nonsensical. Plainly, no LEGITIMATE (emphasis added) government interest is served by suppressing information that is already well known. "
The operative word in the last sentence of the above quote is "legitimate." The ONLY reason for the Pentagon to bar these reporters is to intimidate other news agencies into kowtowing to the Amerikkkan dictatorship and to coerce favorable reporting of a corrupt and dangerous government.
how many folks have died in united states' custody since 9/11? now, how many folks have been convicted or even arrested on homicide charges since 9/11? please do the research for me, as i'm a bit cybernetically challenged. but, according to my best recollection, i believe that there have been about 140 custodial deaths resulting in three arrests and one conviction. check me up on this, as this speaks volumes about the state of our mildly fascist country.
"John Doe was shot twice during an al Qaida raid on a suspected Special Forces compound in the United States. He confessed under interrogation to having thrown a hand grenade that killed Muhammad Qutb, 28, and has been charged with murder as a war crime and conspiring with Special Forces."
Funny how now most 'mericans would see "Smith" as a hero in this story, for bravely retaliating against his attackers, especially since they were trespassing in his country.
It's also odd that a person can be charged with "murder as a war crime." Huh? I thought murder and war were basically synonyms. How is killing someone who is shooting at you murder, by any stretch of the imagination? And since when is killing a soldier, during an ostensible war, an act of murder?
Only in USAmerica...