Amitabh Pal at The Progressive writes
FBI Using Dubious Entrapment to Arrest Terrorism Suspects:
A new report by Human Rights Watch and the Columbia Law School focuses on the dubiousness of federal terrorism sting tactics.
The 214-page study, Illusion of Justice, is a detailed examination of twenty-seven terrorism cases—and the questionable methods that prosecutors employed.
“For years, Human Rights Watch has documented human rights violations in the U.S. criminal justice system,” Andrea Prasow, deputy Washington director of Human Rights Watch and a co-author of the report, tells The Progressive. “We thought it was important to look specifically at the treatment of terrorism suspects in U.S. federal courts, and also to document the impact abusive counterterrorism policies have on American Muslim communities.”
The report underscores how hard it is to demonstrate that suspects have been entrapped by the feds—and how anti-foreigner and anti-Islam prejudice makes it all the more difficult.
“U.S. law requires that to prove entrapment a defendant show both that the government induced him to commit the act in question and that he was not ‘predisposed’ to commit it,” the report states. “This predisposition inquiry focuses attention on the defendant’s background, opinions, beliefs, and reputation—in other words, not on the crime, but on the nature of the defendant. This character inquiry makes it exceptionally difficult for a defendant to succeed in raising the entrapment defense, particularly in the terrorism context, where inflammatory stereotypes and highly charged characterizations of Islam and foreigners often prevail.”
Not a single defendant in a federal terrorism case has successfully used the entrapment argument.
The report highlights several other problems with terrorism prosecutions, including use of classified or coerced evidence and harsh conditions of confinement.
The report also shows how government tactics are antagonizing American Muslims.
“The U.S. government has on the one hand claimed that American Muslim communities are essential partners, while at the same time placing them under surveillance and treating them as suspects,” says Prasow. “The impact of those practices has been quite serious, alienating some communities and leading to fear and suspicion in places like mosques and community centers that should be places of refuge." […]
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Blast from the Past. At Daily Kos on this date in 2011—Cantor tells House Republicans to stop 'whining' and start supporting Boehner:
Look who's whining now:
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) delivered a blunt message to the Republican Conference Tuesday morning: Quit the “grumbling” and “whining” and come together to rally behind Speaker John Boehner to pass his debt ceiling plan. |
So far, only a handful of Republican members—Jason Chaffetz, Jim Jordan and Tim Huelskamp—have actually come out against John Boehner's debt limit plan, but with unified Democratic opposition, the House GOP leadership can't afford to lose more than about twenty if they want his plan to pass. With the Heritage Foundation's political arm coming out against Boehner's plan, he can't afford to lose any momentum, thus Cantor's full court press, which appears to be paying off at least with some members. |
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On
today's Kagro in the Morning show:
Greg Dworkin rounds up headlines on the good economic news, public opinion of Obama's foreign policy style & that whole Russia-Ukraine thing. And, it's time for Chris Christie comeback stories.
Joan McCarter talked about hot new trends in plagiarism, "Paul Ryan's one crazy trick to hurt all the poor," David Sirota's work on Christie's pension fund shenanigans, the NN15 decision & the rollout of Daily Kos regional mini-conferences, the DK endorsement of Jim Mowrer against the execrable Steve King, and the looming world water crisis. Oh, and George Zimmerman isn't working as a security guard at a gun store, after all.
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