Progress Report: 'Following Orders'

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Mon, 21 Jun 2004 09:09:51 -0700

Progress Report: 'Following Orders'

" Center for American Progress "

 

by David Sirota, Christy Harvey, Judd Legum and Jonathan Baskin

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June 21, 2004

PRISON ABUSE'Following Orders'FOREIGN POLICYTime to Lead in SudanECONOMYNot

Facing Reality

UNDER THE RADAR

 

PRISON ABUSE

'Following Orders'

 

Events unfolding in the Abu Ghraib prison trials and investigations into

detainees at Guantanamo Bay continue to undermine the Bush administration's

denial of responsibility for abuses of power and the harsh treatment of

detainees. Three of the seven soldiers implicated in the Abu Ghraib prison abuse

scandal appeared at pre-trial hearings today, continuing to argue their behavior

was sanctioned or encouraged at the highest levels of the U.S. government.

According to reports surfacing over the weekend, President Bush's deputy

national security advisor Fran Townsend's visit last November to Abu Ghraib

intensified pressure on local officers to gather " more and better information

from interrogations. " In a sworn statement to investigators, Lt. Col. Steve

Jordan, the army intelligence officer who supervised interrogations at Abu

Ghraib prison, " described instances in which aides to high-ranking Bush

administration officials were applying 'additional pressure' " to " 'pull the

intelligence out' of Iraqi detainees. "

 

SOLDIERS 'FOLLOWING ORDERS' FROM ABOVE: In maintaining " their clients were

simply following orders to treat Iraqi detainees harshly and that the

instructions came from the highest levels of the U.S. government, " lawyers for

the defendants are following the advice of the government memo leaked in draft

form to the Wall Street Journal earlier this month. " For members of the

military, the report suggested that officials could escape torture convictions

by arguing that they were following superior orders, since such orders 'may be

inferred to be lawful' and are 'disobeyed at the peril of the subordinate.' " A

military judge has agreed that the defense team of at least one accused soldier

" will be allowed to question leading American generals. He ruled that the head

of US-led forces in Iraq, Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, and other senior

officials could be called as witnesses. " For background – see our resource page

" Abuse at Abu Ghraib " and special report: Abu Ghraib: Implementing

Reforms, Taking Responsibility.

 

LAWYER WANTS TO QUESTION BUSH: Paul Bergrin, the lawyer for Sgt. Javal S. Davis,

" said last week that he would argue for a dismissal of charges because of

'improper command influence' extending to President Bush. " Bergrin says he wants

to put both Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the president on the witness

stand " because we know as a matter of fact that President Bush changed the rules

of engagement for intelligence acquisition. "

 

OFFICIALS EXAGGERATE INTELLIGENCE: At the time the abuses at Abu Ghraib took

place, " coalition intelligence officers estimated that 70-90 percent of Iraqi

detainees were arrested by mistake. " Similarly, a New York Times investigation

of detainees held at Guantanamo Bay finds " that government and military

officials have repeatedly exaggerated both the danger the detainees posed and

the intelligence they have provided. " Documents prepared by Bush administration

lawyers have sought to justify the use of harsh interrogation methods at

Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib by referring to intelligence gathered there as " vital

to the protection of untold thousands of American citizens, " but the NYT

investigation calls even that spurious justification into question. Officials at

the naval base told the NYT no intelligence gathered there " has enabled

intelligence or law-enforcement services to foil imminent attacks [and]…the

evidence against many of the detainees is still so sparse that investigators

have been able to deliver cases for military prosecution against only 15 of the

suspects, " less than three percent of the total prisoner population.

 

JUSTICE DEPT. BRACES FOR DEFEAT: As for Guantanamo's legal underpinnings,

including the administration's argument it has the right to hold U.S. citizens

indefinitely without trial, Newsweek reports the Justice Department is concerned

" the Supreme Court is likely to rule decisively against the Bush administration

not just in the Padilla case but in two other pivotal cases in the war on

terror: one involving the detention of another 'enemy combatant,' Yaser Hamdi,

and another involving the treatment of al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners at

Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. " One reason government lawyers are " bracing for defeat " :

recent disclosures " about the Abu Ghraib prison scandal and internal

administration memos disavowing compliance with international treaties involving

treatment of prisoners has badly hurt the government's arguments before the

court. "

 

DECLASSIFIED REPORT MAY HURT ADMINISTRATION'S CASE: The government's latest

tactic to win public support for its case may be backfiring. A newly

declassified report on Jose Padilla " in part intended to influence public

thinking about his case, " may in fact raise " new questions about the accuracy of

previous administration statements about Padilla. " Specifically, the

declassified report suggests and administration officials now concede " that the

principal claim they have been making about Padilla ever since his

detention—that he was dispatched to the United States for the specific purpose

of setting off a radiological 'dirty bomb'—has turned out to be wrong and most

likely can never be used against him in court. "

 

FOREIGN POLICY

Time to Lead in Sudan

 

Hundreds of thousands of lives are at risk in the western Sudanese province of

Darfur, where Arab death squads have forced African villagers into squalid

refugee camps. Over a million have been displaced; between ten and 30,000 have

been killed. (For a history of the crisis, read the summary on the International

Crisis Group Web site.) This weekend, Sudanese President Lt. Gen. Omar Hassan

Ahmed al-Bashir ordered the Arab militias which have been killing African

villagers to disarm. Because it has been determined the government is sponsoring

these militias, the U.S. should hold Khartoum accountable. The conflict has

three dimensions: humanitarian, as the government restricts the flow of relief

aid; human rights, as government-backed proxies commit crimes against humanity

with impunity; and political, because underlying the emergency is a demand for

greater government accountability to all regions of the country. Even if action

is taken immediately, USAID estimates as many as 350,000

refugees may die. Acting swiftly and decisively to stop the mass killings in

Sudan offers an opportunity to save human lives and prove to the world that the

U.S. cares about more than just Iraq.

 

A CALL FOR LEADERSHIP: The New York Times last week called for leadership,

saying although the U.S. has condemned the ethnic cleansing by Sudan's

government, " That's not enough. The situation demands strong action. " The

Washington Post concurs, saying, " There is a moral obligation to do everything

possible to stop [the killings]. To ignore slaughter on this scale is to

to an intolerably cramped view of Western interests, one that would

drain foreign policy of its moral content, undermine its support among voters

and damage the West's reputation in developing countries that already seek to

paint high-minded Western rhetoric as hypocritical. " See a review of other US

editorials on Sudan.

 

DEBATING GENOCIDE: The U.S. government is debating whether or not the crisis in

Sudan constitutes genocide. Key members of the administration have charged that

the actions undertaken with the support of the Sudanese government represent

methodic, strategic killing. Secretary of State Colin Powell on 6/12/04 said,

" " We have every reason to believe these militias are being supported by various

instrumentalities of the Sudanese government. " Assistant USAID Administrator

Roger Winter stated, " The same Government of Sudan (GoS) that signed a

long-awaited framework peace agreement on May 26 to end a 20-year civil war in

the South that killed or uprooted more than 6 million people is the same GoS

that still pursues a campaign of deadly destruction and relief deprivation

against the people of Darfur in the West, " and said of the militia: " The

Janjaweed, it's important to keep in mind, are not just some loose band of

fellows on horses, they are an instrument of the government of Sudan. "

(Keep an eye on the debate at http://allafrica.com/.)

 

LIP SERVICE: The White House thus far has not treated the Sudan crisis as a

front-burner issue and has not acted beyond asking the Sudanese government to

stop the ethnic cleansing. Presented with a global audience at the recent G-8

summit, President Bush missed a prime opportunity to turn an international

spotlight on the crisis. Though it was reportedly discussed at the G-8 summit,

Bush's press conference at the summit contained no mention of the Sudan crisis.

 

A STRATEGY FOR PROGRESS: American Progress's Gayle Smith and the Brookings

Institution's Susan Rice have outlined four specific actions the U.S. government

needs to take to lead in Sudan. First, acting through the UN Security Council,

Washington must " pressure the government of Sudan to halt the killing, disarm

the militia and allow full, unimpeded access for humanitarian workers and

supplies, " using both financial and travel sanctions. Second, the United States

should " pressure the Security Council to grant member states the authority to

intervene militarily. " Third, the U.S. needs to " press European and capable

African countries to lead this humanitarian intervention with U.S. support. "

Finally, it's time to begin " urgent military planning and preparation for the

contingency that no other country will act to stop the dying in Darfur. "

 

PEACE AGREEMENT: A war between the north and south has been raging in Sudan for

the past 25 years. The desire to protect the fragile peace agreement the

administration has worked hard to put into place may be one reason Washington

has been slow to act in stopping the genocide in the West. But at what cost? As

the NYT wrote, " both Washington and the United Nations need to convince Khartoum

that they will not settle for a peace that permits terror and starvation in

Darfur. " Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), chair of the Senate subcommittee on

Africa, said, " Some of our friends are reportedly concerned that confronting

Khartoum too directly about atrocities in Darfur will jeopardize any prospect

for lasting peace in southern Sudan -- they may be right. But if hundreds of

thousands of lives are the price of peace in southern Sudan, the price is too

high. " See what U.S. newspapers are saying about genocide in Darfur.

 

ECONOMY

Not Facing Reality

 

Treasury Secretary John Snow this weekend tried to downplay recent polls that

show 58% of Americans disapprove of President Bush's handling of the economy.

Instead of admitting that stagnating wages, high energy costs and increasing

health care premiums are hitting the middle class hard, Snow essentially blamed

the media despite obvious indicators. He claimed, " There's been so much

attention to other things, particularly the war in Iraq, that it's deflected

attention from the economy. " The take-no-responsibility attitude from Snow

followed Vice President Dick Cheney's effort to blame the media for pointing out

that his own Saddam-al Qaeda assertions were proven false by the 9/11

commission. But no matter how much spin comes out of the White House about the

economy, the poll numbers reflect the obvious: average Americans are still

struggling, and 1.2 million people remain unemployed since President Bush took

office. As American Progress notes, the improvements that have occurred have

been " upside down. "

 

INCREASING INEQUALITY: The Boston Globe reports " with traditional middle-class

jobs vanishing along with factories, some economists worry that the nation's

labor force is stratifying into a skilled, well-paid elite and a mass of

lesser-skilled workers struggling to hold on to their standard of living. " Since

1983, the wealth of the top 1% has doubled at the same time the wealth of the

bottom 40% has been cut in half. And the White House has made the problem worse:

not only has the administration endorsed offshoring U.S. jobs, it has also

sponsored forums urging U.S. manufacturers to move operations abroad.

Additionally, it has given a $40,000 tax cut to every millionaire in America at

the very same time 1.7 million Americans stuggle below the poverty line. Why?

Because the President apparently is playing to his " base. " As he told a

" diamond-studded, $800-a-plate crowd " during the 2000 campaign, " This is an

impressive crowd - the haves and the have-mores. Some people call you the

elites; I call you my base. " See this American Progress wage inequality

analysis.

 

CORPORATE PROFITS NOT " TRICKLING DOWN " : While CEO pay is on the rise, and

corporate profits have increased by 62% since the last recovery, the average

American worker's wages have declined by 0.6% in that same time period.

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill have pressed for an immediate increase in the minimum

wage, which is currently at a 50-year-low in terms of purchasing power. But the

Bush administration has refused to support the proposal, even though it would

mean an immediate pay hike for more than 7 million workers. Instead, it has

pushed to cut off overtime pay protections for 8 million workers, and has

deployed its Labor Department to advise companies on how to avoid paying their

workers higher wages. See this American Progress study of what needs to be done

on wages.

 

THE HEALTH CARE PINCH: " Health insurance premiums continue to skyrocket, with

the latest accounts reporting that HMOs are looking to raise premiums for

employer-based coverage by an average of 13.7% in 2005. That's after premiums

went up by 13% in 2004 and 16.6% in 2003. " A recent poll found that " health

insurance remained the No. 1 concern of small-business owners. " Similarly, big

businesses are now labeling health care costs as a top concern, with General

Motors CEO saying " the rising cost is leaving many millions of people without

the proper care they need, and making U.S. businesses uncompetitive on a global

basis. " And families are now being pinched as never before. In Minnesota, for

instance, a poll found " the rising cost of health care has prompted changes in

the spending habits of 43% of Minnesota voters " at a time " a third of all voters

have seen their benefits cut back. " To address the problem, the White House has

offered " Health Savings Accounts " – a series of tax

incentives for employers and HMOs that a major industry study notes, " could

drive up the annual deductible paid by workers. "

 

THE ENERGY PINCH: Though energy price increases have slowed, they have taken a

chunk out of middle class disposable income. Since 2000, the energy industry has

stuck consumers with $250 billion in price increases, resulting in $50-$80

billion in new profits. On the west coast alone, new evidence shows companies

like Enron fleeced more than $1.1 billion from consumers during the 2001 energy

crisis. The White House's solution has been a proposal to give even more money

to the energy companies. Its energy legislation – conceived by a secret task

force of energy executives and headed by Dick Cheney – is nothing more than a

series of tax breaks for the same energy companies who fund the Bush campaign.

See more on the energy pinch from American Progress.

 

 

 

 

 

JUDICIARY – LICENSE? WE DON'T NEED NO STINKIN' LICENSE! According to the

Washington Post this morning, President Bush's nominee for the federal appeals

court in Washington has been practicing law without a license for the past four

years. Thomas B. Griffith " failed to renew his law license in Washington for

three years while he was a lawyer based in the District. " That then prevented

Griffith from receiving a law license in Utah once he moved to the Beehive

State. " Under Utah law, Griffith's only option for obtaining the state license

was to take and pass the state bar exam, an arduous test that lawyers try to

take only once. He applied to sit for the exam, but never took it, Utah bar

officials confirm. " Practicing law without a license is illegal. " Utah State Bar

rules require all lawyers practicing law in the state to have a Utah law

license. There is no general exception for general counsels or corporate

counsels. "

 

AIDS – BUSH POKING HOLES IN CONDOM CONFIDENCE: The Wall Street Journal reports

the Bush administration " has tightened the reins on program content and condom

discussions by AIDS prevention programs seeking federal grants. " New regulations

have turned the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention into content censors

as well as a scientific body, requiring " review and approval of Web-site content

of groups seeking grants from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "

The Bush administration, which prefers promoting abstinence, included a

controversial regulation: programs mentioning condoms must also discuss the

" lack of effectiveness " of condoms in preventing sexually transmitted diseases.

Public-health groups " warn that undermining confidence in condoms could retard

AIDS prevention. "

 

CORPORATE PAY – SHELBY STICKS HIS NECK OUT: In a bold move to hold corporations

accountable for the full cost of executive compensation, Sen. Richard Shelby

(R-AL) is pushing a proposal that would force companies " to record the cost of

options on financial statements. " Shelby noted that the failure to disclose the

costs of options jeopardizes " market credibility and respect for the US

globally. " Shelby " threatened to hold up the entire US federal budget, if

necessary, " to ensure his proposal becomes law.

 

MEDIA - CBS HYPOCRISY: During the Super Bowl this year, CBS refused to run an ad

about the economy produced by Moveon.com, saying it was prohibited from running

" advocacy " ads that dealt with " controversial issues of public importance. "

Apparently, that doesn't apply to conservative advocacy ads attacking former

President Bill Clinton. As the watchdog group Media Matters has found, the

network apparently threw that policy out the window and ran a new TV

advertisement paid for by the right-wing advocacy Citizens United (led by David

N. Bossie). " Amidst the hype surrounding the release of former President

Clinton's new book, 'My Life', " the group's web site stated, " Citizens United

sets the record straight by exposing the real legacy President Bill Clinton left

for America. " The ad claims Clinton is " responsible " for " leaving us vulnerable

to terrorists. "

 

ENVIRO – ADMINISTRATION HIDES THE BAD NEWS: A federal report reveals " a shortage

of operating funds from the Bush administration is crippling [Olympic National]

park, where 3.2 million people last year visited rain forests, alpine trails and

one of the nation's longest wild coastlines. " But the report " has not been

released to the public " and " handsomely printed copies are gathering dust here

at park headquarters. " According to a National Park service official, the Bush

administration " doesn't like bad news. They don't like to see or hear about it

or fix it. And they punish the messenger. "

 

AFGHANISTAN – THE DRUG BONANZA: The Houston Chronicle reports, " Two-and-a-half

years after a US-led war ousted the Taliban regime, poppies -- the raw material

for heroin -- are appearing all over Afghanistan. Many experts warn that the

booming drug trade could derail American efforts to rebuild the nation and roll

back terrorism. " The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime chief, Antonio

Maria Costa, said, " It is a national security threat. " Last year, Afghan drug

farmers and traffickers earned $2.3 billion, " an amount equal to half the

nation's gross domestic product and five times the annual budget of the central

government. " What this means to the war on terror: " The drug trade also provides

cash for Taliban and al-Qaida fighters as well as for regional warlords, said

Mirwais Yasini, director of the Afghan government's Counternarcotics

Department. " Foreign policy analysts " place part of the blame for the drug

bonanza on a decision by the Bush administration to station a

relatively small number of troops in Afghanistan after the war that removed the

Taliban regime in November 2001. " (The numbers: For most of the past 30 months,

just 11,000 U.S. troops were based in the country…By contrast, about 135,000

American soldiers patrol Iraq, which is smaller than Afghanistan.)

 

Don't Miss

DAILY TALKING POINTS: Time to Lead in Sudan

 

AMERICA IS ASKING: Was there really an Iraq-al Qaeda connection?

 

ENERGY: Faced with skyrocketing gas prices, Americans saying no to SUVs, yes to

hybrids.

 

IRAQ: A look at five challenges the United States faces in the ten days before

the transfer of power in Iraq

 

HOMELAND SECURITY: Inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security

Clark Kent Ervin doesn't pull punches in evaluating DHS troubles.

 

Contact The Progress Report:

pr.

 

 

 

 

Daily Grill

 

" Thomas B. Griffith, of Utah, [was nominated] to be United States Circuit Judge

for the District of Columbia Circuit. "

 

– White House press release, 5/10/04

 

VERSUS

 

" Thomas B. Griffith, President Bush's nominee for the federal appeals court in

Washington, has been practicing law in Utah without a state law license for the

past four years, according to Utah state officials. "

 

–Washington Post, 6/20/04

 

Daily Outrage

CBS refused to air an advertisement from Moveon.org during the Super Bowl

because it had a policy against " advocacy " advertising on " controversial issues

of public importance. " Now CBS has agreed to air an ad by a right-wing group

attacking President Bill Clinton's record on terrorism.

 

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