The Unknown Candidate: Torture Update

Thursday, November 30, 2006

Torture Update

Dodd Urges Bush to Delay Implementation of Torture Bill:

"Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) yesterday called on George W. Bush to postpone putting the Military Commissions Act of 2006 (MCA) into place until a new Secretary of Defense is confirmed and can examine the hideous piece of legislation passed by the Republican Congress in September...."

Judge strikes down Bush on terror groups:

"A federal judge struck down President Bush's authority to designate groups as terrorists, saying his post-Sept. 11 executive order was unconstitutional and vague.

Some parts of the Sept. 24, 2001 order tagging 27 groups and individuals as "specially designated global terrorists" were too vague and could impinge on First Amendment rights of free association, U.S. District Judge Audrey Collins said.

The order gave the president "unfettered discretion" to label groups without giving them a way to challenge the designations, she said in a Nov. 21 ruling that was made public Tuesday.

The judge, who two years ago invalidated portions of the U.S. Patriot Act, rejected several sections of Bush's Executive Order 13224 and enjoined the government from blocking the assets of two foreign groups...."

In Letter, Radical Cleric Details CIA Abduction, Egyptian Torture

In an account smuggled out of prison, a radical Muslim cleric has detailed how he was kidnapped by the CIA from a northern Italian city and flown to Cairo, where he was tortured for months with electric shocks and shackled to an iron rack known as "the Bride."

Bush Admin shielded from War Crimes [VIDEO]

Buried deep within the torture bill is this:

... no court, justice, or judge shall have jurisdiction to hear or consider any other action against the United States or its agents relating to any aspect of the detention, transfer, treatment, trial, or conditions of confinement of an alien detained by the United States who--

(A) is currently in United States custody; and

(B) has been determined by the United States to have been properly detained as an enemy combatant or is awaiting such determination.'.

(b) Effective Date- The amendments made by subsection (a) shall take effect on the date of the enactment of this Act, and shall apply to all cases, without exception, pending on or after the date of the enactment of this Act which relate to any aspect of the detention, transfer, treatment, trial, or conditions of detention of an alien detained by the United States since September 11, 2001.

In English: Any war crime committed by the Bush administration since 9/11 cannot be prosecuted.

Nice job congress.