Pentagon: Tribunals to include gag rule
The Pentagon plans to impose a permanent gag order on attorneys who defend alleged terrorists or “enemy combatants” before any US military tribunals, senior defense officials said Friday when the Pentagon issued eight documents outlining the procedures for the controversial military commissions, which was the last procedural step required before commissions could be held.

The commissions are intended for people believed to be members of terrorist organizations and believed to be guilty of any one of nearly 30 crimes. The commissions could also apply to people alleged to have harbored terrorists. The commissions, first announced in Nov. 2001, have come under sharp criticism from human rights and legal organizations, which have argued that they are unconstitutional and illegal under international law. A chief concern is the lack of an independent appeal. Convictions are to be automatically referred to another military review board but at no time do defendants have the right to a trial in a court independent of the Defense Dept.

The procedure will be tightly controlled. Under the new rules, the attorneys for both the government and the defendants will need the express permission of the Pentagon or the Defense Secretary before they “communicate with news media.” To assure critics the commissions are being conducted fairly, the officials said they will open them as much as possible to the media.

Lawrence Goldman, president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, said the gag rule is dangerous because it sets the stage for government abuse. Anything legally questionable that happens behind closed doors would never come to light. He said, “It limits justice. If you do not have press and public scrutiny, there is every incentive for military courts not to give basic rights to the person accused.”

The proceedings could be held in any country. Officials would not say whether any of the defendants are likely to be Iraqi. The US has captured more than a dozen regime officials and has been trying to build a case linking the Saddam Hussein regime with al-Qaida and international terrorism. So far, Bush has not given the word to begin prosecuting cases. (Miami Daily Business Review)

US vigilantes test drones on Mexican border
An Arizona vigilante group is testing homemade “drone” reconnaissance planes on the US-Mexican border to monitor illegal immigrants entering the US in lonely desert areas. Glenn Spencer, head of the American Border Patrol vigilante group, said the group has been testing two Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for about a month and plans to have a fleet making passes over the border by early July. Police and residents say they are aware of the drones, similar to unmanned US military aircraft used in Iraq.

Hundreds of thousands of illegal Mexican immigrants cross the border in search of work every year. Three vigilante groups, some of them armed, have sprung up in Arizona in the last three years to monitor the border and hand over any illegal immigrants they find to US Border Patrol agents. The groups say US authorities allow too many Mexicans to flout US immigration law. Since the Sept. 11 attacks, some have also said unrestricted immigration poses an unacceptable security risk. Area residents say the drones invade their privacy, are racist, and foster poor cross-border relations. (Reuters)

Military waste under fire
The Department of Defense (DOD) once again finds itself under intense scrutiny because it can’t account for more than a trillion dollars in financial transactions, not to mention dozens of tanks, missiles, and planes. The Pentagon’s reputation for waste will top the congressional agenda this week, when the House and Senate are expected to begin floor debate on a Bush administration proposal to make sweeping changes in how the Pentagon spends money, manages contracts, and treats civilian employees.

The Bush proposal, called the Defense Transformation for the 21st Century Act, arrives at a time when the nonpartisan General Accounting Office has raised the volume of its perennial complaints about the financial woes at the DOD, which recently failed its seventh audit in as many years. Given these glaring gaps in the management of a Pentagon budget that is approaching $400 billion, the coming debate is shaping up as a bid to gain the high ground in the battle against waste, fraud, and abuse.

The administration’s proposal, which would also give Rumsfeld greater authority to move money between accounts and exempt the DOD from certain environmental statutes, prompted influential House Democrats to write Speaker Dennis Hastert last week complaining that the proposals would “increase the level of waste, fraud, and abuse ... by vastly reducing [Defense] accountability.” (San Francisco Chronicle)

PCC police chief, deputy suspended by trustees
The board of trustees of Pasadena City College voted last Wednesday to suspend campus police chief Philip Mullendore and his top deputy, Lt. Brad Young, with pay, pending an investigation of alleged police brutality at an anti-war protest. The board also voted to reconsider the hiring of a private investigator to look into the incident after learning that the investigative firm already selected had previously worked for the college, which some board members said could taint the investigation.

Student protesters claimed the chief and his officers beat, punched, and kicked them, and used pepper spray, during a protest Mar. 20. Two students were arrested. Several students addressed the board, asking that the charges against the two students be dropped and that Mullendore and Young be fired. One student said the suspension equated giving the officers a vacation for beating students. (Pasadena Star-News)

US quietly eases rules for faith-based groups
The Bush administration has quietly altered regulations for the nation’s leading job training program to allow faith-based organizations to use “sacred literature,” such as Bibles, in their federally funded programs. Civil liberties activists say the new rules blur the line between religion and government. The change, made by the US Labor Dept. last month, could allow faith-based groups to use religious books as historical texts or as inspirational stories for job seekers, as long as organizations do not proselytize or conduct prayer sessions.

The change represents efforts by the Bush administration and sympathetic members of Congress to give more latitude to faith-based organizations that receive grants under the Workforce Reinvestment and Adult Education Act of 1998, which provides more than $6 billion annually to states, colleges, and private groups.

Advocates of the changes say they are intended to free faith-based groups to employ people of the same religion without facing the threat of discrimination lawsuits. Critics say the moves are a violation of civil rights laws. Opponents complain that Bush and his backers are using federal rules and bills authorizing individual social programs to get what he could not win in his broader faith-based initiative. (Boston Globe)

US expels 14 Cuban diplomats
The US ordered the expulsion last week of 14 Cuban diplomats for alleged spying, the latest incident in a marked souring of relations between the two countries since Bush came to power. American officials said the Cubans were expelled “for engaging in activities deemed harmful to the US,” a diplomatic euphemism for espionage. Seven of the diplomats are based in New York where they are accredited to the UN, while the other seven are based in Washington.

The escalating situation recalls the days of the cold war. Two months ago, Cuba clamped down on travel by US diplomats. The US State Dept. responded immediately by imposing the same condition on Cuban diplomats in Washington. Last month, the US also walked out of a UN meeting to protest Cuba’s re-election to the human rights commission. A Clinton-era policy that granted licenses to academics, athletes, and scientists on exchange programs was ditched in March. Last month Cuba provoked international fury when it sentenced 75 dissidents to long prison terms for allegedly working with the US. In addition, three men were executed for hijacking a ferry in a failed attempt to reach US shores.

Cuba rejected American claims last week that the country sponsored terrorism and accused the Bush administration of trying to overthrow the government of President Fidel Castro. (The Guardian)

State monitored war protesters
Days before firing wooden slugs at anti-war protesters, Oakland police were warned of potential violence at the Port of Oakland by California’s anti-terrorism intelligence center, which admits blurring the line between terrorism and political dissent. The Apr. 2 bulletin from the California Anti-Terrorism Information Center (CATIC) -- staffed with personnel from the FBI, Defense Intelligence Agency, and other federal, state and local agencies -- arguably offered more innuendo than actual evidence of protesters’ intent to “shut down” the port and possibly act violently. CATIC spokesman Mike Van Winkle said such evidence wasn’t needed to issue warnings on war protesters.

“You can make an easy kind of a link that, if you have a protest group protesting a war where the cause that’s being fought against is international terrorism, you might have terrorism at that [protest],” said Van Winkle. “You can almost argue that a protest against that is a terrorist act.”

In fact, CATIC — touted as a national model for intelligence sharing and a — has quietly gathered and analyzed information on activists of various stripes almost since its creation. Mark Schlosberg, of the ACLU, called Van Winkle’s remarks “just shocking.” He said, “To equate protesting against a war with terrorist activity, if in fact that’s what’s being done, is contrary to American values. And I would hope there are guidelines in place to prevent that being done.”

The center draws $6.7 million a year in state funds to prevent terrorism. Analysts must obey one federal rule to limit the intelligence they gather, analyze, and disseminate: It must have a criminal predicate, a “reasonable suspicion” that criminal acts will be committed. (Oakland Tribune)

Cities, individuals challenge federal Patriot Act
Stands against the Patriot Act have been made in recent months by more than 100 city councils and county boards across the country, all challenging the federal government’s expanded powers to investigate people it accuses of having terrorist ties. Municipalities are drafting resolutions affirming the right of innocent residents to be left alone. Libraries are shredding documents to prevent federal agents from snooping into the reading habits of patrons. And on a separate terrorism-related front, medical professionals by the thousands are refusing smallpox vaccines.

So far, the Bush administration’s anti-terror initiatives have met little resistance in the courts. Federal judges generally have upheld the powers of the federal government as spelled out in the Patriot Act, which won Congress’ overwhelming support after Sept. 11, 2001. The Patriot Act consolidated federal powers to probe, detain, and secretly prosecute persons suspected of having links to foreign terrorist groups.

By the ACLU’s count, Orleans, MA last Wednesday became the 105th community to affirm the civil liberties of all its residents. In many cases, municipalities have directed local law enforcement to avoid taking part in federal investigations that might infringe upon an individual’s due process rights.

When signing the Patriot Act in October 2001, President Bush said the law “gives intelligence operations and criminal operations the chance to operate not on separate tracks, but to share vital information so necessary to disrupt a terrorist act before it occurs.” Nineteen months later, however, support appears to be building in Congress to modify or even do away with some provisions of the law, scheduled to expire at the end of 2005. (Kansas City Star)

Declaring victory, Texas Democrats end exile
Fifty-five fugitive Democrats from the Texas House returned to the state capitol in triumph last Friday after thwarting a Republican redistricting bill by running off to Oklahoma for nearly a week. The lawmakers slipped away May 11 in an extraordinary revolt that brought the Texas House to a standstill because there were not enough lawmakers for a quorum to do business. Texas Republican lawmakers drew criticism after dispatching the Dept. of Homeland Security to find the missing Democrats. The Democrats said it was the only way to stop a congressional redistricting plan from being ramrodded through the republican-controlled House. The redistricting was aimed at grabbing five House seats from democrats in 2004. The bill died under legislative rules. (NY Times)

back to top