[MCM] That was no heart attack
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Latest news, sport, business, comment and reviews from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk http://www.guardian.co.uk/News http://www.guardian.co.uk/ukUK news http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/g20-police-assault-ian-tomlinsonG20 police assault on Ian Tomlinson Ian Tomlinson died of abdominal haemorrhage, says coroner http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/video/2009/apr/07/g20-police-assault-videoLink to this video A second post mortem on Ian Tomlinson, the passerby who died at thehttp://www.guardian.co.uk/world/g20G20 protests, shows that he died from an abdominal haemorrhage, not a heart attack. The cause of the injury has not been established, but investigators will now have to decide whether alleged http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/policepolice assaults on the 47-year-old newspaper vendor contributed to his death. The dramatic shift in the criminal inquiry into the alleged assaults by the Independent Police Complaints Commission came today after the results of the second post mortem were revealed. Police previously said Tomlinson had died of a heart attack. Tomlinson collapsed and died around 7:25pm on April 1, shortly after being attacked by at least one riot officer. He had been attempting to walk home from work when he was confronted by lines of riot police. An officer was suspended and a criminal inquiry launched after the Guardian revealed footage showing the attack on Tomlinson from behind. Today the City of London Coroners Court released the following statement: On 9 April 2009 HM Coroner for the City of London opened and adjourned the inquest into the death of Ian Tomlinson. In so doing he received evidence of identification and the provisional findings and opinion as to the medical cause of death, from a report prepared by consultant forensic pathologist Dr F Patel, instructed by HM Coroner to conduct the post-mortem examination. The pathologist's final opinion must await the completion of additional tests. Dr F Patel made a number of findings of fact including descriptions of a number of injuries and of diseased organs including the heart and liver. He found a substantial amount of blood in the abdominal cavity. His provisional interpretation of his findings was that the cause of death was coronary artery disease. A subsequent post-mortem examination was conducted by another consultant forensic pathologist, Dr N Cary, instructed by the http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/ipccIPCC and by solicitors acting for the family of the late Mr Tomlinson. Dr Cary's opinion is that the cause of death was abdominal haemorrhage. The cause of the haemorrhage remains to be ascertained. Dr Cary accepts that there is evidence of coronary atherosclerosis but states that in his opinion its nature and extent is unlikely to have contributed to the cause of death. The opinions of both consultant pathologists are provisional and both agree that their final opinions must await the outcome of further investigations and tests. These are likely to take some time. The IPCC's investigation into the death of Ian Tomlinson is ongoing. --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to Mark Crispin Miller's News From Underground newsgroup. To unsubscribe, send a blank email to newsfromunderground-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com OR go to http://groups.google.com/group/newsfromunderground and click on the Unsubscribe or change membership link in the yellow bar at the top of the page, then click the Unsubscribe button on the next page. For more News From Underground, visit http://markcrispinmiller.com -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[MCM] Call for a real investigation of Bush/Cheney's torture program
Via Gianni Ortiz: http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=hqLRK0ODKhJQI8Ks=hmK4KkOZIqI0KdP5LzHm=mwL3JhPULjJ9H Infamous torture memos were released yesterday, just as Amnesty activists are meeting with Congress calling for accountability. http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=ktJXL9PPIkIXKiJs=hmK4KkOZIqI0KdP5LzHm=mwL3JhPULjJ9HAdd your voice to theirs. Call for an independent investigation into torture. In a pivotal moment in our call for accountability, yesterday the Obama administration finally released the four infamous memos crafted to provide legal cover for the U.S. torture program. You and I know there is no legal form of torture. But Obama wants us to believe that this is a time for reflection, not retribution. We've done plenty of reflecting, and the information in the memos only confirms what we've known all along. Torture is illegal under both domestic and international law and no set of legal memos can change that. Within hours of their release, the memos fueled new speculation that there is just too much out there now for Congress to ignore calls for accountability. http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=nmL3KlM8KmL0JtJs=hmK4KkOZIqI0KdP5LzHm=mwL3JhPULjJ9H Incredibly, our lobby week is wrapping up today, giving us an amazing opportunity to push Congress on accountability, when they're most receptive to our calls, both in person and online. http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=feJNIUNvFgJIJXKs=hmK4KkOZIqI0KdP5LzHm=mwL3JhPULjJ9HSend a letter now to Congress calling for a full and independent investigation. Before today, major editorial boards from the Boston Globe, Salt Lake City Tribune, and Philadelphia Inquirer threw their hat into the ring, calling for accountability. While we may have convinced editorial boards, it's Congress that has the power to setup independent investigations. This is the last day of our lobby week. While Amnesty members finish up their meetings, let's hit Congress from both on and offline. http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=ihKTI3OHLjIPK7Js=hmK4KkOZIqI0KdP5LzHm=mwL3JhPULjJ9HSend an email to your elected officials and tell them that you want to know the truth about torture. Once members of Congress realize they can't turn down the buzz about torture in their own districts, they'll have to confront the issue in Washington. The Obama administration has truly taken some important steps to correct past mistakes. Just a week ago, the CIA announced that it is no longer operating any of the secret overseas prisons used to detain terror suspects. While correcting some of these bigger problems certainly puts us on the right path, it doesn't tell us how we veered so far off in the wrong direction. By this time, anyone who isn't the slightest bit curious about how we became a nation that tortures needs a wake-up call. And we're just the group to give it to them! Thanks for standing with us, Njambi Good Director, Counter Terror with Justice Campaign http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=lkIZJcPTKmLWIhIs=hmK4KkOZIqI0KdP5LzHm=mwL3JhPULjJ9H http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=enJLKRNrEfKJKXLs=hmK4KkOZIqI0KdP5LzHm=mwL3JhPULjJ9H http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=hqLRK0ODKiJQI7Ks=hmK4KkOZIqI0KdP5LzHm=mwL3JhPULjJ9H DO NOT REPLY TO THIS MESSAGE. Messages sent to this email address are not read. If you have a question or comment, please use our interactive online help system. Subscribe to our RSS feeds. http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=ktJXL9PPIlIXKhJs=hmK4KkOZIqI0KdP5LzHm=mwL3JhPULjJ9H http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=edKLIRMrHfLML0Is=hmK4KkOZIqI0KdP5LzHm=mwL3JhPULjJ9H http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=hgIRI0ODJiJTJaLs=hmK4KkOZIqI0KdP5LzHm=mwL3JhPULjJ9H http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=kjKXJ9PPLlI0LkKs=hmK4KkOZIqI0KdP5LzHm=mwL3JhPULjJ9H http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=nmL3KiM1KoL7JuJs=hmK4KkOZIqI0KdP5LzHm=mwL3JhPULjJ9H © Copyright 2009 | Amnesty International USA | 5 Penn Plaza | New York, NY 10001 | 212.807.8400 http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=mlK2KbPNJbIRLkKs=hmK4KkOZIqI0KdP5LzHm=mwL3JhPULjJ9HRemove yourself from this mailing. http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=feLOLQNlH4LEJ0Js=hmK4KkOZIqI0KdP5LzHm=mwL3JhPULjJ9HRemove yourself from all mailings from Amnesty USA. --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to Mark Crispin Miller's News From Underground newsgroup. To unsubscribe, send a blank email to newsfromunderground-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com OR go to http://groups.google.com/group/newsfromunderground and click on the Unsubscribe or change membership link in the yellow bar at the top of the page, then click the Unsubscribe button on the next page. For more News From Underground, visit http://markcrispinmiller.com -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[MCM] Powell knew
http://www.pubrecord.org/torture/836-documents-show-red-cross-told-powell-iraqi-prisoners-were-tortured.htmlDocuments Show Red Cross Told Powell Iraqi Prisoners Were Tortured By Jason Leopold The Public Record Thursday, 16 April 2009 11:32 http://www.pubrecord.org/torture/836-documents-show-red-cross-told-powell-iraqi-prisoners-were-tortured.html In March 2003, after Iraqi troops captured several U.S. soldiers and let them be interviewed on Iraqi TV, senior Bush administration officials expressed outrage over this violation of the Geneva Convention. If there is somebody captured, President George W. Bush told reporters on March 23, 2003, I expect those people to be treated humanely. If not, the people who mistreat the prisoners will be treated as war criminals. No one in the Bush administration, however, acknowledged the extent of their own violations of rules governing humane treatment of enemy combatants. Nor did the U.S. news media offer any context, ignoring the U.S. handling of Afghan War captives at Guantanamo Bay in 2002 and the fact that the U.S. military also had paraded captured Iraqi soldiers before cameras. During those heady days of embedded war correspondents reporting excitedly about Bush's shock and awe invasion, what Americans got to see and hear was how the Iraqi violation of the Geneva Convention - the videotaped interviews - demonstrated the barbarity of the enemy and justified their punishment as war criminals. Bush's fury over the POW interviews echoed across Washington. It is a blatant violation of the Geneva Convention to humiliate and abuse prisoners of war or to harm them in any way, declared Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke on March 24. That same day, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz told the BBC, The Geneva Convention is very clear on the rules for treating prisoners. They're not supposed to be tortured or abused, they're not supposed to be intimidated, they're not supposed to be made public displays of humiliation or insult, and we're going to be in a position to hold those Iraqi officials who are mistreating our prisoners accountable, and they've got to stop. On March 25, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld added, In recent days, the world has witnessed further evidence of their [Iraqi] brutality and their disregard for the laws of war. Their treatment of coalition POWs is a violation of the Geneva Conventions. Hypocrisy Exposed It would take months and years - as documents from Bush's first term were gradually released to the public - to reveal the extent of the Bush administration's hypocrisy. For instance, it's now known that the International Committee of the Red Cross began an investigation of U.S. war crimes in Iraq from the first days of the invasion, interviewing Iraqis captives from March to November 2003. On Jan. 15, 2004, ICRC president Jakob Kellenberger expressed his concern to Secretary of State Colin Powell about the Bush administration's attitude regarding international law, specifically an op-ed by then-State Department legal adviser William Taft IV in the Financial Times four days earlier. In that op-ed, Taft wrote that there was no law that required the U.S. to afford due process to foreigners captured in the war on terror. American treatment of detainees held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba is fully consistent with international law and with centuries-old norms for treating individuals captured in wartime, Taft wrote. We are engaged in a war. It's unclear what Kellenberger cited in Taft's column, because the recently released minutes of the meeting were heavily redacted. But the conversation segued into Powell asking Kellenberger where in addition to Afghanistan, did ICRC have problems with notification and access to detainees? Powell is quoted as saying we are confident of our legal position, (referring to legal adviser Taft's op-ed), but we also know the world is watching us. The next month, the ICRC gave Bush administration officials a confidential report which found that U.S. occupation forces in Iraq often arrested Iraqis without good reason and subjected them to abuse and humiliation that sometimes was tantamount to torture in violation of the Geneva Conventions. Some excessive violence, including the use of live ammunition against detainees, had led to seven deaths, the ICRC report said. According to the allegations collected by the ICRC, ill-treatment during interrogation was not systematic, except with regard to persons arrested in connection with suspected security offences or deemed to have an 'intelligence' value, the report said. In these cases, persons deprived of their liberty under supervision of the Military Intelligence were at high risk of being subjected to a variety of harsh treatments ranging from insults, threats and humiliations to both physical and psychological coercion, which in some cases was tantamount to torture, in order to force
[MCM] Looking for John McTiernan (email only)
If you or anyone you know has his contact info, I would appreciate knowing it. MCM --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to Mark Crispin Miller's News From Underground newsgroup. To unsubscribe, send a blank email to newsfromunderground-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com OR go to http://groups.google.com/group/newsfromunderground and click on the Unsubscribe or change membership link in the yellow bar at the top of the page, then click the Unsubscribe button on the next page. For more News From Underground, visit http://markcrispinmiller.com -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
