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A man accused by the Pentagon of being Osama bin Laden’s logistics chief may soon be released after nearly eight years of incarceration at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, according to published reports.

Fouad al Rabiah, who remains accused before a military commission of providing material support for a terrorist organization and conspiracy, has been moved to the minimum-security wing of the detention center. According to McClatchy Newspapers, the move to Camp Iguana is a sign that he will be released. Prisoners in minimum security can order food from Pizza Hut or McDonald’s and use the Internet.

Rabiah’s civilian lawyer, David Cynamon says his client was tortured by his American interrogators at Guantanamo and has sent letters to the Senate Armed Forces Committee, the Defense Department and the Justice Department. In his letters, Cynamon notes that U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly’s ruling in September included “a detailed description of the abusive and coercive tactics used by interrogators to extract patently false confessions.”

Judge Kollar-Kotelly ordered Rabiah released, saying there was no credible evidence he had aided bin Laden. An unnamed intelligence analyst concluded the government witnesses weren’t believable, she said. Supreme Court reporter Lyle Denniston of SCOTUSblog.com called her ruling “the most critical assessment of government evidence” yet.

According to Judge Kollar-Kotelly, frustrated interrogators “began using abusive techniques that violated the Army Field Manual and the 1949 Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War.” The Guantanamo testimony was contaminated by a sleep deprivation program, and a confession that came only after Rabiah had been advised he needed to be convicted to go free.

Rabiah, a 50-year old Kuwaiti Airways engineer and father of four, claimed his trip to Afghanistan was for humanitarian purposes. Thirty-one release orders have been issued in response to habeas corpus petitions by Guantanamo prisoners.

The Obama administration was faced with a dilemma in Rabiah’s case. It had the option of appealing the order dictating his release, after the Judge said, “If there exists a basis for al Rabiah’s indefinite detention, it most certainly has not been presented to this court.”

Or set free a man accused of war crimes. The notification required to transfer Guantanamo detainees to a third country is classified. Cynamon told McClatchy he didn’t know if it had been made.

McClatchy has spent much of the past few years investigating related stories in a series called Guantanamo: Beyond the Law.

This article by Gavin Dahl originally appeared on The Raw Story.

Friday highlights

John Dean: Why Cheney pushed so hard to get a pardon for Libby

TOP 4

House passes resolution 344-36 calling Gaza war crimes report ‘unworthy’

EDITORIAL: Some sense on defense spending by NY Times

Elizabeth Warren wields plan in fight over credit rules

YIKES: Project Censored round-up of the British police state

POLICY

Pro-net neutrality professors say FCC’s proposal is ambiguous

Andy Schwartzman on the upcoming FCC ownership review

One Economy proposes Digital Literacy Initiative broadband plan

Future of Music Coalition wants FCC to become radio data central

Copyright Alliance & music publishers support IP czar Victoria Espinel

Victoria Espinel qualified, but likely powerless from Excess Copyright

MEDIA

EU eyes ‘digital divide’ after DTV transition by Matthew Lasar

Nielsen: Radio reaches 77% of adults daily (5 city study)

FCC lowers the plank for Florida pirate, $2500 settlement

HEALTH

Sit-in for single-payer at Rep. Pelosi’s office from Dollars and Sense

Rep. Kucinich: Not giving up on state single payer

28 male anti-choice Dems are stalling health reform

GOP bill would allow insurers to ignore consumer protections

Gore controversy, advocate & investor

Federal prosecutor: Medical marijuana raids won’t stop

Colorado health department changes ‘caregiver’ rule for marijuana

TECH & PRESS & OPINION

Shield law would protect student journalists from SPLC

Editorial: Pass shield law quickly from NY Times

Virginia’s elections are unconstitutional from Project Censored

Newsosaur: Pay walls mixed with free access

Pesticide industry rep. picked for trade post draws fire

Droid vs. iPhone really about Verizon vs. AT&T

O’Reilly to Hume: You don’t have a conservative viewpoint

Capitalism: A Love Story

Filmmaker Michael Moore told CNN’s Larry King that it’s time for President Barack Obama to wind down the war in Afghanistan. “It’s unwinnable. It’s immoral. It’s illegal. It’s wrong,” he said. “We need to leave.”

Moore appeared on the program Thursday along with another war critic, Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas).

“It is my sincere hope that he decides to wind down and end this war, at least our part of this war, in Afghanistan,” Moore said. “Initially, the idea of going and trying to capture the criminals who committed a mass murder on 9/11, that was a good idea. But we never did that.

“There is no middle ground,” he stated emphatically. “You’re either going to go all out and fight a big war that can’t be won, or you’re going to bring the troops home and focus on the problems that we have right now — huge unemployment, global warming, a health care mess, all these things, our educational system, everything.”

Moved by Obama’s attendance at the transfer of bodies at Dover Air Force Base, something President George W. Bush infamously didn’t do, Moore offered hope that Obama might end the war in Afghanistan.”I’m going to trust in all my heart that he’s going to make the right decision,” he opined.

Yet earlier this month a senior administration official told the press, “What is not on the table, in any sense, is leaving Afghanistan or so narrowly defining our mission as to be the equivalent of leaving Afghanistan.” (After Moore’s appearance, Rep. Paul told King, “I don’t think he’s quite willing to criticize Obama like Bush, but I am.”)

And although King didn’t comment, Moore hammered on the scandal of CIA involvement with the opium trade there. “Yesterday, Larry, that story in The New York Times about how the brother of the president of Afghanistan, the brother of Karzai, is suspected of being involved in the opium trade, which funds the Taliban, and our CIA pays this man. So we’re paying the guy who’s helping to create the money that’s funding the Taliban that’s killing our soldiers. Are we, like, an insane country? When is this going to stop? I want this ended. I want these troops home.”

Moore’s latest film Capitalism: A Love Story has grossed $13 million in five weeks of release. He has now directed four of the eight highest grossing documentaries in U.S. history.

See the video by clicking HERE. This story was originally published on RawStory.com. My Dad wrote a response, see below:

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US Foreign Service Officer Matthew P. Hoh,
Senior Civilian Representative, Afghanistan

“I have lost understanding of and confidence in the strategic purposes of the United States’ presence in Afghanistan. I have doubts and reservations about our current strategy and planned future strategy, but my resignation is based not upon how we are pursuing this war, but why and to what end. To put simply: I fail to see the value or the worth in continued US casualties or expenditures of resources in support of the Afghan government in what is, truly, a 35-year old civil war.”
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judyshepardobama Obama signs historic hate crimes bill, massive defense budgetPresident Barack Obama signed into law a historic and contentious defense spending bill Wednesday that includes a broad expansion of hate-crimes legislation to include crimes committed against people because of their sexual orientation.

After passing out of the Senate 68-29 last week, the defense appropriations bill included hate-crimes language deemed too important for Obama to follow up on his threatened veto over concerns about military spending.

“I promised Judy Shepard when she saw me in the Oval Office that this day would come,” Obama told the crowd at the signing of the 2010 National Defense Authorization Act. Shepard’s son, Matthew was tortured and murdered in Laramie, Wyoming in 1998, because he was gay. According to the FBI, more than 77,000 hate-crime incidents were reported between 1998 and 2007.

Many conservatives worry the law will be used to criminalize speech. During recent floor debate, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) asked, “Can priests, pastors and rabbis be sure their preaching will not be prosecuted if it says certain things are right and wrong?”

Firebrand libertarian broadcaster Alex Jones urged opponents of the president to write letters this week promising to vote out Democrats if he signs “the freedom-destroying hate crimes bill.” However, Attorney General Eric Holder has said the law will only be used to prosecute acts of violence.

The new ‘hate crimes bill’ expands the 1969 United States federal hate-crime law to include crimes motivated by a victim’s actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability. It is the first law in the history of the federal government to extend legal protections to transgender persons, requiring the FBI to track statistics on hate crimes against them for the first time.

The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act also removes the current prerequisite that a victim be engaged in voting, going to school or other federally-protected activity. Federal authorities will be able to engage in hate crimes investigations that local authorities choose not to pursue, with extra funding for prosecution available to all.

At the signing, Obama also touched on the problem of billions of dollars in cost overruns for military projects, pointing out that funding for F-22 fighters was removed from 2010 defense spending. He had threatened to veto the spending bill during summer negotiations with Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Critics have warned the defense bill nevertheless contains $100B in unnecessary spending on other equipment, including F-35 jet engines. Obama today called for further “fundamental” reforms in how the government and Pentagon do business, according to CNN.

Thirty-year Government Accountability Office veteran Winslow T. Wheeler warned earlier this year not to trust talk of defense spending reform. “For decades, the media have taken their descriptions of the size of the defense budget straight from the Pentagon’s annual press release,” he wrote. “Its business as usual, pure and simple.”

This writeup was originally published on RawStory.com.

Kentucky point guard John Wall

John Wall at practice last week.

TV news host Rachel Maddow invited sports writer Dave Zirin on her show to talk about the funding behind the basketball program. Read more about the political economy of sports by clicking each of these links. Wall’s eligibility is in question, as reported by AP. Meanwhile, donors want to fund a $7M dorm for student-athletes called the Wildcat Coal Lodge sponsored by coal interests. Read about it and watch the video at RawStory.com.

My Dad wrote back about the story:

Something is just weird about this story–black lung and basketball in the same floor plan. Not to mention minority stardom in basketball against the non-presence of minorities in the coal industry elite, mid-elite, high salaried labor, and all the way down the line. What do coal miners and college basketball players have in common? (knock/knock):   Exploitation.

Thursday reading

Click over to the Boise Weekly news department to read my latest article. ACORN couldn’t raise enough funds to stay in Idaho. There was a lot of material that couldn’t fit in print. Should have a blog coming out later this week. If you’re in Boise, grab me a newsprint copy. I love newsprint.

Wednesday updates

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