Saturday, January 20, 2007

North Carolina lawmakers want probe of alleged CIA flights of terror suspects

North Carolina lawmakers want probe of alleged CIA flights of terror suspects

The Associated Press
Friday, January 19, 2007


Nearly two dozen state lawmakers are urging the state attorney general to investigate whether a North Carolina company provided planes to the CIA to shuttle terrorism suspects to countries where they may have been tortured.

The U.S. government has said little about the practice of "extraordinary rendition" — believed to be a secret CIA program of apprehending foreign terror suspects and sending them to third countries, including those that practice torture, for interrogation without court approval.

The 22 lawmakers who signed a letter sent to Attorney General Roy Cooper and the State Bureau of Investigation urge an investigation into "credible allegations that Aero Contractors conspired to commit federal crimes," according to a copy of the letter provided by advocacy group Stop Torture Now.

Aero Contractors has denied the allegations, which were reported last year by CBS' "60 Minutes" and The New York Times. The company, which provides planes and pilots for charter flights, has leased facilities from the Johnston County Airport since 1979.

A spokeswoman for Cooper said his office had received the letter and would review it.

In October, State Bureau of Investigation Director Robin Pendergraft declined a similar request from 12 lawmakers, saying the matter did not fall under SBI jurisdiction, according to the advocacy group. In her response, Pendergraft said she shared the lawmakers' letter with the FBI.

"In short, we are deeply concerned by the SBI's unwillingness to investigate a North Carolina company's alleged involvement in a conspiracy to support the kidnap and torture of individuals," the lawmakers wrote. "We hope you will direct the SBI to begin an investigation of Aero Contractors' actions."

Fourteen protesters affiliated with Stop Torture Now were arrested there in November 2005, and convicted of trespassing.

CIA brainwashing victims seek Canada court action - Monsters & Critics.com

From Monsters and Critics.com

Americas Features

CIA brainwashing victims seek Canada court action

By James Stairs
Jan 19, 2007, 16:17 GMT

Montreal - In a case that sounds like science fiction, a Montreal court is deciding whether a class action lawsuit can be brought against the Canadian government on behalf of more than 250 psychiatric patients who were unwittingly subjected to radical experiments in the 1950s.

The so-called MK-ULTRA tests were part of a secret mind-control programme funded by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Canadian government in the 1950s.

The Cold-War-era experiments, carried out by a Scottish doctor in Montreal, included forced isolation, induced-comas, electro-shock therapy and the use of hallucinogenic drugs, including LSD and paralysis-inducing narcotics.

Lawyers for Janine Huard, a 78-year-old great-grandmother, told a Montreal court last week that their client suffered for years as a result of Dr. Ewan Cameron's experiments at the Allan Memorial Institute, a psychiatric hospital based at Montreal's McGill University.

The experiments were part of a controversial secret CIA programme, aimed at uncovering techniques of mind control and led by Cameron, who died in 1967.

MK-ULTRA was launched by the CIA in 1953 and headed by the American chemist Sidney Gottleib. It reportedly funded projects both at home and abroad, including the Montreal study, and hoped to be able to find ways to extract information from prisoners and influence foreign leaders through brainwashing.

The project was brought under scrutiny in 1974 when newspaper reporters uncovered that MK-ULTRA had drugged unwitting subjects in the US with hallucinogens and secretly observed their actions. The project had been disbanded a year earlier and all record of its activities were destroyed.

Cameron's research specifically revolved around 'psychic driving' - a potential cure, he believed, for depression and dementia that involved erasing patients memories and then building them back up again.

Huard said that she first came under the care of Cameron, a former president of the World Psychiatric Association, when she consulted him in 1951 regarding a case of postpartum depression after the birth of the second of her four children. She was in his care another two times up to 1962.

The court heard that Huard and hundreds of others were test subjects for Cameron's 'de-patterning' experiments, which included the repeated playing of recorded messages while patients lay in a drug-induced semi-comatose state.

Huard said that she underwent electro-shock treatments and was administered dozens of unknown pills a day, keeping her semi- conscious.

'She never knew that she was being subjected to these experiments or that she was being used by Dr. Cameron and his staff as a guinea pig,' Alan Stein, Huard's lawyer told the court.

The aftermath of the tests, she said, left her unable to function normally, afflicted by memory loss, depression and by migraine headaches.

'I came out of there so sick that my mother had to live with me for ten years,' she told reporters. 'I couldn't take care of my children any more.'

The CIA paid Huard and several others 67,000 US dollars each as part of a 1988 class action settlement.

In 1994, the Canadian government compensated 77 of the most severely incapacitated former patients 100,000 US dollars each for damage they suffered from the programme.

Huard and 252 others were denied compensation at the time, since the long-term affects of the testing were not deemed serious enough to warrant payment.

In 2004, a court overturned one of the decisions and awarded 100,000 Canadian dollars (85,259 US dollars) to Gail Kastner, a former patient who had undergone severe electro-shock therapy to treat her depression in 1953 at the hospital but whose claim had been previously deemed ineligible.

This decision, Huard's lawyers argued, opens the door for the current class-action request.

Lawyers for the government did not dispute Huard's claims but argued that the tests happened too long ago for her to make another attempt at compensation.

'They demolished me,' Huard told reporters as she entered the court. 'They gave me terrible drugs, electroshocks, and made me stay in a bed with a mask over my face listening to recordings for hours a day. I was afraid.'

No timetable has been given regarding a decision from the court.

© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

Hillary Clinton: I'm in 2008 White House race - CNN.com

Hillary Clinton: I'm in 2008 White House race - CNN.com

Hillary Clinton launches White House bid: 'I'm in'
Story Highlights• Sen. Barack Obama welcomes Clinton's entry

• Clinton's announcement comes days after Obama launched his bid
• Clinton is considered the front-runner
• She wants troop cap in Iraq, more focus on Afghanistan


WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sen. Hillary Clinton jumped into the fray as a 2008 presidential candidate with the words "I'm in" posted on her Web site.

"And I'm in to win," she added in a statement, announcing she has set up an exploratory committee that can gauge opinions and raise money for a presidential campaign.

Clinton's announcement comes exactly two years to the day the next president will be inaugurated: January 20, 2009.

The former first lady and Democratic senator from New York is considered her party's front-runner in what has become a diverse Democratic field. (Watch Clinton's offer to chat with voters as she launches her White House campaign)

Should she win, she would be the first woman to serve as president of the United States -- and the first presidential spouse to do so as well. President Bill Clinton served two terms -- from 1993-2001.

On Tuesday, Democrat Sen. Barack Obama announced that he was filing papers to form a presidential exploratory committee, a bid to become the first African-American president. (Full story)

And on Sunday, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, also a Democrat, is expected to announce his bid, one that could make him the first Latino president.

Live 'Web chats' start Monday
Bringing "the right end" to the war in Iraq, reducing the deficit, making the country energy independent and health care affordable were issues Clinton touted in her announcement, speaking on a video posted on her site.

"After six years of George Bush, it is time to renew the promise of America," she said.

"I grew up in a middle-class family in the middle of America, and we believed in that promise," the 59-year-old native of Chicago said.

"I still do. I've spent my entire life trying to make good on it, whether it was fighting for women's basic rights or children's basic health care, protecting our social security or protecting our soldiers."

In the video, she invited Americans to join her in a three-night series of live video Web chats beginning Monday.

"So let's talk. Let's chat, let's start a dialogue about your ideas and mine, because the conversation in Washington has been just a little one-sided lately, don't you think?"

She'll travel next weekend to Iowa and later to New Hampshire, two kickoff states for the Democratic presidential nominating process in 2008, according to her campaign organizers.

When Clinton launched her Senate bid in New York in 1999, she began a "listening tour" around the state to explore views on education, business and health care issues.

Her Republican opponent, Rick Lazio, called her a "carpetbagger" because she had not previously lived in New York. But she wound up beating him, becoming the first sitting first lady to win an elected office -- and was re-elected last year with 67 percent of the vote, a landslide.

A crowded field
Clinton's announcement puts her in a big Democratic crowd of candidates.

In a statement released Saturday, Obama said, "Senator Clinton is a good friend and a colleague whom I greatly respect. I welcome her and all the candidates, not as competitors, but as allies in the work of getting our country back on track."

In addition to Obama and Richardson, the field also includes former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, the party's 2004 vice presidential nominee, who declared his candidacy late last year; Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, a liberal critic of the war in Iraq; and Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack.

Sens. Joe Biden of Delaware and Chris Dodd of Connecticut have also said they will seek the nomination, and other Democrats mentioned as possible candidates include the party's 2004 presidential candidate, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts; retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark, and the Rev. Al Sharpton.

Clinton wants troop cap, is wary of al-Maliki
Clinton, who just returned from a trip to U.S. military facilities in Afghanistan, Iraq and Germany, has urged the Bush administration to return its focus to Afghanistan.

She has proposed a bill to cap troop levels in Iraq and require congressional approval before the president may send more troops.

She has also been highly critical of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, saying Washington should cut off financial support to the Iraqi government unless it shows commitment to stemming the sectarian violence there.

"I don't have any faith," she said of him, when asked by CNN if she had any faith in him.

In 2002, Clinton was among the majority who voted in favor of authorizing Bush to attack Iraq if Saddam Hussein refused to give up weapons of mass destruction as required by U.N. resolutions.

In a 2005 letter to constituents posted on her Senate Web site, she said that she took responsibility for her vote, which she said she made "on the basis of the evidence presented by the administration."

In turn, she said, "I, along with a majority of Americans, expect the president and his administration to take responsibility for the false assurances, faulty evidence and mismanagement of the war."

CNN's John Roberts contributed to this report.

Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/01/20/clinton.announcement/index.html

Key Aide to Sadr Arrested in Baghdad

washington post

BAGHDAD, Jan. 20 -- U.S.-backed Iraqi forces arrested a top aide to anti-American Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in eastern Baghdad on Friday, amid growing signs of stepped-up efforts to quell Sadr and his supporters.

U.S. military officials said in November that Sadr's Mahdi Army militia represents the greatest threat to Iraq's security. U.S. and Iraqi forces are preparing a renewed effort to pacify Baghdad, including the deployment of additional U.S. troops.

Abdul Hadi al-Daraji, Sadr's media director in Baghdad, was arrested at his house in the neighborhood of Baladiyat, near the Mahdi Army stronghold of Sadr City, shortly after midnight, said Sadr spokesman Abdul Razak al-Nadawi.

The spokesman said a guard was killed during the operation. At least two other aides were taken into custody, according to a statement released by the U.S. military.

The statement did not identify Daraji by name, but said the main suspect was involved in the assassination of numerous members of Iraq's security forces and is "affiliated with illegal armed group cells targeting Iraqi civilians for sectarian attacks." The military said the arrest was the result of an "Iraqi-led" operation.

Nadawi said "the occupation forces are provoking Sadr . . . by these daily operations or every-other-day operations." The spokesman added that the cleric's followers "are the only ones demanding and putting a timetable for the occupation withdrawal."

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who has been pressured by the Bush administration to bring the Mahdi Army and other Shiite militias under control, was not forewarned about the arrest, said Ali Dabbagh, a spokesman for Maliki. Dabbagh said the prime minister was not notified about every impending high-profile arrest.

"No one is untouchable for the security forces," Dabbagh said. "At the same time, no one was interested to go into a fight with the Sadr movement." Sadr, whose supporters hold 30 seats in parliament, is a key supporter of Maliki, who is a Shiite, but the cleric is also widely seen as an instigator of the country's sectarian violence.

Neither Dabbagh nor the U.S. military said whether Daraji had been charged with a crime. "Definitely, if he's not charged, he will be released in a respectful way," Dabbagh said.

Sadr said in an interview with an Italian newspaper published Friday that a crackdown had begun and that 400 of his men had been arrested, according to the Associated Press.

Maliki told reporters this week that 430 Mahdi Army members had been arrested in recent days, but Nadawi said Thursday that the arrests stretched back to August 2004.

In the interview, Sadr said his militiamen would not fight back during the Muslim holy month of Muharram, which started Friday for Sunnis and begins Saturday for Shiites, saying it was against the faith to kill at that time.

"Let them kill us. For a true believer there is no better moment than this to die: Heaven is ensured," he was quoted as saying. "After Muharram, we'll see."

BBC NEWS | Americas | Hillary 'to announce 2008 plans'

BBC NEWS | Americas | Hillary 'to announce 2008 plans'

Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton is expected to confirm on Saturday she is forming a committee to consider a 2008 run at the US presidency, reports say.
Ms Clinton is set to disclose plans to take the first step to a presidential bid on her website, unnamed Democrats said according to the Associated Press.

It has been widely anticipated that the former first lady will try to become the nation's first female president.

This week Senator Barack Obama said he had formed an exploratory committee.

He is one of the Democratic Party's rising stars, having electrified the 2004 Democratic convention with a powerful speech.

Mr Obama's entry into the race would raise the possibility of the US getting its first black president.

Ms Clinton is serving as a senator for New York.

Correspondents say that her unbeatable name recognition and unmatched fundraising ability make her a clear front-runner for the Democrats.

Yet she is also seen as a divisive figure. Some estimates say one in three Americans would never vote for her.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/6282389.stm

Published: 2007/01/20 13:49:00 GMT