US rights group sues Homeland Security for violation of constitutional rights

 

The ACLU sues the US Department of Homeland Security, whose agents are seen in this file photo, saying the agency’s banning of photography at America’s international border crossings violates constitutional rights

Source: Press TV

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/10/27/268989/us-rights-group-sues-homeland-security/

A prominent US rights group has taken legal action against the US Department of Homeland Security, saying the agency’s banning of photography at the nation’s international border crossings violates constitutional rights.

The lawsuit against the US government was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on behalf of two activists that were attempting to document potential human rights abuses at the US-Mexico border crossings at the southwestern state of California, the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday.

According to the legal papers filed in the suit, US authorities detained the activists and deleted their photos, the report added.

The suit further contends that the US Customs and Border Protection agency prohibits the public from photographing or videotaping at or near American ports of entry without permission.

The rights group has described the US government’s policy as a violation of free speech rights and protections against illegal search and seizure.

"The border is not a Constitution-free zone,” said David Loy, legal director of the ACLU in San Deigo, as quoted in the report. “Border agents are not above the law, and the law guarantees our right to hold them accountable by documenting their conduct.”

ACLU’s lawsuit, says the report, points to a number of incidents, including that of activist Ray Askins, who took pictures last April “from a city street of an inspection area at a Calexico border crossing.” The legal suit alleges that Askins was then “handcuffed and searched” by authorities, who later returned his digital camera with photos erased.

The director of Calexico port wrote to Askins in an email a day after his arrest that “permission is needed to take photos and video at Customs and Border Protection facilities.” The email, however, does not mention any restrictions on taking photographs from a nearby street, said the ACLU.

The lawsuit further refers to another case involving Christian Ramirez, a human rights director at Equality Alliance San Diego, who reported that US customs authorities deleted about 10 cellphone photographs in June 2010 at San Diego's San Ysidro port of entry.

Ramirez added that at the time he was on a pedestrian bridge, capturing images of male officers conducting a pat-down search on female travelers.

US Customs and Border Protection officials have not issued any statement in reaction to the lawsuit.

Rights groups to chase Bush

Former US President George W. Bush

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/164157.html

Human rights activists have pledged to be hot on the heels of former US President George W. Bush wherever he makes a trip to.

"The reach of the Convention Against Torture is wide -- this case is prepared and will be waiting for him wherever he travels next," AFP quoted Katherine Gallagher, an attorney and vice president of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), as saying on Monday.

Rights groups state that criminal complaints against Bush over alleged torture have been lodged in Geneva, Switzerland.

The former US president reportedly had to call off his trip to Switzerland because of the risk that he could be taken in to be questioned for war crimes and torture.

"Swiss law requires the presence of the torturer on Swiss soil before a preliminary investigation can be opened," said the Paris-based FIDH along with the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights and the Centre for Constitutional Rights.

A statement issued by the rights groups pointed out that "When Bush cancelled his trip to avoid prosecution, the human rights groups who prepared the complaints made (them) public and announced that the Bush torture indictment would be waiting wherever he travels next."

New York-based Human Rights Watch has said that US officials themselves should file criminal charges against Bush.

"The US government should take the lead to investigate former US President George W. Bush and other senior officials for authorizing torture of terrorism suspects rather than leaving prosecutions to other countries," the NGO said.

Waterboarding is one of the so-called harsh interrogation techniques approved during Bush's presidency to be used against prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as those held at the US prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Human rights groups maintain that waterboarding, a form of simulated drowning, is illegal under the Geneva Conventions.

Rumsfeld involved in Abu Ghraib torture

Former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/163683.html

Governmental documents indicate that former US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, among other US officials, played a role in the torture policies in the notorious Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

In his new autobiography, Rumsfeld says Abu Ghraib's prisoner abuse was perpetrated by rogue soldiers, despite governmental documents hinting at pro-torture policies issued by senior US officials, such as Rumsfeld, himself.

"There were decisions made by Secretary Rumsfeld, himself, and by other members of the Bush cabinet to endorse torture to allow the use of interrogation methods that in the past, the United States had regarded as war crimes," Hameel Jaffer told Press TV's US Desk in an interview.

As a result of these policies, Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay, and other worldwide US-run detention facilities have used severe torture techniques, previously regarded as war crimes in the United States.

Since 2004, numerous accounts of “systematic and illegal abuses of detainees” have been reported. Cases including rape, torture, and murder have been among those reported.

An estimated 1,300,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed, while about 4.7 million have been displaced since the US-led invasion of the country in 2003.

During these seven years, 4,436 US troops have been reported as being killed.

Ex-US defense secy. accused of torture

Former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/160063.html


A US rights group has filed a lawsuit charging former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld with involvement in torturing former prisoners in American prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan.

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) catapulted the torture case into prominence on Thursday after it lodged an appeal to a court in the District of Columbia, alleging that Rumsfeld and some senior US military officials were quite aware of a torture case involving nine detainees between 2002 and 2004 in American prisons in the two countries, AFP reported.

The case initially was brought forth in December 2006, but later on was withdrawn by a federal court in March 2007 on the grounds that the ex-defense secretary and other top American military officials were immune from prosecution.

The US-based human rights group stated that under the Constitution and international law, torture is strictly prohibited and commanders are obliged to act when they know or should have known of such abuses.

The ACLU argued that the 78-year-old Rumsfeld and other military officials were repeatedly notified of abuse and torture at detention facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan by the International Red Cross and other reports as well as complaints by human rights organizations, thus they are directly responsible for the abuses.

The group further touched upon a case involving a prisoner identified as Ali.V, adding that prisoners, who were later released without charge, “were beaten, tortured, and sexually abused.”

Meanwhile, three judges at an appeals court in the District of Columbia said the case has a little chance to succeed.

The remarks came as a group of activists, each wearing black hoods and orange jumpsuits representing the prisoners at the US prison camp in Guantanamo Bay staged a rally in front of the court room on Thursday to protest against negligence over the torture case.

Rumsfeld is currently putting finishing touches on the release of his memoire book titled “Known and unknown”, which is due to hit bookshelves in the US on 8 February.

White House sued for 'targeted killings'

US President Barack Obama


Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/140669.html


The United States government faces legal action for ordering the assassination of American citizens, whom it accuses of terrorist links.

On Monday, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights filed the lawsuit, protesting the death warrants including the one, signed by the country's President Barack Obama, against Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born cleric, who is identified by the White House as an al-Qaeda leader, Reuters reported.

Al-Awlaki was born in New Mexico and spent years in Virginia, before moving to Yemen, where he is said to be currently staying.

The US recently accused him of being tied to a young Nigerian whom, Washington insisted, had been trained by alleged al-Qaeda militants in Yemen and unsuccessfully tried to bomb a US-bound plane on the Christmas Day. US authorities have also said al-Awlaki is linked to a US army major who killed 13 soldiers at Fort Hood in Texas last year.

Washington has authorized the Central Intelligence Agency, better known as CIA, to assassinate the cleric.

"A program that authorizes killing US citizens, without judicial oversight, due process or disclosed standards is unconstitutional, unlawful and un-American," Anthony Romero, executive director of the ACLU, said in a statement.

In taking the action, the bodies represented Nasser al-Awlaki, the cleric's father.

Citing the alleged militant presence, the US air force is said to have conducted several attacks on the Yemeni soil, reportedly leaving dozens of civilians dead.

In July, the clergyman reportedly painted a glum future for the Obama's efforts to establish a military foothold in Yemen.

"If George W. Bush is remembered as being the president who got America stuck in Afghanistan and Iraq, it's looking like Obama wants to be remembered as the president who got America stuck in Yemen," AP quoted him as saying in an audio message according.

US Rep. Dennis Kucinich has also presented a bill prohibiting the extrajudicial killings of Americans suspected of working with terrorist groups in direct response to the White House's order.