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Liberal Democrats may tout openness, reform and transparency on the campaign trail but those promises never seem to make it past the Beltway when they return to Washington. In one of the more egregious examples of this truism, one needs to look no further than the efforts by Representative Jim McDermott (D-Washington) to pull a fast one and slip into the intelligence budget a provision that, in a backdoor way, impose fines and prison terms on intelligence officers who "abuse" captured terrorism suspects. The House Democratic leadership stopped a vote Thursday night on the $50 billion classified intelligence budget after...

From yesterday, Thursday, February 25, 2010:Intel bill pulled over controversial added interrogation provision "A controversial bill that would have levied criminal punishments on intelligence officers for harsh interrogations was pulled Thursday evening [Feb 25, 2010] . House Republicans charged Democrats with trying to sneak a provision into the intelligence authorization bill that would establish criminal punishment for CIA agents and other intelligence officials who engage in “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment” during interrogations."... Intelligence committee Chairman Silvestre Reyes (D-Texas) added the language, originally offered by Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.), to his manager’s amendment, which makes several changes to the bill...

House Judiciary Committee chairman/chief Bush administration "torture" investigator, democrat John Conyers Jr of Michigan is an endorser of the Revolutionary Communist Party movement/organization, "World Can't Wait--Drive Out the Bush Regime" (they'll probably be dropping the "Drive Out the Bush Regime" portion of their name soon). __________________________________________________________ Former Abu Ghraib Brigadier General, Janis Karpinski, is also an endorser of the revolutionary communist org... Click on the WCW link just below and see: "Endorsers of the Call to Drive Out the Bush Regime Include". Conyers' endorsement appears right after Ward Churchill's. Al Sharpton's, Maxine Waters and Jesse Jackson's are further down...

FYI: The org "World Can't Wait" is an "anti-war" front for the Revolutionary Communist Party. The RCP, on their website, calls for the violent overthrow of the U.S. government. Former Abu Ghraib Brigadier General, Janis Karpinski, is listed as an "endorser" of the WCW movement on the World Can't Wait website. House Judiciary Committee chairman/chief Bush administration "torture investigator", democrat John Conyers Jr of Michigan has also given his endorsement to the Revolutionary Communist Party movement/organization, "World Can't Wait--Drive Out the Bush Regime" (they'll probably be dropping the "Drive Out the Bush Regime" portion of their name soon). Click on...

FYI: The org "World Can't Wait" is an "anti-war" front for the Revolutionary Communist Party. The RCP, on their website, calls for the violent overthrow of the U.S. government. Former Abu Ghraib Brigadier General, Janis Karpinski, is listed as an "endorser" of the WCW movement on the World Can't Wait website. House Judiciary Committee chairman/Bush administration "torture investigators", democrat John Conyers Jr of Michigan, and HJC member, Maxine Waters, have also each given their endorsements to the Revolutionary Communist Party movement/organization, "World Can't Wait--Drive Out the Bush Regime" (they'll probably be dropping the "Drive Out the Bush Regime" portion of...

PARIS, Oct. 26 — Several human rights organizations based in the United States and Europe have filed a complaint in a Paris court accusing former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld of responsibility for torture. The group, which includes the International Federation for Human Rights, the French League for Human Rights, and the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York, made the complaint late Thursday and unsuccessfully sought to confront Mr. Rumsfeld as he left a breakfast meeting in central Paris on Friday. Jeanne Sulzer, one of the lawyers working on the issue for the human rights groups, said the complaint...

Just days after his resignation, former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is about to face more repercussions for his involvement in the troubled wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. New legal documents, to be filed next week with Germany’s top prosecutor, will seek a criminal investigation and prosecution of Rumsfeld, along with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, former CIA director George Tenet and other senior U.S. civilian and military officers, for their alleged roles in abuses committed at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison and at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba... ... Lawyers for the plaintiffs say that one of the witnesses...

Lawyers for the plaintiffs say that one of the witnesses who will testify on their behalf is former Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, the one-time commander of all U.S. military prisons in Iraq. Karpinski ? who the lawyers say will be in Germany next week to publicly address her accusations in the case ? has issued a written statement to accompany the legal filing, which says, in part: "It was clear the knowledge and responsibility [for what happened at Abu Ghraib] goes all the way to the top of the chain of command to the Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld ."

To: Assignment Desk, Daybook Editor Contact: Connie Julian, 917-449-9064, Janet Yip 212-941-8086 or commission@nion.us News Advisory: From: International Commission of Inquiry on Crimes Against Humanity Committed by the Bush Administration WHEN: January 10, 2006 at 1:30 p.m. WHERE: The White House, Walk-in Gate, across from Lafayette Park WEBSITE: http://www.bushcommission.org An unprecedented series of indictments alleging war crimes and crimes against humanity, in five separate areas, on moral, political, and legal grounds, will be delivered by a citizens' tribunal to President Bush at the front gate of the White House this Tuesday, January 10th. Named in the indictments are: President of...

The former commanding general of prisons in Iraq says she was not in charge of the Abu Ghraib detention facility at the time of the detainee abuse scandal there. "How could (the military) hold me accountable when I had no direct access?" Col. Janis Karpinski told The (Hilton Head) Island Packet. "How come they didn't hold (Defense Secretary Donald) Rumsfeld accountable? How is that possible?" Karpinski was relieved of command and demoted from brigadier general to colonel after allegations that dereliction of duty led to prisoner abuses at Abu Ghraib. Karpinski said she was the commanding general of the reserve...

Iraqi prisoners could lift their cell doors right off their hinges. One senior sergeant whiled away his evenings blasting grazing sheep with a guard-tower machine gun. U.S. commanders didn't bother telling their troops they'd be stuck in Iraq for months more than advertised. The only woman commanding general in the war zone, Abu Ghraib prison chief Janis Karpinski, has written a memoir of her fateful year there, a candid portrait of an often dysfunctional U.S. Army - of "Sergeant Bilko meets Catch 22," as she puts it. The book, "One Woman's Army," published by Hyperion, sheds little new light on...

SANTA CLARITA – Former Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, who served as military police commander at Abu Ghraib, said she was never arrested or charged in an alleged shoplifting incident, and the Army only brought the allegation to demote her after the Iraq prison scandal broke, a newspaper reported in Friday's editions. Karpinski was demoted to colonel last week after the Army's inspector general investigated four allegations against her, including: dereliction of duty, making a "material misrepresentation" to investigators, failure to obey a lawful order and shoplifting. Only the shoplifting and dereliction of duty allegations were substantiated. Karpinski has repeatedly denied...

LONDON (AP) - The American general formerly in charge of Abu Ghraib prison says there are signs Israelis were involved in interrogating Iraqi detainees at another facility. Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, who was suspended in May over allegations of prisoner abuse, said she met a man who told her he was Israeli during a visit to a Baghdad intelligence center with a senior coalition general. "I saw an individual there that I hadn't had the opportunity to meet before, and I asked him what did he do there, was he an interpreter - he was clearly from the Middle East,"...

BAGHDAD - The prisoner abuse scandal has so tarnished the Army's 800th Military Police Brigade that soldiers slated to receive an Army Bronze Star medal have been dropped from the list, the brigade's commander, Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, said Sunday. "The vast majority of fine, outstanding soldiers in the brigade are paying dearly," Karpinski told The Associated Press in an e-mail. After the Army started its investigation into abuse of Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Ghraib penitentiary, ...

<p>We are appalled, like all Americans, to learn that rogue American soldiers and military contractors may have participated in abusing Iraqi prisoners. President Bush has straightforwardly addressed the matter on television appearances broadcast to the world. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld appropriately labeled this behavior "totally unacceptable and un-American" and vowed to bring to justice those who engaged in this shameful behavior.</p>

Army Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, the lone female commander in Iraq, runs the prison system that once was an apparatus of terror. BAGHDAD - A few weeks ago, Janis Karpinski was in the middle of a briefing when a man suddenly reached out and grabbed her. Crass? No, just a nervous soldier trying to protect the commanding officer as an Iraqi mortar exploded a few dozen yards away. "A mortar will get your attention real fast," Karpinski says, "and it can be an indication of other things to come." Such are the daily distractions for Karpinski, a brigadier general and...