Truthout 3/2

The Torture Memo John Yoo Should Have Written
Stephen Rohde, The Daily Journal: "On February 19, the Department of Justice released the long-awaited 261-page Report of the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR), which concluded, among other things, that in his legal memos on torture and presidential power, John Yoo had 'committed intentional professional misconduct when he violated his duty to exercise independent legal judgment and render thorough, objective, and candid legal advice.' A senior Justice Department official, acknowledging that he had not reviewed all the documents available to the OPR, found that Yoo exercised 'poor judgment' and that Yoo's memos were 'flawed,' 'one-sided and conclusory' and 'wrong,' in various respects, but nevertheless declined to accept the report or refer Yoo for disciplinary action, leaving this decision to the state bars. Given what we now know, here is the memo John Yoo should have submitted to President George W. Bush."
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Supreme Court Takes Up Appeal by Enron's Skilling
Kyle Berlin, Truthout: "The Supreme Court on Monday heard oral arguments concerning an appeal by former Enron Corporation CEO Jeff Skilling, who was tried and convicted in 2006 on numerous counts of fraud, false statements and insider trading linked to his role in the Enron scandal."
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Malalai Joya Is an Angry Woman
Dominique Bari, L'Humanite in English: "Exclusive interview with the young Afghan deputy thrown out of Parliament for having exposed foreign interference in her country.... Malalai Joya is an angry woman. She's angry about the war being carried out by the international coalition in her country, Afghanistan, angry about the UN bombs that are killing civilians in their villages, angry about calls for reconciliation with the Taliban and the war lords. 'Stop the massacres in my country. Withdraw your foreign troops so we can stop Talibanization,' is what the young Afghan deputy tells Western public opinion."
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The Racialization of Crime and Punishment
Angola 3 News, Truthout: "This is the second part of our interview with Dr. Heitzeg. Be sure to read part one, 'Visiting a Modern-Day Slave Plantation,' which also featured our video interview with Robert Hillary King and Dr. Terry Kupers, 'Slavery in US Prisons.'"
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Blackwater's Migraines Multiply
William Fisher, Truthout: "Legal headaches are growing exponentially for the security firm formerly known as Blackwater - once the darling of the military-industrial community.... In separate developments, two former employees of the company previously charged that the security firm committed 'systematic fraud' under their contracts with the US State Department in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Iraqi government announced it would seize heavy weapons from foreign security firms and expel ex-Blackwater contractors still in the country and a US Senate hearing learned that Blackwater employees stole more than 500 assault rifles intended for the Afghan police force."
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Small Foreign News Staffs Threaten US Democracy
Tom Fenton, GlobalPost: "Recently, I sadly said goodbye to former colleagues who were fired in another round of cost-cutting by CBS News. The CBS London bureau now stands half empty, and the dwindling band of survivors wonder who will go next."
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Can Workers Hope to be Safe at Last?
Dick Meister, Truthout: "It's called musculoskeletal disorder or MSD, the most common of the serious injuries suffered by US workers. But because corporate employers fear that greater public awareness would force them to spend more on job safety, MSD has remained one of the least understood of injuries."
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VA Agrees to Take Second Look at Thousands of Gulf War Vets' Disability Claims
Mary Susan Littlepage, Truthout: "The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has agreed to reexamine the disability claims for what could turn out to be thousands of veterans of the Gulf War."
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The Decline of the American Empire Remains a Movie for the CIA
Samir Amin, Marianne2: "'Economist Samir Amin deciphers the latest CIA report on the state of the world. He shows that intelligence agency experts still see a single view only: the American model's dominance. In this first part of two, Samir Amin describes the experts' capitalist blindness."
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