What's New
| Presdent Obama Donated $250,000 of Nobel Prize Money to Fisher House |
March 11, 2010, Washington, DC (New York Times) - President Obama made good on his promise to give his $1.4 million Nobel Prize money to charity, releasing the names on Thursday of the organizations that will benefit. |
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| Dr. Haley at UTSW Presents Compelling Brain Images Showing Gulf War Illness |
VCS Asks VA: Since UTSW Research Remains Vital to Understanding Gulf War Illness, Then Why Did a Handful of VA Staff in Washington Impede UTSW Contract and Then End Funding for UTSW? March 9, 2010, Salt Lake City, Utah (Science News) - Nearly two decades after vets began returning from the Middle East complaining of Gulf War Syndrome, the federal government has yet to formally accept that their vague jumble of symptoms constitutes a legitimate illness. Here, at the Society of Toxicology annual meeting, yesterday, researchers rolled out a host of brain images – various types of magnetic-resonance scans and brain-wave measurements – that they say graphically and unambiguously depict Gulf War Syndrome. |
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| March 9 VCS Weekly Update |
This week’s VCS update keeps you in the loop with news on issues you care about. One good change – our weekly news updates won’t ask you for money. Instead, our news updates point you to news articles at our web site. We hope you will read them and share the important facts with your friends. This week's update includes news about VA and suicides, VCS on CNN, our VCS FOIA campaign, VA automating Agent Orange claims, a waterboarding torture video, and Gulf War veterans' benefits. |
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| Federal Court Keeps Torture Lawsuit Against Rumsfeld Alive |
What's Waterboarding? Watch Video of Torture March 5, 2010, Chicago, Illinois (Associated Press) - A federal judge refused Friday to dismiss a civil lawsuit accusing former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld of responsibility for the alleged torture by U.S. forces of two Americans who worked for an Iraqi contracting firm. [Rumsfeld served at the Pentagon under former President George W. Bush.] |
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| Reducing Suicides: VA Adopts Policy on Emergency Care for Mental Health Patients |
This Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Directive provides policy to ensure the provision of safe and secure mental health services during all hours of operation for Emergency Departments (EDs) and Urgent Care Clinics (UCCs) in VHA |
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ACLU Sues For Memo On Constitutional Rights In Guantánamo Military Commissions
Written by Rachel Myers
Friday, 21 August 2009 09:27
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August 20, 2009 - The American Civil Liberties Union and the New York Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit today demanding disclosure of a legal memo from the Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) that reportedly addresses the constitutional rights that Guantánamo detainees could legally claim during military commission proceedings in the U.S. The memo, drafted in May 2009, also reportedly addresses the admissibility of statements obtained through coercion in those proceedings. The ACLU filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
"The Obama administration's continued support of the failed military commission system is at the center of much public attention and controversy," said Jonathan Hafetz, staff attorney with the ACLU National Security Project. "The release of the OLC memo on detainee rights would help to clarify this administration's position on military commissions and deepen the public's understanding of this important issue." David Barron, Acting Assistant Attorney General of the OLC, sent the memo to a Justice Department task force on May 4, 2009. The existence of the memo was made public in a June 29 Wall Street Journal article that asserted that the memo's conclusions "could alter significantly the way the commissions operate." The article also discussed the memo's position that federal courts would find coerced evidence inadmissible under the Constitution in military commission trials. "As the Obama administration prepares to close Guantánamo and considers the fate of the detainees who are still there, it is important to inform the American people about the procedures that the government will be utilizing in determining the legal status of the detainees and for the government to discuss openly its understanding of the constitutional principles that will bear upon such procedures," said Arthur Eisenberg, Legal Director of the NYCLU. "While it's encouraging that the administration is attempting to meet the deadline for closing Guantánamo, any new arrangement must respect American values of due process." The government failed to respond to the ACLU's original FOIA request, and today's complaint seeks to enforce that request and compel the government to turn over the OLC memo. Attorneys on the case are Hafetz, Eisenberg and Jameel Jaffer of the ACLU. The ACLU's FOIA complaint is available online at: www.aclu.org/safefree/detention/40788lgl20090820.html
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