CIA | CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

Criminal Law Blog by Defense Lawyer John Floyd and Mr. Billy Sinclair

September 1, 2009

CIA PROBE NECESSARY TO PROTECT RULE OF LAW

Filed under: Anti-Terrorism Lawyer — Tags: CIA, covert torture policies, torture, war on terror, water-boarding — johntfloyd @ 5:57 pm

Investigating Crimes of Torture: Expecting and Demanding Accountability

By: Houston Criminal Attorney John Floyd and paralegal Billy Sinclair

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder recently selected a Connecticut federal prosecutor named John H. Durham to investigate whether the CIA’s destruction of the videotapes of harsh interrogation techniques inflicted upon terror suspects between 2002 and 2003 merit a full blown investigation of the agency employees (or independent contractors hired by the agency) who conducted those interrogations and those government officials who approved them.

Political conservatives–instigated by wing-nut pundits like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh—have blasted Holder’s decision as being a terrible blow to the intelligence agency’s morale. They charge that the rank-and-file spy hawks will now be inhibited from protecting the country’s national security interests because of fear they will violate some law while “doing their duty” that might land them in the slammer.

The decision to investigate the CIA—regardless of whether it was those who ordered the torture interrogations, those who carried them out (regardless of whether the interrogators were career agency employees or independent contractors working as hired guns), or those who orchestrated the political cover up the massive torture conspiracy—should not depend upon “agency morale.” The so-called “morale issue” is a red-herring. The nation should not be concerned about the “morale” of a rogue agency that lacks the moral capability or legal duty to obey clearly established federal laws, international laws, and Geneva Conventions.

Former Vice-President Dick Cheney joined the political fray more recently by saying the selection of a special prosecutor was a political outrage. As one media pundit pointed out, the vice president himself has never held the Constitution in high esteem or exhibited very much respect for the rule of law. We agree. Shortly after 9/11, Cheney told then NBC’s Meet the Press host Tim Russert that those in power would have to visit the “dark side” to win President Bush’s declared “war on terror.” The former vice-president has since been a staunch defender of “harsh interrogation techniques” (water boarding, sleep deprivation, use of guns and drills to threaten blindfolded prisoners, attack dogs, beatings, and a host of other physical abuses) that he refuses to characterize as “torture.” (more…)

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April 23, 2009

THE CIA TERROR MEMOS

Filed under: Anti-Terrorism Lawyer — Tags: CIA, Terrorist, torture, war on terror, water-boarding — johntfloyd @ 9:24 am

Legal Opinions Redefine Torture, Criminal Acts

By: Houston Criminal Defense Attorney John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair

The Bush administration’s 2001 declaration of “war on terror” critically—if not irreparably—injured the constitutional soul of America. This nation can no longer look other civilized countries in directly in the eye and unequivocally say it is the moral leader of the “free world.” The recently released CIA “terror memos” demonstrate that during the eight-year presidential tenure of George W. Bush the United States became a nation that subscribed almost exclusively to the base Machiavellian political dogma of “the end justifies the means.” Those who have defended, and continue to defend, the “torture” practices carried out under the Bush administration say they were a necessary weapon in the “war on terror” declared by President Bush after the three September 11, 2001 terror attacks against the United States by the international terrorist organization, al-Qaeda.

In the wake of that war declaration, the nation’s Central Intelligence Agency established “black site” (secret) prisons in friendly countries across Europe. The CIA, and its contracted mercenaries, began to search for and round up “terror suspects” around the globe. Many of the suspects were kidnapped off public streets in their home countries and whisked away to one of the CIA’s “black site” prisons. Most of those “terror suspects” were ultimately designated by the military term as “enemy combatants” and turned over to the military to be housed in the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba. These “enemy combatants,” most of whom were Arab foreign nationals, enjoyed no “constitutional” protections such as right to a public and speedy trial by jury, right to confront and cross examine their accusers, privilege against self-incrimination, or the right to habeas corpus.

One of the first “high-valued” terror suspects captured by the CIA was Abu Zubaydah, the highest ranking member of al-Qaeda captured at the time. A hardcore operative of the terrorist organization and personal confidant of Osama bin Laden, Zubaydah was captured on March 28, 2002 in Faisalabad, Pakistan after being shot three times in an attempt to evade capture. It became immediately clear to the CIA that he was not about to cooperate with American authorities about al-Qaeda’s past or future terrorist attacks against the United States and its allies.

From the moment of his capture, the CIA had aggressively interrogated Zubaydah to force his cooperation without much success. The intelligence agency decided to escalate from harsh interrogation methods to “torture” to get him to talk. The agency, however, knew torture is explicitly prohibited by Section 2340A of title 18 of the United States Code; and being fearful of future congressional and media backlash, the agency sought, and received, legal cover from the U.S. Justice Department to violate this law. (more…)

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April 21, 2009

TORTURE FALLOUT CONTINUES

Filed under: Anti-Terrorism Lawyer — Tags: black site prisons, CIA, Terrorist, torture, war on terror, water-boarding — johntfloyd @ 2:07 am

Foreign Investigation of Torture Techniques Sanctioned by Bush Administration

By: Houston Criminal Defense Attorney John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair

CIA Director Leon Panetta announced on April 9, 2009 that it would shut down those “black site” secret prisons in foreign countries utilized by the George Bush administration to house, and torture, suspected terrorists—many of whom were kidnapped off public streets in their home countries by either CIA agents or CIA operatives, and who had never been formally charged with any terror-related activity.

Panetta said the agency officers who employed what the New York Times called “brutal interrogation methods”—a euphemism for torture—“should not be investigated, much less punished” because their actions had been declared lawful by the U.S. Justice Department.

The laws of the United States, and international law, prohibit torture, as do many treaties between most civilized nations. CIA interrogators employed a variety of brutal interrogation methods in these “black site” prisons to get terrorist suspects to provide information about terrorism activities. One of the methods was “water-boarding”—a near drowning technique used on at least three prisoners in 2002 and 2003, and a torture technique declared a “war crime” by the U.S. after World War II because it had been used by the Japanese. Panetta and other top Obama administration officials have stated publicly that they believe water-boarding is torture.

Neither President of the United States, with all his immense executive powers, nor the United States Justice Department have either the statutory or constitutional authority to declare a crime—and torture is recognized by the laws of this nation and the laws of the international community as a crime—to be “legal” as suggested by CIA Director Panetta. (more…)