:: NEWS COCKTAIL aka BlahBlahBlog ::

:: 12.07.2005 ::

:: "Chilean court strips Pinochet of immunity" ::

San Jose Mercury News

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) - An appeals court stripped Gen. Augusto Pinochet of his legal immunity Wednesday, allowing him to face charges in the disappearances of dozens more dissidents during his rule.

The 90-year-old former dictator already has lost his immunity against indictment in the cases of nine vanished dissidents. He was indicted on those cases and put under house arrest two weeks ago.

The Santiago Court of Appeals did not offer an immediate explanation for its 16-6 vote Wednesday to remove Pinochet's legal protection in the cases of 29 additional dissidents, who disappeared during his 1973-90 dictatorship.

Pinochet's lawyer, Gustavo Collados, said he will appeal the ruling before the Supreme Court. Six of the nine previous indictments are on appeal.

The missing dissidents are among 119 killed in the early years of Pinochet's rule in what has come to be known as Operation Colombo. According to a government report, 3,197 people were killed for political reasons during the dictatorship.

Read more here.

MORE

Chilean coup of 1973
Wikipedia

Pinochet Coup and Atrocities
Virtual Truth Commission

Chile and the United States:
Declassified Documents relating to
the Military Coup, 1970-1976

posted by me

:: 11:58:00 AM [+] ::
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:: "Ex-CIA chief sued in abduction case" ::

The New York Times
Scott Shane
via International Herald Tribune

WASHINGTON A German citizen who says he was abducted in 2003, beaten and taken to Afghanistan by U.S. agents in what was apparently a case of mistaken identity has filed a lawsuit in U.S. court against George Tenet, a former CIA director, and three companies suspected of being involved in secret CIA flights.

The plaintiff, Khaled el-Masri, a 42-year-old German of Lebanese descent, was refused entry to the United States after arriving Saturday in Atlanta on a flight from Germany to appear at a news conference Tuesday in Washington where the lawsuit was announced.

Masri addressed reporters from Germany by video link, describing somberly how he was seized on the Serbian-Macedonian border, kicked and hit, photographed nude and injected with drugs during five months in detention in Macedonia and in Afghanistan.

"I want to know why they did this to me," said Masri, whose comments were translated from German into English by an interpreter.

"I don't think I'm the human being I used to be," he said.

Read more here.

posted by me

:: 11:53:00 AM [+] ::
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:: "Rice defends detainee tactics" ::

Reuters.uk
By Saul Hudson

ANDREWS AIR FORCE BASE, Maryland (Reuters) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Monday defended U.S. treatment of terrorism suspects, telling European allies they should trust Washington and cooperate to prevent new attacks.

But in a lengthy statement before leaving on a trip to Europe, Rice did not directly address the allegation the CIA has run secret prisons in Eastern Europe, an accusation that has been a lightning rod for outrage across the continent.

"It is up to those governments and their citizens to decide if they wish to work with us to prevent terrorist attacks against their own country or other countries and decide how much sensitive information they can make public. They have a sovereign right to make that choice," Rice said in a statement she read out before leaving for Berlin, her first stop.

The European Union has demanded Washington address claims of secret prisons to allay fears of illegal U.S. practices among the European public and parliaments, already critical of U.S. prisoner-abuse scandals in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Human rights groups say holding detainees incommunicado is illegal and often leads to torture.

Read more here.

ALSO

How Condi Will Tackle 'Secret Prisons' Furor
TIME

Germany confirms list of CIA flights
Seattle Post Intelligencer

posted by me

:: 11:21:00 AM [+] ::
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:: News from... ::

THE NATION

The Murtha Moment
History may well record that the beginning of the end of the American nightmare in Iraq came on November 17, when an old warrior said it was time for the troops to come home. The Editors write that this will happen only if Democrats seize the opportunity Representative John Murtha has handed them and become tribunes of popular sentiment against the war.

In Praise of John Murtha
Nicholas von Hoffman | With 457 blunt-spoken words, John Murtha broke the spell that had held the country captive to the misguided adventure in Iraq. It suddenly became respectable to talk of a pullout. It was his finest moment: For the first time, there is hope this war may end.

ALSO

The Truth About the War
Alexander Cockburn | The truth about the Iraq war may be clear to John Murtha and 60 percent of the American people, but not to the three Democratic senators interested in becoming President in 2008.

Bush's Iraq Outdoes Saddam
Robert Scheer | Ethnic cleansing, chemical weapons, self-appointed executioners: Sound familiar? The US occupation in Iraq has created conditions just as bad--if not worse--than Saddam Hussein's ruthless regime. And the increasingly isolated George W. Bush insists on staying the course.

posted by me

:: 12:57:00 AM [+] ::
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:: Bushwhacked Nation update ::

Bush nears admission of errors
Seattle Post Intelligencer

WASHINGTON -- (AP) President Bush came as close as he ever has to admitting mistakes on Iraq Wednesday, acknowledging setbacks and uneven results in the training of Iraqi troops in his latest defense of the war 2 1/2 years after he first declared victory.

And while he vowed U.S. troops would not be withdrawn to satisfy "artificial timetables set by politicians in Washington," his Naval Academy speech in Annapolis, Md., could help set the stage for a reduction in troops next year.

That's because Bush emphasized progress, if initially halting, in the training of Iraqi troops who will one day replace U.S. forces. Any U.S. reduction, the president said, will be driven by "the conditions on the ground in Iraq and the good judgment of our commanders."

Democratic critics focused on the fact that Bush's speech, and an accompanying 35-page document entitled "National Strategy for Victory in Iraq," broke no new ground, mostly restating administration aims put forth in 2003.

Bush "once again missed an opportunity to lay out a real strategy for success in Iraq that will bring our troops safely home," said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

But Bush's speech, the first of several he's expected to make in the run-up to Dec. 15 elections to seat a permanent Iraqi government, appeared to reflect an administration repositioning to highlight exit preparations - if not exactly an exit timetable - and to more closely define the nature of the enemy.

Read more here.

posted by me

:: 12:52:00 AM [+] ::
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