"Grim Photos - Pictures Should be Released" - Salt Lake Tribune Op-Ed

Salt Lake Tribune
http://www.sltrib.com/ci_12380519
05/15/2009

Much as he'd like to, President Barack Obama can't have it both ways. In releasing four memos that gave a patina of legal justification to the CIA to brutalize prisoners, he ignited a controversy.

Should the memo writers, and perhaps their Justice Department supervisors further up the ladder -- maybe all the way to the top -- be prosecuted for authorizing interrogation methods that treaties and U.S. laws forbade? And, if not prosecutions, should a special commission be empaneled to at least investigate and make public all the evidence?

At first, the president appeared to encourage the debate, although making it clear he opposes prosecutions. Now, in opposition to a court order, he is trying keep secret photos that show prisoners being abused by U.S. interrogators.

That turnaround seems both counterproductive and ill-advised, serving merely to strengthen compelling arguments for an exhaustive investigation and full disclosure. And in seeking to block the photos, he degrades the commitment to transparency that he said informed his decision to release the memos.

Obama has responded that the pictures would only "further inflame anti-American opinion" and put U.S. troops fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq in greater danger. He says they are not as graphic as the stark images from Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq that shocked the world in 2004. It's true, given the deep-seated hatred for America in much of the Arab world, that more images of prisoner abuse would be inflammatory, even if, as Obama says, the photos are less explosive than those that already are public.

We understand that the president is working feverishly to get U.S. troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan, and that part of that effort is to improve America's image in that part of the world. New photos of prisoner abuse won't help that cause.

But Obama set a correct course for the country when he issued an executive order on his second day in office prohibiting the harsh interrogation techniques that amount to torture. His release of the torture memos was a good beginning.

Obama has said he wants the country to look forward, not getting bogged down in investigating and prosecuting those involved in the policy of torture.

But a simple disavowal of torture is woefully inadequate. We as citizens must face squarely what has been done in our name and then decide what to do about it. Obama should release the photos and appoint a bipartisan commission to examine all the evidence of how this happened, who ordered it and who carried it out.

Dutch WWII Collaborator Dies in Germany

May 1, 2009

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands, May 1 (UPI) -- Hans Bikker, a Dutch collaborator with the Nazis who lived in Germany for decades after escaping from prison, has died in the Netherlands, officials said.

Bikker was 93, Radio Netherlands reported. Police in Germany confirmed that he died in early November and was buried in Haspe in the Ruhr, where he had lived.

A member of the Waffen SS, Bikker served on the Eastern Front and in the Netherlands. He was nicknamed the Butcher of Ommen for his treatment of inmates at the Erika concentration camp.

After the war, Bikker was convicted and sentenced to death for killing Jan Houtman, a member of the Dutch Resistance, in 1944. The sentence was commuted to life in prison, and he escaped from a prison in Breda with six other Nazi collaborators in 1952 and fled to Germany.

In Germany, Bikker took advantage of a 1943 law granting citizenship to foreigners who served in the German military. He was able to stay under the radar until 1995.

He escaped a new trial for killing Houtman in 2004 when a judge ruled he was mentally incompetent.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/05/01/Dutch-WWII-collaborator-dies-in-Germany/UPI-59841241151195/

North Dakota Alum Really Looks Up To Hitler

Also see: "Ralph Engelstad - Nazi enthusiast, Las Vegas gambling tycoon, and sugar daddy to the University of North Dakota"

deadspin.com
April 21, 1988

Ralph Engelstad, owner of the Imperial Palace casino in Las Vegas, is in a bit of hot water because of a birthday party he threw yesterday evening in a private suite of his hotel. Probably because it was a birthday party for Adolph Hitler.

Englestad is originally from Minnesota, but is a graduate of—and prominent donor to—the University of North Dakota. He moved to Vegas in the 1950s and got in on the (sort of) ground floor of the growing gambling trade and has since become one of the most successful independent hotel owners in the city. Oh, and he also loves him some Nazis. Casino employees say Englestad's primary joy in life is his "War Room, a 3,000-square-foot private suite filled with Nazi memorabilia-heroic murals of Adolph Hitler and staff, swastikas and Nazi daggers, and military cars used by Mussolini and by Hitler and his Third Reich henchmen Himmler and Göring."

Here's the real shocker—he's also a bit of bastard! Employees were afraid to question or blow the whistle on him out of fear of retribution, which may or not have include being shipped out of state in box cars. Lawsuits that have just now become public accuse Englestad of religious discrimination, sexual harassment, wrongful termination and, of course, anti-Semitism. This is actually the second Hitler birthday bash that Englestad has thrown in the hotel. But hey, at least there was cake!

Another guest says that during this year's party Engelstad "forced some Jewish employees to come against their wishes. He wanted one Jew to cut the cake, but the person ducked out. Ralph ran around trying to find him."

This guy isn't a Holocaust denier ... he's a Holocaust enjoyer!

http://deadspin.com/5256436/deadspin-classic-north-dakotas-nazi+loving-alumni-donor

Gallup poll: Most Americans describe themselves as 'pro-life'

By Jonathan D. Salant
Bloomberg News
May 15, 2009

Most Americans for the first time say they consider themselves "pro-life" on abortion rather than "pro-choice," though most believe abortion should be legal in some cases, a new Gallup poll finds.

The poll, conducted May 7-10, showed 51 percent of Americans said they are pro-life, a position often associated with opposing abortion in all circumstances. That is the first time a majority responded that way, Gallup said, since the polling organization first asked the question in 1995. ...

Continued

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705304463/Poll-Most-Americans-pro-life.html

A Nazi Pope Popery

WWII row dogs Pope in Jerusalem
Katya Adler, BBC News, Jerusalem

Pope Benedict XVI held Mass in Israel's Josaphat Valley, beneath the Mount of Olives

A row has flared over Pope Benedict XVI's membership as a teenager of the Hitler Youth, as he paid an historic visit to Jerusalem's holy sites. A Vatican spokesman said the pontiff had "never, never, never" belonged - contradicting the Pope's own admission.

The comments came as he visited the Dome of the Rock - the first pontiff to do so - and then the Western Wall, one of Judaism's holiest places. ...

Vatican spokesman Rev Federico Lombardi said: "The Pope was never in the Hitler Youth, never, never, never." ...

But his remark appeared to contradict the Pope's own words in his 1997 memoirs, Salt of the Earth.

"As a seminarian, I was registered in the HY [Hitler Youth]," he said then. "As soon as I was out of the seminary, I never went back."

The Rev Lombardi sought to make a distinction between the anti-aircraft auxiliary corps the Pope was enrolled in towards the end of the war and the Hitler Youth, which he described as a "corps of volunteers, fanatically, ideologically for the Nazis".

For a controversy which had been puttering to an end, the Vatican appears to have fanned it energetically back into life, says the BBC's Tim Franks in Jerusalem.

There has already been criticism from Israeli politicians and commentators, who said that in his speech on Monday the Pope failed to express enough remorse for the Holocaust. ...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8046746.stm
•••••••
Nazi row puts spotlight on Pope's PR
By Tim Franks
BBC News, Jerusalem

"The Pope spent the start of the day stepping gingerly through some of the most sensitive real estate in the world. ... "

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8046483.stm
•••••••
'Pope was reluctant Hitler Youth'
By MATTHEW WAGNER AND SAM SER

"Pope Benedict XVI was forced to join the Hitler Youth as a teenage seminary student, but was ideologically opposed to the movement, Rev. Federico Lombardi, spokesman for the Holy See, said Tuesday."

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1242029511615&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
••••••••
Vatican 'surprised' by criticism of pope
By MATTHEW WAGNER

"The Vatican was 'surprised' at negative reaction in Israel to words spoken by Pope Benedict XVI at Yad Vashem on Monday, Holy See spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi said Tuesday."

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1242029512782&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
•••••••••
BENEDICT XVI WALKS A RELIGIOUS TIGHTROPE

Trying to Stay on Message Despite Criticism
By Father Thomas D. Williams, LC

"JERUSALEM, MAY 12, 2009 (Zenit.org).- We woke up this morning in Jerusalem to newspaper headlines decrying the supposed inadequacy of Pope Benedict's remorse in his visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial Monday and in his meeting there with six Holocaust survivors. ... "

http://www.zenit.org/article-25876?l=english
•••••••
MIDEAST: Pope Failing the 'Test of Pain'
Analysis by Jerrold Kessel and Pierre Klochendler

"JERUSALEM, May 12 (IPS) - Before stepping into Jerusalem's interfaith and inter-political Middle East minefields, Pope Benedict XVI had posited himself as a "pilgrim of peace". But, only hours into his spiritual mission, the Pope found himself crashing up against the walls erected by pain - Jewish pain and Muslim pain, the memory of the Holocaust, and Palestinian pain of the continued Israeli occupation. ... "

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46807

Calling Cheney On His Lies

13 May 2009 12:27 pm

FBI agent Ali Soufan is testifying today. Greg Sargent points out significant parts of his written testimony:

Soufan will directly contradict key claims by torture apologists that the techniques elicited high-value information. He will say flat out that the claim that Abu Zubaydah didn’t start giving up info until August 2002, when he was waterboarded, is false. “The truth is that we got actionable intelligence from him in the first hour of interrogating him,” Soufan will say.

Soufan will also contradict claims that waterboarding got Abu Zubaydah to cough up info leading to the capture of so-called “dirty bomber” Jose Padilla. He will point out that waterboarding wasn’t approved until August of 2002, while Padilla was captured in May of 2002.

And Soufan will deny yet another key claim of torture apologists: That torture revealed Khalid Shaikh Mohammed’s involvement in 9/11. “That was discovered in April 2002, while waterboarding was not introduced until almost three months later.” Soufan will say.

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/05/fisking-cheney.html

FBI Terrorist Watchlist Riddled With Errors

www.courthousenews.com
May 07, 2009

WASHINGTON (CN) - The FBI failed to remove thousands of people from its "Terrorist Watchlist," sometimes years after determining that they were not actually terrorists; failed to put on the list people who are tied to terrorism, allowing them to enter and move about the country; and its controls over "nomination" of people for the list without an FBI investigation were "weak or nonexistent," the Justice Department concluded in a report released Wednesday.

Of 68,669 suspected terrorists on the list in February 2008, 35% were based on outdated information; the FBI failed to perform a "watchlist modification" 67% of the time when a modification was necessary; failed to remove from the list people who should have been removed from it 8% of the time; and in one case kept a person on the list for 5 years after he or she should have been removed from it, the DOJ concluded.

The 121-page report from the Department of Justice's Inspector General, "The Federal Bureau of Investigation's Terrorist Watchlist Nomination Practices," Audit Report 09-25, May 2009, was released Wednesday.

Among the conclusions in its Executive Summary:

"As of December 31, 2008, the consolidated terrorist watchlist contained more than 1.1 million known or suspected terrorist identities ..."

"Our audit found that initial watchlist nominations created by FBI field offices often contained inaccuracies or were incomplete, leading to delays in the inclusion of known or suspected terrorists on the watchlist. In addition, the audit determined that the FBI did not consistently update or remove watchlist records when appropriate. Finally, the audit determined that FBI field offices had, at times, bypassed some of the FBI's quality control mechanisms by excluding FBI headquarters and submitting watchlist nominations directly to the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) ...

"We found that the FBI failed to nominate many subjects in the terrorism investigations that we sampled, did not nominate many others in a timely fashion, and did not update or remove watchlist records as required. Specifically, in 32 of the 216 (15 percent) terrorism investigations we reviewed, 35 subjects of these investigations were not nominated to the consolidated terrorist watchlist, contrary to FBI policy.8We also found that 78 percent of the initial watchlist nominations we reviewed were not processed in established FBI timeframes.

"Additionally, in 67 percent of the cases that we reviewed in which a watchlist record modification was necessary, we determined that the FBI case agent primarily assigned to the case failed to modify the watchlist record when new identifying information was obtained during the course of the investigation, as required by FBI policy. Further, in 8 percent of the closed cases we reviewed, we found that the FBI failed to remove subjects from the watchlist as required by FBI policy. 9 Finally, in 72 percent of the closed cases reviewed, the FBI failed to remove the subject in a timely manner;

"Because the consolidated terrorist watchlist is used by government frontline screening personnel to determine how to respond when a known or suspected terrorist requests entry into the United States, the failure to place appropriate individuals on the watchlist, or the failure to place them on the watchlist in a timely manner, increases the risk that these individuals are able to enter and move freely about the country. In fact, we found that several persons with names matching the subjects who were not watchlisted or who were untimely watchlisted attempted to cross U.S. borders during the period the names were not watchlisted by the FBI.

"FBI policy allows for the nomination of known or suspected international terrorists for whom the FBI does not have a terrorism investigation. All such nominations must be submitted through the Counterterrorism Division's (CTD) International Terrorism Operations Section (ITOS). ITOS is then responsible for forwarding the nomination to NCTC. However, we found the controls over these types of nominations to be weak or nonexistent. ...

"Finally, in February 2008, in response to our data request, we were provided a list of all terrorist identities sourced to the FBI in the consolidated terrorist watchlist. This list contained a total of 68,669 known or suspected terrorist identities. In analyzing this list, we found that 35 percent of these identities were associated with FBI cases that did not contain current international terrorism or domestic terrorism designations. Rather, many of these watchlisted records were associated with outdated terrorism case classifications or case classifications unrelated to terrorism and had been nominated by various FBI field offices and headquarters units.

Our review of a sample of these nominations revealed that many of the records were for individuals who had originally been appropriately watchlisted but should have been removed from the watchlist after the case had been closed. In one instance, we identified a former subject who remained watchlisted for nearly 5 years after the case had been closed."

http://www.courthousenews.com/2009/05/07/FBI_Terrorist_Watchlist_Riddled_With_Errors.htm

Elisabeth Waldheim's Papal Award

VIENNA, Austria (AP) August 22, 1994 -- Another papal honor has been accorded the Waldheims, despite criticism over the papal knighthood granted to the former Austrian president and World War II German officer.

Papal Nuncio Archbishop Donato Squicciarini awarded Kurt Waldheim's wife, Elisabeth, the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice Cross for her services to the Roman Catholic Church, the Neue Kronen Zeitung newspaper said Sunday.

On July 6, Waldheim was awarded the distinguished award of knighthood in the 147-year-old Order of Pius IX.

Waldheim's honor raised no waves in predominantly Roman Catholic Austria. But it angered Jews in Israel and elsewhere. Waldheim has been accused of complicity in war crimes because of his service with a German army unit in the Balkans blamed for atrocities. He has denied any involvement.

Israel has asked for Vatican clarification of the award.

Friday's award to Mrs. Waldheim was part of 50th wedding anniversary celebrations for the couple in Nussdorf, a village near Salzburg.