A few quiet officials at the Department of Justice have refused to handle or condone the torture cases.
The quiet rebellion has emerged in recent months among the approximately 56 attorneys in the appellate section of the Justice Department’s civil division following a court ruling in February that placed the defense of the approximately 130 remaining Guantánamo cases under the responsibility of the appellate lawyers. More than 300 men captured shortly after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 are still being held at Guantánamo over alleged ties to terrorists, although all but a handful have never been formally charged with crimes.
The government’s legal arguments justifying the detention of hundreds of people at the Guantánamo Bay naval base have been repudiated three times by the U.S. Supreme Court. But it’s not just outsiders who take issue with the U.S. Justice Department strategy: Up to one fourth of the department’s own civil appellate staff has recently opted out of handling the government’s cases against detainee appeals, two sources familiar with the matter tell U.S. News.
Whether or not this stops the US from torturing people remains to be seen.
My fear of course is that when Hillary is President we still won’t get habeas corpus back. We won’t see the Congress as a force with any power either. The torturing won’t stop and we won’t ever get our reputation back. The people who will stop this- if it can be stopped, will all be on the inside.
http://www.usnews.com/...
All around the torture scandal, professionals are beginning to fight back in whatever ways they can. t will be the Conscientious Objectors who make all the difference in the world.
As many are no doubt aware, the APA Council of Representatives passed a resolution on psychologist participation in coercive interrogations that was long on rhetoric, but far short on substance. In essence, the APA legitimized psychologist practice in settings where indefinite detention occurs, along with sensory and sleep deprivation, sensory over-stimulation, and use of drugs (as long as not for the purpose of eliciting interrogation).
My paper was written with the intent to document the long history of behavioral science collaboration with abusive interrogation research, particularly around the subject of sensory deprivation (SD). I did not have time in this paper to address the strong observational and naturalistic evidence of the debilitating effects of isolation and SD, and readers will have to await my longer, published paper.
http://www.neverinournames.com/...
This is the only way the government will ever return to the people. This president doesn't have to obey the law or listen to Congress. These fascists have absolute power. So change will come from the inside out. Not the other way around.
Unfortunately.