RSN: Garrison Keillor | Expect Goodness, and Ye Shall Find It

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Garrison Keillor | Expect Goodness, and Ye Shall Find It 

Garrison Keillor, The Washington Post
Keillor writes: "The beautiful thing about New York is not that it confers success, but that it teaches civility."
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Senate Begins Confirmation Hearings for Trump FBI Pick Tied to Torture, Gitmo
Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!
Goodman reports: "The Senate Judiciary Committee is holding a confirmation hearing today for FBI director nominee Christopher Wray. Wray served as assistant attorney general under George W. Bush from 2003 to 2005, at a time when the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel signed off on the use of torture against detainees in CIA and military custody."
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Twitter Users Sue Donald Trump for Blocking Them Over Critical Comments
Julia Carrie Wong, Guardian UK
Wong writes: "A group of Twitter users has sued Donald Trump and two White House communication aides for violating their constitutional rights by blocking them from Trump's personal Twitter account after they criticized the president."
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Congressman Steve King Wants to Use Funds First From Planned Parenthood and Food Stamps to Pay for Trump's Wall
Aaron Rupar, ThinkProgress
Rupar writes: "During a CNN interview Wednesday morning, Rep. Steve King (R-IA) said he'd like to slash food assistance for low-income Americans and Planned Parenthood funding to free up money for President Trump's border wall."
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How Social Media Saved the Left
Ben Tarnoff, Guardian UK
Tarnoff writes: "Forget the idea that Twitter and Facebook are bad for democracy. Bubbles can be beneficial, and help emerging movements unite against the elites."
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Turkey Issues Detention Orders for 34 State-Owned TV Staff
teleSUR
Excerpt: "Turkey issued detention warrants on Wednesday for 34 former staff of state-owned broadcaster Turkish Radio and Television Corporation, TRT, state media said."
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Oil Spills Can Disrupt Entire Aquatic Food Web, New Study Shows
Lorraine Chow, EcoWatch
Chow writes: "From dead fish to beaches covered in sludge, the immediate damage from an oil spill is easy to see. But a new study, published this week in the journal Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology (AECT), found that the damage caused by these spills are much wider in scope and can indirectly disrupt the entire aquatic food web."
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RSN: Trump's Pick for FBI Director Was Alerted Early to CIA Torture and Remained Silent

09 June 17 Yesterday No One Donated, We Got Killed Yesterday was a total disaster for donations. Barely a handful of donations and very little money. Let's focus on today. Who can make a $30. donation? Marc Ash Founder, Reader Supported News Sure, I'll make a donation! Update My Monthly Donation Become a Fan of RSN on Facebook and Twitter If you would prefer to send a check: Reader Supported News PO Box 2043 Citrus Hts CA 95611

Trump's Pick for FBI Director Was Alerted Early to CIA Torture and Remained Silent 
Carol Rosenberg, Miami Herald 
Rosenberg writes: "President Donald Trump's choice for FBI director was notified months before the public knew about the death of a detainee at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq in 2004, and was at the very least on the fringes of discussions on the legality of military interrogation techniques in 2003."
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Trump's nominee to head the FBI Christopher Wray. (photo: Bloomberg)

resident Donald Trump’s choice for FBI director was notified months before the public knew about the death of a detainee at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq in 2004, and was at the very least on the fringes of discussions on the legality of military interrogation techniques in 2003, documents from Wray’s time in the post- 9/11 Bush administration show.

Trump announced in a tweet Wednesday that he planned to name attorney Christopher A. Wray to succeed James Comey as FBI director. Most immediate reporting focused on Wray’s role as the personal attorney for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie in the scandal known as Bridgegate.

But a deeper dive shows that during his period as assistant attorney general in charge of the Department of Justice Criminal Division Wray was notified early about the ongoing Central Intelligence Agency investigation of abuse at Abu Ghraib. Notably, he was alerted to the suspected homicide of a captive who came to be known as the iceman because of lurid, leaked photos showing the corpse of Manadel al-Jamadi packed in ice.

A Feb. 20, 2004 memo, “Possible Violations of Federal Law,” notified Wray of the suspected homicide of Jamadi and an ongoing CIA Inspector General’s investigation of his death after his capture by a Navy Seal team in Iraq three months earlier. “I am writing to you pursuant to Title 50 U.S.C. §403q(b)(5) to report information concerning possible violations of federal criminal law,” wrote then CIA Assistant Inspector General for Investigations Mona B. Alderson.

Less than three months later, on May 5, 2004, Wray told the Senate Judiciary Committee, in response to a question from Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy, “My principal awareness of the abuse that you are describing, that you are referring to, is through the news media, and like you and like so many others, obviously I deplore any mistreatment.”

Leahy, the committee’s senior Democrat at the time had asked Wray specifically, “What actions has the Department of Justice taken with respect to investigating and possibly prosecuting criminal conduct by American civilians at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq or at any of the other places where the administration has evidence, and the administration does have evidence, of other torture that has not been made public yet? What actions have you taken?”

The Congressional record shows Wray replying: “I am not aware of any referral from the Department of Defense to the Justice Department or the FBI relating to these matters.” He makes no mention of the CIA notification.

Soon after that Leahy wrote then Attorney General John Ashcroft that Wray may have provided “less than a complete and truthful answer.” The letter, part of a trove obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union through FOIA litigation, shows Leahy writing, “I am concerned about this” beneath his signature. It was not immediately known on Wednesday whether Ashcroft or Wray wrote Leahy back.

Another item linking Wray’s name to insider information on the abuse questions was unearthed with the leak of graphic photos of soldiers abusing captives at Abu Ghraib:

A single page with his name and the date 5/6/04 is inexplicably written on the top of six bullet points of FBI concerns and awareness of “Abusive Interrogation Issues” at Guantánamo, Iraq and Afghanistan. That same day, Wray wrote a one-page letter to then Pentagon General Counsel William J. Haynes II entitled “Iraq detainees at Abu Ghraib prison.” What Wray told Haynes is not know because the Department of Justice redacted it entirely when it provided the cover sheet but not the document to the ACLU.

Wednesday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions described Wray’s post-Sept. 11 role at the Department of Justice this way: “At that time, he supervised both the general crimes and anti-terrorism roles of the Department, and worked closely with the FBI as the Bureau shifted to a much larger counterterrorism role. He has tremendous respect for the FBI’s agents, analysts, and professional staff, and the agents he worked with enthusiastically affirm his leadership and integrity.”

In addition, former Bush administration deputy attorney general John Yoo, author of an 81-page document that came to be known as a “Torture Memo” testified in 2008 that Wray may have gotten an early draft of the document “Military Interrogation of Alien Unlawful Combatants Held Outside the United States.” Yoo issued the then-secret memorandum addressed to Haynes on March 14, 2003, five days before the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

It analyzed the military’s authority and obligations under both U.S. law and the Convention Against Torture and advised that federal laws on torture and other abuse did not apply to agents interrogating foreigners overseas. Yoo concluded, “even if the criminal prohibitions outlined above applied, and an interrogation method might violate these prohibitions, necessity or self-defense could provide justifications for any criminal liability.”

The memo was formally withdrawn by Feb. 4, 2005.

Five years later, Yoo testified at the House Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties along side attorney David Addington, the former lawyer for Vice President Dick Cheney, that he distributed drafts of the memo to certain people at the Justice Department, including Attorney General Ashcroft’s counselor, Adam Ciongoli .

“I can’t say definitively everybody who got a copy either,” Yoo testified. “I’m just saying because these were sensitive matters, we had to transmit them. I believe we may have given it to the principal associate deputy attorney general at the time, whose name was Chris Wray.”

Neither Yoo nor Wray responded to emails Wednesday seeking comments, clarification or elaboration.

An examination of Guantánamo Distinguished Visitors logs released under the Freedom of Information Act lists Yoo but not Wray among the dozens of lawyers who visited the detention center at the U.S. Navy base in Cuba in the years when Wray was at the Department of Justice.

http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/44021-trumps-pick-for-fbi-director-was-alerted-early-to-cia-torture-and-remained-silent

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RSN: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar | No, Bill Maher Shouldn't Be Fired for Using the N-Word

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Kareem Abdul-Jabbar | No, Bill Maher Shouldn't Be Fired for Using the N-Word 
 
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, The Hollywood Reporter 
Abdul-Jabbar writes: "Lenny Bruce's dream that we could defuse the word-bomb is still far from a reality. Which is why Bill Maher's joking use of it on the June 2 edition of Real Time has caused such a backlash." 
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James Comey Says FBI Russia Probe May Reach Donald Trump Personally 
Andrew Desiderio and Spencer Ackerman, The Daily Beast 
Excerpt: "James Comey may have told the president he wasn't personally under criminal investigation. Others high up in the FBI had a somewhat different opinion." 
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Harvey Wasserman | Donald Trump & Andrew Cuomo Are Brothers in Reactor Disaster 
Harvey Wasserman, Reader Supported News 
Wasserman writes: "Donald Trump and New York governor Andrew Cuomo have joined forces in destroying our economy and environment." 
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Trump's Pick for FBI Director Was Alerted Early to CIA Torture and Remained Silent 
Carol Rosenberg, Miami Herald 
Rosenberg writes: "President Donald Trump's choice for FBI director was notified months before the public knew about the death of a detainee at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq in 2004, and was at the very least on the fringes of discussions on the legality of military interrogation techniques in 2003." 
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Trump's Wild Propaganda Worked: New Hampshire Just Passed the Ugliest Voter Suppression Law 
Mark Joseph Stern, Slate 
Stern writes: "New Hampshire residents who register to vote within 30 days of an election may soon find an unexpected presence at their door: state investigators and law enforcement officers demanding proof that they live in the state. And for that, they can probably thank Donald Trump." 
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Watchdog: In Chicago, a Property Tax System That Harmed the Poor and Helped the Rich. 
Jason Grotto, Chicago Tribune 
Grotto writes: "Chicago has long been a city divided by race and class, a metropolis with starkly different crime rates, economic realities and educational opportunities depending on where you live. But there's another division in Chicago and Cook County, one that for years has gone unexamined even as it pits rich against poor." 
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Hawaii Becomes First State to Enact Law That Aligns With Paris Agreement 
Julia Jacobo, ABC News 
Jacobo writes: "Hawaii has become the first state to enact a law that aligns with the Paris agreement after its governor signed two bills into law Tuesday that 'support the commitments and goals' of the accord, Gov. David Ige's office announced Tuesday." 
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