Re:Obama - Put to the test fails dismally.
« Reply #30 on: 2009-05-22 20:19:45 »
Of course, the people who did most to incite attacks on America were the Cheney-Bush administration, their hangers on and the US media along with anyone who argued for the invasion of Afghanistan, Iraq, the use of torture or the unhesitating support of Israel. Arguably economic terrorism driven by a rapacious system might also deserve attention and detention as might offences against the constitution and the rule-of-law.
"Prolonged preventive detention" for such people might not be all bad no matter how unconstitutional - and inhumane. In which case, assuming that cases are dealt with in order of severity, will Obama volunteer to join Bush and Cheney in jail or is there some special dispensation for the current administration?
With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion. - Steven Weinberg, 1999
Just when I thought I was out-they pull me back in
Re:Obama - Put to the test fails dismally.
« Reply #32 on: 2009-05-23 16:39:56 »
I'm actually kind of fond of the concept of "prolonged detention". There's no blood on it. it/them/war on terrorism just kind of sit there....problem solved?
no. made worse? who the fuck knows. but being in a Federally run super-max type prison in the U.S. is simply a paid vacation for these terror suspects until we sort them out Oh, and in the mean time fringe-Islamoheads.......
Re:Obama - Put to the test fails dismally.
« Reply #34 on: 2009-05-28 17:19:15 »
Re: We won't get fooled again.
Yeah, nice song for moments of real disillusion. Obama hasn't yet been that for me. I knew even before I cast my lot with him that he was going to piss me off a number of times before its over with. I certainly wasn't fooled on that count, and I think many of those who voted for him and supported him are on the same page with me. All I've really hoped for in Obama is someone whom we can work with. The one's who have been using messianic language in describing him are mostly his right wing detractors.
All that said it doesn't hurt that he has all the workings and makings of a political champ like none this country has known for decades. All that said, I still think need to unwrap this leader some more before we declare him either a pile of dogshit, or the cure for whatever ails us. There could yet be some darkness (other than his skin) that we have yet to discover.
Yeah he's been disappointing on not seeking, or blocking justice for torture victims. I concur in this concern, yet he's certainly taken a hard line against further torture. Dick Cheney has been helpful in drawing that line for him. I've heard he's been sneaking smokes when he promised his family he wouldn't. The man is already disappointing his family, perhaps we need to bring back Kenneth Starr!
Dismal failure? I doubt it. The next messiah, probably not. That takes care of the two worst case scenarios. Possibly not cause for celebration, but I can work with it.
-Mo
PS the ones who really need to be singing "We won't get fooled again", are all the people who blindly supported the last administration because they were such "good Christians". Talk about a real pile of dog shit. I'd be embarrassed to admit to injesting so much of that.
Re:Obama - Put to the test fails dismally.
« Reply #35 on: 2009-05-29 02:59:31 »
[letheomaniac] Cheer up, America - things could be worse. I'll see your Barack Obama and raise you one Jacob Zuma. At least Obama doesn't jiggle about in public at every available opportunity singing a little song about how he would like you to bring him a machine gun. JZ= I have to admit that the fact that he has a whole swarm of wives means that our 'First Ladies' can cover an awful lot of ground as far as shopping mall openings and photo-op orphan-dandling go - a good thing I guess.
Re:Obama - Put to the test fails dismally.
« Reply #37 on: 2009-05-30 01:04:14 »
The difference is that Mo expects Obama to be a failure because Obama is a politician. Perhaps I fooled myself into hoping for more because I think that if we don't get more this time around that the next opportunity, even if it is, by some miracle, somebody who recognizes what we have to do before cheap energy ends, will be too late to make any significant changes. From that perspective, Obama is not just a failure, but a dismal failure and rapidly getting worse as he embeds us further into Bush's wars and the terrorist distrations. Perhaps I was too quick to blame Bush for being unable to avoid making every bad situation worse and that Obama, as his deeds as opposed to his words may indicate, is more of the same only guiltier.
Maybe Mo is correct and I should just give up.
Interestingly, and not altogether unrelated, I was in our local hairdresser's emporium, populated mainly by the blue rinse farming community, and discovered that they know that changes are coming and fear for the future for their grandchildren. Why isn't this apparent to Washington and the media?
There will soon be a local test of how Obama is doing. Our local safe as houses Democratic seat state representative has been offered a job in Washington which he will probably take. Which will mean a by-election within 40 days. The Republicans are salivating as never before, because they are convinced that Obama+Gay Marriage+"Soda Tax" will give them a victory. They are so sure of it that they are throwing over $ 160 k and 6 people into the electoral preparations even before the vacancy is announced. The democrats are trying to explain why we still need military commissions, torture and Guantanamo.
I wonder if any one is going to run for the crazy looney party?
With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion. - Steven Weinberg, 1999
Re:Obama - Put to the test fails dismally.
« Reply #38 on: 2009-06-02 15:21:06 »
Supreme Court Justice Aids Torture Coverup
Source: Antiwar.com Authors: James Bovard Dated: 2009-06-01
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Ginsburg approved an Obama administration request to have an additional 30 days to submit their appeal to justify suppressing the photos of US troops torturing detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan. The administration can now dally until July 9 before submitting their brief arguing their case.
This is simply one more layer of BS atop of all the government excuses that have piled up since May 2004. Ginsburg’s order is a green light for the government to continue playing games and concocting excuses not to disclose the hard evidence of U.S. war crimes.
The SCOTUS Blog notes: “President Obama and his aides are pursuing two paths for trying to overturn that disclosure order: first, they are seeking action by Congress to amend the FOIA to bar the release; if that does not succeed, they plan to ask the Supreme Court to overturn the Circuit Court decision…. The Ginsburg delay order gives Congress more time to act. The Senate has passed a measure to block the photos’ disclosure, and the two houses are expected to work on the issue early this month.”
The torture scandal continues revealing the sham that there are any checks and balances to restrain our rulers from seizing and abusing absolute power.
With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion. - Steven Weinberg, 1999
Re:Obama - Put to the test fails dismally.
« Reply #39 on: 2009-06-02 15:35:46 »
Showdown coming in wiretap lawsuit
[ Hermit : Of course, it isn't just a "wiretap lawsuit" but an "illegal wiretap lawsuit" which Congress, the courts and the Obama administration are doing their best to bury. Yes, the Obama administration. The 100 days are over, and Obama now indisputably owns the injustice department, as well as the war department. ]
Source: Associated Press Authors: Not Credited Dated: 2009-05-31
The Obama administration insists it has no obligation to provide access to a top secret document in a wiretapping case, setting up a showdown next week with the judge who ordered it released.
Justice Department lawyers, in a response filed Friday with the U.S. District Court in San Francisco, also argued that Judge Vaughn Walker had no cause to penalize the government for its refusal to turn over the document.
Walker on May 22 threatened to punish the administration for withholding the document, which he ordered given to lawyers suing the government over its warrantless wiretapping program.
Department lawyers will appear in Walker's court Wednesday to make the case why he should not award damages to the now-defunct Oregon chapter of the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation. That group is challenging the wiretapping program.
In its brief filed Friday, the department argued that in this case "disclosure of classified information - even under protective order - would create intolerable risks to national security."
The Al-Haramain case has been a focal point for civil liberties groups questioning the legality of the warrantless wiretapping program.
The Bush administration inadvertently turned over the top secret document to Al-Haramain lawyers, who claimed it proved illegal wiretapping by the National Security Agency.
With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion. - Steven Weinberg, 1999
Re:Obama - Put to the test fails dismally.
« Reply #40 on: 2009-06-27 15:01:10 »
THE WHITE HOUSE
[ Hermit : Unfortunately this letter from the Whitehouse is incomplete. It doesn't explain why, contrary to US treaty obligations, the Obama administration is shielding people who caused, condoned and carried out torture, nor does it explain why the Obama administration is preventing the release of evidence of torture perpetrated by Americans and their accomplices upon Americans and others, resulting in a completely illegal de facto pardon of torture by previous administrations and politicians from both parties including the Democratic speaker, Nancy Pelosi. This letter also fails to address the issue of why, contrary to pre-election promises, the Obama administration has failed to ban the use of torture by accomplices of other nationalities of prisoners taken by its secret services including the CIA. Finally it fails to address why the Obama Administration is continuing to attempt to suppress cases, at home and abroad, which would result in the confirmation of information already in the public domain about American complicity in torture. ]
Office of the Press Secretary _________________________________________________________________________ FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 26, 2009
Statement by President Barack Obama on United Nations International Day in Support of Torture Victims
Twenty-five years ago, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention Against Torture, and twenty-two years ago this very day, the Convention entered into force. The United States’ leading role in the negotiation of the Convention and its subsequent ratification and implementation enjoyed strong bipartisan support. Today, we join the international community in reaffirming unequivocally the principles behind that Convention, including the core principle that torture is never justified.
Torture violates United States and international law as well as human dignity. Torture is contrary to the founding documents of our country, and the fundamental values of our people. It diminishes the security of those who carry it out, and surrenders the moral authority that must form the basis for just leadership. That is why the United States must never engage in torture, and must stand against torture wherever it takes place.
My administration is committed to taking concrete actions against torture and to address the needs of its victims. On my third day in office, I issued an executive order that prohibits torture by the United States. My budget request for fiscal year 2010 includes continued support for international and domestic groups working to rehabilitate torture victims.
The United States will continue to cooperate with governments and civil society organizations throughout the international community in the fight to end torture. To this end, I have requested today that the Department of State solicit information from all of our diplomatic missions around the world about effective policies and programs for stopping torture and assisting its victims so that we and our civil society partners can learn from what others have done. I applaud the courage, compassion and commitment of the many people and organizations doing this vitally important work.
With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion. - Steven Weinberg, 1999
Re:Obama - Put to the test fails dismally.
« Reply #41 on: 2009-06-27 18:37:47 »
[Blunderov] Well, if it was Bush I would be bitching about his breathtaking hypocrisy. But I keep hoping Obama will prove different. Beginning to run out of reasons to do so...
Hardly surprising that some seek political homes elsewhere...
Re:Obama - Put to the test fails dismally.
« Reply #42 on: 2009-06-30 18:47:50 »
Gen. Odierno Concedes Troops Remain in Iraqi Cities, Won’t Say How Many "I Just Don't Want to Do It," US Commander Insists
[ Hermit : So much for the removal of all troops from Iraqi cities by July 1st. So much for the withdrawal. ]
Source: Antiowar.com Authors: Jason Ditz Dated: 2009-06-30
On Sunday he declared all troops were out of Iraq’s cities, but today top US commander in Iraq General Raymond Odierno conceded that “a small number” of US troops are still there, and “will remain in cities to train, advise, coordinate with Iraqi security forces, as well as enable them to move forward.”
When pressed to give a number, Gen. Odierno declined, declaring “I just don’t want to do it,” and insisting that the exact number would change from day to day depending on “how much coordination is required.”
The closest estimate Odierno would give was to say that it was “a significantly smaller number than what we had.” The troops didn’t move particularly far, and are presenting ringed around the city limits of Iraq’s major cities poised to re-enter at a moment’s notice.
At present the Pentagon says that roughly 131,000 US troops remain on the ground in Iraq, only 4,000 fewer than were in the nation three and a half months ago. The level of troops is still somewhat above pre-surge levels, and what passes for a pullout plan continues at an almost impossibly slow pace.
With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion. - Steven Weinberg, 1999
Re:Obama - Put to the test fails dismally.
« Reply #43 on: 2009-07-12 15:38:31 »
Pentagon Report Verified Detainee Torture
[ Aside from the collusion of the Democrats and conspiracy by the Obama administration to protect those guilty of torture from the consequences, the part I find scariest is how many staff officers were involved in this torture process, as, no matter how primitive American officer's training might be, they cannot possibly have risen to these positions without having had to study at least some military law which, even if they were totally mentally challenged, should have informed them that what they engaged in was blatantly illegal. ]
Source: TheNewAmerican Authors: Thomas R. Eddlem Dated: 2009-07-06
The picture that emerges from 51 pages of recently declassified documents about detention at Guantanamo is one of persistent torture approved directly by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, combined with administrative incompetence on the ground at Guantanamo and a flagrant White House betrayal of military brass in charge of interrogations.
Mohamedou Ould Slahi of Mauritana had allegedly recruited some of the 9/11 highjackers and apparently underwent some of the worst torture at Guantanamo up to the time that the documents were written. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld personally approved his interrogation regimen, according to commanding Major-General Mike Dunlavey. A Pentagon Criminal Investigative Division (CID) report explained the approved torture regimen: “The plan included isolation, interrogations for up to 20 hours, the use of various types of sound, deprivation of light and auditory stimulu (whereby Slahi would at times be placed in a silent 'white room'), removal of all comfort items, MRE-Only diet, forced grooming, and sleep adjustment. SOUTHCOM projected that the interrogations would take place over a period of 90 days, with JTF-GTMO to assess their effectiveness every 90 days.”
After three months of sleep deprivation, isolation, and sensory deprivation nearly identical to the “brain-washing” techniques used by Chinese communists on American POWs during the Korean war to elicit false confessions, U.S. interrogators turned the torture up a notch [ Hermit : Something the neoconeheads and the even more stupid neoconned seem to miss is that that given the same kind of torture allegedly elicited "the truth" from islamic people, presumably the revelations the "Chinese communists" (Koreans? Vietnamese?) persuaded the Americans to reveal were not really "false confessionals" at all, but the literal truth. ] . Slahi was told that “beatings and physical pain are not the worst thing in the world,” and that much was the truth. He was already in a situation worse than physical beatings, as nearly all persons who have endured both physical torture and sensory deprivation have attested. But interrogators told him that he should “use his imagination to think of the worst possible scenario he could end up in,” adding that “he will very soon disappear down a very dark hole” where “his very existence would become erased” and “no one will know what happened to him and, eventually, no one will care.” Then interrogators created an elaborate ruse that gave Slahi the impression he was being transferred from Guantanamo in a confusing, five-hour boat ride.
The Pentagon CID report noted that another tortured detainee, Mohammad Kahtani, endured “stress positions” and that “Kahtani was checked daily by a doctor, and a medic was always present at the site during interrogations.” This may sound like medical professionals intervened in order to prevent abuse. But at Guantanamo and other U.S. interrogation prisons abroad, the role of doctors was to maximize the pain endured by the detainee while ensuring that life-threatening tortures didn’t end detainees' lives.
An independent International Red Cross Committee report issued to the Bush administration in 2007 documented such conditions as hypothermia, legs swelled from prolonged "stress position," and drowning (“waterboarding”) were employed where the doctors' specific role was to bring the detainees to the edge of death (without going over the edge) again and again: “There was a direct role in monitoring the ongoing ill-treatment which, in some instances, involved the health personnel directly participating while certain methods were used.” The Red Cross flatly labeled treatment at Guantanamo “torture.” [ Hermit : And these so called Doctors need to be identified, prosecuted and when found guilty, appropriately punished, with, as a minimum, struck off the register for life. ]
Slahi and Kahtani’s torture regimen was unapologetically carried out with exacting cruelty, along with the torture of others, on direct orders from the Bush White House. But the military brass in charge of the facility soon found themselves being stabbed in the back by the politicians and under criminal investigation, with at least one major-general being Mirandized during a deposition.
Guantanamo commander Major-General Mike Dunlavey (2002 through 2004), a 30-year-veteran interrogator, noted that when he arrived at Guantanamo “virtually no one had a degree of expertise to deal with these people.” Particularly incompetent were military interrogators, Dunlavey said. “The military linguists were worthless. They came out of school and could order coffee, but they were getting smoked by the detainees.” And the commander selected for conducting interrogations by the White House was a rank amateur. Major-General Geoffrey Miller, Commanding General for the Joint Task Force in charge of interrogations at Guantanamo from November 4, 2002 through March 26, 2004, confessed in a deposition: “I am not an expert on detention or interrogation…. I have seen several hundred interrogations now. When I showed up at GTMO I had never witnessed one.”
Dunlavey and Miller explained that they were laden with interrogators who could not control themselves:
“There was an interrogator that was [blacked out words] that had to be removed. He got into it with one of the detainees. It got out of control and he physically mishandled the detainee.”
Another unnamed Lt. Col. reservist was a “closet alcoholic” who had to be removed.
“We physically removed an FBI agent when he went across the desk at a detainee.”
“An Article 15 was given to an interrogator for hosing down a detainee.”
A female interrogator “took off her BDU shirt and inappropriately rubbed on the detainee.”
One detainee was called a homosexual and “an interrogator forced [the detainee] to dance with a male interrogator.”
And one problem with an interrogator is still classified: “We discovered our interrogator was [blacked out words]…. The tough part was he was our best interrogator. He was sent back for prosecution.”
The only positive was the presence of FBI interrogators. “I also had high faith the FBI was conducting proper interviews,” Dunlavey said, summarizing the FBI’s view as: “Physical abuse just does not work. Successful prosecution was their goal.” But Dunlavey’s goal was to extract intelligence using torture methods handed down directly from the secretary of defense, so “we had problems from the get go with the FBI,” even though “they had the best interrogators.”
Dunlavey and Miller also denied torture allegations in a sworn statement, even while they acknowledged “interrogations” equivalent to torture occurred.
Dunlavey claimed: “Physical torture does not work. It does not give you intelligence. Rapport, relationship dependency, the Koran, and the prayer beads gives intelligence. It has to be a dependency relationship.” [ Hermit : So much for that. ] He also stated: “The detainees were treated humanely. They had a high status of care…. Humane is who we are as the American military.”
But “humane” was the opposite of what U.S. military interrogators were at Guantanamo and elsewhere, and Dunlavey and Miller claimed not to know about a number of torture procedures:
Stress Positions: Dunlavey denied that “short-shackling,” chaining a detainee on short shackles to the floor so they are unable to sit up or stretch out for long periods of time, occurred as part of interrogation techniques: “Chaining the detainee in a fetal position is not a normal procedure to be used in interrogation. If a detainee leaped at an interrogator, it might have been used for security. It is not a normal procedure. The interrogators were instructed not to touch the detainees. They were to leave it to the guards.” But the International Committee on the Red Cross report later documented that this procedure was commonly used at Guantanamo. And the 2004 Pentagon CID report confirmed that several detainees were short-shackeled in stress positions.
Use of Dogs: Major-General Miller, who was Mirandized (advised of his rights) at the beginning of the CID interview, claimed that the use of military dogs in interrogation never occurred: “Military working dogs. No, not in interrogations. They were at Camp X-ray for Al Katani. They were used for detention, not interrogation.” But Major-General Dunlavey contradicted Miller, noting, “Dogs were there to intimidate…. Using dogs is equal to the Fear Up technique.” The CID investigation concluded dogs were used.
The CID report also documented a number of other “approved” torture methods, including hypothermia and sexual humiliation. The CID report admitted that “on several occasions between November 2002 and January 2003, interrogators would adjust the air conditioner to make [one prisoner] uncomfortable.” Another was subject to “hot and cold temperatures to make him uncomfortable.” But “uncomfortable” is simply a way of trivializing a torture to create hypothermia without causing death. Regarding sexual humiliation, one detainee “was forced to wear a woman’s bra and had panties placed on his head during the course of the interrogation.” Others were subject to frequent “strip searches” and “nudity.”
Much of the abuse that Slahi endured was also endured by Mohammad Kahtani, including 52 days of sleep deprivation. He was “interrogated for 20 hours a day with 4 hours of sleep from 23 November 2002 until 15 January 2003.” Even during his four hours of sleep, Guantanamo interrogators would blast music and recorded screams into his cell, and occasionally flash bright red lights, in order to interrupt his sleep. Kahtani also endured five months of solitary confinement during the sleep deprivation, as he was “separated from the detainee population from 8 August 2002 until 15 January 2003.”
The U.S. military hardly showed that it was “humane” at Guantanamo as Major-General Dunlavey claimed, but the CID report and other documents declassified last week prove that the arch-criminals responsible for torture at Guantanamo didn’t wear a military uniform.
With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion. - Steven Weinberg, 1999
A federal district judge ruled Monday that the CIA repeatedly misled him in asserting that state secrets were involved in a 15-year-old lawsuit involving allegedly illegal wiretapping.
U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth also ordered former CIA director George Tenet and five other CIA officials to explain their actions or face potential sanctions.
Lamberth also questioned the credibility of current CIA Director Leon Panetta, saying that Panetta's testimony in the case contained significant discrepancies, and rejected an Obama administration request that the case continue to be kept secret. He released hundreds of previously secret filings.
"The court does not give the government a high degree of deference because of its prior misrepresentations regarding the stated secrets privilege in this case," Lamberth wrote. "Although this case has been sealed since its inception to protect sensitive information, it is clear . . . that many of the issues are unclassified."
Lamberth's ruling comes as some members of Congress are questioning the CIA's credibility in a series of issues unrelated to the lawsuit, including allegations by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that she was lied to about waterboarding and questions of why Congress wasn't told for eight years about what reportedly was a plan to assassinate al Qaida operatives. Last month, Democratic members of the House Intelligence Committee asked Panetta to withdraw a statement he made in May that it was not CIA policy to mislead Congress. The House members said it was clear from Panetta's own testimony about the unrevealed program that that was not the case.
The documents released Monday reveal a number of instances where Lamberth said the CIA misrepresented facts in the case, which was filed in 1994 by a former Drug Enforcement Agency officer who said his phone calls had been illegally intercepted while he was on duty in Burma.
The suit named a U.S. diplomat, Franklin Huddle Jr., and a CIA officer, Arthur Brown, as defendants. It had been under seal since it was filed, and former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush had sought its dismissal on national security grounds.
Lamberth said the agency refused to make the "basic acknowledgement" that the spy agency possesses eavesdropping equipment, even though this is information quickly available through a "public online encyclopedia."
Lamberth also said that an unclassified declaration by Panetta "appears to significantly conflict with his classified declaration" over whether CIA eavesdropping technology is publicly known.
In addition, he noted that a declaration by Tenet was never updated after the relevant facts changed.
The issue that angered him most, however, was the CIA's failure to reveal that Brown, once undercover, had had his cover lifted in 2002. That fact wasn't revealed until 2008.
Lamberth concluded that the CIA's attorneys engaged in a "fraud on the court" by not revealing that Brown's name no longer needed to be kept secret. In fact, Lambert had dismissed the case in 2004, citing Brown's undercover status. An appeals court overturned that decision.
"The CIA was well-aware that the assertion of the state secrets privilege as to Brown was a key strategy in getting the case dismissed," Lamberth stated in a previously sealed Feb. 6 ruling, adding that the "misconduct by the government . . . (raises) very serious implications."
Lamberth's action Monday came days after a July 10 legal filing by Assistant Attorney General Tony West in which he said the CIA "regrets" not having informed judges earlier about Brown's changed status.
At the same time, the Justice Department attorneys insisted the name of the CIA's former assistant general counsel should remain secret for fear that his reputation would otherwise be harmed.
Lamberth, however, rejected that argument, releasing the files, demanding an explanation from Tenet and others, and revealing the name of the former assistant general counsel for the CIA, John Radsan.
He also ordered that Tenet, Brown, Radsan and CIA attorneys Jeffrey Yeates, John Rizzo, and Robert T. Eatinger explain their actions.
A Justice Department representative declined to comment Monday. A CIA spokesman told the Associated Press that the agency takes its legal obligations seriously.
Lamberth's ruling brings to the surface a 15-year-old lawsuit that the Justice Department under three administrations has repeatedly tried to bury.
The case was filed by retired Drug Enforcement Administration officer Richard A. Horn in August 1994. Horn accused Huddle, who was then the U.S. charge d'affaires at the U.S. embassy in Rangoon, Burma, and Brown of eavesdropping on his phone conversations while Horn was the DEA's attache in Burma. It was unclear what Brown's position was at the time; he eventually became the head of the CIA's East Asia division.
Horn and Huddle had a strained relationship, as diplomats and DEA drug-fighters pursued different agendas. In one legal filing, Horn claimed he wanted "the truth (concerning) Burma's drug enforcement efforts, which were substantial, be told to the U.S. Congress and the executive branch; whereas the (State Department) and CIA . . . desired to deny Burma any credit for its drug enforcement efforts."
Horn thought that Huddle was trying to force him out of the country. Horn said he found proof of the eavesdropping in a cable Huddle sent to Washington.
"Horn shows increasing signs of evident strain," Huddle's Aug. 13, 1993, cable read. "Late last night, for example, he telephoned his junior agent to say that 'I am bringing the whole DEA operation down here. You will be leaving with me.'"
Huddle claimed that he'd simply overheard other embassy officials discuss Horn's telephone conversation.
Brian Leighton, Horn's attorney and a former federal prosecutor, called Lamberth's decision "hugely significant."
He recalled that pursuing the case has been a struggle, requiring him to obtain a security clearance. "Sometimes, when I've filed a brief, it will come back with only one word not redacted," Leighton said. "Once, that word was 'the.'"
Monday he said Lamberth's decision was a victory, though the case has yet to be tried.
"Why is the government trying to hide (expletive) like this from us?" Leighton asked. "Why in the hell was this case sealed for so long?"
With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion. - Steven Weinberg, 1999
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