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Obama’s Justice nominees signal end of Bush terror tactics
Greg Gordon
WASHINGTON — In filling four senior Justice Department positions Monday, President-elect Barack Obama signaled that he intends to roll back Bush administration counterterrorism policies authorizing harsh interrogation techniques, warrantless spying and indefinite detentions of terrorism suspects.
The most startling shift was Obama’s pick of Indiana University law professor Dawn Johnsen to take charge of the Office of Legal Counsel, the unit that’s churned out the legal opinions that provided a foundation for expanding President George W. Bush’s national security powers.
Johnsen, who spent five years in the Office of Legal Counsel during the Clinton administration and served as its acting chief, has publicly assailed “Bush’s corruption of our American ideals.” Upon the release last spring of a secret Office of Legal Counsel memo that backed tactics approaching torture for interrogations of terrorism suspects, she excoriated the unit’s lawyers for encouraging “horrific acts” and for advising Bush “that in fighting the war on terror, he is not bound by the laws Congress has enacted.”
“One of the refreshing things about Dawn Johnsen’s appointment is that she’s almost a 180-degree shift from John Yoo and David Addington and (Vice President) Dick Cheney,” said Harvard University law professor Laurence Tribe, referring to the main legal architects of the administration’s approval of harsh interrogation tactics.
Walter Dellinger, a Duke University law professor, said that Johnsen’s appointment “sends a very strong message that the administration intends to make sure that its power is exercised in conformity with constitutional rights and respect for civil liberties.”
Obama also said that he’d nominate:
_ David Ogden, a top Justice Department official during the Clinton administration, as deputy attorney general, the No. 2 figure under attorney general nominee Eric Holder.
_ Elena Kagan, the dean of the Harvard University Law School and a former Clinton White House aide, as solicitor general. She’d be the first woman to hold the post.
_ Tom Perrelli, counsel to Clinton Attorney General Janet Reno from 1997 to 1999, as the associate attorney general who oversees civil matters.
Obama said that he hoped that the four appointees would restore “integrity, depth of experience and tenacity” to the lead federal law-enforcement agency, which has been battered by scandal.
“This is a superb set of appointments,” said Dellinger, who headed the Office of Legal Counsel from 1993-96 and then served as U.S. solicitor general. “These four are highly accomplished in the profession and bring a stature to the job that will allow them to say no to the president when no is the correct answer.”
While Obama fleshed out his Justice Department team, Democratic officials said that he’ll name former Democratic congressman and Clinton White House chief of staff Leon Panetta to head the CIA, tapping a figure who once oversaw the secret budgets of spy agencies but lacks hands-on intelligence experience.
The Justice Department has yet to fully regain its image of independence since allegations of political influence mired the agency in scandal in 2007, leading to the resignations of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and about a dozen other department and White House officials.
Congress still is seeking records related to allegations that nine U.S. attorneys were fired for political reasons, senior department employees skewed career hiring to favor Republican applicants and politics influenced the enforcement of voting-rights laws.
“It’s clear that the Department of Justice has been savaged by the Bush administration and has been profoundly disgraced,” Tribe said. “It’s going to be a major task to rehabilitate it.”
The task will be complicated, Tribe said, partly because Republican lawyers have been embedded in career jobs, and “a number of them will have to be reassigned to responsibilities and places where their ideological single-mindedness” doesn’t interfere with their duties.
Obama’s picks contrast with Bush’s selection of Gonzales, who lacked Justice Department experience. Since stepping down as attorney general in September 2007, Gonzales has yet to find a job.
Without referencing Gonzales, Dellinger said that Obama’s four picks are “great lawyers who have terrific jobs they can go back to and the strength to be a strong, independent voice for the law. They are not people who will be easily pushed around.”
Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the University of California-Irvine law school, praised them as “highly professional, experienced lawyers who are not partisans.”
Ogden, a partner at the law firm of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, served as chief of the Justice Department’s Civil Division from 1999 to 2001. He’s led the Obama transition team’s Justice Department review.
“Animal health officials in India’s West Bengal state recently reported new H5N1 avian influenza outbreaks in two more districts, according to media reports.
Officials from the affected districts said the virus was found in two villages in Darjeeling and adjacent sites in Jalpaiguri, according to a Jan 3 report from Reuters. The outbreaks involved chickens, the Times of India reported yesterday. The two districts are neighbors in the northern part of West Bengal state.
Surendra Gupta, an official with Darjeeling district, said 30 culling teams were slated to start destroying birds yesterday, and Bandana Yadav, an official from Jalpaiguri, said 10 teams from the district also set out yesterday to cull birds within the outbreak radius. ..”
The Ministry of Health of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is continuing to respond to the ongoing outbreak of Ebola haemorrhagic fever in the Mweka health zone, Province of Kasai Occidental with the support of a wide range of international partners.
As of 31st December there has been a total of 3 laboratory-confirmed cases of Ebola haemorrhagic fever. WHO is aware of 36 additional suspected cases including 12 deaths associated with this outbreak. A further 184 contacts have been identified and are being followed up.
Laboratory analysis was undertaken at the Institut National de Recherches Biomédicales (INRB) in Kinshasa , DRC , the Centre International de Recherches Médicales de Franceville (CIRMF), Gabon, and the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), South Africa.
The WHO Country Office, Regional Office and Headquarters are supporting the MoH in Kinshasa, in Kananga and in the field at the location of the outbreak. WHO has deployed five vehicles to the field and has sent outbreak response equipment and medical supplies. The local health authorities in the affected area are working closely with social mobilization experts to develop key information messages for the local communities.
The international response to the outbreak includes partners from Caritas (Belgium), the Congolese Red Cross (DRC) , Médecins Sans Frontières (Belgium), UNICEF, the United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC), and the World Food Programme (WFP) .
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Peggy Riek
WASHINGTON, Jan. 3, 2009 - Patrick Cudahy, a Cudahy, Wisc., firm, is recalling approximately 3,590 pounds of bacon bit products that may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service announced today.
The following products are subject to recall: [View Labels]
10-pound cases of “Golden Crisp APPLEWOOD SMOKED PRECOOKED BACON TOPPINGS.” The products bear the establishment number “EST. 28″ inside the USDA mark of inspection as well as a printed Julian date of “8318.”
10-pound cases of “John Morrell APPLEWOOD SMOKED PRECOOKED BACON TOPPINGS.” The products bear the establishment number “EST. 28″ inside the USDA mark of inspection as well as a printed Julian date of “8318.”
The bacon bit products were produced on Nov. 13, 2008, and distributed to restaurant and institutional establishments in California, Colorado, Florida, South Dakota, Texas and Wisconsin.
The problem was discovered through in-house testing by an establishment that received the product. FSIS has received no reports of illnesses associated with consumption of this product.
Consumption of food contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes can cause listeriosis, an uncommon but potentially fatal disease. Healthy people rarely contract listeriosis. However, listeriosis can cause high fever, severe headache, neck stiffness and nausea. Listeriosis can also cause miscarriages and stillbirths, as well as serious and sometimes fatal infections in those with weakened immune systems, such as infants, the elderly and persons with HIV infection or undergoing chemotherapy.
Erectile Dysfunction Drugs Can Lead to Dangerous Interactions
WorstPills.org finds 56 medications that can cause problems
January 5, 2009
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People who take three well-known erectile dysfunction medications should be extremely careful if they take any of 56 other drugs, including many commonly prescribed anti-angina and certain blood pressure medications, grapefruit juice and St. John’s Wort, Public Citizen writes in a new article posted on its WorstPills.org Web site.The three erectile dysfunction drugs are Viagra (chemical name sildenafil), Cialis (tadalafil) and Levitra (vardenafil).
The 56 drugs fall into three categories:
1) those that can cause a life-threatening drop in blood pressure when taken with erectile dysfunction drugs;
2) those that prevent the body from eliminating erectile dysfunction drugs, thereby leading to an overdose; and
3) those that speed up the metabolism of the erectile dysfunction drugs, thereby reducing their effectiveness.
Grapefruit juice also is listed in the second category because it acts like a drug in this circumstance.
“Those who take erectile dysfunction drugs are generally older men, who are more likely to be taking other medications as well,” said Dr. Sidney Wolfe, director of the Health Research Group at Public Citizen. “It is critical that they be aware of the potential for dangerous interactions.”
Erectile dysfunction drugs cause blood vessels to dilate, an effect that is magnified when taken with blood pressure medications, which also dilate blood vessels. So men who take blood pressure medications such as Flomax and Cardura should avoid erectile dysfunction drugs, Wolfe said.
The combination can cause a dangerous drop in blood pressure that could lead to a heart attack or stroke.
Other drugs, such as erythromycin and nefazodone, inhibit an enzyme that metabolizes erectile dysfunction medications, thereby causing a build-up of the erectile dysfunction drugs to higher levels.
Still other medications, like nafcillin, phenobarbital and 13 other drugs, increase the activity of the enzyme, rendering the erectile dysfunction drugs less effective. St. John’s Wort, an herbal supplement, also falls into this third category because it has a negative, drug-like effect when used with erectile dysfunction drugs.
The complete list of 56 drugs is at Public Citizen’s WorstPills.org, along with an explanatory article from Worst Pills, Best Pills, a monthly newsletter available in print and electronic formats through the subscription site WorstPills.org.
The article about harmful interactions with erectile dysfunction drugs will be available free for the next seven days. The site has other searchable information about the uses, risks and adverse effects associated with prescription medications.
Intro: DMATs have worked with the military side-by-side for decades. Was it ever a problem for me? Not on your life. They had your “back” and you were glad to have them there.
“Theoretically, even pacificists would probably admit that no one can respond as quickly and efficiently to a major U.S. disaster as the military. But the news that active duty soldiers fresh from a combat tour of Iraq will be gearing up to assist civilian agencies charged with responding to anything from accidental chemical spills to terrorist attacks has sparked mixed reactions from experts in emergency management and civil liberties advocates.
Alternative ways to medevac disaster victims in the future.
By 2011 the Department of Defense plans to have 20,000 uniformed troops expressly trained to assist in national disaster rapid response at a moment’s notice. Since Oct. 1, some 4,700 soldiers belonging to a brigade combat team out of Fort Stewart, Ga., have already been engaged in the new assignment, according to Air Force Lt. Col. Almarah Belk, a spokeswoman at the Secretary of Defense’s office. The $556 million, five-year training program is part of a broader, $2.3 billion FEMA project to have civilian authorities in states such as Massachusetts, South Carolina and Washington work with the military to develop response plans to a range of potential disasters, from a hurricane and earthquake to a terrorist attack and a pandemic flu.
Skeptics of the military mission at home question whether this signals a “creeping militarism” into our civilian culture and the erosion of the Posse Comitatus Act, a 130-year-old law that specifically bars the President from using the military for law enforcement in the United States.
“The founding fathers had a fear of standing armies,” says Stephen Dycus, who teaches national security law at Vermont Law School and co-authored a book on the subject, National Security Law. “Posse Comitatus is one expression of that. We’ve always had a problem of having the military involved in civil affairs. On the other hand, if we got in a bind, such as a plague released in Chicago, the only way to get out is to have the military involved. They’ve got the personnel, the training and the experience in use of force that other parts of the government don’t have.”
The Pentagon insists Posse Comitatus is not going to be an issue because the 20,000 troops will play no role in actual law enforcement…”
As part of a program to organize better lines of communication during a disaster, residents in six counties in Alabama are now eligible to receive free emergency alert radios. The goal is to place roughly 125,000 radios in homes, businesses, churches, schools, and agencies in the region.
“I wonder who cleaned up on this endeavor,” pondered Sir Cynic?
This month, eligible residents will receive a brochure in the mail, with instructions to return the participation form in order to receive the radio, according to Fox News. The “Community Safety Program” was organized between county emergency management agencies in Calhoun, Clay, Cleburne, Etowah, St. Clair, and Talladega and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, making it the largest project of this kind in the country.
The radios will deliver information about threatening weather, hazardous materials accidents, evacuations, and even America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response (AMBER) alerts. The program was made possible by a multi-million dollar federal grant, which was awarded because of the chemical stockpile and incineration program in Anniston, AL.
Critics of U.S. biosecurity policy contend that the threat of terrorism has been overblown and that too much money is going to biodefense and related programs. The $6 billion-odd now spent annually in this area will doubtless be scrutinized by the new Obama administration. But the threat remains real.
While some cuts may be justified, education and training in the new field of terror medicine warrants full support.
Terror medicine concerns not only biological agents like anthrax, but the medical management of terrorist attacks regardless of the weapon. In fact, bombs and explosives have been the weapons most commonly used by terrorists.
The emergence of terror medicine as a distinctive discipline has been prompted by the global proliferation of terrorism especially since the end of the 20th century. It involves anyone who would be called to service during or after a terror incident - from emergency responders to long-term caregivers. Yet ironically, most physicians and other health providers, let alone members of the public, are still unfamiliar with many of its features.
Efforts to prevent terrorist assaults should be among a society’s highest priorities. No less important are the requirements to prepare for, respond to, and recover from such events. As such, terror medicine ranges broadly from preparedness and treatment of injuries to psychological effects.
Some aspects of this new field require preparedness that is contrary to common practice. The need for reordered thinking was evident after the bombings of the Oklahoma City federal building in 1995 and the Madrid trains in 2004. In both cases, most victims were taken to the nearest hospital, as is usual in emergencies. But the influx of hundreds soon overwhelmed the facilities and care became inefficient and delayed.
Had there been an advance plan to distribute some of the patients to more distant hospitals, fewer lives might have been lost. During the London metro bombings in July 2005, faulty preparedness bred other miscues. Confusion among rescue workers and ambulance drivers meant some victims were still awaiting transportation to a hospital four hours after the explosions. Advance planning for terrorist and disaster events is an essential element of terror medicine.
Another is the unique approach to patient care posed by terrorist attacks, especially suicide bombings. Close-quarter victims often suffer burns, crushed bones, ruptured eardrums and intestines, and penetrations from nails that were packed with the explosives. Accidents or other acts of violence rarely produce combinations of these wounds in a single individual.
Yet, in a suicide bombing, scores of people may suffer most or all of these injuries. In such a situation, trauma surgeons typically are unprepared to make informed determinations about treatment priorities.
But terror medicine provides answers based on approaches developed by doctors in societies like Israel, which have experienced many such attacks. Israeli doctors can now make rapid credible decisions about which injuries to treat first and which can wait, a skill that is essential to saving lives.
Still another area of the new discipline involves treating the emotional effects of terror incidents, which commonly are more intense than other traumatic events. After an automobile accident, for example, survivors may benefit from group therapy in which they share feelings about their stressful experience. But group interaction after a terror incident could heighten emotional turmoil. This has happened to victims who were surrounded by smoke and saw nothing. They became distraught when hearing others describe what they saw, like the dismembered head of the suicide bomber, says Israeli psychiatrist Esti Galili.
The increase in terror incidents also has raised novel ethical questions regarding medical responses: Should a critically wounded terrorist receive care ahead of victims who may be less severely injured? Is delaying a pregnant woman from reaching a hospital justifiable to search her for concealed explosives, even if she seems in acute need of medical attention? These and similar conundrums are only beginning to be explored by bioethicists.
The November terror attack in Mumbai is the most recent demonstration of the need for a broad understanding of terror medicine. An Indian journalist, Jagdish Singh, observed that the event showed many inadequacies in India’s response including delayed arrivals of paramedics and other rescue personnel, and unavailability of medical supplies and equipment. These lapses all worsened the effects of the tragedy.
Since the jetliner attacks in the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, and the subsequent anthrax attacks via the mail, this country has become better positioned to care for victims in similar incidents. Surgical supplies, antibiotics and antidotes to chemical and radiological agents are now stockpiled in greater quantities for emergencies. Some hospitals have conducted drills in cooperation with police, fire, and other emergency personnel. But many hospitals and response personnel remain inadequately prepared.
Although most of the news surrounding power outages in Hawaii nearly two weeks ago focused on President-elect Barack Obama’s vacation, many others were concerned about the health of the state’s dialysis patients.Only one of the state’s off-hospital dialysis clinics has an emergency generator, according to KHON2. Some patients were unable to receive dialysis for days, forcing them to go on a renal diet.
Even the off-hospital site with a generator was compromised, since its water treatment system was unable to work with low water pressure.
Fresenius Medical Care said they are currently installing plug-in generators in eight of the nine clinics in Hawaii, but in the event of a disaster the Hawaii Electric Company would have to install the generators into the plug-ins because of the high voltage, according to Fresenius clinic manager Evelyn Hipple.
Off-hospital sites are critical to handling Hawaii’s dialysis patients. There are more than 2,500 people in Hawaii in need of dialysis and hospitals do not have enough machines for everyone.
While most people on Oahu were worried about the food in their refrigerator becoming spoiled during Friday’s island-wide power outage, Jo Anne Kam of Punaluu had a much greater concern – her 82 year old husband.
“I’m worried he’s going to die,” Kam said of her husband Samuel. “What if I get him to the hospital and there’s other people on dialysis and they can’t take my husband?”
Kam was shocked to learn that only one of the state’s off-hospital dialysis clinics has an emergency generator. Because of the blackout her husband was unable to receive dialysis for four days and was already showing severe symptoms of blood poisoning.
“He was starting to get delusional. He was seeing things and hearing things.”
The Fresenius clinic at Windward City Shopping Center where Kam normally receives treatments three times a week was still without power Saturday, forcing him and other patients to go on a renal diet.
Fresenius clinic manager Evelyn Hipple told Khon2 the company was prepared to use the emergency generator at its Koolau location, but low water pressure meant water treatment systems needed for dialysis would not function properly.
“We have to have a certain amount of water pressure to make the water treatment system work effectively,” said Hipple.
Fresenius is currently in the process of installing plug-in generators in eight of its nine clinics in Hawaii. She says in the event of a disaster Hawaiian Electric Company would have to install portable generators into the plug-ins due to their “high voltage.”
For dialysis patients like Samuel Kam, emergency power could be the difference between life and death. With nearly 2,500 people in Hawaii in need of dialysis, hospitals would simply not have enough machines to service the need.
“There’s a lot of people out there on dialysis,” said Kam’s Wife. “Who’s going to decide who’s going to get it and who’s not going to get it?”
US Initiates Immediate Airlift for Darfur Peacekeepers
By Howard Lesser Washington, DC 06 January 2009
[UNKNOWN NODETYPE 9]The Bush administration says it will waive a requirement to notify Congress 15 days in advance of undertaking an airlift of equipment for UN and African Union peacekeepers in Sudan. Congress and the American people have actively supported the president’s tough stand against the genocide that Washington contends is being waged against civilians in Sudan’s volatile western Darfur region. But some Sudan activists continue to push for stronger measures against the Bashir regime, whom they cite for fueling and sustaining the violence for more than five years. President Bush announced the airlift Monday at the White House after holding talks with Sudan’s First Vice President Salva Kiir Mayardit. Mr. Bush will discuss the crisis in Darfur again Tuesday at his final round of talks with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon before leaving office on January 20. Analyst Eric Reeves, a professor of English at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, is an author, lecturer, researcher, and consultant on Sudan for a number of human rights organizations that operate in the African country. He says the airlift proposal is not new.
“This is really extraordinary that they are billing this as a new initiative. The question is not the US ability to use its enormous airlift capacity. It has made that offer publicly. Jendayi Frazer, Assistant Secretary of State for Africa, travelling to Khartoum in early November, declaring then, over two months ago that the US was willing to use its airlift capacity to move troops and equipment. This is not new. I think it’s really a question of what there is to move in. Most of the time since the passage of UN resolution 1769, which authorized UNAMID (the joint United Nations African Union Mission in Darfur), there has been insufficient equipment or manpower that is ready or that Khartoum will permit to deploy,” he said.
Since the beginning of President Bush’s first term in office, US Africa diplomacy has actively been involved on several fronts in negotiations with the government of President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, to enlist Sudanese support in the war against terrorism, to bring about an end to the 22-year-long north-south civil war in southern Sudan, and since 2003, to counter what the US government has charged is a deliberate policy of genocide being carried out in Darfur, which has led to the extermination of more than 200-thousand civilians and the displacement of more than two million others from their homes and communities. Although the Bush policy continues to draw support from numerous religious and human rights groups across the country, some Sudan activists in the United States continue to argue that only use of military force will get President Bashir to back down on his support for Arab janjaweed militia raids and aerial attacks against Darfur citizens. Professor Reeves says that US airlift is not likely to lead to a deeper American military commitment.
“There is no practicable no-fly zone, no place to base it. There’s no way to distinguish Antonov cargo aircraft that are dropping bombs and those that are delivering humanitarian aid and supplies. Khartoum is notorious for disguising its aircraft, both fixed wing and helicopters. I think it is simply unreasonable to think that just short of a robust force on the ground that would disable planes that would have attacked civilians, disabling them subsequently, there is no way to enforce a no-fly zone,” he said.
Reeves adds that over five years, the United States has not contributed a single helicopter to the UNAMID effort. He also suggests that a US-imposed naval blockade is unlikely meet approval from China, which has strong maritime dealings with Khartoum, and could raise tensions in the region rather than lower them.
A more immediate issue that could determine the next moves between Washington and Khartoum is whether the 10-count war crimes indictment of President Bashir by the International Criminal Court (ICC) will result in a warrant for his arrest. Eric Reeves says that President Bush needs to address that issue during Tuesday’s meeting with the UN secretary general because Khartoum has shown wanton disregard for the protection and safety of UN personnel operating in the country and has flouted attempts by the international community to bring several war crime suspects to justice.
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Alternative ways to medevac disaster victims in the future.
“I wonder who cleaned up on this endeavor,” pondered Sir Cynic?
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