Showcase

Entry: I Don't Believe Ashcroft

Random Thoughts says I Don't Believe Ashcroft:

Ashcroft announced a terrorist plot to blow up a mall in Ohio. Here's what I've learned:

This alleged terrorist has been in custody for the last seven months for immigration violations. They're saying he lied to get into the country, except for a few biographical data points.

They say he lied about a trip to Ethiopia, that he didn't go for religious purposes, but went for military training.

The indictment doesn't mention a plot to blow up a shopping mall. That's in the motion to keep him in jail (which I believe doesn't require much in the way of evidentiary support).

The indictment does say that he was an associate of a guy that pled guilty to providing material support to al Qaeda.

They said that this plotter had no bomb making materials and and that they have no proof that he attended the al Qaeda training camp they say he attended.

They say the terrorist plot hadn't advanced beyond the discussion stage.

They don't think this guy had the financial, organizational or technical skills to carry out an attack.

So here's the problem. I don't believe Ashcroft. I don't know if information he released is true or if he's stretching the truth for political gain. I don't know if this guy is really a terrorist or just a poor immigrant who was fingered by a prisoner that was being tortured or tempted. I don't know if he really violated immigration law or if Ashcroft found it convenient to say so, since then he can lock the guy up indefinitely with no due process. I don't know if the intelligence they're using as a basis of arrest is credible. I don't know if he really did get military training in Ethiopia or if he got religious instruction. I don't know if there was really a plot to bomb a mall since there's no evidence of it except maybe a roving wiretap that caught a bad joke or two. I don't know if this guy is a terrorist or a dupe...

Random Thoughts also maintains a repository of documents relating to Abu Ghraib. For example the latest addition:

The DOJ Bybee memo from August 1, 2002. Here's a summary of this memo, which has been covered thoroughly in the traditional press and the blogosphere.
Date: August 1, 2002
From: Jay S. Bybee, Assistant Attorney General, Department of Justice
To: Alberto R. Gonzalez, White House Counsel
Subject: Standards of Conduct for Interrogation under 18 U.S.C. §§22340-2340A
Summary: Written in response to a request from Gonzalez for the DOJ view on the application of international and federal law to interrogations occurring outside the United States. The five part, 50 page memo concludes that acts inflicting and specifically intended to inflict severe pain or suffering, mental or physical, must be of an extreme nature to rise to the level of torture. It also concludes that cruel, inhuman, or degrading acts may not produce the necessary pain or suffering to qualify as torture. …