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Mary Mapes, the CBS News producer from 60 Minutes who gave us Rathergate, has won the first journalism award given in memory of two of the worst rogues in the history of the profession, Walter Duranty and Jayson Blair. Duranty and Blair were both reporters for the New York Times, America's most corrupt newspaper. To borrow from NBA commissioner David Stern, on his decision to suspend Ron Artest and the other Indiana Pacers thugs in the recent "basketbrawl," the vote "was unanimous, 1-0." As previously detailed here, Mapes was guilty of no less than three major journalistic offenses -- her...

DAKAR (IRNA) -- President Mohammad Khatami rejected Saturday U.S. charges of human rights violations in Iran, denouncing Washington's own record in abusing prisoners in Iraq, Afghanistan and Cuba. "Of all the people entitled to speak about human rights, we don't regard the Americans as having the right to talk about the respect for human rights in Iran," he told reporters here. The United States was quoted Thursday as having expressed 'grave concern' over the human rights situation in Iran and potential court action against 2003 Nobel Prize winner Shirin Ebadi. Khatami said, "I believe the Americans' claims of human rights...

FORT HOOD, Texas (AP) -- The defense for Army Spc. Charles Graner rested its case yesterday without the accused ringleader of abuses at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison taking the stand. The jury of four Army officers and six senior enlisted men was expected to begin deliberating after closing arguments today. Spc. Graner's attorneys had indicated earlier that he probably would be the final witness, and that he would offer his version of what occurred in a scandal that stirred outrage against the United States. But defense attorney Guy Womack said the other witnesses provided all the evidence necessary to make...

FORT HOOD, Tex., Jan. 13 -- After a military judge again rebuffed their efforts to probe the role of senior Army officers in the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal, defense lawyers for former guard Charles A. Graner Jr. rested their case Thursday, leaving the defendant's fate up to a 10-man military jury. The judge, Army Col. James L. Pohl, scheduled final arguments and legal instructions for early Friday morning, meaning the jury will likely start deliberations before lunch. If it convicts Graner on the five counts against him, the reservist could face as much as 17 1/2 years in the...

Cliff Kincaid, editor of Accuracy in Media (AIM), commented that, "Rather's reference to Abu Ghraib, in the context of preparing the bogus attack on Bush, demonstrates that the agenda of Rather and CBS was not only to sabotage Bush's re-election campaign but to undermine the war in Iraq. They were looking for 'big' stories to hurt the U.S. at home and abroad. The Abu Ghraib story on CBS inflamed the Arab/Muslim world against the U.S., inevitably costing the lives of more American soldiers in Iraq at the hands of fanatical Muslim terrorists." AIM and Romerstein drew attention to another bombshell...

Violations of human rights by the US are undermining international law and eroding its role on the world stage, a leading campaign group says. Human Rights Watch says the US can no longer claim to defend human rights abroad if it practises abuses itself. It urges the creation of an independent US commission to examine prisoner abuse at Iraq's US-run Abu Ghraib jail

FORT HOOD - Army Spc. Charles Graner had a habit of disobeying orders from his military police superiors while serving as a guard at Abu Ghraib prison, according to testimony today from the first witness for the defense. Master Sgt. Brian Lipinski, then the top noncommissioned officer in the 372nd Military Police Company, said under cross-examination that Graner wore his hair too long, altered his uniform in violation of regulations and refused to stay away from Pfc. Lynndie England despite being repeatedly told to do so. "He just didn't like to follow orders," said prosecutor Maj. Michael Holley asked Lipinski....

The 'torture' question Posted: January 11, 2005 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2005 WorldNetDaily.com Let me get a couple things out of the way before weighing in on the hottest issue in the U.S. Capitol today. I don't like Alberto Gonzales. I think he's a sellout. I don't think he'll be a very good attorney general. I don't like his belief in a "living" Constitution. I think he's soft on abortion. He's not what this country needs in a top law enforcement officer. But he's what you would expect from the Bush administration. I was never too upset about the pictures...

Report just issues, mapes finally fired

REPORT OF THE INDEPENDENT REVIEW PANEL DICK THORNBURGH AND LOUIS D. BOCCARDI ON THE SEPTEMBER 8, 2004 60 MINUTES WEDNESDAY SEGMENT “FOR THE RECORD” CONCERNING PRESIDENT BUSH’S TEXAS AIR NATIONAL GUARD SERVICE JANUARY 5, 2005 KIRKPATRICK & LOCKHART NICHOLSON GRAHAM LLP Michael J. Missal, Esq. Lawrence Coe Lanpher, Esq. 1800 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 778-9000 Counsel to the Independent Review Panel i TABLE OF CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION..............................................................................................................1 II. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ...............................................................................................4 A. 60 Minutes Wednesday Background..............................................................................6 B. The Pursuit of a Story on President Bush’s TexANG Service ......................................7 C. Obtaining Documents ....................................................................................................8 D. The Production of...

FORT HOOD -- In his quarter century working in military courts, attorney Guy Womack can count on the fingers of one hand the times he has allowed a client to testify. "My knee-jerk reaction is never to do that," said Womack, an ex-Marine Corps lawyer based in Houston. "I've never regretted not doing that." But he may make an exception to his rule for Spc. Charles Graner Jr., the Army reservist accused of leading the much-publicized abuse of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. He says Graner, whose trial begins with opening statements Monday, can explain better than anyone...

What Real Torture Is While questioning Attorney General nominee Alberto Gonzales, Republican-of-the-Year Arlen Specter (PA) asked the hard-hitting question: “Do you approve of torture?” It almost reminded me of the time Specter asked Bill Clinton during his impeachment if he believed in sexually harassing women at the workplace. Oh wait, that didn’t happen. Specter and his friends (Democrats) were quite upset at Gonzales’s involvement in presidential initiatives allowing aggressive “tools of persuasion” against Al-Qaida terrorists. They feared another reign of terror, as seen under John Ashcroft, whereby murdering lunatics weren’t given five-star hotel accommodations, massages, and discounted tennis lessons. And...

What is the definition of modern torture?

FORT HOOD, Texas - A jury of 10 soldiers was selected Friday to decide whether the accused ringleader of the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal was illegally beating inmates or following orders to soften up the detainees for interrogation. Opening statements begin Monday in the court-martial of Spc. Charles Graner Jr., of Uniontown, Pa., the first soldier to be tried in the scandal. Graner, pictured in some of the notorious photographs of Iraqi inmates being sexually humiliated at the Baghdad prison, sat calmly at the defense table Friday and may testify on his own behalf. He was upbeat when speaking...

How many of you stuck with -- and I doubt that many of you had a chance to, but how many of you stuck with the Gonzales hearings yesterday when he was finished with his testimony? The real story of what happened... Well, that's maybe going a bit far, but clearly one of the big moments of yesterday's hearings, looking into the fitness of Alberto Gonzales to be the attorney general -- and by the way, can I ask you a question? I noticed that yesterday during the hearings, all the Democrats paid homage to his "poor background," came from...

In the movie, A Few Good Men, Jack Nicholson, played the role of a marine colonel and commanding officer of a base in Guantanamo, Cuba. While being questioned on the stand about tactics used by his men, the colonel was sternly prodded to tell the truth. His response was, “You can’t handle the truth.” I thought about that as I watched the Senate Judiciary Committee question attorney general nominee, Alberto Gonzales, regarding his views on the treatment of prisoners suspected of terrorism. I wondered how we, as Americans, can protect ourselves from enemies who are willing to sacrifice their lives...

(Author's Note: This article contains graphic descriptions of torture, degradation, and human suffering. It also contains language that most lib/dem/soc/commies will find offensive. It is called the truth.)Well, we've got a new congress starting up operations. The freshmen have been sworn in, they've been given the guided tour, and they should (hopefully) be able to find the bathrooms without too much difficulty. Committee assignments have been handed out in both houses, and with any luck at all we as a nation might actually see some real progress coming out of that 535-member coffee klatch that passes for a legislature. However,...

In late 2002, more than a year before a whistle-blower slipped military investigators the graphic photographs that would set off the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal, an F.B.I. agent at the American detention center in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, sent a colleague an e-mail message complaining about the military's "coercive tactics" with detainees, documents released yesterday show. "You won't believe it!" the agent wrote. Two years later, the frustration among F.B.I. agents had grown. Another agent sent a colleague an e-mail message saying he had seen reports that a general from Guantánamo had gone to Abu Ghraib to "Gitmo-ize" it. "If...

<p>Dems on the Judiciary Committee complained late Tuesday that White House was refusing to turn over documents that illuminated Gonzales' role in crafting memos on prisoner torture. Sen. Leahy, committee's ranking Dem, accused Gonzales of 'stonewalling.'</p> <p>'In fact, I and other Senators have requested a number of documents from you and other administration officials that have not been released,' Leahy charged.</p>

During upcoming confirmation hearings for Attorney General-nominee Alberto Gonzales, senior Democrats want to screen infamous videotapes showing Iraqis being abused at Abu Ghraib prison, top sources tell the DRUDGE REPORT. The curtain is raised Thursday for the Senate Judiciary Committee's showdown with Gonzales. The Bush White House counsel will be grilled about his role in formulating the administration's legal policies on coercive techniques in interrogations -- techniques some Democrats believe led to outright torture! Yet it's the grainy prison videos, shot by a soldier's cellphone and never before viewed by the public, that threaten to turn the New Year ugly:...