11-08-11 Rumsfeld sued for torture! // Rumsfeld demandado por la tortura! // 拉姆斯菲尔德起诉实施酷刑的！

U.S. Navy Vet Sues Donald Rumsfeld for Torture in Iraq, Court Allows Case to Move Forward

On Monday, a federal appeals court refused to dismiss a lawsuit filed by two U.S. citizens against former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and unnamed others for developing, authorizing and using harsh interrogation techniques against detainees in Iraq. Donald Vance and Nathan Ertel were working for a private U.S. government contractor, Shield Group Security, in 2006 when they witnessed the sale of U.S. government weapons to Iraqi rebel groups for money and alcohol. After they became FBI informants and collaborated with an investigation into their employer, the company revoked their credentials for entering Iraq’s so-called Green Zone, effectively barring them from the safest part of the country. Shortly afterward, they were arrested and detained by U.S. troops, moved to the U.S.-run prison at Camp Cropper, and subjected to extreme sleep deprivation, interrogated for hours at a time, kept in a very cold cell, and denied food and water for long periods. They were eventually released and never charged with a crime. For more on his story, we speak with Donald Vance, a U.S. Navy veteran, and with Andrea Prasow, the senior counsel in the Terrorism and Counterterrorism Program at Human Rights Watch. [includes rush transcript]

Filed under Donald Rumsfeld, Iraq, Green Zone, War on Terror, FBI,Iraq War, Private Contractors

READ THE FULL STORY:

http://www.democracynow.org/2011/8/11/us_navy_vet_sues_donald_rumsfeld

11-08-08 Widespread Corruption of the Los Angeles Superior Court – presentation in the 16th World Criminology Congress, Japan // La corrupción generalizada de la Corte Superior de Los Angeles - presentación en el Mundial de Criminología 16 º Congreso, Japón // 洛杉矶高级法院的普遍的腐败现象 - 在提交第16届世界犯罪，日本国会

Today the LA-JR (Los Angeles Judiciary Racket) is primarily involved in financial institutions, real estate and foreclosure fraud.  Close ties with Countrywide and Bank of America have been documented. Together with a matching presentation regarding corruption in the US courts, the key role of the courts in the financial crisis was highlighted. The US is in the midst of an unprecedented constitutional crisis, which undermines civil society and socio-economic development worldwide.

                       
Frederick Bennett               John A Clarke                   Jacqueline Connor
Court Counsel                   Clerk of the Court              California Judge

Kobe, Japan, August 8 - expanding on a submission, which was incorporate into the United Nations 2010  Human Rights Council report, Joseph Zernik, PhD, of Human Rights Alert (NGO) presented in the 16th World Criminology Congress evidence that the Los Angeles Superior Court has been operating as a crime organization - the LA-JR (Los Angeles Judiciary Racket) - for at least a couple of decades. [[i]]

The Los Angeles Superior Court:    

• Is the largest county court in the US (>400 judges), serving over 10 million residents
• Was the center of the largest court corruption case in the history of the US - the Rampart Scandal (1998-2000s)

The presentation provided quotes from government, expert, and media reports regarding corruption of the Los Angeles court, as well as detailed evidence that LA-JR is patronized by both the US courts and the US Department of Justice.  Such ties were best documented in the perversion of the habeas corpus of the former US prosecutor Richard Fine.  He was falsely imprisoned for 18 months (2009-10) in solitary confinement, after exposing widespread corruption of judges of the Court, under fraudulent arrest and booking records. The records stated that he was arrested on location and by authority of the non-existent "Municipal Court of San Pedro". [[ii]]

The presentation suggested that origins of current conditions in Los Angeles County are in the decade-long drug trafficking by federal agencies to Los Angeles County (~1982-1992), [[iii]] which left such agencies not ready, willing, able to address corruption of the California justice agencies.  Regardless of recommendation by the Blue Ribbon Review Panel Report (2006) that external investigation of the Court be instituted, no such investigation has been conducted to this date.

In the 80's and 90's the LA-JR was involved in control of drug markets and large-scale false imprisonment.  Today, the LA-JR is primarily involved in financial institution, real estate and foreclosure fraud.  Close ties were documented of the LA-JR, the Los Angeles-based Countrywide, and later Bank of America. [[iv]] Accordingly, Los Angeles County is one of the hardest hit areas under the current financial crisis.

A proposed organizational chart of the LA-JR [[v]] suggested that key figures are:

• Court Counsel Frederick Bennett, who operates secretive corporations controlled by the LA-JR;
• Court Clerk John A Clarke, who oversees the large-scale fraud in court records, and
• California Judge Jacqueline Connor, who was central to the Rampart corruption scandal and its cover-up.

Combined with matching presentation regarding corruption of the US courts, [[vi]] the role of the courts in the current financial crisis, the main subject of the World Criminology Congress was highlighted. 

The presentations proposed that the United States has entered an unprecedented constitutional crisis, in which the executive and the legislative branches are undermined by the judiciary.  The crisis is highlighted by unprecedented deprivation of life, liberty and property with no due process of law. [[vii]]  Recent conduct of the Supreme Court, which blocked access to the US courts in a wide range of cases, [[viii]] and immunity provided to financial institutions for large-scale criminality against the People in return for "settlements" paid to the US government, [[ix]] were compared to the Robber Baron Era, where the Robber Barons were immune from prosecution.

Accordingly, it was proposed that the current financial crisis is unlikely to be alleviated unless corruption of the justice system in the United States is addressed, and that the United States faces an increasing risk of social unrest.  Conditions in the United States were pointed out as central to destabilization of civil society and socio-economic development worldwide.




LINKS

[i] 11-08-01 Zernik, J: Los Angeles Superior Court - widespread corruption and refusal of US government to take action, 16th World Criminology Congress presentation
http://www.scribd.com/doc/61351469/
11-01-07 Superior Court of Los Angeles County, California: Widespread Public Corruption and Refusal of US Department of Justice to Take Action
http://www.scribd.com/doc/46460640/
[ii] 11-04-23 Habeas Corpus in the United States - the case of Richard Isaac Fine
http://www.scribd.com/doc/24729084/
[iii] 97-12-00 US Department of Justice, Office of Inspector General, December 1997 Special
Report: CIA Drug Trafficking to Los Angeles, California s
http://www.scribd.com/doc/29071814/
[iv] 10-05-05 Countrywide, Bank of America [NYSE:BAC], and its President Brian Moynihan: Compilation of Records, Evidence of Racketeering
http://www.scribd.com/doc/30975368/
[2] 10-05-05 Chairs of US Congress Committees of the Judiciary and Banking are Requested to Join Senator Feinstein's Inquiries on Comptroller of the Currency
http://www.scribd.com/doc/30979882/
11-03-20 PRESS RELEASE: Lomas v Bank of America (KC059379) - Bank of America Continues Racketeering in the Los Angeles Superior Court-
http://www.scribd.com/doc/51160102/
[v] 10-10-15 Proposed Organizational Chart of the LA-JR (alleged Los Angeles Judiciary Racket)
 http://www.scribd.com/doc/39383792/
[vi] 11-08-01 Zernik, J: Fraud and corruption in the US courts is tightly linked to failing banking regulation and the financial crisis, 16th World Criminology Congress presentation
http://www.scribd.com/doc/61351562/
[vii] 11-06-14 Corruption of the Courts and Failing Banking Regulation in the United States: Dred Scott redux?
http://www.scribd.com/doc/57707808/
[viii] 11-07-06 Chemerinsky, Erwin: the Supreme Court Closes the Door to Justice, Los Angeles Times
http://www.scribd.com/doc/60031276/
[ix] 11-07-21 Banks to Pay $25 Billion Bribe for Immunity _Information Clearing House_ ICH
http://www.scribd.com/doc/62136091/
______
Joseph Zernik, PhD
Human Rights Alert (NGO) 
Human Rights Alert is dedicated to discovering, archiving, and disseminating evidence of Human Rights violations by the justice systems of the State of California and the United States in Los Angeles County, California, and beyond. Human Rights Alert focuses on the unique role of computerized case management systems in the precipitous deterioration of the integrity of the justice system in the United States.
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http://www.examiner.com/x-38742-LA-Business-Headlines-Examiner
_____________________________
WHAT DID THE EXPERT SAY ABOUT THE CURRENT FINANCIAL CRISIS?
* Foreclosure fraud: The homeowner nightmares continue
CNN (April 7, 2011)
* About 3 million homes have been repossessed since the housing boom ended in 2006 That number could balloon to about 6 million by 2013
Bloomberg (January 2011)
* "...a system in which only the little people have to obey the law, while the rich, and bankers especially, can cheat and defraud without consequences."
http://www.scribd.com/doc/50753639/
Prof Paul Krugman, MIT (2011)
_____________________________
WHAT DID THE EXPERTS SAY ABOUT THE JUSTICE SYSTEM IN LOS ANGELES COUNTY, CALIFORNIA?
* "...judges tried and sentenced a staggering number of people for crimes they did not commit."
Prof David Burcham, Dean, Loyola Law School, LA (2001)
http://www.scribd.com/doc/29043589/
* "This is conduct associated with the most repressive dictators and police states... and judges must share responsibility when innocent people are convicted."    
Prof Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean, Irvine Law School (2001)
http://www.scribd.com/doc/27433920/
* "Innocent people remain in prison"
* "...the LA Superior Court and the DA office, the two other parts of the justice system that the Blue Panel Report recommends must be investigated relative to the integrity of the system, have not produced any response that we know of..."
LAPD Blue Ribbon Review Panel Report (2006)
http://www.scribd.com/doc/24902306/
_____________________________
WHAT DID THE EXPERTS SAY ABOUT THE JUSTICE SYSTEM IN CALIFORNIA?
* "...corruption of the courts and the legal profession and discrimination by law enforcement in California."
United Nations Human Rights Council Staff Report (2010)
http://www.scribd.com/doc/38566837/
_____________________________
WHAT DID THE EXPERTS SAY ABOUT THE STATE COURTS IN THE UNITED STATES?
* "On July 26, 2010, Laurence Tribe, Senior Counsel for the United States Department of Justice, Access to Justice Initiative, delivered an important speech to the Conference of Chief Justices, challenging them to halt the disintegration of our state justice systems before they become indistinguishable from courts of third world nations."
Prof Laurence Tribe, Harvard Law School (2010), per National Defender Leadership Institute (2010)
http://www.nlada.net/library/article/national_dojspeechto%20chiefjustice07-26-2010_gideonalert
_____________________________
WHAT DID THE EXPERTS SAY ABOUT THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES?
* "More than 100 law professors have signed on to a letter released today that proposes congressional hearings and legislation aimed at fashioning "mandatory and enforceable" ethics rules for Supreme Court justices for the first time. The effort, coordinated by the liberal Alliance for Justice, was triggered by "recent media reports," the letter said, apparently referring to stories of meetings and other potential conflicts of interest involving Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas among others."
More than 100 law professors, as reported by the Blog of the Legal Times (February 2011)
http://www.scribd.com/doc/49586436/
_____________________________
WHAT DID CHIEF JUDGE OF THE US COURT OF APPEALS, 5TH CIRCUIT, SAY ABOUT THE US JUSTICE SYSTEM?
* "The American legal system has been corrupted almost beyond recognition..."
Chief Judge, US Court of Appeals, 5th Circuit, Edith Jones, speaking before the Federalist Society of Harvard Law School (February 2003)
http://www.scribd.com/doc/50137887/
_____________________________
WHAT DID THE CHAIR OF THE SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE SAY ABOUT THE US JUSTICE SYSTEM?
* In a speech in Georgetown University, Senator Leahy, Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee called for a "Truth and Reconciliation Commission" on the US Department of Justice.
Transcript of Senator Leahy speech (2009)
http://www.scribd.com/doc/38472251/