U.S. Ordered to Produce Detainee Abuse Evidence/Anti-ACORN Filmmaker Arrested

Tuesday, January 26, 2010Last Update: 11:53 AM PT

 

U.S. Ordered to Produce Detainee Abuse Evidence

By AVERY FELLOW 

     (CN) - A federal judge in Washington, D.C., ordered the government to produce evidence of alleged prisoner abuse and torture in response to a Guantanamo detainee's bid for release.

     U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth partially granted prisoner Ahmad Mohammad Al Darbi's requests for possible exculpatory evidence that might aid his habeas petition.

     Lamberth said the government must reveal interrogation techniques used against the prisoner before it could use his statements against him. "Respondents, however, do not have to produce interrogation techniques that do not evidence abuse, torture, coercion, or duress," he wrote.

     The government was also ordered to produce evidence related to Al Darbi's alleged physical and psychological torture and abuse at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan. It must also disclose any evidence that Al Darbi denied the accusations against him, primarily that he was an enemy combatant.

     The judge denied Al Darbi's remaining requests for evidence, because the government had already agreed to search for evidence that its witnesses against Al Darbi were physically or psychologically coerced.

     Judge Lamberth also denied Al Darbi's requests for evidence that didn't mention him by name and requests for unredacted copies of classified documents that only contained "source-identifying and internal administrative information that is not exculpatory in nature," according to the ruling.

     And the government doesn't have to show evidence that it pressured Al Darbi to testify against other individuals. That request is irrelevant, the judge ruled, because the issue is whether Al Darbi is part of the Taliban, al Qaida or associated enemy forces.

     "Should respondents fail to either produce evidence of coercion or deny petitioner's allegations of abuse, respondents will not be allowed to use any of petitioner's statements in the merits of this litigation," Lamberth wrote. 

 

Courthouse News Service

Published on Tuesday, January 26, 2010 by Politico.com

Anti-ACORN Filmmaker Arrested

by Manu Raju

Federal authorities have arrested four men on felony charges for attempting to infiltrate Sen. Mary Landrieu's New Orleans office, including one filmmaker who targeted the community group ACORN last year in undercover videos.

In a Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2009 file photo, activist James O'Keefe attends a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington. O'Keefe was among four people arrested Monday, Jan. 25, 2010 and accused of trying to interfere with phones at U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu's New Orleans office. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari, File)

Among those arrested was 25-year-old James O'Keefe, the conservative filmmaker, along with Joseph Basel, Robert Flanagan and Stan Dai, all 24. They were charged with entering federal property under false pretenses and attempting to gain access to the Democrat's office by posing as telephone repairmen, according to a copy of an FBI affidavit unsealed Tuesday.

The complaint said that Flanagan and Basel each entered the premises, wearing light green fluorescent vests, denim paints and blue work shirts, tool belts and hard-hats. They informed a member of Landrieu's staff that they were telephone repairmen and requested access to the main telephone at the reception desk.

At that point, the two men allegedly attempted to manipulate telephones and accessed the telephone closet, saying they needed to work on the entire system. The men, who said they left their credentials in their vehicles, were arrested by the U.S. Marshal's Service soon afterward.

According to the FBI, the four men could each face up to 10 years and a fine of $250,000 if they are convicted.

O'Keefe made waves last year when he posed as a pimp and taped ACORN employees discussing a prostitution ring, embarrassing the group and forcing many of its supporters to spurn its ties with it.

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URL to article: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/01/26-10