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Reid Won't Block Obama On Syria No-Fly Zone

NEWS FLASH

Former Israeli Intel. Chief Warns Of Regional War If Israel Strikes Iran | Former Mossad chief Meir Dagan warns that a military strike against alleged Iranian nuclear weapons facilities will lead to a regional war with Iran, Hezbollah and possible Syria. Dagan, who previously described an Israeli air strike on Iran as the “stupidest thing I have ever heard,” pushed back against critics like Defense Minister Ehud Barak. Barak had slammed Dagan for openly criticizing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hawkish rhetoric toward Tehran. “We are not living in an undemocratic country; in democratic countries, even people like me have the right to express their opinions,” said Dagan in an interview on the Israeli television program “Uvda.”

By Eli Clifton on Nov 29, 2011 at 5:51 pm

Gingrich Changes His Position: ‘Waterboarding Is, By Every Technical Rule, Not Torture’

By Ben Armbruster on Nov 29, 2011 at 3:49 pm

Back in 2009, when the public debate on torture ramped up after President Obama released the Bush-era memos authorizing torture techniques on terror suspects, a Fox News host asked Newt Gingrich if he thought waterboarding is torture. “I can’t tell you,” the former House Speaker said, “I honestly don’t know.”

Now that Gingrich has had some time to think about it (while being influenced by some of his fellow GOP presidential candidates), he seems to have made a decision. Today at a town hall event at the College of Charleston in South Carolina, an audience member asked Gingrich where he stood on waterboarding. “Waterboarding is, by every technical rule, not torture,” the former House Speaker said, to which the crowd applauded. Gingrich seemed to justify his position claiming that the technique is legal under international law:

GINGRICH: Waterboarding is by every technical rule not torture. [Applause] Waterboarding is actually something we’ve done with our own pilots in order to get them used to the idea to what interrogation is like. It’s not — I’m not saying it’s not bad, and it’s not difficult, it’s not frightening. I’m just saying that under the normal rules internationally it’s not torture.

I think the right balance is that a prisoner can only be waterboarded at the direction of the president in a circumstance which the information was of such great importance that we thought it was worth the risk of doing it and I do that frankly only out of concern for world opinion. But we do not want to be known as a country that capriciously mistreats human beings.

Watch the clip:

Not only is the so-called “ticking time bomb” scenario Gingrich refers to a red herring, waterboarding actually is illegal under international law because it is considered a torture technique. Last year, the U.N.’s Special Rapporteur on Torture Juan Mendez said waterboarding is “immoral and illegal,” and his predecessor agrees.

The U.S. military doesn’t have much use for waterboarding either, considering the Army Field Manual bans it. And Gingrich, or any other of the Republicans running for president who support waterboarding and other torture techniques, might have a hard time getting it to happen as the CIA said it is unlikely to go down that road again. “When you have years-long investigations into past practices, it’s unlikely that you want to spend a minute engaged in them,” one CIA official said recently.

“Very disappointed by statements at SC GOP debate supporting waterboarding,” Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) tweeted earlier this month. “Waterboarding is torture.”

NEWS FLASH

Libya’s New Leaders Acknowledge Mistreatment Of Prisoners | Libya’s new leaders, responding to a U.N. report implicating them in the torture and and ill treatment of prisoners, acknowledged that prisoners held by revolutionary forces had been mistreated. Libyan Deputy Prime Minister Mustafa Abushagur told a news conference, “Are there illegal detentions in Libya? I am afraid there are.” The report found that as many as 7,000 people, many of them sub-Saharan Africans suspected of aiding Muammar Qaddafi, are still held by revolutionaries. Interior Minister Fawzy Abdul-Ali acknowledged the report’s findings but told the Associated Press, “We are trying our best to establish a legitimate system that is authorized to make arrests, detain and interrogate people. We are trying to minimize the possibilities of [human rights] violations taking place.”

By Eli Clifton on Nov 29, 2011 at 1:20 pm

NEWS FLASH

Pakistani Military Spox: Our Leadership ‘Is Deciding’ Whether To End Cooperation With NATO | In the wake of NATO’s attack on Pakistani troops this week, Pakistan’s military spokesman Gen. Athar Abbas said in an interview today with France24 that he doesn’t “really know” if Pakistan will end its cooperation with Atlantic Alliance. Abbas said his country’s military leadership “is deciding” how to proceed but added he does not think the relationship will be cut off completely. Watch at 2:49:

Economy

Banks May Have Illegally Foreclosed On 5,000 Members Of The Military

By Pat Garofalo posted from ThinkProgress Economy on Nov 29, 2011 at 10:21 am

For months, major banks have been dealing with the fallout of the “robo-signing” scandal, following reports that the banks were improperly foreclosing on homeowners and, in many instances, falsifying paperwork that they were submitting to courts. Banks have been forced to go back and re-examine foreclosures to ensure that homeowners did not lose their homes unlawfully.

In the latest episode of this mess, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has found that banks — including Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Citigroup — may have improperly foreclosed on up to 5,000 active members of the military:

Ten leading US lenders may have unlawfully foreclosed on the mortgages of nearly 5,000 active-duty members of the US military in recent years, according to data released by a federal regulator. [...]

The data released by the OCC are based on estimates prepared by lenders and their consultants. BofA said it is reviewing 2,400 foreclosures involving active-duty military families to see if they were conducted properly. Wells Fargo is reviewing 870 foreclosures and Citigroup is looking at 700 cases.

Also under review are 575 foreclosures at OneWest, formerly known as IndyMac; 87 at HSBC; 80 at US Bancorp; 56 at Aurora, formerly known as Lehman Brothers Bank; 25 at MetLife; six at Sovereign; and three at EverBank.

Back in April, JPMorgan Chase, which was not one of the 10 banks that the OCC examined, agreed to a $56 million settlement over allegations that it had overcharged members of the military on their mortgages. Chase Bank has even auctioned off the home of a military member the very day that he returned from Iraq. Two other mortgage servicers agreed in May to settle charges of improperly foreclosing on servicemembers.

Even without the banks illegally foreclosing, military members have been hard hit by the foreclosure crisis. Last year alone, 20,000 members of the military faced foreclosure, a 32 percent increase over 2008. The newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is tasked with ensuring that military members are treated fairly by financial services companies — a job that is obviously necessary — but Republicans in Congress have, so far, refused to confirm a director for the agency, leaving it unable to fulfill all of its responsibilities.

National Security Brief: November 29, 2011

By ThinkProgress on Nov 29, 2011 at 9:00 am


– FBI director Robert Mueller expressed concern about a sweeping defense bill that mandates military custody of suspects deemed to be members of Al-Qaeda or its affiliates, writing in a letter to lawmakers, “Because the proposed legislation applies to certain persons detained in the United States, the legislation may adversely impact our ability to continue ongoing international terrorism investigations before or after arrest.”

– Pakistani army Gen. Ashfaq Nadeem said today the military believes the NATO attack that killed 24 Pakistani troops was a “deliberate act of aggression” and that the Pakistani army is debating whether to cooperate with the U.S. investigation into Saturday’s incident on the Afghan-Pakistan border.

– Russia said it may not let NATO use its territory to supply troops in Afghanistan if the alliance doesn’t seriously consider its objections to a U.S.-led missile shield for Europe.

– Turkey’s foreign minister Tuesday raised the option of military intervention in neighboring Syria, saying Ankara was ready for “any scenario.”

– Following the UK’s decision to impose sanctions on Iranian banks, students have broken into the UK embassy compound in Tehran, smashed windows and replaced the British flag with Iran’s flag.

– Bahrain replaced its security chief after a report from an independent commission found that the country’s security forces tortured pro-democracy activists and used “excessive” force against them.

– Oslo mass killer Anders Behring Breivik was insane when he went on his deadly rampage killing 77 people, and should be sent to a psychiatric ward, said prosecutors on Tuesday.

– The head of Egypt’s election commission said turnout was “massive and unexpected” on the second day of the first round of parliamentary elections, the first elections since Hosni Mubarak’s ouster.

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