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Outlawed: Extraordinary Rendition, Torture and Disappearances
in the 'War on Terror'
Torture Taxi: On the Trail of the CIA's Rendition Flights
Jail Time For Journalists: The Government Crackdown on Reporters
Outlawed: Extraordinary Rendition, Torture and Disappearances
in the 'War on Terror'
As Spain acknowledges its territory may have been used as
a stopover for the CIA's transfer of prisoners known as extraordinary
rendition, we excerpt a new documentary by the human rights
group Witness. "Outlawed" tells the stories of two
men who have survived extraordinary rendition, secret detention,
and torture by the U.S. government working with various other
governments worldwide. [includes rush
transcript]
A Senate committee defied President Bush on Thursday by rejecting
his revised plan to interrogate and prosecute terrorism suspects
and approving alternative legislation that he strongly opposed.
The Senate Armed Services Committee passed the bill affirming
Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, which prohibits inhumane
treatment. The White House wants military tribunals at Guantanamo
Bay to maintain the right to use evidence obtained through
coercion and to keep elements of prosecution cases secret
from those accused.
Four Republicans, including Arizona's John McCain and committee
chair John Warner, joined Democrats in approving the measure.
The White House says it will fight the legislation because
it would mean the end of the CIA's program of interrogating
detainees.
Meanwhile in Europe, the Spanish government has admitted
Spain may have been used as a stopover for secret CIA flights
in the practice of transferring prisoners known as extraordinary
rendition - what others call kidnapping. The news comes a
week after President Bush acknowledged for the first time
that the CIA has been operating a secret network of overseas
prisons.
Today we turn to a new documentary that tells the stories
of two men who have survived extraordinary rendition, secret
detention, and torture by the U.S. government working with
various other governments worldwide. It's called "Outlawed"
and it's produced by the international human rights organization
Witness. The film highlights
the cases of Khaled El-Masri and Binyam Mohamed.
- Outlawed:
Extraordinary Rendition, Torture and Disappearances in the
'War on Terror' - an excerpt of the documentary
produced by the international human rights group Witness.
Torture Taxi: On the Trail of the CIA's Rendition
Flights
As President Bush admits the existence of secret overseas
CIA prisons, we take a look at the U.S. government's shadowy
program of extraordinary rendition with the authors of the
new book: "Torture Taxi: On the Trail of the CIA's Rendition
Flights." [includes rush
transcript]
The first book documenting the US government practice of
extraordinary rendition has just been released. It's called
"Torture Taxi: On the Trail of the CIA's Rendition Flights."
We speak with the book's authors, A.C. Thompson and Trevor
Paglen.
- A.C. Thompson, staff writer at the San Francisco Weekly.
In 2005 he won a George Polk Award for his investigative
reporting.
- Trevor Paglen, an expert on clandestine military installations
and is the author of the two-volume study "Secret Bases,
Secret Wars."
Jail Time For Journalists: The Government Crackdown
on Reporters
We speak with two journalists whose fates have been closely
monitored by First Amendment advocates. Freelance reporter
Josh Wolf spent 30 days in jail for refusing to give authorities
a video of a protest he filmed in San Francisco. Lance Williams
of the San Francisco Chronicle could soon be jailed for refusing
to disclose confidential sources to the government in the
Barry Bonds steroid case. [includes rush
transcript]
As we continue our broadcast from San Francisco we turn
to two local journalists whose fates have been closely monitored
by First Amendment advocates.
One of the journalists just spent 30 days in jail for refusing
to give authorities a video of a protest he filmed here in
San Francisco. The other journalist could soon be jailed for
refusing to disclose confidential sources to the government.
Josh Wolf is joining me in the studio -- He is a 24-year-old
freelance journalist and video blogger. Josh was jailed in
August after he refused to hand over video he shot at a protest
last year in San Francisco. He spent 30 days behind bars and
potentially faces more time locked up. Sitting next to him
is Ben Rosenfeld, one of his attorneys.
And on the phone is Lance Williams. He is a sports writer
with the San Francisco Chronicle and the co-author of a groundbreaking
book on steroid use in professional baseball. The book is
titled: "Game of Shadows: Barry Bonds, BALCO, and the
Steroids Scandal that Rocked Professional Sports." Last
month a federal judge ordered Williams and his co-author --
Mark Fainaru-Wada -- to reveal who leaked them grand jury
testimony that revealed Barry Bonds and other baseball players
had used performance-enhancing drugs.
- Josh Wolf, freelance journalist and video blogger who
was jailed for refusing to give authorities footage of a
2005 protest in San Francisco. He spent 30 days behind bars.
He is the first blogger to be targeted by federal authorities
for not cooperating with a grand jury.
- Ben Rosenfeld, San Francisco-based civil rights attorney
who is part of Josh Wolf's legal team
- Lance Williams, reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle.
He is co-author of the book, "Game of Shadows: Barry
Bonds, BALCO, and the Steroids Scandal that Rocked Professional
Sports."
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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