April 20, 2009 archive

1. The LA Times reports Lack of mental damage from CIA torture is disputed. Some doctors and psychologists say the “interrogation techniques” used by the CIA had “significant and undeniable” mental damage.

   “I disagree wholeheartedly with their contention that there are no long-term psychological effects of these treatments,” said Nina K. Thomas, an adjunct clinical associate professor at New York University’s postdoctoral program in psychotherapy and psychoanalysis, who has worked with torture victims.

   Interrogation techniques undoubtedly have lasting effects, she said, such as paranoia, anxiety, hyper-vigilance and “the destruction of people’s personalities.”

   Brad Olson, a research professor of psychology at Northwestern University, said the approved methods could be extremely damaging.

   “Even given individual differences in a person’s resilience, over time — using any of those techniques in combination — there’s absolutely no question they are going to lead to permanent mental harm,” Olson said.

   In case you missed it, on Sunday the NY Times reports Waterboarding used 266 times on 2 prisoners. “The fact that waterboarding was repeated so many times may raise questions about its effectiveness, as well as about assertions by Bush administration officials that their methods were used under strict guidelines. A footnote to another 2005 Justice Department memo released Thursday said waterboarding was used both more frequently and with a greater volume of water than the C.I.A. rules permitted.”

   Emptywheel has more and the original coverage of this in her essay, “Khalid Sheikh Mohammed Was Waterboarded 183 Times in One Month“.

Four at Four continues with Sri Lanka gives Tamil Tigers 24 hours to surrender, a pattern of centuries-long drought in sub-Saharan Africa, news out of the Summit of the Americas, South Korean economic blogger wins in court, and the Mars rovers are still going.

Dear President Obama;

Sir I have written you multiple letters on the frank necessity of the need to investigate the Bush Administration State Sponsored Torture program. This need was based on the public information available, which to me, as a citizen who believes that unprosecuted apparent crimes undermine the very basis for our justice system and the rule of law.  

The looting operation commonly known as the US Government’s financial rescue plan will accelerate now that we know the next move in this cynical game. Up to now, the hundreds of billions of dollars supplied by taxpayers to dishonest and incompetent financial institutions have been LOANS. In theory, at least, the recipients pledged to repay the taxpayers once their businesses recovered. Now we learn that Geithner and Summers, the embedded agents of Wall Street intend to convert these loans to STOCK. What’s wrong with that? Here’s what is wrong:

1. Common stock holders, unlike bond holders or secured lenders, have no assurance of any return on their investment. All they are entitled to are stock certificates and an invitation to the shareholders’ meeting. Bankruptcy of the company in which they own stock usually results in a TOTAL LOSS.

2. The voting rights of stock can be engineered to deprive certain classes of stockholders of representation. This can be done by subtle, incremental degrees, so that the public slowly loses the control that would properly be associated with a large equity position. All a crooked bank has to do is get the government to agree to convert its equity into a class of stock that has restricted voting rights. Since Geithner and Summers are Wall Street puppets, their complicity in this matter is assured. Anything that restores investor “confidence” in the markets is OK with them.

3. A large equity position usually translates into representation on the board of directors, another important means of control that should be available to taxpayers owning substantial amounts of stock in a company. However, the appointment of “zombie directors,” removes this threat to management. The government-appointed directors of AIG have already demonstrated their completely ineffectual presence and thus provided an impressive example of how not to represent the interests of taxpayers.

Conversion of US Treasury loans to stock without securing the rights of stockholders for the taxpayers is the perfect form of “nationalization” for Wall Street. The gangsters at Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Citigroup, and B of A will receive vast infusions of taxpayer cash, while continuing to operate irresponsibly and paying themselves lavish bonuses. The taxpayer “stockholders” will either lose everything in massive bankruptcies and reorganizations or receive nothing in return for their huge investment as their equity is rendered meaningless by cunning management maneuvering.

This is legalized looting of the Treasury, and Obama’s administration is directly responsible for it.

This is a true story. Almost. And, it’s almost fiction. But not quite. I should know, I was there.

Bosnian Serbs And Their

Leaders Have been Taken To

And Tried In The Hague

With America Asking This

Be Done

Yet Americans Who Tortured

Are Somehow Exempt From

U.S. And International Law    

Obama to Order Cabinet to Quickly Cut $100 Million From Department Budgets



By Michael A. Fletcher

Washington Post Staff Writer

Monday, April 20, 2009; 12:08 AM

President Obama plans to convene his Cabinet for the first time today, where he will order members to identify a combined $100 million in budget cuts over the next 90 days, according to a senior administration official.

The budget cuts, while they would account to a minuscule portion of federal spending, are intended to signal the president’s determination to cut spending and reform government, the official said.

Obama’s order comes as he is under increasing pressure to show momentum toward his goal of eventually reducing the federal deficit, even as he goes about increasing spending in the short run to prop up the economy and support his priorities.

Extremist tide rises in Pakistan

After deal in north, Islamists aim to install religious law nationwide

By Pamela Constable

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – A potentially troubling era dawned Sunday in Pakistan’s Swat Valley, where a top Islamist militant leader, emboldened by a peace agreement with the federal government, laid out an ambitious plan to bring a “complete Islamic system” to the surrounding northwest region and the entire country.

Speaking to thousands of followers in an address aired live from Swat on national news channels, cleric Sufi Mohammed bluntly defied the constitution and federal judiciary, saying he would not allow any appeals to state courts under the system of sharia, or Islamic law, that will prevail there as a result of the peace accord signed by the president Tuesday.

USA

Gates tailors defense plan to win battles with Congress



By David Lightman and William Douglas | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON – Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ plan to overhaul military spending practices and strategy signals a new Pentagon willingness to play hardball politics with lawmakers in Congress.

Gates presented his changes April 6 as though they were another piece of President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus package.

“I am concerned for the possibility that these decisions will have an impact on individual companies and workers around the country,” Gates said at a media briefing. He proceeded to describe job losses resulting from the proposed end of the F-22 fighter jet program – and noted that they’d be offset by likely gains from expanded production of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

Rain