Tuesday, December 05, 2006
Education ministry seeks to indoctrinate children in patriotism with Kimigayo
from JAPAN PRESS SERVICE
http://www.japan-press.co.jp/2505/diet3.html
It was revealed once again that the government bill to adversely revise the Fundamental Law of Education is to deprive children of freedom of thought and creed in violation of the Constitution.
The Ministry of Education is pushing ahead with the revision of its official guidelines for teachers in conjunction with the revision of the education law.
At a House of Councilors special committee meeting on November 27, Japanese Communist Party representative Inoue Satoshi criticized the education ministry for opposing to replace a part in the current guideline stipulating that “Kimigayo should be taught at all grades” with the phrase that “Children should have appreciation of the beauty of Kimigayo and respect for Japan.”
Inoue stressed that this ministry policy to inculcate the belief that Kimigayo is beautiful and that children must respect Japan as an objective to be achieved in compulsory education is state indoctrination.
He pointed out that this policy resembles the prewar education system that had forced children to sing Kimigayo and recite the Imperial Rescript on Education in order to foster blind loyalty to the state.
Inoue reminded Education Minister Ibuki Bunmei that forcing children to have a certain ideology must not be an education goal because it violates freedom of thought and creed stipulated by Article 19 of the Constitution.
He also demanded that the bill to revise the education law be scrapped on the grounds that the bill will cause such a problem.
- Akahata, November 28, 2006
Debating Japan’s possession of nuclear arms will isolate Japan in international community
From Japan Press Service
http://www.japan-press.co.jp/2505/nuke.html
Liberal Democratic Party Policy Research Council Chair Nakagawa Shoichi has repeatedly called for a debate on whether Japan should possess nuclear weapons in the wake of North Korea’s nuclear test. Faced with severe criticism in Japan and from around the world, he early this month stated that for the moment he will refrain from making such remarks. However, he is again calling for a debate. Obviously, he has never seriously reflected on his conduct. Not only Nakagawa and Foreign Minister Aso Taro (who has sided with Nakagawa) but also Prime Minister Abe Shinzo (who appointed Nakagawa) and Aso should be held responsible on this issue.
Making it difficult to urge N. Korea to abandon nuclear weapons
Nakagawa in his speech in Gifu City on November 23 said, “I accept the Three Non-Nuclear Principles (not to possess, produce, or allow the bringing-in of nuclear weapons), but I refuse to accept a fourth principle of ‘not to be allowed to talk’.”
He says that Japan will not be armed with nuclear weapons, but that it is good to actively discuss the issue of nuclear armament. How ridiculous this argument is! If he really claims that Japan will not be armed with nuclear weapons, what kind of discussions is he calling for? An NHK survey shows that 67 percent of the respondents said Japan “should not possess” nuclear weapons while only eight percent answered “should possess.” To talk as if there is room for discussion on Japan’s possession of nuclear weapons tramples on the public opinion that overwhelmingly rejects a nuclear-armed Japan.
Not only Nakagawa but Aso argues, “Debate on Japan’s possession of nuclear weapons is important.” However, what Japan should do in dealing with North Korea’s nuclear test is not debating about whether Japan should possess nuclear weapons in rivalry with North Korea but debating about how to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear program and how to create a world free of nuclear weapons.
As the only nuclear-bombed country, Japan bears a special responsibility to lead the effort to call for the worldwide abolition of nuclear weapons. Only the assertion and activities based on this position will enable Japan to urge North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons programs.
If Japan begins debating about its possession of nuclear weapons, it will undermine its internationally-accepted cause of urging North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons, making it difficult for Japan to take initiatives on this issue. It will also invite international criticism of Japan, bringing about an obstacle to the international effort to call on North Korea to abolish its nuclear weapons.
In fact, the U.S., China, and South Korea have already expressed their concerns and criticism over the remarks by Nakagawa and Aso. Government leaders of these countries have raised the issue in recent summit meetings and foreign ministers’ meetings. Nakagawa’s recent remarks insisting on the debate arrogantly ignores international criticism.
Nakagawa insists that debating Japan’s possession of nuclear weapons will put pressure on North Korea. How can the international community deal with North Korea’s nuclear programs if they are prevented from working together? It is clear that such debate, far from being useful in persuading North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons, will only isolate Japan in the international community.
Prime Minister’s responsibility called into question
Commenting on the remarks of Nakagawa and Aso, LDP Diet Affairs Committee Chair Nikai Toshihiro said, “Repeated remarks that may cause misunderstandings could raise a question about the responsibility of the person who appointed them.” However, the LDP and Prime Minister Abe Shinzo have defended Nakagawa and Aso, rejecting the demand for their resignation.
If Nakagawa is to take up the discussion again on Japan’s nuclear armament, the prime minister will no longer be able to leave the issue as it is. Prime Minister Abe’s responsibility as the person who appointed him will be called into question if he fails to hold Nakagawa responsible.
- Akahata, November 25, 2006
CNIC’s Anti-Nuclear News Service
News Watch 115 (Nov./Dec. 2006)
http://cnic.jp/english/news/index.html#latestnw
--Turbine damage due to “high-cycle fatigue”
--Shifting international alliances in nuclear industry
--Mitsui feasibility study into development of Russian uranium
--Aomori governor unimpressed by application for receipt of radioactive waste from abroad
--Tsuno Town won’t apply for HLW dump
--Application for pluthermal at Shimane-2
--Local approval for pluthermal at Ikata-3
--Call for Saga Prefecture citizens’ referendum re pluthermal
--Request submitted for approval of new fuel plan for Monju
AND
http://cnic.jp/english/news/index.html#flash
Letter to IAEA Director General, Dr. Mahomed ElBaradei: Japanese NGOs question claim by JNFL president, Isami Kojima, that “practically speaking it is impossible” to separate plutonium from MOX fuel. (30 November 2006)
Call to Abandon Reprocessing as First Plutonium-Uranium Mixed Oxide (MOX) Powder Produced at Rokkasho (17 November 2006)
North Korea Nuclear Test and NSG Rules: letter to the Japanese govenment (11 October 2006)
North Korea Nuclear Test: Statement of Protest (10 October 2006)
GNEP Expression Of Interest: Japan’s Nuclear Industry Clutching at Straws (9 September 2006)
Japanese Government Urged to Oppose India-US Nuclear Deal: NGOs hold press conference (6 September 2006)
Lessons the G8 Can Learn from Japan: the Nuclear Fuel Cycle is an Economic Failure Providing no Energy Media Release by CNIC and Green Action (14 July 2006)
Global Nuclear Energy Partnership and Japan: Statement by CNIC and Green Action (11 July 2006)
イベント情報 : 第59回公開研究会「活断層は変動地形からわかる！－地震
投稿者： 原子力資料情報室 投稿日時： 2006/12/5 11:25:58
FROM
http://cnic.jp/
原子力資料情報室第59回公開研究会
===================================
活断層は変動地形からわかる！－地震と活断層をめぐる最新状況－【終】
===================================
【配布資料】PDF
※この資料は原子力資料情報室が作成したものです
講師：渡辺満久さん（変動地形学、東洋大学社会学部教授）
12月４日（月）
18：30～21：00（開場18:00）
会場
総評会館２階201会議室
http://www.sohyokaikan.or.jp/access/
資料代：８００円
※事前予約の必要はありません。
主催：原子力資料情報室
03-5330-9520
http//cnic.jp
「原発は活断層をさけて建設している」というのが国や電力会社からの説明です。島根原発3号機の安全審査で、国は考慮すべき断層を10キロメートルとして中国電力に許可を出しました。ところが今年の6月活断層を専門とする変動地形学者らの地質調査で、中国電力が見落としていた新たな「主断層」が確認され、断層は全体で18キロメートルであることが確認されました。島根原発の耐震安全性は大丈夫でしょうか？原子力発電所の「耐震設計指針」が25年ぶりに改定されましたが、これで耐震安全性がどうなるのか、既存の原発の安全性は？ いろいろな疑問が出てきます。研究会では上記の調査にも参加され、活断層が地表でどのような起伏を形成するのかという変動地形学を研究されている渡辺満久先生から、活断層をめぐる最新の状況を伺います。
■渡辺満久先生について
東洋大学（社会学部）
http://www.soc.toyo.ac.jp/socio/faculty/watanabe.html
読売新聞（新潟版：にいがた人）
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/e-japan/niigata/kikaku/061/16.htm
渡辺満久・鈴木康弘『活断層地形判読―空中写真による活断層の認定』古今書院1999
http://www.kokon.co.jp/h1687.htm
「中越地震発生直後の地表地震断層調査」（地理，no.598，52-55，2005年）
「活断層変位地形と推定地下構造」（地理科学，60，149-159，2005年）
「変動地形に基づく2004年中越地震の断層モデル」（地震，第2輯，58，297-307，2005年，共著）
「新潟県中越地震の地表地震断層－地震断層認定の論理と回避すべき誤解－」（月刊地球，号外46，90-96，2006年，共著）
「活断層の「平均変位速度」と変位様式－C級活断層はどのくらいあるのか？－」（月刊地球，号外54，42-49，2006年）
（参考論文）
http://wwwsoc.nii.ac.jp/ajg/ejgeo/113041suzuwata.pdf
http://www.seis.nagoya-u.ac.jp/INFO/niigata/reportAF1024.html
■島根原発付近の地質調査について
http://www.sanin-chuo.co.jp/news/modules/news/article.php?storyid=796547105
http://www.sanin-chuo.co.jp/news/modules/news/article.php?storyid=798355006
■新「耐震設計指針」について
（原子力安全委員会）
http://www.nsc.go.jp/anzen/sonota/kettei/kettei_f.htm
（石橋克彦先生）
http://historical.seismology.jp/ishibashi/opinion/bunkakai060919.html
http://historical.seismology.jp/ishibashi/opinion/shishin_news060417.html
（女川原発の耐震安全性について：若狭ネット）
http://www4.ocn.ne.jp/~wakasant/jisin/krecd1013.pdf
■地震研究推推進本部
http://www.jishin.go.jp/main/index.html
KEMPO 9-JO: Protecting Article 9
Here is the most recent news from KEMPO 9-JO
11/9/2006
憲法9条。知ってるヒトも、知らないヒトも。「マガジン9条」毎週水曜日更新！
戦争をしない。軍隊を持たない。それが憲法９条。今、その憲法９条を改定しようという声があがっています。
今週のマガジン９条
06年11月22日（水）沖縄の選択、住民のあきらめ
嬉しいことに私たちの『マガジン９条』が生みだした『みんなの９条』（集英社新書）の売れ行きが、好調のようです。みなさんは、もう買ってくださいましたか？
なんといってもこの本の魅力は、「えっ、こんな方がこんな発言をしてるんだ」と新鮮な驚きをもって読むことが出来るという点でしょう。あまりこれまで公には発言なさっていなかった方たちが、従来の「護憲論」とは一味違ったそれぞれの「憲法観」を述べている。
目からうろこ、の部分がたくさんあったと思います。
本当に、いろんな「憲法観」が語られています。積極的護憲論、消極的護憲論、何か不都合があるの論、理想は守るべき論、ないよりまし論、歯止め論、カッコいいじゃん論、まったく様々な面白さです。
ぜひ、広めてください。小さいけれど、大きな希望。９条を守るための大切なツールになると思います。
さて、今週の『マガジン９条』は、
「この人に聞きたい」に映画監督の片桐直樹さんの登場です。ドキュメンタリー「戦争をしない国 日本」を先日発表した片桐監督に、映画をつくった動機や９条への思いをお聞きしました。
「今週のキイ・ワード」は、支持率低下中の「安倍内閣」。デタラメ内閣の内実を暴きます。
「教育基本法反対緊急アピール」には、新たに池田香代子さん、読者からの反対アピールを掲載しています。その他、「みんなのこえ」「みんなでディスカッション」「マガ９モバイル」も更新しています。
それでは、今週もじっくりとお読みください。
ALSO
もくじ
http://www.magazine9.jp/index1.html
AND
ARCHIVES
http://www.magazine9.jp/kako_news/index.html
沖縄の選択、住民のあきらめ
子どもたちの未来は？
おかしな改憲表明
死ぬなっ！
教育基本法が危ない
核武装論は断固拒否
Toward Japanese Nuclear Armament
Thinking the Unthinkable:
Toward Japanese Nuclear Armament?
Emmanuel Todd interviewed by
Wakamiya Yoshibumi
Introduction (below) by C. Douglas Lummis, former professor of Political Science at Tsuda College and author of “Radical Democracy”
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/customer-reviews/0801484510/ref=cm_cr_dp_pt/102-5879996-2072959?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books
The following dialogue reads rather like the classic dispute between the Pacifist and the Realist ( “To protect the peace, prepare for war”; “But one mustn’t . . .” ) carried to a higher level. But quantity becomes quality: when you are talking about nuclear weapons, the conversation is no longer the same as when you are talking about swords or even firearms. This is what Emmanuel Todd doesn’t seem to grasp, while Yoshibumi Takamiya (at least partly) does.
Todd argues correctly there is such a thing as nuclear deterrence, and that it is often effective. This is something that just about everybody knows, though there are many who hate to admit it. Todd is also correct that there are few who are ready to carry the logic of nuclear deterrence to its logical conclusion. But I wonder if he is himself? Nuclear weapons deter countries from attacking countries that possess them; they do not deter countries that possess them from attacking those that don’t. Recent examples: it was only after the United Nations inspection team assured the U.S. that Iraq had no nukes or other weapons of mass destruction, that the U.S. invaded that country. And it was only after the DPRK, presumably learning from Iraq’s experience, began trying to persuade the world that it has nukes and the missiles to deliver them, that the U.S. stopped calling it “evil” and returned to the negotiating table. It may turn out that the DPRK has been one of the most skillful employers of the force of nuclear deterrence in our time.
But for this nuclear—based peace policy truly to work, one would have to go much farther. Surely a world divided into nuclear have—and have not—countries will be far from stable. Wouldn’t it also be necessary to provide nuclear weapons to Chechnya to protect it from Russia, to Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco to protect them from France, to the Palestinian Authority to protect it from Israel, to the Latin American states (especially Cuba and Venezuela) to protect them from the U.S., etc.? Why just Japan? One might respond, Because many of these countries mentioned might become aggressive, whereas Japan would not. But of the latter, I wouldn’t be too sure.
Another difficulty with nuclear deterrence is that to make it effective it must be made believable. This means, you must persuade your potential enemies that you have people within your government who really are capable of destroying entire cities and all within them—civilians, women, children, the aged and infirm together with the doctors and nurses trying to take care of them, foreign ambassadors, foreign tourists, cats and dogs: every living thing. In short, you must persuade your potential enemies that you have people within your government who are mad. (I do not exaggerate: within the U.S. Strategic Command this is known as the “Madman Strategy “.) Without having such people with their fingers on the button, the “threat” is no threat, and therefore no deterrence. And of course the best way to persuade your adversaries that you have such people, is really to have them.
Wakamiya, on the other hand, while he expresses a healthy horror of possessing nukes, also seems to be locked within a contemporary Japanese illusion. That is, everyone knows that Japan is “protected” under the U.S. “nuclear umbrella”. It is true that the Japanese government does not possess nuclear weapons under its own control. But still, the “nuclear umbrella” means that Japan has adopted the policy of nuclear deterrence. Remarkably, this is not mentioned, presumably set aside as a “U.S. problem”, which does not interfere with Japan’s self-image as a non—nuclear and peaceful country.]
THE INTERVIEW
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=17&ItemID=11551
Foreign Workers in Japan: Work to improve working conditions in solidarity with others NAMBU/NUGW
ABOUT THE NATIONAL UNION OF GENERAL WORKERS AND THE FOREIGN WORKERS CAUCUS
The Nambu FWC is a special status organization within the National Union of General Workers Tokyo Nambu. Its objectives include promoting the welfare of foreign and Japanese workers in the Kanto region of Japan, and enhancing the internationalization of Japan and its integration in the global community by promoting human rights, professional development and working conditions of all workers in the Kanto region, regardless of nationality.
More:
http://nambufwc.org/about/
FAQs
“Everything you ever wanted to know about the union but were afraid to ask.”
http://nambufwc.org/about/faq/
BRANCHES
Begunto - Berlitz Union British Council IHT/Asahi Employees Union Japan Times
Nichibei Kaiwa Gakuin (IEC) Nova Union for Staff and Teachers Tokyo Metropolitan Kokusai High School Union of Foreign Teachers
The University Teachers Union Japan Winbe Teachers Union
More
ISSUES
Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) Issues
Conversation School (Eikaiwa) Teacher Issues
Enrollment in Social Insurance (Shakai Hoken)
http://nambufwc.org/issues/
Also see here for these issues:
http://nambufwc.org/ (right column)
* ALT
o Soft Power
o The TRILS Case
* Dispatch
* Eikaiwa
* Harassment
* Overtime
* Rosai Hoken
* Shakai Hoken
* Vacation
Japanese Law
* Labor Standards Law
* Trade Union Law
Gov’t looks to open up pension plan to part-time workers, Chinese workers flee bad conditions
FROM THE NAMBU FOREIGN WORKERS CAUCUS
http://nambufwc.org/2006/11/14/govt-looks-to-open-up-pension-plan-to-part-time-workers/
The ruling coalition and government are discussing the possibility of allowing part-timers who work for an employer for more than a certain period to join the pension system, sources said.
Currently, companies are obliged to pay a half of pension premiums for their part-time employees who work more than 30 hours a week [sic].
Earlier, officials of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare tried to make some 3 million people eligible for the pension system by cutting the required hours of work to more than 20 hours a week. But those in the distribution industry, which employ many part-timers, were so vehemently opposed to the plan that the ministry dropped the idea.
But now Prime Minister Shinzo Abe reportedly wants to allow more people to join the pension plan, prompting government and ruling coalition officials to discuss the idea of allowing part-timers who work for a certain period, probably more than one year, to join the system.
Under the idea, part-timers who work more than 20 hours a week for less than 12 months will probably be excluded from the pension system, sources said.
Currently, companies are required to pay half of pension premiums for full-time employees who work more than two months for a company.
Chinese trainees flee poor work conditions
http://nambufwc.org/2006/11/14/chinese-trainees-flee-poor-work-conditions/
Three Chinese women working in a training program fled their workplace in Aomori Prefecture early Monday and contacted labor authorities to complain of poor conditions, The Yomiuri Shimbun learned.
The trainees came to Japan two years ago and have worked at a small sewing factory in Misawa in the prefecture.
The three women complained of working 13 hours a day, with their overtime pay falling short of the stipulated minimum wage, and rarely being allowed to use heaters even in midwinter at the company dormitory, which is a refurbished garage.
The three told the Yomiuri they could not bear the situation any longer with winter approaching.
Just after 5 a.m., the three trainees, each carrying an overnight bag, ran from the dormitory in front of the factory to a car driven by a member of a Fukui-based organization supporting foreign workers.
About two months before, the three telephoned the organization, after reading about it in a Chinese newspaper, and made plans to flee.
One of the trainees, a 32-year-old woman from Shanghai, said: “I came to Japan to earn money. I’ve been a migrant worker at sewing plants in Saipan and the United Arab Emirates, but I wasn’t treated this badly.”
Japanese Labor News in Japanese from LABORNET: Stop Revision of Education Law, more
Japanese site is here:
To understand it in rudimentary English, enter the URL in the box here:
http://tool.nifty.com/globalgate/
STOP! 教育基本法「改正」～若者が渋谷でサウンドデモ
たった一人の抵抗～国労和解で重処分が心配
非正規法案撤回もとめ民主労総ゼネスト突入
戦争と格差社会NO! 若者が「反戦と抵抗の祭」
勇気もらった! 『君が代不起立』完成試写会開催される
Bush-Cheney company selling Nukes to Iran, World Bank funds Israel-Palestine wall, GM food dangers..
Stories CNN and your local newspaper may not be covering
Project Censored documents the most under-reported stories every year. The stories so far, printed here, include:
#1 Future of Internet Debate Ignored by Media
#2 Halliburton Charged with Selling Nuclear Technologies to Iran (A Bush-Cheney company)
#3 Oceans of the World in Extreme Danger
#4 Hunger and Homelessness Increasing in the US
#5 High-Tech Genocide in Congo
#6 Federal Whistleblower Protection in Jeopardy
# 7 US Operatives Torture Detainees to Death in Afghanistan and Iraq
#8 Pentagon Exempt from Freedom of Information Act
#9 The World Bank Funds Israel-Palestine Wall
#10 Expanded Air War in Iraq Kills More Civilians
#11 Dangers of Genetically Modified Food Confirmed
#12 Pentagon Plans to Build New Landmines
#13 New Evidence Establishes Dangers of Roundup
#14 Homeland Security Contracts KBR to Build Detention Centers in the US
#15 Chemical Industry is EPA’s Primary Research Partner
#16 Ecuador and Mexico Defy US on International Criminal Court
#17 Iraq Invasion Promotes OPEC Agenda
#18 Physicist Challenges Official 9-11 Story
#19 Destruction of Rainforests Worst Ever
#20 Bottled Water: A Global Environmental Problem
#21 Gold Mining Threatens Ancient Andean Glaciers
#22 $Billions in Homeland Security Spending Undisclosed
#23 US Oil Targets Kyoto in Europe
#24 Cheney’s Halliburton Stock Rose Over 3000 Percent Last Year
#25 US Military in Paraguay Threatens Region
Charging Rumsefeld with War Crimes
‘Last Resort’ Attempted to Charge Rumsfeld, Others for War Crimes
Last Resort’ Attempted to Charge Rumsfeld, Others for War Crimes
by Michelle Chen
Nov. 15 – On Tuesday, human-rights groups appealed to the international arena to hold the architects of the so-called “war on terror” accountable for alleged crimes against humanity.
The US-based Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), the Berlin-based Republican Attorneys’ Association and other rights groups filed a complaint on Tuesday in Germany charging outgoing Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, and other Bush administration officials with systematic torture and abuse of detainees held in Iraq and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The allegations draw largely on witness accounts and internal government documents.
The plaintiffs include eleven Iraqi citizens who allege that US authorities subjected them to brutal and humiliating treatment at Iraq’s notorious Abu Ghraib prison. Another plaintiff is Mohammed al Qahtani, a Saudi national detained at Guantánamo Bay since 2002, where he has reported enduring routine psychological and physical abuse. The complaint charges Rumsfeld with explicitly authorizing Qahtani’s mistreatment, citing a December 2002 memorandum on interrogation tactics signed by the Secretary.
The US government has not formally responded to the charges.
The complaint invokes Germany’s “universal jurisdiction” law, which allows German courts to prosecute war crimes committed anywhere in the world. CCR filed a similar case in 2004, but Germany’s federal prosecutor dismissed the case last year amid diplomatic friction with the US government.
At a press conference on Tuesday, human-rights attorneys pointed out that the current complaint contains fresh evidence, including newly released government memorandums showing high-level official endorsement of extreme interrogation methods.
Berlin-based attorney Wolfgang Kaleck, CCR President Michael Ratner, and others working on the case said they hoped to push Germany to launch an investigation and place the United States government under international scrutiny. But they acknowledged it is uncertain whether the new case will move forward, and to what extent, if any, US officials would submit to an investigation.
In a statement summarizing the case, CCR called the international effort “a last resort to obtain justice” for the victims. The group noted that US officials enjoy immunity from prosecution by the Iraqi government – the result of a law passed by Iraq’s US-controlled provisional government in 2004.
Meanwhile, domestic courts have been stifled under the recently enacted Military Commissions Act, which blocks detainees’ access to US courts, narrows the scope of the federal War Crimes Act, and provides retroactive immunity for various types of past abuses.
CCR attorney Wells Dixon said another obstacle to accountability is the Bush administration’s control over the very mechanisms designed to check executive power.
“[I]t is certain that the United States would refuse to prosecute Donald Rumsfeld or the other defendants for war crimes,” he told The NewStandard. “This is especially true given that many of the defendants – like Attorney General Alberto Gonzales – are still in power and control prosecutorial authorities.”
© 2006 The NewStandard. All rights reserved. The NewStandard is a non-profit publisher that encourages noncommercial reproduction of its content. Reprints must prominently attribute the author and The NewStandard, hyperlink to http://newstandardnews.net (online) or display newstandardnews.net (print), and carry this notice. For more information or commercial reprint rights, please see the TNS reprint policy.
Send to Friends Respond to Editors or Reporter
Innocent Victim of U.S. terrorism sues in court
Rendition Survivor Appeals Case Against CIA Officials
Rendition Survivor Appeals Case Against CIA Officials
German Citizen Wants Apology for US Role in His Abduction, Torture
by Catherine Komp
Richmond, Va.; Nov. 29 – A federal appeals court heard arguments here Tuesday from civil rights advocates trying to reinstate a landmark lawsuit against the CIA over alleged human rights abuses.
Federal attorneys argued vigorously to keep the case from going to trial.
The lawsuit, originally filed last December on behalf of German citizen Khaled El-Masri, claims former CIA director George Tenet and other unnamed CIA officials violated due-process and human rights protections by facilitating his capture, torture and prolonged secret detention. Under the CIA’s “extraordinary rendition” program, Macedonian government agents abducted El-Masri in 2004 and eventually helped to transport him to a prison in Afghanistan, the suit alleges.
The complaint also lists unnamed US-based aviation companies that allegedly carried El-Masri during his captivity.
El-Masri says he was stripped, beaten and sodomized. At the prison, El-Masri says, masked American and foreign questioners regularly interrogated him about affiliations with terrorist groups. He says he started a hunger strike – his only form of protest – and eventually suffered forced tube-feeding at the hands of his captors.
As previously reported by The NewStandard, the suit also alleges that El-Masri’s detention and mistreatment continued, even after Tenet and other Bush administration officials discovered he was in no way connected to terrorism.
“I was kidnapped, I was beaten, I was drugged and taken to Afghanistan against my will,” El-Masri said through a translator outside the courthouse. “I was held captive for five months under deplorable conditions – I think it’s fair to say conditions not fit for human beings.” When he was finally freed, El-Masri said, his handlers dumped him “like a piece of luggage in the woods in Albania.”
El-Masri, in the United States for the first time, said all he wants is an acknowledgement that the US is responsible for his kidnapping, an explanation and an apology. The lawsuit also seeks $75,000 in damages, though El-Masri’s attorneys emphasized that the case is not about a monetary award.
The US government has refused to confirm or deny the allegations, saying that by doing so, clandestine CIA activities would be divulged. Last May, US District Judge T.S. Ellis granted the government’s request to use the “state secrets” privilege to dismiss the lawsuit. Ellis concurred with the defendants’ argument that proceeding with the lawsuit “would reveal considerable detail about the CIA’s highly classified overseas programs and operations.”
At Tuesday’s hearing, the ACLU accepted that, if the case were to go to trial, some evidence would be kept both from the plaintiffs and the public during court proceedings. But ACLU staff attorney Ben Wizner said the government is misusing the state-secrets privilege to avoid accountability for illegal activity.
“It’s not enough that [the US] made a hypothetical defense,” Wizner told the court. “They need to make a valid defense.”
Representing the Department of Justice, attorney Gregory Katsas countered that in classified evidence submitted to judges only, the defense shows that even “seemingly innocuous” information “will lead to a cascading effect of national-security harms.”
“Even disclosure of information to judges carries risk,” added Katsas.
The ACLU contends that the federal government waived its right to call the rendition program a state secret after President Bush acknowledged the secret CIA prisons in September and other top ranking officials confirmed the rendition program.
“The world is watching this case,” said Wizner, “not to learn intelligence secrets but to see if the US can give justice to an innocent victim of our anti-terror policy. The answer to that is terribly important.”
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