ZGram - 3/16/2002 - "Two scary news items"

[irimland@zundelsite.org]

Copyright (c) 2002 - Ingrid A. Rimland

ZGram - Where Truth is Destiny

March 16, 2002

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

Today I have to report two rather scary news items today - political
developments that are unworthy of this country.  I will give you
introductory paragraphs and leave it up to you if you want to follow up the
links.

1.  ____  U.S. using new law on secret evidence
Patriot Act invoked to fight lawsuit by Muslim group

By Geoff Dougherty and Laurie Cohen
Tribune staff reporters
Published March 15, 2002

Employing a controversial strategy, the U.S. Justice Department says it
plans to use secret evidence to justify the financial sanctions it imposed
on a Chicago-area Muslim charity as part of its effort to choke off
terrorist funding after Sept. 11.

Bridgeview-based Global Relief Foundation has filed a lawsuit saying the
government violated the Constitution in freezing the charity's assets in
December, citing suspected links to Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda network.

The case in federal court in Chicago appears to be the first time the
government has tried to use secret evidence--which would be shared with the
judge but not with the charity or its attorneys--under a provision of the
anti-terrorism Patriot Act signed in October by President Bush, legal
experts said.

Immigration cases are a more common venue for the use of secret evidence,
which has drawn fire because it changes one of the most basic rules of the
American legal system: that people get a chance to confront the evidence
being used against them by the government.

Roger Simmons, an attorney for Global Relief, said the use of secret
evidence to fight the charity's lawsuit was "a very dangerous legal
precedent." On Thursday, Simmons asked the court to reject the government's
plan.

"It's completely contrary to anything that's ever happened in this
country," he said. "The country was founded on the idea of confronting your
accuser. If they submit secret evidence or present it to the judge in such
a way that we can never see it, we can't cross-examine and we can never
rebut," he said.

Members of Congress have attempted several times to make the use of secret
evidence illegal, and Bush said he would support such a law, but those
efforts died after Sept. 11.

For the rest of the story, please go to

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0203150268mar15.story

2. _____US Secretly Sending Prisoners Away For Torture
By Duncan Campbell in Los Angeles
The Guardian - London
3-15-2

The United States has been secretly sending prisoners with suspected
al-Qaeda connections to countries where torture during interrogation is
legal, according to US diplomatic and intelligence sources.
 
Prisoners are being moved to places in Egypt and Jordan where they can be
subjected to torture and threats to their families to extract information
sought by the US.
 
The normal extradition procedures have been bypassed in the transportation
of dozens of prisoners suspected of terrorist connections, according to a
report in the Washington Post, with suspects moved to countries where the
CIA has close ties with the local intelligence services.
 
The report says US intelligence agents have been involved in a number of
interrogations. A CIA spokesman refused to comment on the allegations on
Monday.
 
A State Department spokesman said the US had been "working very closely
with other countries ... It's a global fight against terrorism".
 
"After September 11, these sorts of movements have been occurring all the
time," a diplomat told the Washington Post. "It allows us to get
information from terrorists in a way we can't do on US soil."
 
For the rest of the story, please go to
http://www.smh.com.au/news/0203/13/world/world6.html

=====

Thought for the Day:

"No freeman shall be taken, or imprisoned, or outlawed, or exiled, or in
any way harmed, nor will we go upon him, nor will we send upon him, except
by the legal judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.  To none will
we sell, to none deny or delay, right or justice.

(Magna Carta, 1215)