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New Documents Show Marines Tortured Iraqis, Pentagon Admits
8 Detainees Died in U.S. Custody in Afghanistan
Unocal Settles Landmark Human Rights Case with Burmese Villagers
Inuits to Sue U.S. Over Global Warming
Senate Democrats Protest Top Secret Spy Satellite Project
CIA Agent Says Bosses Ordered Him To Falsify WMD Reports
New Documents Show Marines Tortured Iraqis, Pentagon
Admits 8 Detainees Died in U.S. Custody in Afghanistan
Newly released military documents show U.S. Marines carried
out mock executions, used electric shocks and burned prisoners
inside Iraqi jails. And the Pentagon has admitted that at
least eight detainees have died in U.S. custody in Afghanistan.
We speak with representatives of the ACLU and Human Rights
Watch who uncovered the abuses.
More evidence has emerged that US troops in Iraq carried
out extensive torture inside Iraqi jails. Newly released military
documents show Marines carried out mock executions, used
electric shocks and burned prisoners. The documents, obtained
through the Freedom of Information Act, reveal that at least
13 Marines were court-martialed for taking part in the abuse.
Some were jailed. The names of the Marines were blacked out
of the documents. None of there cases had been previously
reported. In one case, three marines were convicted after
they "ordered four juvenile Iraqi looters to kneel beside
two shallow fighting holes and a pistol was discharged to
conduct a mock execution". The documents were obtained
by the American Civil Liberties Union.
Meanwhile the Pentagon has admitted that at least eight detainees
have died in U.S. custody in Afghanistan. The admission came
following a critical report by Human Rights Watch that assailed
the military's "culture of impunity" on prisoner
abuse.
Unocal Settles Landmark Human Rights Case with Burmese
Villagers
A ground-breaking settlement was reached in the long-running
human rights case brought by Burmese villagers against the
energy giant Unocal. We speak with the executive director
of the Center for Justice and Accountability.
A ground-breaking settlement has been reached in the long-running
human rights case brought by Burmese villagers against the
energy giant Unocal.
A dozen Burmese villagers sued Unocal in the California courts,
claiming that the company was aware of and supported slave
labor, murder, rape and forced relocation of villagers by
the Burmese military during the construction of an oil pipeline
from Burmese oil fields to Thailand.
The allegations were taken up by EarthRights
International, the Centre
for Constitutional Rights and the International
Labor Rights Fund, which brought the case on the villagers'
behalf, using the alien tort claims act.
Human rights activists have hailed the settlement as a landmark
test in holding multinational companies responsible in the
United States for atrocities committed abroad.
Inuits to Sue U.S. Over Global Warming
Inuit leaders are seeking a ruling from an international
court that the U.S. government's position on global warming
is threatening their existence as a people. We speak with
the managing attorney at Earth Justice. [includes rush
transcript]
The Inuit, about 155,000 seal-hunting peoples scattered
around the Arctic, plan to seek a ruling from the Inter-American
Commission on Human Rights that the United States, by contributing
substantially to global warming, is threatening their existence.
The Inuit plan is part of a broader shift in the debate over
human-caused climate change evident among participants in
the 10th round of international talks taking place in Buenos
Aires aimed at averting dangerous human interference with
the climate system. The commission is an investigative arm
of the Organization of American States and has no enforcement
powers. But a declaration that the United States has violated
the Inuit's rights could create the foundation for an eventual
lawsuit, either against the United States in an international
court or against American companies in federal court.
Last month, an assessment of Arctic climate change by 300
scientists for the eight countries with Arctic territory,
including the United States, concluded that "human influences"
are now the dominant factor.
- Martin Wagner, managing attorney for international programs
at Earth Justice.
Senate Democrats Protest Top Secret Spy Satellite
Project
The Justice Department is reviewing a request for a criminal
investigation into recent disclosures about a highly classified
satellite surveillance program. We speak with a stealth satellite
expert from the National Security Archive.
The Justice Department and the FBI are reviewing a request
for a criminal investigation into recent disclosures about
a highly classified satellite surveillance program.
The request from the National Reconnaissance Office comes
after reports in the Washington Post and other publications
about a stealth satellite program under debate in Congress,
which has reportedly risen in cost from $5 billion to $9.5
billion over the past few years.
The project was debated in closed hearings on Capitol Hill,
but some lawmakers took the unusual step of voicing their
concerns publicly while trying to abide by classification
constraints. Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia said
the program was "totally unjustified and very, very wasteful
and dangerous to the national security."
Rockefeller added "Because of the highly classified
nature of the programs contained in the national intelligence
budget, I cannot talk about them on the floor." He said
the Intelligence Committee had voted to terminate the program
for the past two years only to be overruled by the appropriations
committees.
Rockefeller and three other Senate Democrats refused to sign
"conference sheets" related to the 2005 intelligence
authorization bill, reportedly to protest the program.
- Jeffrey Richelson, senior fellow at the National
Security Archive. The stealth satellite program at issue
was first described publicly in his book, "The Wizards
of Langley: Inside the CIA's Directorate of Science and
Technology."
CIA Agent Says Bosses Ordered Him To Falsify WMD
Reports
An undercover intelligence officer, who is suing the CIA,
says his managers asked him to falsify his reporting on weapons
of mass destruction and retaliated against him when he refused.
We speak with his attorney. [includes rush
transcript]
We turn now to the story of how a senior intelligence officer
was targeted by the CIA after he refused orders from his superiors
to falsify his reports on weapons of mass destruction.
The senior CIA operative charges in a lawsuit made public
last week that a co-worker warned him three years ago that
"CIA management planned to 'get him' for his role in
reporting intelligence contrary to official CIA dogma."
Although the word "Iraq" does not appear in the
heavily redacted version of the suit, the Washington Post
reports that "the remaining language and context make
clear that the officer's work related to prewar intelligence
on Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction."
Accusations of intelligence officers being pressured on their
Iraq findings in the lead-up to the war has long been alleged,
but no CIA official has come public before with such claims.
According to the undercover agent, the CIA management retaliated
against him by launching investigations of allegations that
he had a sexual affair with a female asset and that he stole
money meant to be pay off for sources.
- Roy Krieger, DC-based lawyer representing the undercover
CIA operative filing the lawsuit. He specializes in national
security cases and has represented scores of people in the
CIA.
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Mike Burke, Sharif Abdel Kouddous,
Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press, Jeremy Scahill and Parvez Sharma.
Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.
Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Joe Murgio, John Randolph,
Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Eric Rweyemamu,
Jenny Filipazzo and Isis Phillips.
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