From Andrew Kreig:

Dear Colleagues:

Harvard’s Nieman Watchdog for journalists published my analysis late Friday entitled, “Feds Bullied Kerik Into 4-Year Term, Hurting Us All,” illustrating another major breakdown in the federal justice system’s prosecution of official corruption cases. The Kerik prosecution has abused the former NYPD chief and Bush Cabinet nominee, along with his family. Readers saw that Kerik for years has been unfairly treated, much like Alabama’s former Gov. Don Siegelman and many other defendant families around the country. Kerik, a staunch Republican, reached out in sympathy last year to the Democrat Siegelman, encouraging him to never give up the fight for justice. http://snipurl.com/ugv4r. Crushed by $4.6 million in legal expenses, thrown in jail pre-trial and with attorneys repeatedly forced off the case by the judge, however, Kerik ultimately pled guilty
on Nov. 5.

In just a few days, a remarkable divide has occurred between the initial mainstream media coverage of Kerik’s sentencing and news coverage on significant Web-based newsites. The progressive defense attorney Jeralyn Merritt published on Saturday a critique of the prosecution (http://snipurl.com/ugv3y) that’s remarkably congruent with the attack by Newsmax publisher Chris Ruddy today at http://snipurl.com/ugv3e. By contrast, only Geraldo Rivera on Sunday among the traditional media has so far (at least to my knowledge) challenged the conventional wisdom that Kerik’s sentencing Thursday showed the federal system rooting out big-time corruption. I explored the failure of judicial oversight in this from a historical viewpoint Sunday
on the Connecticut Watchdog site, based on my five years covering federal courts fulltime for that state’s largest newspaper: http://snipurl.com/ugv4h.

Recognizing that so many journalists face deadline pressures and tight budgets for research, the Justice Integrity Project is being created as a non-partisan, non-profit educational organization to help reporters, academics and community leaders around the nation better understand political corruption and other white-collar cases that are inherently complex and secretive. The famed litigator, Harvard Law adjunct professor and Cato Fellow Harvey Silverglate — author of “Three Felonies a Day: How The Feds Target the Innocent” — just left enthusiastic comments on the Connecticut Watchdog site about the need for such a new education center to provide oversight on official corruption investigations.

Certainly feel free to republish any of our information, although we would appreciate attribution and, if your time permits, notification of a link to include in our ongoing database of significant coverage in this field.

I hope that you’ll also visit our site below, register for relevant updates — and otherwise call upon us any time we can assist your research needs or you can envision other cooperation.

We’d also love to help you tell a story that you believe important and not otherwise covered.

The site has buttons for whistleblowers and others to leave a news tip, in strict confidentiality if needed.

Thank you for your attention, and all best regards!

Andrew Kreig
Executive Director, Justice Integrity Project
www.justice-integrity.org

PS We regret if this reaches you in error or is undesirable, not withstanding what we understand to be your previous interest in the topic. We’ll promptly and permanently remove you from this distribution list if you hit Reply and type Remove line. Looking ahead, we are confident that our website, now under development, is unique in this field and will bring together for mutual benefit newsmakers and the most important criminal justice professionals, including journalists, lawyers, public officials, non-profits and TV/filmmakers.

Department Of Justice Finds That Its Torture Lawyers Engaged In Professional Misconduct By Advocating Torture During The Bush Administration

DisbarTortureLawyers Campaign To File OPR Report Today To Supplement Fifteen Disbarment Complaints
Late Friday, the Department of Justice issued its long-awaited report on the actions of the DOJ lawyers who authored the infamous legal memos authorizing torture. The report consists of two parts: the first is a 300-page report from the DOJ’s Office of Professional Responsibility finding that the attorneys, specifically John Yoo and Jay Bybee, engaged in “professional misconduct.” The second is a 69-page cover letter from career DOJ staffer David Margolis finding that the lawyers exercised “poor judgment.” The OPR finding would under normal circumstances require transmittal to the state bar for disciplinary proceedings. However, Mr. Margolis, a 17-year employee of the DoJ who was in a supervisory position when the legal memos were written, has specifically refused to allow the OPR report to be transmitted. However, he did state that “[t]he bar associations in the District of Columbia or Pennsylvania can choose to take up this matter, but the Department will make no referral.”

Today, DisbarTortureLawyers.com campaign attorney Kevin Zeese will file the DOJ/OPR findings with the various state bar disciplinary committees. These committees are already reviewing the complaints he filed last summer against 15 of the most culpable torture lawyers as part of a a campaign to ensure accountability for their heinous actions. He is asking that disbarment proceedings proceed quickly in light of these new reports.

“The Department of Justice, through the actions of DOJ attorney David Margolis, wants to keep the OPR report from reaching the various disciplinary committees that have active disbarment complaints pending,” said attorney and campaign spokesperson Kevin Zeese. “Fortunately, we are not bound by the DOJ’s obstructions, and will therefore be filing the OPR report with the disciplinary boards today. And of course, as Mr. Margolis admits, those boards are required to make an independent determination of the information and evidence in the report. Moreover, even if the boards only considered Margolis’ finding of “poor judgment,” they can still order disbarment. But in combination with the OPR report and all the other overwhelming information we have already provided, we believe that the boards will find that the torture attorneys, such as John Yoo, Jay Bybee, David Addington, William Haynes, Alberto Gonzales and Stephen Bradbury, must be disbarred.”

DisbarTortureLawyers will also be taking the following actions in the coming weeks:

* Working with the House and Senate to hold hearings on torture and whether political pressure entered into the Margolis decision
* Launching a campaign for lawyers in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, where Jay Bybee is a judge, to file to disqualify him from any cases to which he is assigned
* Working with jurisdictions outside the U.S. to indict the torture lawyers and others like Dick Cheney for violating the UN Convention Against Torture
* Increasing pressure for torture accountability through an aggressive media campaign
* Seeking legal counsel to file a Writ of Mandamus to compel prosecution of torturers as required by the UN Convention Against Torture
* Teaming with even more organizations to help multiply the effect of its work

The campaign urges organizations and individuals to sign on to the campaign at www.disbartorturelawyers.com.

Source: DisbarTortureLawyers.com

Ilene Proctor PR
(310) 858-6643

Watchdog Group Calls On Lawyers Practicing In The Ninth Circuit Court Of Appeals To Reject Judge Jay Bybee

Newly Released Department of Justice Report Further Discredits the Former Bush Administration Torture Lawyer

Washington, DC: On Friday, Department of Justice Associate Deputy Attorney General David Margolis found that Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Jay Bybee exercised “poor judgment” when preparing legal memos advocating torture of detainees in US custody. Mr. Margolis also released a report from the DOJ’s Office of Professional Responsibility, which found that Mr. Bybee engaged in “unprofessional conduct.” That 300-page OPR report is a blistering indictment against Mr. Bybee, accusing him of ethical transgressions such as intentionally ignoring established case law–including that from the Supreme Court–that directly contradicted his position.

The Disbar Torture Lawyers campaign, www.disbartorturelawyers.com, consisting of scores of government accountability groups representing over a million members, last year filed a disciplinary complaint against Jay Bybee with the Washington, DC Bar seeking his disbarment. Today, the campaign supplemented that complaint with the DOJ and OPR reports.

The campaign now calls on Jay Bybee to resign. “Judge Bybee can no longer pretend to be fair, impartial, or to exercise good judgment,” said attorney and campaign spokesperson Kevin Zeese. “He has been found to possess all the qualities that people do not want in a judge – bias, poor judgment, predetermination, failure to follow established law, and professional misconduct. Add that to his intentional withholding of information from the Senate during his confirmation hearings and it is clear that he cannot effectively serve as a judge, nor even as an attorney. He should resign or be impeached. Until Bybee resigns or is removed from the bench, we call on all lawyers of the Ninth Circuit Court Of Appeals to file motions to disqualify Judge Bybee, should be assigned to their cases, on the basis of these official findings of poor judgment and professional misconduct. No plaintiff or defendant should be subjected to the authority of a judge who has been so thoroughly discredited. We call on every plaintiff and defendant whose case is assigned to Judge Bybee to demand that their lawyer file a motion to disqualify him, and if the lawyer refuses, to take action against the lawyer for failing to protect their interests and the integrity of the judicial process.”

Lawyers can find the DOJ and OPR documents as well as dozens of other documents related to Judge Bybee and other torture lawyers on the DisbarTortureLawyers.com site. The campaign has filed disciplinary complaints against 15 Bush Administration lawyers who advocated torture of US detainees.

Source: DisbarTortureLawyers.com

Ilene Proctor PR
(310) 858-6643

Albarelli is the author of A Terrible Mistake–a book that I can’t recommend strongly enough. It’s the definitive account of Dr. Frank Olson’s murder by (and for) the CIA; and it’s much more: an epic survey of the dark side of our history since World War II.

MCM

Albarelli_WalkerSt_Event_04.pdf

This quagmire is the biggest ever!

MCM

U.S. warns of al Qaeda threat in Central Asia
By Roman Kozhevnikov Roman Kozhevnikov Sat Feb 20, 4:13 am ET

DUSHANBE (Reuters) – Al Qaeda aims to infiltrate Central Asia to train militants and turn the ex-Soviet region into a zone of unrest, a U.S. envoy said on Saturday.

The West is worried about risks to stability in the vast Muslim region, dominated by authoritarian but secular governments. Analysts believe Islamist militancy could spread into the heart of Central Asia from nearby Afghanistan.

Read more.

Funny how no one–but no one–is accusing Rupert Murdoch of selling out to (or “palling around with”) terrorists….

MCM

Fox News Can’t Upset Murdoch’s Saudi Prince
by Joseph Trento

Last month I appeared on Fox News Network’s morning show, Fox and Friends, to talk about airline security.

Read more.

British Girl Dies After Cervarix Vaccine – GlaxoSmithKline Probed

14-year-old girl dead after Cervarix vaccine

British drug giant GlaxoSmithKline said on Tuesday it was working with health authorities who are probing the death of a schoolgirl following a cervical cancer vaccination. The 14-year-old died on Monday after an adverse reaction to the Cervarix vaccine at her school in Coventry, central England. “The incident happened shortly after the girl had received her HPV vaccine in the school,” said Dr. Caron Grainger, joint head of public health for the National Health Service (NHS) in Coventry and Coventry City Council. The batch of vaccine involved has been quarantined.
AFP, Edmonton Journal
Related Links:
* UK Teenage Girls Bribed To Take Cervical Cancer Vaccine Without Parental Consent
Mail On Sunday Reporter, Sunday Mail / The One Click Group
* New Website Launched For Gardasil/Cervarix Vaccine Victims
Susan Brinkmann, The Philadelphia Bulletin
* Calls For Cervarix HPV Vaccine To Be Suspended In The UK
Daily Mail Reporter, Daily Mail

Official: FBI probing Pa. school webcam spy case

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20100219/us-laptops-spying-on-students/

PHILADELPHIA – The FBI is investigating a Pennsylvania school district accused of secretly activating webcams inside students’ homes, a law enforcement official with knowledge of the case told The Associated Press on Friday.

[snip]

This is a very troubling story, as computer whiz Rebecca Mercuri explains here:

Mark,

Don’t know if you’ve been following the goings-on in PA with the “free” laptops that the school district was using to spy on its students (and their families). There’s been a lot of local, national, and international press on it, here’s one from the BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/uk_news/education/8523807.stm

Reason I bring this up is because about a year or so ago, I started getting a creepy feeling about the Negroponte “One Laptop Per Child” (OLPC) mission when I learned a) that the “free” computers going out to the “underdeveloped countries” came with their microphones and video cameras turned on and b) that there was heavy government involvement in who was getting the computers. Of course Nicholas (the MIT Media Lab guy, and OLPC proponent) is the brother of John Negroponte (former Ambassador to Nicaragua who is attributed to having “carried out the covert strategy of the Reagan administration” there) — Nicholas kindly refers to John as having had a life of “public service” — while both siblings seem to have an “in” with the World Bank (need I say more). I was chided by some colleagues for having raised skepticism about the monitoring capabilities of the OLPC products at a Princeton Computer Society talk a while back. Of course, the events unfolding in Lower Merion PA are now a “proof of concept” of what I’d said, and my chums are now recognizing the real danger of it all. I’m pretty leery about the whole thing.

As you might guess, one doesn’t have to give out free computers to monitor kids (and their relatives) at home — some software that sniffs out (and turns on) any attached teleconferencing devices will work just as well — but it’s sure a lot easier if you don’t have to deal with variations in equipment and setups by just handing out computers with remote monitoring capabilities. The best part of the PA case was when the jelly beans the kid was eating were determined to be “drugs” by the school snoopers. Harrumph.

One has to wonder what else is going on that we should be suspicious of as computers become ubiquitous — it’s a CLASSIC Trojan Horse, and I don’t mean viral! All “gift horses” should be looked well into the mouth (and not taken home), I say.

Rebecca

“63% of the Political Class think the government has the consent of the governed, but only
six percent (6%) of those with Mainstream views agree.”

But this crisis has been worsened not by the election of Barack Obama, but by his subsequent
(and ongoing) betrayal of so many campaign promises.

Only 21% Say U.S. Government Has Consent of the Governed
By Rasmussen Reports

February 19, 2010 “Rasmussen Reports ” —- The founding document of the United States, the Declaration of Independence, states that governments derive “their just powers from the consent of the governed.” Today, however, just 21% of voters nationwide believe that the federal government enjoys the consent of the governed.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 61% disagree and say the government does not have the necessary consent. Eighteen percent (18%) of voters are not sure.

Read more.

ACLU Sues USAID: Are We Exporting US Taxpayer-Funded Religion?
by: Amie Newman | RH Reality Check

The ACLU has waited long enough.

On Thursday, February 18th, they filed a lawsuit against USAID for refusing to comply with their Freedom of Information Act requests from July and September 2009, for documents related to USAID-funded abstinence-only-until-marriage programs abroad. The ACLU has patiently awaited documents that may help shed light on an audit completed last year suggesting USAID is dispersing money, unconstitutionally, for religiously-based HIV prevention programs.

Read more.