Some Detainees Are Drugged For Deportation | Immigrants Sedated Without Medical Reason | by Amy Goldstein and Dana Priest | Washington Post Staff Writers | Page A1; May 14, 2008
The U.S. government has injected hundreds of foreigners it has deported with dangerous psychotropic drugs against their will to keep them sedated during the trip back to their home country, according to medical records, internal documents and interviews with people who have been drugged.
...
"Unsteady gait. Fell onto tarmac," says a medical note on the deportation of a 38-year-old woman to Costa Rica in late spring 2005. Another detainee was "dragged down the aisle in handcuffs, semi-comatose," according to an airline crew member's written account. Repeatedly, documents describe immigration guards "taking down" a reluctant deportee to be tranquilized before heading to an airport.
...
Involuntary chemical restraint of detainees, unless there is a medical justification, is a violation of some international human rights codes. The practice is banned by several countries where, confidential documents make clear, U.S. escorts have been unable to inject deportees with extra doses of drugs during layovers en route to faraway places.
...
Internal government records show that most sedated deportees, such as Ade, received a cocktail of three drugs that included Haldol, also known as haloperidol, a medication normally used to treat schizophrenia and other acute psychotic states. Of the 53 deportees without a mental illness who were drugged in 2007, The Post's analysis found, 50 were injected with Haldol, sometimes in large amounts.
...
Haldol gained notoriety in the Soviet Union, where it was often given to political dissidents imprisoned in psychiatric hospitals. "In the history of oppression, using haloperidol is kind of like detaining people in Abu Ghraib," the infamous prison in Iraq, said Nigel Rodley, who teaches international human rights law at the University of Essex in Britain and is a former United Nations special investigator on torture.
For people who are not psychotic, said Philip Seeman, a University of Toronto specialist in psychiatry and pharmacology, "prescribing Haldol . . . is medically and ethically wrong." ...
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Indiana voters shut out for no rational reason -- -- chicagotribune.com
Indiana voters shut out for no rational reason -- -- chicagotribune.com By Steny Hoyer and Chris Dodd | May 13, 2008
...
The Supreme Court has just decided to restrict our voting rights—and frankly, in pages and pages of opinions, we're having trouble seeing their good reason. By a 6-3 decision, the justices chose to uphold Indiana's voter ID law, the nation's harshest, leaving states free to turn away voters who can't present a driver's license or passport on demand at the polls.
That might not seem like a lot to ask, if you're not working two jobs, if you're not depending on public transportation, if you're not confined to a retirement home. Maybe you can make it to the secretary of state's office whenever you want.
But millions of Americans can't—Americans like the dozen nuns who were reportedly turned away from the voting booth in South Bend, Ind., last week. Because they don't drive, they didn't have licenses; and because they're in their 80s and 90s, few of them had the energy to go apply for one across town.
Now, there's a high hurdle in front of their right to vote—the most fundamental right in a democracy.
And there isn't a shred of evidence to justify it. By long-standing precedent, a law like Indiana's would only be constitutional if it served a real public interest, such as preventing fraud. Given the severe remedy proposed, you'd expect American elections to be drowning in fraud.
But you would be wrong. Here is the sum total of evidence Justice John Paul Stevens cited in his lead opinion:
Political fixer "Boss Tweed" used to pay for multiple votes per person—in 1868.
In 2004, one voter committed impersonation fraud in Washington state.
In East Chicago, Ind., a candidate interfered with absentee ballots.
A 140-year-old story, a law-breaking voter, and a single case of absentee fraud, which the Indiana law did nothing to prevent anyhow—that was all the proof the Supreme Court needed to place a disproportionate burden on the thousands who are too poor, too elderly or too disabled to meet rigid ID laws. ...
...
The Supreme Court has just decided to restrict our voting rights—and frankly, in pages and pages of opinions, we're having trouble seeing their good reason. By a 6-3 decision, the justices chose to uphold Indiana's voter ID law, the nation's harshest, leaving states free to turn away voters who can't present a driver's license or passport on demand at the polls.
That might not seem like a lot to ask, if you're not working two jobs, if you're not depending on public transportation, if you're not confined to a retirement home. Maybe you can make it to the secretary of state's office whenever you want.
But millions of Americans can't—Americans like the dozen nuns who were reportedly turned away from the voting booth in South Bend, Ind., last week. Because they don't drive, they didn't have licenses; and because they're in their 80s and 90s, few of them had the energy to go apply for one across town.
Now, there's a high hurdle in front of their right to vote—the most fundamental right in a democracy.
And there isn't a shred of evidence to justify it. By long-standing precedent, a law like Indiana's would only be constitutional if it served a real public interest, such as preventing fraud. Given the severe remedy proposed, you'd expect American elections to be drowning in fraud.
But you would be wrong. Here is the sum total of evidence Justice John Paul Stevens cited in his lead opinion:
Political fixer "Boss Tweed" used to pay for multiple votes per person—in 1868.
In 2004, one voter committed impersonation fraud in Washington state.
In East Chicago, Ind., a candidate interfered with absentee ballots.
A 140-year-old story, a law-breaking voter, and a single case of absentee fraud, which the Indiana law did nothing to prevent anyhow—that was all the proof the Supreme Court needed to place a disproportionate burden on the thousands who are too poor, too elderly or too disabled to meet rigid ID laws. ...
What the F.B.I. Agents Saw - water, toture, women's underwear, 2 months in isolation (US recognized torture)
What the F.B.I. Agents Saw - New York TimesPublished: May 22, 2008
Does this sound familiar? Muslim men are stripped in front of female guards and sexually humiliated. A prisoner is made to wear a dog’s collar and leash, another is hooded with women’s underwear. Others are shackled in stress positions for hours, held in isolation for months, and threatened with attack dogs.
You might think we are talking about that one cell block in Abu Ghraib, where President Bush wants the world to believe a few rogue soldiers dreamed up a sadistic nightmare. These atrocities were committed in the interrogation centers in American military prisons in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. And they were not revealed by Red Cross officials, human rights activists, Democrats in Congress or others the administration writes off as soft-on-terror.
They were described in a painful report by the Justice Department’s inspector general, based on the accounts of hundreds of F.B.I. agents who saw American interrogators repeatedly mistreat prisoners in ways that the agents considered violations of American law and the Geneva Conventions. According to the report, some of the agents began keeping a “war crimes file” — until they were ordered to stop.
These were not random acts. It is clear from the inspector general’s report that this was organized behavior by both civilian and military interrogators following the specific orders of top officials. The report shows what happens when an American president, his secretary of defense, his Justice Department and other top officials corrupt American law to rationalize and authorize the abuse, humiliation and torture of prisoners:
— Four F.B.I. agents saw an interrogator cuff two detainees and force water down their throats.
— Prisoners at Guantánamo were shackled hand-to-foot for prolonged periods and subjected to extreme heat and cold.
— At least one detainee at Guantánamo was kept in an isolation cell for at least two months, a practice the military considers to be torture when applied to American soldiers.
The study said F.B.I. agents reported this illegal behavior to Washington. They were told not to take part, but the bureau appears to have done nothing to end the abuse. It certainly never told Congress or the American people. The inspector general said the agents’ concerns were conveyed to the National Security Council, but he found no evidence that it acted on them. ...
Does this sound familiar? Muslim men are stripped in front of female guards and sexually humiliated. A prisoner is made to wear a dog’s collar and leash, another is hooded with women’s underwear. Others are shackled in stress positions for hours, held in isolation for months, and threatened with attack dogs.
You might think we are talking about that one cell block in Abu Ghraib, where President Bush wants the world to believe a few rogue soldiers dreamed up a sadistic nightmare. These atrocities were committed in the interrogation centers in American military prisons in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. And they were not revealed by Red Cross officials, human rights activists, Democrats in Congress or others the administration writes off as soft-on-terror.
They were described in a painful report by the Justice Department’s inspector general, based on the accounts of hundreds of F.B.I. agents who saw American interrogators repeatedly mistreat prisoners in ways that the agents considered violations of American law and the Geneva Conventions. According to the report, some of the agents began keeping a “war crimes file” — until they were ordered to stop.
These were not random acts. It is clear from the inspector general’s report that this was organized behavior by both civilian and military interrogators following the specific orders of top officials. The report shows what happens when an American president, his secretary of defense, his Justice Department and other top officials corrupt American law to rationalize and authorize the abuse, humiliation and torture of prisoners:
— Four F.B.I. agents saw an interrogator cuff two detainees and force water down their throats.
— Prisoners at Guantánamo were shackled hand-to-foot for prolonged periods and subjected to extreme heat and cold.
— At least one detainee at Guantánamo was kept in an isolation cell for at least two months, a practice the military considers to be torture when applied to American soldiers.
The study said F.B.I. agents reported this illegal behavior to Washington. They were told not to take part, but the bureau appears to have done nothing to end the abuse. It certainly never told Congress or the American people. The inspector general said the agents’ concerns were conveyed to the National Security Council, but he found no evidence that it acted on them. ...
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
1.1 Million Purged from Indiana Voter Registration Rolls According to State Data, Says BBV
BLOGGED BY Brad Friedman ON 5/5/2008 1:23PM | 1.1 Million Purged from Indiana Voter Registration Rolls According to State Data, Says BBV
In addition to the recent, outrageously bad decision by the Supreme Court to approve Indiana's draconian polling place Photo ID restrictions, sure to keep thousands of legal voters from even being able to cast votes in tomorrow's important Primary Election --- despite the state's inability to offer up a single instance of in-person polling place voter impersonation that's ever occurred during the state's entire history (as we've covered here, here and here, for example) --- another 1.1 million voters have now been purged from the voting rolls altogether, reports Bev Harris of Black Box Voting, as based on the Hoosier State's own data. ...
In addition to the recent, outrageously bad decision by the Supreme Court to approve Indiana's draconian polling place Photo ID restrictions, sure to keep thousands of legal voters from even being able to cast votes in tomorrow's important Primary Election --- despite the state's inability to offer up a single instance of in-person polling place voter impersonation that's ever occurred during the state's entire history (as we've covered here, here and here, for example) --- another 1.1 million voters have now been purged from the voting rolls altogether, reports Bev Harris of Black Box Voting, as based on the Hoosier State's own data. ...
United States is violating an international protocol that forbids the recruitment of children under the age of 18 for military service,
School Military Recruiting Could Violate International Protocol - CommonDreams.orgWednesday, May 14, 2008 by Inter Press Service | by Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON - Pressed by the demands of the “global war on terrorism”, the United States is violating an international protocol that forbids the recruitment of children under the age of 18 for military service, according to a new report released Tuesday by a major civil rights group that charged that recruitment practices target children as young as 11 years old.
The 46-page report, “Soldiers of Misfortune“, which was prepared by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) for submission to the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child, also found that the U.S. military disproportionately targets poor and minority public school students.
Military recruiters, according to the report, use “exaggerated promises of financial rewards for enlistment, [which] undermines the voluntariness of their enlistment.” In some cases documented by the report, recruiters used coercion, deception, and even sexual abuse in order to gain recruits. Perpetrators of such practices are only very rarely punished, the report found.
“The United States military’s procedures for recruiting students plainly violate internationally accepted standards and fail to protect youth from abusive and aggressive recruitment tactics,” said Jennifer Turner of the ACLU Human Rights Project. ...
WASHINGTON - Pressed by the demands of the “global war on terrorism”, the United States is violating an international protocol that forbids the recruitment of children under the age of 18 for military service, according to a new report released Tuesday by a major civil rights group that charged that recruitment practices target children as young as 11 years old.
The 46-page report, “Soldiers of Misfortune“, which was prepared by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) for submission to the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child, also found that the U.S. military disproportionately targets poor and minority public school students.
Military recruiters, according to the report, use “exaggerated promises of financial rewards for enlistment, [which] undermines the voluntariness of their enlistment.” In some cases documented by the report, recruiters used coercion, deception, and even sexual abuse in order to gain recruits. Perpetrators of such practices are only very rarely punished, the report found.
“The United States military’s procedures for recruiting students plainly violate internationally accepted standards and fail to protect youth from abusive and aggressive recruitment tactics,” said Jennifer Turner of the ACLU Human Rights Project. ...
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Widespread “voter fraud” is a myth promulgated to suppress voter participation, according to a new Project Vote report
New Report Examines "The Politics of Voter Fraud" | March 05, 2007
Washington, DC - Widespread “voter fraud” is a myth promulgated to suppress voter participation, according to a new Project Vote report released this week. “The Politics of Voter Fraud” finds that fraudulent voting, or the intentional corruption of the voting process by voters, is extremely rare. Yet, false or exaggerated claims of fraudulent voting are commonly made in close electoral contests, and later cited by proponents of laws that restrict voting. The report is authored by Lorraine Minnite, Ph.D., Barnard College, Columbia University.
“I set out to study what situations generated incidents of voter fraud and, after researching the laws and examining the existing evidence, I found that voter fraud did not occur with enough frequency or was enough of a significant factor in elections to model or study,” Minnite said. “Instead, in this report, I examined circumstances in which claims of voter fraud were made and how they came to receive widespread public attention.”
Analysis of federal government records concludes that only 24 people were convicted of or pleaded guilty to illegal voting between 2002 and 2005, an average of eight people a year. The available state-level evidence of fraudulent voting, culled from interviews, reviews of newspaper coverage and court proceedings paints a similar picture.
“We shouldn’t base public policy on urban legends but on sound facts. It’s clear from this report that fraudulent voting isn’t threatening the integrity of our elections; we do know that erecting additional bureaucratic obstacles to voting discourages legitimate voters,” said Project Vote Deputy Director Michael Slater. ...
Washington, DC - Widespread “voter fraud” is a myth promulgated to suppress voter participation, according to a new Project Vote report released this week. “The Politics of Voter Fraud” finds that fraudulent voting, or the intentional corruption of the voting process by voters, is extremely rare. Yet, false or exaggerated claims of fraudulent voting are commonly made in close electoral contests, and later cited by proponents of laws that restrict voting. The report is authored by Lorraine Minnite, Ph.D., Barnard College, Columbia University.
“I set out to study what situations generated incidents of voter fraud and, after researching the laws and examining the existing evidence, I found that voter fraud did not occur with enough frequency or was enough of a significant factor in elections to model or study,” Minnite said. “Instead, in this report, I examined circumstances in which claims of voter fraud were made and how they came to receive widespread public attention.”
Analysis of federal government records concludes that only 24 people were convicted of or pleaded guilty to illegal voting between 2002 and 2005, an average of eight people a year. The available state-level evidence of fraudulent voting, culled from interviews, reviews of newspaper coverage and court proceedings paints a similar picture.
“We shouldn’t base public policy on urban legends but on sound facts. It’s clear from this report that fraudulent voting isn’t threatening the integrity of our elections; we do know that erecting additional bureaucratic obstacles to voting discourages legitimate voters,” said Project Vote Deputy Director Michael Slater. ...
Scant evidence for vote fraud ... [but Delay redistricting] career staff members unanimously said it discriminated against African-American and Latin
In 5-Year Effort, Scant Evidence of Voter Fraud | By ERIC LIPTON and IAN URBINA | Published: April 12, 2007
WASHINGTON, April 11 — Five years after the Bush administration began a crackdown on voter fraud, the Justice Department has turned up virtually no evidence of any organized effort to skew federal elections, according to court records and interviews.
Although Republican activists have repeatedly said fraud is so widespread that it has corrupted the political process and, possibly, cost the party election victories, about 120 people have been charged and 86 convicted as of last year.
...
The push to prosecute voter fraud figured in the removals last year of at least two United States attorneys whom Republican politicians or party officials had criticized for failing to pursue cases.
The campaign has roiled the Justice Department in other ways, as career lawyers clashed with a political appointee over protecting voters’ rights, and several specialists in election law were installed as top prosecutors.
...
At the Justice Department, Mr. Spakovsky helped oversee the voting rights unit. In 2003, when the Texas Congressional redistricting spearheaded by the House majority leader, Tom DeLay, Republican of Texas, was sent to the Justice Department for approval, the career staff members unanimously said it discriminated against African-American and Latino voters. ...
WASHINGTON, April 11 — Five years after the Bush administration began a crackdown on voter fraud, the Justice Department has turned up virtually no evidence of any organized effort to skew federal elections, according to court records and interviews.
Although Republican activists have repeatedly said fraud is so widespread that it has corrupted the political process and, possibly, cost the party election victories, about 120 people have been charged and 86 convicted as of last year.
...
The push to prosecute voter fraud figured in the removals last year of at least two United States attorneys whom Republican politicians or party officials had criticized for failing to pursue cases.
The campaign has roiled the Justice Department in other ways, as career lawyers clashed with a political appointee over protecting voters’ rights, and several specialists in election law were installed as top prosecutors.
...
At the Justice Department, Mr. Spakovsky helped oversee the voting rights unit. In 2003, when the Texas Congressional redistricting spearheaded by the House majority leader, Tom DeLay, Republican of Texas, was sent to the Justice Department for approval, the career staff members unanimously said it discriminated against African-American and Latino voters. ...
Friday, May 02, 2008
“These documents make it clear that the military was using unlawful interrogation techniques in Afghanistan,”
Pentagon docs reveal 'murder,' 'torture' charges: ACLU | RAW STORY | Published: Thursday April 17, 2008
Documents released by the Pentagon detail charges that detainees in Afghan prisons were beaten and doused with cold water before being forced into the snow, the ACLU charges.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which obtained the documents, says they provide the first "on-the-ground reports of torture" at a detention facility in Gardez, Afghanistan.
“These documents make it clear that the military was using unlawful interrogation techniques in Afghanistan,” said Amrit Singh, an attorney with the ACLU. “Rather than putting a stop to these systemic abuses, senior officials appear to have turned a blind eye to them.” ...
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