April 15, 2009 archive

Wednesday Morning Science Supplement

From Yahoo News Science

1 Protest as Japan whaling factory ship returns to port

by Harumi Ozawa, AFP

Tue Apr 14, 11:30 am ET

TOKYO (AFP) – Greenpeace activists protested Tuesday as the last of six Japanese whaling ships returned to port from a five-month Antarctic mission marked by tense standoffs at sea with militant activists.

Waiting on shore at Shimonoseki harbour, Greenpeace anti-whaling campaigners shouted and held up a placard that read: “Southern Ocean Whaling: Cover-ups, Lies, 1.2 billion yen (12 million dollars) in taxes.”

Japan kills whales using a loophole in a 1986 international moratorium on commercial whaling that allows “lethal research” on the mammals, and makes no secret of the fact that the animals’ meat is then served as food.

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Panetta’s Defense of CIA Interrogators Undercut by New DoJ Disclosures

Panetta’s Defense of CIA Interrogators Undercut by New DoJ Disclosures

by Jason Leopold,

Antemedius, April 14, 2009 – 2:22pm

  CIA Director Leon Panetta has consistently stated over the past several months that agency interrogators who participated in the Bush administration’s sadistic torture practices should not be subject to “any investigation, let alone prosecution,” because they were following legal advice provided by the Justice Department.

   In March, Panetta said he agreed to cooperate with a Senate Intelligence Committee “review” and “study” on CIA interrogation methods on the condition that he received assurances from committee Chair Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-California) and Republican Co-Chair Kit Bond (R-Missouri) that they would not attempt to “punish those who followed guidance from the Department of Justice.”

   “That is only fair,” Panetta said. “Their goal is to draw lessons for future policy decisions” and [they] won’t seek to punish those who participated in the program.

   On Thursday, in announcing the closure of the “black site” prisons where the torture took place, Panetta said CIA “officers who act on guidance from the Department of Justice – or acted on such guidance previously – should not be investigated, let alone punished. This is what fairness and wisdom require.”

   However, Panetta’s defense was dealt a serious blow last week when the Justice Department revealed in a letter sent to a federal court judge that 92 interrogation videotapes the CIA destroyed were made between April and December 2002.

   The Justice Department’s legal opinion authorizing the CIA to use specific interrogation methods, including the near-drowning technique known as waterboarding, was not issued until August 1, 2002.

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