Posts by Brett Murphy

Brett Murphy is a third year law student at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and Business Manager (2007-08) of the JURIST Student Staff Association. He holds a BA in Government from Franklin & Marshall College.

Federal Court Throws Out Torture Lawsuit
Posted by Brett Murphy, Jurist Legal News and Research on February 14, 2008 at 6:49 PM.

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California dismissed a lawsuit against Jeppesen Dataplan Wednesday, ruling in favor of the U.S. government's motion to dismiss on state secret grounds. The U.S. Department of Justice had argued that the lawsuit, brought by the American Civil Liberties Union over Jeppesen's alleged role in the CIA's extraordinary rendition program, poses a risk to national security. The ACLU argued against the motion, saying that since the rendition program has already been made public, national security concerns are outweighed. The court held that because the lawsuit was based on alleged covert operations by the government, the subject matter itself is state secret and must be dismissed.

The ACLU filed the lawsuit last May, alleging that Jeppesen, a subsidiary of Boeing, knowingly supported direct flights to secret CIA prisons, facilitating the torture and mistreatment of U.S. detainees. The ACLU alleges that Jeppesen played a key role in the extraordinary rendition flights by providing a number of vital services including itinerary, route, weather, and fuel planning, as well as obtaining over-flight and landing permits from foreign governments. The ACLU was originally representing three of the five plaintiffs: Binyam Muhammad, currently being detained at Guantanamo Bay, Elkassim Britel, currently in a Moroccan prison, and Agiza, currently in an Egyptian prison. The two additional plaintiffs, who have alleged they were kidnapped by the CIA and tortured in Afghanistan, joined the lawsuit in August.

Reuters has more.

Olbermann on O'Reilly's Dumbledore, Gay Sex Obsessions: "Do As I Say, Not As I Fantasize" [VIDEO]
Posted by Logan Murphy on October 28, 2007 at 10:03 AM.

This post, written by Logan Murphy, originally appeared on Crooks and Liars

Bill O'Reilly is at it again. Just evidence number 43,293 that Billo is hurtling down the path to Crazy Town. Last month, he made racist statements about African Americans and now the Dumbledore "controversy" has his knickers in a twist. On Friday's Countdown Keith Olbermann and Air America Radio's Rachel Maddow could barely contain their laughter as they discussed his latest hissy fit.

The Falafel Guy used the brain in the giant head of his to concoct the theory that author J.K. Rowling is somehow trying give gays parity with heterosexuals and indoctrinate kids into gayness by revealing that the fictional character Dumbledore is gay. The Culture Warrior has been trying his best to get his guests to agree with him, but he's not having much luck -- even former comedian turned Fox whiner Dennis Miller wouldn't sign on to this latest nutbaggery.

Olbermann: "A month after his racist remarks about a New York restaurant, O'Reilly now coming out against tolerance a little more than four years after, according to the lawsuit from his former producer Andrea Mackris, BillO tried to talk her and a female friend of hers into performing homosexual acts while he was present. To paraphrase, the hypocrite mantra -- Do as I say, not as I fantasize."

Valerie Plame on "60 Minutes": "The President Is Not a Man Of His Word" [VIDEO]
Posted by Logan Murphy on October 22, 2007 at 5:59 AM.

This post, written by Logan Murphy, originally appeared on Crooks and Liars

Outed CIA covert operative Valerie Plame Wilson and her husband, Joe Wilson, gave an interview to Katie Couric on 60 Minutes. In the first segment, Plame Wilson spoke frankly about being betrayed by this administration, as well as her assessment of the damage done to the nation's security by revealing her identity.

But the second segment is where Couric goes off the rails and shows her flair for White House talking points. It's almost as if she implies that Plame Wilson should have expected the White House to out her because the work she did touched on the question that sent her husband, Amb. Joseph Wilson, to Niger.

COURIC: You never for a moment thought this could potentially jeopardize my career?

PLAME: It's called 'living your cover.' This had nothing to do with what I was doing. He was part of the debate.

COURIC: But admit it, it comes awfully close to what you were doing, even covertly. I mean, you were trying to ascertain if Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. He's writing an article saying 'it's really not valid, this one assertion.' I mean, can't you see how those two things might collide and in a very dangerous way?

Couric should be embarassed for her arsenal of GOP talking points disguised as an interview. Seriously, this is a covert agent telling you that national security was compromised and you think this is the kind of question that needed to be asked?

Can you understand how people just were turned off by that whole thing? They felt "Gee, maybe she's enjoying her celebrity a little too much."

She even at one point accused Valerie of being very partisan and Joseph Wilson of still seething... can you believe that hackery? Did it ever cross her mind to ask that of President Bush in her softball interview from Iraq? Of course not.

To the end, the Wilsons held strong to the truth and never backed down, even when the CIA made it difficult for her to publish her own book on the events, Fair Game, eventually redacting 10% of it.

Couric: "Do you think President Bush was in on this?"

Plame: "I don't know about that, but I, like most other Americans saw President Bush say on TV that he would fire anyone from his administration found to be involved in the leak of my name. It turns out, the president is not a man of his word."

Parents of 12-Year-Old SCHIP Recipient Speak Out Against Right Wing Attacks On Their Son [VIDEO]
Posted by Logan Murphy on October 16, 2007 at 6:54 AM.

This post, written by Logan Murphy, originally appeared on Crooks and Liars

Bonnie and Halsey Frost, with much the same grace and dignity shown by Shawn Hornbeck's parents after their son was victimized by Bill O'Reilly, tell Keith about dealing with the attacks, including death threats, and debunk all the lies that were spread about their family by the rabid right.

To bring this whole disgusting episode into perspective, Keith showed heartbreaking pictures of Graeme and his sister Gemma in the hospital shortly after their horrific accident -- bringing full circle the REAL ISSUE -- which is the SCHIP program that made it possible for the Frost children to get the care and ongoing therapy they need, and is so desperately needed by millions more American children.

How can you look on these poor, broken bodies after the car crash and be heartless enough to say they don't deserve the benefits they received? How can you look at those children hooked up to a hundred devices and tell their parents that they should lose their home, or their children deserve their fate? Never allow the Republicans to call themselves the pro-life party if they have no problem begrudging these children their right to life.

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

Countdown: Rep. Harman Gives More Details On Bogus Terror Threat On Capitol [VIDEO]
Posted by Logan Murphy on September 26, 2007 at 11:27 AM.

This post, written by Logan Murphy, originally appeared on Crooks and Liars

Following up on Monday night's Nexus of Terror & Politics report, Keith Olbermann talks with Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA) to get more details on the revelation that the Bush Administration used bogus intelligence in order to frighten lawmakers into voting for last August's expanded FISA bill. Harman says that after much digging she found the classified intelligence document in question and the document clearly stated that the intelligence community did not deem the source to be reliable.

Olbermann: "Nobody doubts the existence of terrorism or terrorists or the need to act on their existence, but at this point, is our freedom beginning to be or even now already at greater risk from terrorism, or from people who are exploiting the fact of terrorism to gain unprecedented and perhaps irreversible rights to spy and detain and rendition and everything else?"

Harman: "Well, I think this is a-a quite a scary period in our history and there are right answers. We can get surveillance right. I think most of us, maybe all of us in the House and in the Senate support surveilling people who are trying to harm us, but we can do that within the careful framework of FISA. FISA is not broken. What's broken is the view of executive power that some hold in the administration. They claim it trumps all laws and our constitution."

Father Who Lost Son In Iraq Allegedly Beaten By Members Of Pro-War Group
Posted by Logan Murphy on September 21, 2007 at 11:01 AM.

This post, written by Logan Murphy, originally appeared on Crooks and Liars

(click for larger version)

We brought you Adam Kokesh's incredible speech from last Saturday's Iraq protests in Washington D.C., and unfortunately, there was an incident that occurred that day that was so disgusting it defies description.

Via After Downing Street:

Here are photos of members of "Gathering of Eagles" who assaulted gold star father Carlos Arredondo in broad daylight in Washington, D.C., on September 15, 2007, throwing him to the ground and kicking him.

Account of what happened from Arredondo's wife By Mélida Arredondo:

Carlos Arredondo, 47 year old father of two sons, arrived in the nation's capitol on Monday, 09/10/07 to share a memorial he has made to honor for his eldest son, Alex. Carlos has visited thirty of the United States with the traveling memorial to his son Alexander. Lcpl. Alexander S. Arredondo, USMC was killed on 08/25/04. He was 20 years and 20 days old. The memorial consists of a casket, poster- size photographs of Alex when he graduated from boot camp, before his second tour in Iraq, lying in state at his wake, and a photo of Alex with his younger brother Brian.

Saturday, September 15, 2007 consisted of first a rally, a march towards the capitol and then a die-in. Carlos pulled the memorial along the march route approaching the rotunda near the capitol building. Several of the marchers requested for him to speak about the memorial where a crowd gathered around him. After finishing, several people walked with Carlos as he pulled the memorial. Several pictures of Alex dressed in his blues were attached to the display.

As Carlos passed counter protesters, one man ripped a picture of Alex from the memorial. Carlos leaped on the man to retrieve the picture. It was at that point that approximately five others all began to attack Carlos by kicking him in the head, legs, stomach and back.

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »