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Army Memo Reiterates Ban On Waterboarding To Clear Up ‘Confusion’ From Mukasey’s Testimony

By Satyam Khanna on Nov 13, 2007 at 3:51 pm

mukasey3833.JPGOn Nov. 9, the Senate voted to confirm Michael Mukasey as Attorney General, despite concerns about his consistent refusal to declare waterboarding torture.

The AP reports today that three days earlier, on Nov. 6, the Army issued a memo to “senior leaders” reiterating that the technique is prohibited by the Army. The memo was to be relayed to soldiers’ families and employees in order to “eliminate any confusion that may have arisen as a result of recent public discourse on the subject”:

The service issued a “strategic communication hot topic” alert to its senior leaders two days before the Senate confirmed Mukasey, asking them to make sure every soldier, family member and Army civilian employee understands the ban on waterboarding. Mukasey was sworn in Nov. 9.

“The U.S. Army strictly prohibits the use of waterboarding during intelligence investigations by any of its members. It is specifically prohibited by Field Manual 2-22.3 and is not a sanctioned interrogation technique in any training manual or any instructions to soldiers in the field,” the statement says.

The Army Field Manual specifically prohibits “waterboarding” in intelligence interrogations, along with “mock executions,” “using military working dogs,” and “inducing hypothermia or heat injury.” The CIA reportedly used waterboarding on three different prisoners before 2003.

Several former administration officials have attempted to eliminate or condemn the use of waterboarding. Inspector General John Helgerson quit in protest of the administration’s torture policies. Former acting assistant attorney general Daniel Levin was forced out by the Justice Department for his dissent on waterboarding.

Last week, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and Rep. William Delahunt (D-MA) introduced legislation requiring “that interrogations comply with the standards set forth in the Army Field Manual, to all government agencies.”

Politics

State Department delays forcing diplomats to Iraq.

By Matt Corley on Nov 13, 2007 at 3:29 pm

Last month, the State Department announced that it would order “as many as 50 U.S. diplomats to take posts in Iraq next year” in “forced assignments.” The announcement was met with “anger and frustration” by several hundred diplomats, who likened the forced posting to a “potential death sentence.” Personnel were supposed to be chosen by today, but with 25 volunteers already approved in the positions, the department is now delaying the final selection until Friday.

Media

TV Blogger Strike

By ThinkProgress on Nov 13, 2007 at 3:25 pm

Chris Hayes notes that a bunch of popular TV blogs are putting down their virtual pens in support of the strike. This blog will press on, however, to note that Ellen, which should be off the air already, is continuing to operate because and keep writing her own material, even if her staff writers won’t work. I bet my blog doesn’t have a huge overlapping audience with Ellen but in case you are an Ellen fan, I’d urge you to tune out and register your disappointment with her decision with a letter or whatever.

Media

Bush Records Back-To-Back Interviews For Fox News And Fox Business Channel

By Amanda Terkel on Nov 13, 2007 at 2:40 pm

bush-on-fox4.jpg Yesterday, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino held a news briefing aboard Air Force One where she went over President Bush’s media schedule. His two upcoming appearances? Fox News and Fox Business Channel. From the briefing:

PERINO: Okay, a couple of scheduling updates for you before we take off, back to Washington, D.C.

The President on his ranch this morning had an interview with Bret Baier of FOX News, for a documentary that Bret is producing for January, that will run in January.

QUESTION: Isn’t there a FOX thing tomorrow that —

PERINO: The FOX Business Channel interview is happening tomorrow. It was rescheduled from — it was supposed to happen the day the President went to California. The President wasn’t supposed to go to California that day; we just had to reschedule the event, so that interview is on for tomorrow.

QUESTION: Oh, okay, it’s different.

PERINO: It’s different, yes. Bret’s interview won’t air until January. That’s a separate channel.

With 64 percent of the American public unhappy with the job he is doing, Bush is sticking to friendly media. In September, the White House cherry-picked NPR’s Juan Williams — who is also a Fox News contributor — to conduct an exclusive interview. When NPR insisted that someone other than Williams interview the President, the White House backed out. “[W]e’re grateful for the opportunity to talk to the president but we wanted to determine who did the interview,” said NPR.

Bush’s father, George H.W., also recently appeared on Fox News and said that when he watches TV news, he tends to “turn on the Fox.” Vice President Cheney requires that all televisions in his hotel room be turned to Fox News whenever he travels and in 2004, he told “a conference call” of “tens of thousands of Republicans” that he ends up “spending a lot of time watching Fox News.”

Media

Ron Paul and the Jews

By ThinkProgress on Nov 13, 2007 at 2:28 pm

An important proviso regarding the Jamie Kirchick item I linked to yesterday is that it seems to be false. JTA DC Bureau Chief Ron Kampeas emails Andrew:

This is kind of sensitive for me. My colleague, Daniel Sieradski, posted the “takes money from Nazis, won’t take calls from Jews” comment on his personal blog. On the other hand, he describes his exchanges with the Paul campaign in his capacity as a JTA staffer.

The problem with all this, is that the Paul campaign WAS responsive, giving my intern here, Beth Young, an exclusive statement on where Paul stands on Israel for a story we posted yesterday (the day Dan posted his blog item.) (I have no idea why Dan was pursuing his own story when he should have known DC was pursuing a story, but that’s a boring internal JTA matter.)

I pointed this out to my boss, asking her the best way to address the anomaly; she suggested (and I think this is wisest), that I simply point out that Dan’s blog posting is wrong, Paul does talk to the JTA – and point out Beth’s story.

Which is what I’m doing.

I probably should have known better than to take the original at face value.

Yglesias

Veterans’ Benefits

By ThinkProgress on Nov 13, 2007 at 2:22 pm

On the radio yesterday, I heard a story about this new report on homeless veterans from the National Alliance to End Homeless that included the striking fact that veterans “represent roughly 26 percent of homeless people, but only 11 percent of the civilian population 18 years and older. This is true despite the fact that veterans are better educated, more likely to be employed, and have a lower poverty rate than the general population.” The report is chock full o’ solutions, but clearly on some level the homelessness problem among veterans just scratches the surface of challenges that people face after wartime. Kay Steiger had a Veterans’ Day article looking at some mental health issues, and congressional efforts to get education benefits provided in a form National Guard members can actually use.

Climate Progress

China prepared to make a climate deal

By Joe Romm on Nov 13, 2007 at 2:06 pm

Potentially a very big deal–The Independent reports “China ‘will agree to cut its carbon emissions’ “:

China, now the world’s biggest greenhouse-gas emitter, will eventually agree to cut its soaring carbon dioxide emissions, one of the country’s leading environmentalists forecast yesterday — but only on the basis of a deal with the United States and the rest of the developed world.

When is eventually?

The Chinese would be very unlikely to set their own unilateral target for reducing CO2, said Professor C S Kiang, the founding dean of the College of Environmental Science at the University of Beijing. But they would join in the next, post-2012 stage of the Kyoto protocol, the international climate change treaty, and seek to reduce their emissions to a definite figure, as long as this was part of a global agreement that involved all countries acting together — including the US — and the transfer to China of modern energy technology, he said.

Now, Kiang says, all the world needs is a new U.S. President:

Read more

Politics

ThinksGiving: We Need Your Support

By ThinkProgress on Nov 13, 2007 at 2:02 pm

ThinkProgress wouldn’t be where it is today without the support of our community of readers. Your comments, suggestions, and ideas have helped transform this site and have made it into one of the “most dangerous organizations in America.”

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But now, we need you more than ever to help maintain our continued success. Over the next two weeks, we will be posting “ThinksGiving” commentaries from a few of our valued readers who — like many of you — have come to depend on ThinkProgress for their daily dose of progressive news.

As you know, we rarely ask our readers for contributions. The reason we are doing so now is because we have some big plans for 2008, and we can only accomplish them with your assistance.

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In just under three years of existence, you have made ThinkProgress an influential force in spreading the progressive message and pushing back on right-wing misinformation. Please help keep it that way. We’d appreciate any level of financial contribution you can afford. Thank you for reading ThinkProgress!

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Climate Progress

How to keep wind power soaring

By Joe Romm on Nov 13, 2007 at 1:44 pm

wind.jpgIf you are interested in how wind power can continue to soar, be sure to read an excellent study by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory: Using the Federal Production Tax Credit to Build a Durable Market for Wind Power in the United States.

The authors conclude:

… our analysis suggests that a longer-term extension of the federal PTC may provide a number of benefits, including accelerated wind deployment, reductions in installed wind project costs, and increased domestic wind turbine and component manufacturing. At the same time, we also identify several PTC design considerations, beyond the duration of any extension, that may deserve consideration by Congress.

Thanks to Hal L. for sending this my way.

Politics

Conservative Catholic Group Runs Ads Targeting Anti-SCHIP Lawmakers As ‘Not Pro-Life’

By Matt Corley on Nov 13, 2007 at 1:12 pm

goodeva.gif In October, Catholics United, “a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to promoting the message of justice and the common good found at the heart of the Catholic Social Tradition,” launched an ad campaign targeting “pro-life Christian” politicians who voted against expanding the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).

The ads criticized the members of Congress for saying they’re “pro-life,” but then voting “against health care for poor children.” “That’s not pro-life. That’s not pro-family,” concluded the ads.

One of the targets of the ads, Rep. Thaddeus G. McCotter (R-MI), the Chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee, responded to the ads by accusing Catholics United of being the “devil” and acting in “sin”:

Catholics United, which demurs from airing similar ads against pro-abortion members of Congress, is not a Catholic Church sanctioned organization; it is a Leftist political front group. No one should be fooled when this devil cites Scripture for his own purpose. [...]

Through their duplicitous partisan S-CHIP attacks, this is (charitably) the sin which Catholics United has committed; and the sin with which Catholics United is coercively trying to tempt pro-life members of Congress.

Now Catholics United is taking to the Christian radio airwaves again. They’re still hitting McCotter, but are also adding four more members of Congress to their target list:

Rep. Jim Marshall (D-GA)
Rep. Virgil Goode (R-VA)
Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-KS)
Rep. Kenny Hulshof (R-MO)

Listen to the ad against Goode:

[flv http://video.thinkprogress.org/2007/11/cu-goode.320.40.flv]

Rep. Goode responded to the new ads by digging in his feet, exclaiming “I’m opposed to the child health bill.”

If the four Congressmen are tempted to lash out at Catholics United like McCotter did, they should choose a different route than attacking the group’s Catholic standing as the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Catholic Charities USA, and the Catholic Health Association all hold the same position supporting the SCHIP expansion.

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