Yesterday, Colorado Public Radio preovided an update on the death of Christian Glass, which was in a short take on September 15th’s Open Thread. Who knew that (sadly) commonplace police outrage in rural Colorado would turn out to be an international incident? You see, we give birthright citizenship to anyone born on American soil. The UK and New Zealand probably do too, but they also give it to children of there citizens born anywhere in the world. Christian Glass had one parent from each of those countrues … so he had triple citizenship. So now both countries have some questions for the Clear Creek County Sheriff’s Office. Oops!
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Robert Reich – Are record levels of stress inside us — or outside us?
Quote – Studies show that women have nearly double the risk of depression as men. Black people also have higher stress levels — from 2014 to 2019, the suicide rate among Black Americans increased by 30 percent. Are women and Black people suffering from a “disorder,” or are they responding to reality? Or both? White men without college degrees are particularly vulnerable to “deaths of despair” from suicide, overdoses, and alcoholic liver diseases, with contributions from the cardiovascular effects of rising obesity, according to the American Council on Science and Health. Click through for article. As a person who has experienced clinical depression, controlled with medication, I suggest that both are real. And that stress anxiety/depression and clinical anxiety/depression do not respond to the same coping mechanisms. But also that external stress from an unhealthy society should certainly be minimized, and everyone would feel better if that could happen.
Mother Jones – Don’t Try Serving Ken Paxton With a Subpoena, Unless You Want to Get Shot
Quote – Paxton responded angrily to the Texas Tribune’s write-up of the incident on Tuesday morning, framing the encounter as a precautionary maneuver at a time when elected officials are being subjected to violent threats…. But if it was concern for the safety and well-being of his family that compelled Paxton to flee from a suspicious man with a manila envelope, it’s not really clear why his wife dealt with him. If anyone is familiar with what it’s like to be subpoenaed, it’s the scandal-plagued attorney general of Texas. Click through for story. Beau of the Fifth Column made a video on this incident also. Paxton must hate the Texas Tribune – it has a deserved reputation for honesty and reliability.
Yesterday, I set my alarm to get up today in time to hear the January 6 committee hearing (Fortuately I heard about the postponement – due to Ian – in time to un-set it.) I also, as usual, pre-posted today’s Open and Video threads. I’d like to point out that in the Video thread today there are two videos from Rachel – parts 1 and 2 from a detailed history and updates view of fascism (but not complete – the full video I saw is not private.) In her monologue, and then with David Corn, she gave a history of the last 100 years of fascism, not in every country, but in several. Corn made the point that that cadre of extremists is always present, in any society, which I have occasionally pointed out too, but he does it better and brings better receipts. I want everyone to know it’s there, because it as much information about fascism as you are ever likely to find in one place. If you are a member of YouTube and can sign in, and want to go deeper, this is the address. And finally, the underwear model was convicted on all five counts.
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Civil Discourse – The Oath Keepers Go To Trial
Quote – [Yesterday] morning, jury selection [began] in the case of the leader and four members of the Oath Keepers group, indicted on seditious conspiracy and other charges. The trial itself, with opening statements, is expected to begin later in the week, and could have serious implications for Trump. The Washington Post reports, “Prosecutors plan to call as many as 40 witnesses over a projected five-week trial, draw from 800 statements by those charged and summarize tens of thousands of messages, hundreds of hours of video footage and hundreds of phone call, location and financial records, according to pretrial proceedings.” Click through for everything you wanted to know about the Oath Keepers, and probabaly a lot that you never wanted to know. Thia has been long in the making, and will have profound effect – let’s hope for justice, not against it.
Law and Crime – Questionable Credibility of Two Key Witnesses in Matt Gaetz Probe May Lead to No Criminal Charges: Report
Quote – The Post explained the problems with what the ex-girlfriend allegedly revealed: “The 17-year-old at issue in the investigation was also on that trip, though by that time she was already 18 or older, people familiar with the matter have said. She has been a central witness in the investigation, but people familiar with the case said she is one of two people whose testimony has issues that veteran prosecutors feel would not pass muster with a jury.” The newspaper said prosecutors further believe Greenberg’s veracity would also cause serious problems at a hypothetical trial. Click through for article. If he is not going to be prosecuted, we certainly deserve to know why not. I would point out tat “questionable credibility does NOT necessarily mean the witnesses are not telling the truth. It means they are unlikely to convince a jury that they are telling the truth. I was on a Court Martial once where the prosecution’s main witness was “not credible.” When we came to deliberate, we all had a gut feeling the defendant was guilty as sin, but that the prosecution had not even come close to proving it. We had to acquit with nausea. I would not wish that experience on anyone. I might add the picture of Gaetz with this article makes one (at least me) want to jump through the page and punch him.
Glenn Kirschner – Trump’s secret grand jury litigation to stop aides from incriminating him & why it won’t work
Meidas Touch – BREAKING: Federal Court CITES Trump case and IMMEDIATELY DENIES Mike Lindell Search Warrant Motion (It takes Ben a while to get to the lede, but when he does, it’s delicious)
The Lincoln Project – How a Democracy Falls
Robert Reich – The Truth Behind “Self-Made” Billionaires
Armageddon Update – IMMIGRATION NATION!
Beau – Let’s talk about how Game of Thrones can change the world…. [Call me crazy, but I would recommend detective fiction – not what I would call crime fiction where the focus is on the crimes, but detective fiction where the focus is on analyzing and deducing to restore order.)
Yesterday, I went to see Virgil, who returns all greetings. I know he’s grateful to all of you for being there for me We were able to get in a little cribbage – the facility only has one deck of regular cards (I think they have a Uno set which has its own card in it, but that’s all) and they are not allowed to accept donations. There’s no board, so we don’t keep a running score – we are doing well if we remember whose deal it is – but it’s still fun. There is a large flat screen TV in the room, and today it was on (no sound) to the Chiefs-Colts game, about which the less said the better. The drive was easy enough both ways, and I got there and home safely.
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Mother Jones – An Insurrectionist Underwear Model Is Finally Having His January 6 Trial
Quote – Strand is the first insurrectionist “influencer” to go on trial, and is arguably the most fashionable and impeccably groomed January 6 defendant. His signature undercut hairstyle, with the top carefully gelled into a rooster’s comb, leather jacket, and aviator sunglasses made him stand out in the crowd of old bearded white men, other MAGA maniacs, the QAnon Shaman, and the cammo-garbed militia types. Click through for article. Yes, this is from last Wednesday, and he was supposed to testify Thursday, and by now the case has likely gone to the jury, but I can’t find any information on it.
Crooks & Liars – Hundreds Turn Out For Dying Boy’s Last Halloween Wish
Quote – Alex’s parents wanted to make his remaining time as meaningful as possible. They asked him if there was anything that he still wished to experience. His response: Halloween. Specifically, he wanted to see monsters. As a toddler, Alex had gone to a haunted house in Niagara Falls, his father said, and he desperately wanted to go back. His doctors cautioned the Hurdakises against traveling, urging them to remain close to home. Click through for story (and a video). President Joe always says, “I promise you, the time will come that what’s going to happen is six months will go by and everybody is going to think, well, it’s passed. But you are going to ride by that field or smell that fragrance or see that flashing image. You are going to feel like you did the day you got the news. But you know you are going to make it. The image of your dad, your husband, your friend. It crosses your mind and a smile comes to your lips before a tear to your eye. That’s how you know. I promise you, I give you my word, I promise you, this I know. The day will come. That day will come.” And when it does, this memory will be there for Alex’s family.
Experts in autocracies have pointed out that it is, unfortunately, easy to slip into normalizing the tyrant, hence it is important to hang on to outrage. These incidents which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them will, I hope, help with that. As a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone. These roughly translate as “unceasing,” “grudging,” and “vengeful destruction.”
War crimes. We know them when we see them. Or do we? Speaking as an aficionsdo of detective stires – the kind where you try to figure out who did it before the author tells you – when starting out to solve a simple crime (one victim, one criminal) you look for a break in the pattern. I think I can say without fear of contradiction that in a war zone, there are no patterns – certainly no patterns strong enought to look for a break in them. The author of today’s article is a war crime forensic investigator, who can tell you exactly what kind of evidence he looks for, and how convincing it has to be before a case can be made.
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Proving war crimes isn’t simple – a forensics expert explains what’s involved with documenting human rights violations during conflicts, from Afghanistan to Ukraine
The United Nations reports that at least 5,237 Ukrainian civilians have been killed in the Ukraine war – but other estimates place this figure at more than 10,000.
Ukraine, meanwhile, has started more than 16,000 investigations into suspected war crimes committed by Russians.
For me and my colleagues – who since 1998 have worked in securing forensic evidence of these types of crimes in Afghanistan, Guatemala and other places – it is apparent that identifying and collecting evidence of international crimes like killing civilians during conflict is beyond the capabilities and resources of local police crime scene teams, criminal investigators and prosecutors.
This means that in the case of the Ukraine war, a new, unbiased judiciary and investigatory organization will likely need to be set up to handle the claims and questions about tens of thousands of victims on all sides. This will take decades of work and cost a large amount of money, requiring the support of rich countries.
A mass grave in Dasht-e-Leili, Afghanistan, was investigated by Physicians for Human Rights experts, including the author, in 2002 and 2008. Stefan Schmitt/Physicians for Human Rights
Proving war crimes
War crimes, under international law, happen when civilians, prisoners of war, hospitals or schools – essentially anyone and anything that isn’t involved in military activities – are targeted during a conflict.
These prosecutions raise questions about how evidence is collected and handled to support these cases – and about credibility. Ukraine has a history of government corruption, and Donetsk is both not recognized internationally and is backed by Russia, which has a judicial system known to tolerate torture.
Previous recent conflicts that resulted in war crime allegations and investigations offer context for understanding the challenges in independently investigating them.
I investigate cases in which law enforcement, military and police are alleged to have committed crimes against civilians and are not held accountable for it. In many cases, these alleged crimes happen during a civil war, like the Guatemalan civil war in the late 1970s and early 1980s, or the Rwandan conflict and genocide in the mid-1990s.
This means that I often work with international organizations like the United Nations to travel to these places and document physical evidence of war crimes – take photographs, take notes, do measurements and draw sketches to illustrate a potential crime scene. The idea is that any other experts can pick up this evidence and reach their own conclusions about what happened there.
Crime scene investigators like me generally do not determine whether a war crime was committed. That is a decision reserved for the prosecutor or a judge who is given the evidence.
Shortly after the U.S. invaded Afghanistan in 2001, about 2,000 Taliban fighters surrendered to the Northern Alliance, an Afghan military coalition allied with the U.S. They later went missing.
An investigation determined that these prisoners might have suffocated or were killed in containers used to transport them. It was suspected that they were buried in a mass grave in Dasht-e-Leili, a desert area in northern Afghanistan.
In 2002, the United Nations invited a group of forensics experts from the nonprofit group Physicians for Human Rights to investigate this alleged mass grave. As part of this team, I documented heavy equipment tracks, human remains and personal items in this area.
Physicians for Human Rights exposed over a dozen bodies in a test trench, and autopsies by one of their forensic pathologists determined the cause of death was consistent with suffocation. Evidence of medical gloves on the surface of and inside the mass grave struck me as unusual, as it indicated that logistically prepared personnel had handled the remains of the dead. At the time, Afghans barely had any medical supplies to take care of their injured.
To me, it was indicative of the presence of foreign troops with the necessary supplies – such as medical gloves – at this site when the bodies were buried there. Considering that in late November 2001 the U.S. and its allies were searching for al-Qaida members, this might be a reasonable explanation for their presence.
In 2008, in a follow-up visit to the area, I discovered two large pits in the desert, indicative of the removal of any human remains that might have been buried there. Later analysis of satellite imagery provided evidence of a large-scale excavation using a backhoe and trucks, dating it to late 2006.
Everyone from former Afghan Vice President Rashid Dostum, also a warlord, to U.S. military and government experts offered different answers as to what happened there.
Since Ukraine is fighting Russia in an active war, it will not have the independence required to fairly investigate and prosecute potential war crimes cases.
That will require other countries and international groups to help set up an independent, unbiased organization to investigate the fate of victims on all sides of the war.
In March, the human rights branch of the United Nations also launched an international commission to investigate human rights violations in Ukraine. But the U.N. does not identify and return human remains to their families.
While the International Criminal Court is also investigating war crimes in Ukraine, this organization tends to focus on high-level cases that go after political leaders and is not tasked to provide answers to families of all victims.
These investigations will not extend beyond justice – meaning the arrest and prosecution of soldiers or political leaders.
War crimes involving massive numbers of casualties leave behind a multitude of surviving family members, all of whom have the right to know the fate of their loved ones. This goes for Ukraine as well as any other country where international crimes are committed.
Families also have the right to the truth about what happened. This requires an institution with the independence, staff, scientific resources, legal capabilities and money to reach this understanding.
============================================================== Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone, the events used as an example here happened during the Bush administration. As suggestive as the findings were, they were not sufficiently evidential to make a case, let alone press charges. So anyone who is still wondering why Bush and Cheney and Rumsfeld were never charged with war crimes can look here for at least partial answers.
It would be nice if war criminals – at least the most egregious – could always be brought to justice – but for more than a thousand years it has been a principle of justice that it is better for multiple guilty people to go free than for one innocent to suffer, and the rules of evidence have been written accodingly (the exact ratio, of course, has varied over the years. In Anglo-Saxon England it was four to one. The “Blackstone ratio,” determined at about the time of the Founding Fathers, is ten to one. Some have proposed as high as a thousand to one, and some as low as one to one.) Even if we don’t agree about the number, I think we mostly agree in principle. Even when we don’t like individual results (for example, it appears that the Matt Gaetz human trafficking case has an evidence problem – specifically a witness credibility problem.)
Glenn Kirschner – Appeals court reverses Judge Cannon’s ruling, FBI investigation of Trump/classified docs can resume
Meidas Touch – Furious Navy Vet SLAMS MAGA Group who BLOCKED Veteran Crisis Prevention Hotline
The Lincoln Project – Rally of Darkness
MSNBC – Trump Charges?: Anticipated Jan. 6 Report Hits #1 On US Book Chart Before It Is Released (Jamie Raskin is writing the actual report and David Remnick is the editor.)
Mrs.Betty Bowers – America’s Busiest Troll
Beau – Let’s talk about Trump getting exactly what he asked for….
