Saturday, January 30, 2010

Lithuania's Loose Lips

A one-day wonder, folks.

"Lithuania helped CIA set up secret prisons; Unclear if used for questioning, report says" by Liudas Dapkus, Associated Press | December 23, 2009

VILNIUS, Lithuania - Lithuania’s intelligence agency helped the CIA set up secret prisons in the Baltic country, but it is unclear whether they were actually used to interrogate terror suspects, a parliamentary panel said yesterday.

The report by the Lithuanian legislature’s National Security Committee was based on testimony of top politicians and national security officials. Its investigation was launched after media reports suggested this year that Lithuania - a close ally in the US war on terror - hosted clandestine detention centers. “We have determined that the Lithuanian State Security Department has received requests from the CIA to establish detention facilities,’’ said Arvydas Anusauskas, chairman of Parliament’s national security committee.

The report said the State Security Department, the former Soviet republic’s top security agency, provided two facilities to the CIA. One was a small cell set up in 2002 that could only house one suspect. The other was set up in 2004 and was big enough to hold eight suspects, the panel said.

It said there was no evidence that the State Security Department had informed the president, prime minister, or other political leaders of its cooperation with the CIA. Valdas Adamkus, Lithuania’s president between 2004 and 2009, said aircraft involved in transporting prisoners had entered Lithuanian airspace and landed in Vilnius, the country’s capital, on several occasions between 2002 and 2005. “Those airplanes were not checked by border police and customs, [and] persons traveling and cargo were never identified,’’ Anusauskas said.

However, the panel found no evidence that any suspects were interrogated in Lithuania. Though inconclusive, the probe has shaken Lithuania’s leadership. President Dalia Grybauskaite has demanded that the former director of the State Security Department, Mecys Laurinkus, immediately leave his post as ambassador to Georgia. Povilas Malakauskas resigned as the department’s director last week, citing “personal reasons.’’ Grybauskaite had called for the investigation, saying Lithuania’s reputation was at stake.

Barely a ripple over here.

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And that is the whole problem, don't you see?

American justice is broken; it's now AmeriKan just-is.

"Security review begins in D.C. to prepare for terrorism trial" by Matt Apuzzo and Devlin Barrett, Associated Press | January 16, 2010

WASHINGTON - After his capture in 2003, Hambali was among the terrorism suspects held for years in secret CIA prisons.... Conducting a trial in the nation’s capital would be a symbolic repudiation of the policies of President George W. Bush, who portrayed Hambali as a success story in the Bush administration’s CIA interrogation program.

Yeah, not a real one.

As they say, the torture must go on!

Bush said such interrogations helped crack alleged Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and led authorities to Hambali. Under questioning at a CIA “black site,’’ Hambali revealed a plan for another wave of suicide hijackings in the US, Bush said....

But as Obama tries to close the military-run detention center at Guantanamo, he has found that moving detainees into US courts is more difficult than he spelled out during his presidential campaign. Hambali was among 14 of what the United States said were key Al Qaeda operatives moved from CIA custody to Guantanamo in 2006.

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And Obama's Justice Department will not prosecute the monstrous war crimes of the last administration -- which is another reason we are so angry with him.

And guess what, readers?

WASHINGTON - Three Guantanamo Bay detainees whose deaths were ruled a suicide in 2006 apparently had been transported from their cells hours before their deaths to a secret site on the island, an article in Harper’s magazine asserts.

The published account released yesterday raises serious questions about whether the three detainees actually died by hanging themselves in their cells and suggests that the US government is covering up details of what happened in the hours before the deaths on the night of June 9, 2006.

When aren't they?

In response to the magazine article, the Justice Department said yesterday that it had thoroughly reviewed the allegations and found no evidence of wrongdoing.

Like I believe those liars.

Harper’s reported that the deaths of the three detainees, or the events that led directly to their deaths, most likely occurred at a previously undisclosed facility a mile or so from the main Guantanamo Bay prison complex. Harper’s based much of its account on interviews with several prison guards who said they knew of the existence of the “black’’ site and that they saw three detainees removed from Camp Delta several hours before the deaths were reported and transported in a white van toward the secret site.

Oh, so we have an EXECUTION CHAMBER at GITMO, huh?

Those who knew of the black facility referred to it as “Camp No,’’ reported the magazine, quoting Army Sergeant Joe Hickman, one of the guards. Anyone who asked if the black site existed would be told, “No, it doesn’t,’’ the magazine reported, quoting Hickman. After the terrorist attacks on US soil on Sept. 11, 2001, the CIA set up a number of so-called “black’’ sites around the world, where harsh interrogations of suspected terrorists took place.

It's called torture, MSM, and it is based on a damnable lie!

The Harper’s article suggested such a site at Guantanamo Bay may have belonged to the CIA or to the US military’s Joint Special Operations Command.... According to Harper’s, at a 7 a.m. meeting on June 10, 2006, with 50 or so soldiers and sailors, Army Colonel Michael Bumgarner said the three men had swallowed rags, causing them to choke to death.

What is this, "A Few Good Men?"

Bumgarner, a commander at Guantanamo Bay, went on to say that the news media would be guided to report that the three prisoners had committed suicide by hanging themselves in their cells, according to the magazine.

Sigh. It's all propaganda. Everything I read in my paper on a daily basis is pure government propaganda.

The servicemen were to make no comments or suggestions that in any way undermined the official report, Bumgarner reminded them, according to the Harper’s piece, written by Scott Horton, an attorney who has worked for years on Guantanamo Bay detainee issues.

Four guards on duty the night of the deaths gave an account to the magazine that differs from the official account and the four were not interviewed by the US Naval Criminal Investigative Service, which looked into the deaths, Harper’s reported. Yesterday, in response to the article, Bumgarner said in an e-mail that “this blatant misrepresentation of the truth infuriates me.’’

Welcome to the club; I'm angry every f***ing day.

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Bumgarner added that he wanted to set the record straight but would have to get clearance before he could talk to the news media....

And GUIDE THEM AGAIN?

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You know, that is one reason the AmeriKan MSM still sucks.

They got crapped on and lied to, and they still lick it out of the government palm.