Met police: six officers accused of torturing drug suspects –Sources: Officers accused of pushing suspects’ heads into buckets of water 10 June 2009 Six Metropolitan police officers have been suspended from duty following allegations they used a form of water-based torture on suspected drugs smugglers, it emerged last night. The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) said it was investigating the conduct of officers based in Enfield, north London, during drugs raids in the borough last November. One IPCC document is said to use the word “waterboarding” – the CIA technique condemned as torture by Barack Obama – in connection with the allegations.
CIA: Keep Bush-Era Documents Sealed –Obama asserts CIA should be allowed to keep interrogations (war crimes evidence) secret 09 Jun 2009 The Obama regime objected yesterday to the release of certain Bush-era documents that detail the videotaped interrogations of CIA prisoners at secret prisons, arguing to a federal judge that doing so would endanger national security and benefit al-Qaeda’s recruitment efforts. In an affidavit, CIA Director Leon E. Panetta defended the classification of records describing the contents of the 92 videotapes, their destruction by the CIA in 2005 and what he called “sensitive operational information” about the interrogations. Although Panetta’s statement is in keeping with his previous opposition to the disclosure of other information about the CIA’s interrogation policies and practices during George W. Bush’s presidency [sic], it represents a new assertion by the Obama administration that the CIA should be allowed to keep such information secret.
Senators vow veto on release of torture pics –The US has kept and tortured hundreds of prisoners at the infamous Guantanamo Bay detention facility, Bagram air base in Afghanistan and secret jails known as black sites around the world. 09 Jun 2009 Senators Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham have announced plans to forestall efforts meant to publish torture photos taken from US military prisons. In a joint statement on Monday, the two senators said that US Congress members need to prevent the release of photos that threaten US troops’ security overseas.
House panel aims to thwart closing of Guantanamo 09 Jun 2009 A House of Representatives panel on Tuesday approved a $64.4 billion spending bill that could make it even harder for President Barack Obama to keep his pledge to close the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba early next year. The House Appropriations Committee rejected Obama’s request for $60 million for the Justice Department that he wanted starting Oct. 1. The panel demanded extensive risk reports in advance of releasing or transferring the remaining approximately 238 detainees from the prison.
Iraq’s New Death Squad By Shane Bauer 03 Jun 2009 The effective head of the American ISOF project is General Trombitas of the Iraq National Counter-Terror Transition Team. Trombitas spent nearly seven of his over thirty years in the military training special forces in Colombia, El Salvador and other countries… Trombitas says he is “very proud of what was done in El Salvador” but avoids the fact that special forces trained there by the United States in the early 1980s were responsible for the formation of death squads that killed more than 50,000 civilians thought to be sympathetic with leftist guerrillas. Guatemala was a similar case.
U.S. Supreme Court Grants Immunity to Iraq From Saddam-Era Lawsuits 09 Jun 2009 The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled on two separate cases involving the legal precedent that the Iraqi government has sovereign immunity for cases involving the Saddam Hussein regime and its alleged abuses. Iraq was designated a state sponsor of terror and as a result was a target of prosecution under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA). However, in an effort to clear legal hurdles to establishing a new government dictatorship following the invasion, then-President [sic] George W. Bush issued an order waiving Iraq of its state sponsor label.
Israel hints its next war would ‘engulf broader region’ 09 Jun 2009 Israel’s Defense Minister says the flames of the next Israeli war would engulf a ‘broader’ region while admitting that Israelis must be ready to pay a higher price in terms of losses. “The IDF’s future operations will be broader and more demanding in terms of their scope and pace, with more risks than Operation Cast Lead (in the Gaza Strip). We in the political echelon will act so that the ordeal won’t come to pass but, still, you must win every trial,” The Jerusalem Postquoted Ehud Barak as saying on Tuesday.
3 more charged with spying in Lebanon 09 Jun 2009 Three more suspects have been charged with spying for Israel in Lebanon as the security forces continue the crackdown on spy networks in the country. One of the three accused of “collaborating with the Israeli enemy” is already in custody, while the others remain at large, said a judicial official on Tuesday.
FBI boss defends use of mosque spies 09 Jun 2009 FBI director Robert Mueller defended the agency’s use of informants within US mosques amid complaints that worshippers and clerics were being targeted instead of possible terrorists. Mr Mueller’s comments came days after a Michigan Muslim organisation asked the US Justice Department to investigate complaints that the FBI was asking the faithful to spy on Islamic leaders and worshippers.
Exelon’s Dresden nuclear power plant has radioactive leak –Records show Exelon officials took steps to hide radioactive tritium spills which escaped its Braidwood Generation Station in Will County between 1996 and 2003. 09 Jun 2009 A radioactive leak at Exelon’s Dresden nuclear power plant has been contained and isn’t a risk to public health, ‘authorities’ said today. Leaked tritium – a radioactive by-product of nuclear reaction that can cause cancer and birth defects — was found Saturday during routine tests at the Grundy County plant, according to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Exelon hasn’t found the cause or source of the leak, which was discovered in a monitoring well and storm sewers at the 37-year-old plant, the oldest privately-financed nuclear reactor in the United States and not far from the Kankakee and Des Plaines Rivers.
‘Orwellian language’ in schools turns pupils into ‘customers’, finds damning report 09 Jun 2009 Schools using the ‘Orwellian language of performance management’ are undermining teenagers’ education by turning them into ‘customers’ rather than students, a landmark report says today. Teachers who are forced to use phrases such as ‘performance indicator’ and ‘curriculum delivery’ lack enthusiasm for the job, the six-year investigation found.
Enron troll Schwarzenegger shows true colors: California contemplates ultimate reform – no welfare 09 Jun 2009 Could California become the first state in the nation to do away with welfare? That doomsday scenario is on the table as lawmakers wrestle with a staggering $24.3 billion budget deficit. County welfare directors are “in shock” at the very idea of getting rid of CalWORKs, which has been widely viewed as one of the most successful social programs in the state’s history, said Bruce Wagstaff, director of the Department of Human Assistance in Sacramento. [Next time, maybe people will be weary of GOP maggots who push a phony recall to install a GOPig in 'moderate' clothing.]
Scientists: Global warming has already changed oceans 09 Jun 2009 Researchers, scientists and Jacques Cousteau’s granddaughter painted a bleak picture Tuesday of the future of oceans and the “blue economy” of the nation’s coastal states. The hearing before the oceans subcommittee of the Senate Commerce Committee was expected to focus on how the degradation of the oceans was affecting marine businesses and coastal communities. Instead, much of the testimony focused on how the waters that cover 70 percent of the planet are already changing because of global warming.
