HRW Says CIA Detainee's Missing

   Here is an interesting report from the Human Rights Watch group which is reporting that 14 detainees held in the CIA's secret prison system are missing. That would be another shocker now wouldn't it?

HRW

February 2007

Estimates of the number of detainees held by the CIA over the course of the program vary.  The Washington Post described a two-tier system of detention, with some 30 “major terrorism suspects” being held at high-security prisons operated exclusively by CIA personnel, and an additional 70 less important suspects being transferred to prisons run by other countries’ intelligence services. The major suspects, also known as “High Value Targets,” were alleged top al-Qaeda leaders, not “foot soldiers.”

The picture emerging from detainee accounts, however, suggests that these numbers are understated, and that the true picture is more complex. For example, at the prison in Afghanistan where Khaled el-Masri was held, the guards were Afghan, but the interrogators, the main director, and the people in charge of prisoner transport appeared to be CIA. So while the prisoners had daily contact with Afghan personnel, all of the important decisions regarding detention, treatment, and release were made by Americans.

And at the so-called Dark Prison in Afghanistan, which appears to have been operated solely by CIA personnel, there were a substantial number of detainees who were not top terrorism suspects.  Human Rights Watch knows of some 20 prisoners previously held at that facility who are currently held at Guantanamo, as well as a former detainee who was released from Guantanamo in 2004. The majority of these prisoners (and obviously the one who was released) would not be considered major suspects.

Similarly, prisoners such as Marwan Jabour and the three Yemeni former detainees interviewed in 2005 by Amnesty International were far from top suspects—they were eventually released without charge.  Yet they too were held in prisons that seemed to have only American staff, as well as the extreme high-security arrangements characteristic of the CIA.

human rights watch, cia, guantanamo, dark prison, detainees

 

Olbermann Killing Democracy? That's What CNN's Glenn Beck Says

From American Progress Action Fund

"This material [article] was created by the Center for American Progress Action Fund"

Glenn Beck Claims Olbermann Is ‘Killing…The World’s Democracy,’ ‘Smacks Of…McCarthyism’

MSNBC host Keith Olbermann is profiled in this month’s issue of Rolling Stone. In the piece, Olbermann shares his thoughts on right-wing CNN Headline News host Glenn Beck:

A wolf in sheep’s clothing. The very dangerously bigoted guy who is selling himself as a pragmatic philosopher. I don’t think he sees his own bigotry. There’s something about him that suggests that, one night, he’ll say something that will cost him his career in television.

Glenn Beck responded tonight, calling Olbermann an “intolerant ideologue” whose ideas “smack of the same McCarthyism [Edward R.] Murrow fought so valiantly against.” Beck added, “Hey, Keith, you’re not saving the world’s democracy; you’re killing it, my friend, by trying to limit the marketplace of ideas to only those that reflect your own.”

Beck said tonight that his numerous inflammatory comments aren’t due to his right-wing point of view, but are merely a sign that he is “not perfect” and “struggl[ing] to find the answers to the issues that we face — on my own.” Some lowlights from Beck’s “struggle”:

The anti-gay slur “faggot” is nothing more than “a naughty name.” [1/23/07]

“What happened to the Duke lacrosse team was practically a lynching without the rope. And for the first time in my life, Mr. Oreo Cookie without the chocolate on the outside can understand why people celebrated when O.J. Simpson was acquitted.” [1/15/07, using a racial slur for African-Americans that refers to “being black on the outside and white on the inside”]

“[W]hat I feel like saying is, ‘Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies.’” [11/14/06, on what he would like to say to Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), the first elected Muslim member of Congress]

“I wonder if I’m alone in this — you know it took me about a year to start hating the 9-11 victims’ families? Took me about a year.” [9/9/05]

“And that’s all we’re hearing about, are the people in New Orleans. Those are the only ones we’re seeing on television are the scumbags.” [9/9/05]       ENTIRE ARTICLE

Posted by Nico February 27, 2007

keith olbermann, glenn beck, cnn, msnbc, democracy