U.S. Wants Filmmaker's Suit Dismissed

[sugapablo]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IRAQ_AMERICAN_RELEASED?SITE=PAPIT&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=home.htm

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The U.S. government filed a motion Friday seeking to dismiss a lawsuit filed by an aspiring American filmmaker who spent two months in an Iraqi prison without being charged.

The American Civil Liberties Union of California filed the federal lawsuit in July on behalf of Cyrus Kar, 45, of Los Angeles. It alleges the filmmaker's detention violated his civil rights, the Geneva Convention and the law of nations. Defendants include Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and other military officials.

In response to the lawsuit, U.S. attorneys cautioned the court to carefully consider getting entangled in military operations overseas and said Kar cannot challenge the government's policies without "a realistic threat that he will again be subject to detention in Iraq by the United States military officers."

The lawsuit is the first civil case challenging detention policies in Iraq, said ACLU legal director Mark Rosenbaum, who called the government's response to the lawsuit troubling.

[Demit]

1. "...[the gov't's] position is that American citizens can be treated with impunity

by American officials without a recognition that the constitution applies."

Oh, god, PLEASE let November 7th be the beginning of the turnaround of this nightmare.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

2. Let me get this straight...

"We can fuck with you once but if there isn't a realistic chance that we'll fuck with you again, you're out of options."

:wtf:

[EFerrari]

6. i know! Cognate: I murdered you once but unless i murder you

again, nothin' you can do, pal.

[ms liberty]

3. I remember this case...

He was in Iraq doing a documentary about ancient Persia or ancient Persian kings or something - it was totally NOT a political work, it was HISTORY! And soldiers stopped a cab he was in, and found arms or something in the trunk, and decided he was a terrorist. I think he even had some kind of official paperwork on him saying who he was and what he was doing. He's an American citizen - and had been in the service, I think the Navy. This is an important case. K&R

[alfredo]

4. They found some washing machine timers in the trunk of the

cab. They belonged to the cab driver, not the film maker.

[ms liberty]

5. Thanks for the reminder! I thought it was something innocuous like that n/t

[alfredo]

7. The timers cn be used for bombs. So they could be

harmful. Still, they were the cab drivers, not the filmmakers.

[truthisfreedom]

11. washing machine timers? they use AC clock motors. you'd have to plug

them into line current to make them work...not very handy for roadside bomb-making.

[alfredo]

12. Could they be old mechanical timers?

[TexasLawyer]

8. some of the details

http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/International/story?id=1065736&page=2

<snip>

As he was transferred to American custody, Kar repeated that he was an American citizen and again asked to speak to the U.S. Embassy. "And I said, 'Listen, I'm a veteran of the U.S. Armed Forces. This is how you treat your own?' "

Once at the American detention camp, Kar was placed on the dirt floor, restrained with flexi-cuffs behind his back and left with a blanket and bottle of water. Around 1 a.m. he was led to an interrogation room and photographed.

Kar's group was shackled, blindfolded and driven to Tikrit, in northern Iraq. U.S. officials there decided to take them to the infamous Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, where Kar and his group say they were subjected to violence and humiliation.

<snip>

"Once we're inside the lobby, they make us face the wall, standing this time and they tell us to put our heads up against the wall. My head was about two inches from the wall and so he grabs my head and slams it against the cinderblock." Kar was taken to another room, but his cameraman was asked to remove his clothes while the assembled group of guards laughed at him.

[HuffleClaw]

9. 'a realistic THREAT' ????!!!!

MEEEP

wow, that is simply horrifying.

[williesgirl]

10. These criminals - not the defendant - must be STOPPED - Vote Dem on Tues - recommended