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The Return of Black Bag Searches? Oregon Attorney on Why
He Feels Federal Agents Broke into His Home and Office to
Conduct Clandestine Searches
Another Civilian Massacre? U.S. Launches Investigation After
Iraqi Police Accuse U.S. Troops of Murdering 11 Men, Women
and Children Last Week
Iraqi Exile Speaks Out Against the Targeting of Gay Iraqis
by Shia Death Squads
Three Kidnapped Peace Activists Freed in Baghdad
The Return of Black Bag Searches? Oregon Attorney
on Why He Feels Federal Agents Broke into His Home and Office
to Conduct Clandestine Searches
Attorney Thomas Nelson discusses his lawsuit against the
National Security Agency and his evidence that the Bush administration's
secret domestic surveillance is much broader than reported
and may include secret physical searches. [includes rush
transcript]
New questions are being raised over whether the Bush administration's
warrantless domestic spy program is more extensive than has
been acknowledged. This week, US News & World Report revealed
the Bush administration attempted to authorize government
agents to perform physical searches without court warrants.
A government official said FBI Director Robert Mueller objected
to the proposal, "not only because of the blowback issue
but also because of the legal and constitutional questions
raised by warrantless physical searches."
In a few minutes we're going to be speaking with someone
who alleges they've been subjected to these physical searches.
But first, we go back a month to Attorney General Alberto
Gonzales. On February 6th, Gonzales appeared before the Senate
Judiciary Committee to explain the Bush administration's domestic
eavesdropping program.
- Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez being questioned by
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), February, 2006.
Well, weeks later Gonzales wrote a follow-up letter attempting
to clarify his testimony. Referring to his remark that the
President has only authorized domestic wiretapping, Gonzales
wrote: "I did not and could not address . . . any other
classified intelligence activities. I was confining my remarks
to the Terrorist Surveillance Program as described by the
President."
Gonzales" letter prompted Bruce Fein, a former government
lawyer who served under three Presidents, to comment: "It
seems to me he is conceding that there are other NSA surveillance
programs ongoing that the president hasn't told anyone about."
Today we speak with someone who says he has been subjected
to another surveillance program. Thomas Nelson, is an attorney
based in Portland, Oregon. In a letter to a district US Attorney
in September, Nelson wrote: "In the past nine months
I and others have seen strong indications that my office and
my home have been the target of clandestine searches."
Nelson believes these searches are related to his representation
of a terror suspect.
- Thomas Nelson, attorney based in Portland, Oregon.
Another Civilian Massacre? U.S. Launches Investigation
After Iraqi Police Accuse U.S. Troops of Murdering 11 Men,
Women and Children Last Week
The U.S. military has launched an investigation into the
killing of Iraqi civilians by U.S. forces in a raid last week.
Iraqi police have accused American troops of murdering 11
civilians in the assault. The dead included five children
and four women and ranged in age from 6 months to 75 years
old. We go to Baghdad to speak with the Knight Ridder reporter
who broke the story.
The US military has launched an investigation into the killing
of Iraqi civilians by US forces in a raid last week.
Iraqi police have accused American troops of murdering 11
civilians in the assault. According to an Iraqi police report
first obtained by the Knight Ridder news agency, the villagers
were killed after US troops herded them into one room of a
house near the city of Balad. The dead included five children
and four women and ranged in age from 6 months to 75 years
old. The report said the troops burned three vehicles, killed
the villagers' animals and blew up the house. Local medics
said the bodies of those killed had bullet wounds to the head.
The US military contends that only four civilians were killed
in the raid after they came under fire while trying to capture
an al-Qaeda suspect. Photographs in the aftermath of the incident
show locals cradling the bodies of dead children, and laying
out their bodies in an emotional burial ceremony.
The report of the killings is unusual because it originated
with Iraqi police and because Iraqi police were willing to
attach their names to it. It was compiled by the Joint Coordination
Center in Tikrit, a regional security center set up with United
States military assistance.
The investigation into the killings comes hot on the heels
of a US Navy criminal probe into reports that marines intentionally
shot 15 civilians dead near the western town of Haditha last
November.
Several Iraq veterans recently told BBC's NewsNight program
that the Haditha attack was not an isolated. Specialist Michael
Blake, who served in Balad, said it was common practice to
"shoot up the landscape or anything that moved"
after an explosion. Another veteran, Specialist Jody Casey
said he was always advised to carry a shovel, which he could
plant on any civilian victims to make it look as though they
were digging roadside bombs.
We go to Baghdad to speak with the reporter Matthew Schofield.
He is the European Bureau Chief for the Knight Ridder news
agency, currently reporting from Iraq. He first obtained the
Iraqi police report that accused US troops of the civilian
killings.
Iraqi Exile Speaks Out Against the Targeting of Gay
Iraqis by Shia Death Squads
We speak with a gay Iraqi exile about the systematic targeting
of gay Iraqis by Shiite death squads in Iraq. The attacks
follow a death-to-gays fatwa issued by Grand Ayatollah Ali
al-Sistani last October. We also speak with independent journalist
Doug Ireland who broke the story. [includes rush
transcript]
As violence continues on a daily basis on Iraq, President
Bush is continuing his media offensive this week. A town-style
meeting in West Virginia Wednesday was his latest in five
straight days of appearances. The president has repeatedly
lauded what he calls the birth of freedom and democracy in
Iraq after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's oppressive regime.
But yet another story out of the country paints a very different
picture.
Shiite death squads in Iraq have been systematically targeting
gay Iraqis for persecution and execution. The attacks follow
a death-to-gays fatwa issued by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani
last October. In a question and answer section of his website,
Sistani says homosexuality is "forbidden" and calls
for the killing of gays in the "worst, most severe way."
The story comes in this week's issue of Gay
City News. It reports that the Badr Corps have heeded
Sistani's call and have been targeting gay Iraqis. The Badr
Corps is the military arm of the Iranian-backed Supreme Council
of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, a powerful Shia group that
is the largest political formation in Iraq's Shia community.
For more on the story we are joined by Ali Hili, a gay Muslim
Iraqi living in exile in Britain. He fled Iraq two years ago.
Five months ago he founded the Abu Nawas Group to support
persecuted gay Iraqis. He joins us on the line from London.
He does not want to expose his face as he has received several
death threats. We are also joined by independent journalist
Doug Ireland, who broke the story in Gay City News.
- Ali Hili, a gay Muslim Iraqi living in exile in Britain.
He fled Iraq two years ago. Five months ago he founded the
Abu Nawas Group to support persecuted gay Iraqis.
- Doug Ireland, a longtime radical political journalist
and media critic. He has been a columnist for The Nation
magazine, Village Voice, the New York Observer and the Paris
daily Liberation. He is also a contributing editor of POZ,
the monthly for the HIV-positive community. He maintains
a blog at direland.typepad.com.
Three Kidnapped Peace Activists Freed in Baghdad
The three remaining members of the Christian Peacemakers
Team have been freed in Iraq after being held as hostages
for almost four months. They were seized last November along
with the U.S. peace activist Tom Fox whose body was found
in Baghdad two weeks ago. We speak with the co-director of
Christian Peacemaker Teams in Canada. In Iraq, three members
of the Christian Peacemakers Team have been freed after being
held as hostages for almost four months. British Foreign Secretary
Jack Straw announced the men had been rescued earlier today.
The exact circumstances of their release remains unclear.
According to a statement from the Christian Peacemaker Teams,
no one was hurt in the rescue. The rescued men are Norman
Kember of Britain, and James Loney and Harmeet Singh Sooden,
both of Canada. Across the globe, families and friends of
the men have been rejoicing.
The men were seized in Baghdad last November along with the
U.S. peace activist Tom Fox whose body was found in Baghdad
two weeks ago. He had been shot and his body was dumped on
a Baghdad street. The peace activists are all members of the
humanitarian group The Christian Peacemaker Teams which has
been documenting the abuse of Iraqi detainees and working
with the families of prisoners. The CPT were the first to
publicly denounce the torture of Iraqi people at the hands
of U.S. forces, long before the media revealed what was happening
at Abu Ghraib.
- Doug Pritchard, co-director of Christian Peacemaker Teams
in Canada.
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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