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• Thursday, September 4, 2008 05:13 PM

  OT-update

  The Washington Post has now put up a fairly reasonable description of what transpired in court today.

  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/04/AR2008090402245_pf.html

  Note that the judge, as it says in the article, suggested the possibility of closed-circuit TV for the arraignment. Not mentioned in the article is that the judge said it might not avoid the strip search because she would still have to leave her cell. Please carefully note that: She is being kept in solitary, and she is being told, her lawyer is being told, and the Pakistani consular delegate is being told, that she is such a security risk she needs to be strip searched every time she enters or exits her cell. Lucky for the U.S. this isn't military detention, it would violate the rules for Geneva sanctioned close confinement. We are being told it is S.O.P. at the federal detention center at Brooklyn.

  Note also, her lawyers described the search in court, which includes bending over and coughing during an anal search to prove she hasn't something concealed in her anus. It is that last she is unable to perform due to her injuries.

  Her lawyers are not sure she is fit to stand trial, they believe the problem is abuse in prolonged custody. They are requesting a doctor, a psychological evaluation (the Judge is asking for the latter as well) and a gynecological examination. They ought to do a full Istanbul Protocol exam on her, but I don't know if that has been requested.

  If you want to know how this sounds in a foreign country (Muslim), here is how the Daily Times covered it in Pakistan:

  http://tinyurl.com/5kknvr

  How come the frame, and how image plays in the news, only counts for American TV?

  Dr. Kirk Murphy did a piece on FDL about the detention conditions in Minneapolis yesterday, people should go read it.

  http://firedoglake.com/2008/09/03/ramsey-countys-contempt-for-justice-tell-them-to-stop-the-torture-and-restore-the-rule-of-law/

  The best argument for not returning the Republicans to power is that they are utterly cruel monsters. U.S. Attorney Michael J. Garcia serves at the discretion of the President, as so many in Alberto Gonzales' office were so fond of telling the Congressional committees. I take it that it is the pleasure of the President to do this, then. It is being done on his U.S. Attorney's orders.

  This may still be the land of the free, but there is nothing about the handling of this case that indicates it is still the home of the brave.

  —ondelette Read ondelette's other letters
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