Innocent Detainee Sues to Prevent Destruction of Evidence He Was Tortured

Former Guantánamo detainee Binyam Mohamed has launched an urgent legal attempt to prevent the US courts from destroying crucial evidence that he says proves he was abused while being held at the detention camp . . . .

The image, now held by the Pentagon, had been put on his cell door . . . . because he had been beaten so badly that it was difficult for the guards to identify him.

. . . . The photograph will be destroyed within 30 days of his case being dismissed by the American courts – a decision on which is due to be taken by a judge imminently . . . .

[Mohamed] says he needs the image as a crucial piece of evidence to fight his case against US authorities for unlawful incarceration and abuse. "That is one piece of physical evidence that I know exists of my abuse," he says in the statement . . . .

After being kicked and punched, he says his guards . . . . "slammed me and my Qur'an into the fence." After he objected, he says, they "slammed me into the fence again. . . . They then strapped me into a restraint chair and cut off half my beard. They then performed the humiliating 'anal cavity search', although it was painfully obvious that there was nothing to find." . . . at one point he screamed and . . . this "made them redouble their efforts and my situation got worse."

He adds: "One [military guard] took the heel of my hand and pushed my nose up violently. One soldier pulled on my jaw. They slammed my forehead down on the concrete floor. One grabbed my testicles and punched me."

More at the UK Guardian.

"Free Trade" Helped Cause the Economic Crisis

Great discussion on HuffPo of "free trade." The problem isn't free trade of goods, it's that our jobs have been shipped to countries that don't have protections against worker and environmental exploitation. As Dave Johnson explains,

"Imagine a company in South Carolina that makes 20,000 pairs of shoes a week and distributes them to stores. Now, imagine that the company closes its South Carolina plant, opens a plant in a low-wage country, ships all the machines and raw materials there, ships back 20,000 pairs of shoes each week and distributes them to the same stores. Is that 'trade?' Are the raw materials sent out of the country an 'export?' Are the shoes brought back into the country an 'import?'

"The only thing that has been 'traded' in this scenario is American jobs traded for huge executive bonuses."

Meanwhile, foreign workers still can't afford the goods they're manufacturing, and we can't either because we've lost most of our decently-paid jobs. Without disposable income or equity, we masses can't continue to consume, and the economy grinds to a halt.

Sigmar Polke at Museum Ludwig

Wish I could go; failing that, you can see a few images at the museum's site.

How Lo Can WaPo Go?

"Washington Post publisher Katharine Weymouth said today she was canceling plans for an exclusive 'salon' at her home where, for as much as $250,000, the Post offered [healthcare and other] lobbyists and association executives off-the-record access to 'those powerful few' — Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and even the paper’s own reporters and editors.

"The astonishing offer was detailed in a flier circulated Wednesday to a health care lobbyist, who provided it to a reporter because the lobbyist said he felt it was a conflict for the paper to charge for access to, as the flier says, its 'health care reporting and editorial staff.'"

More here.

Thriller Headphones

Via Gizmodo (thanks, Ben!)

Leave Obama Alone!!!

(Thanks, closeupready!)

Bordeaux Porn

"[A]fter six years of investigations . . . during which no element was produced that could have fed the prosecution (the specialized unit for minors and the rectorship gave a favourable opinion) and after the attorney general of Bordeaux called for a not guilty decision in march 2008 [, a judge in Bordeaux has re-opened a decade-old child porn case against curators Marie-Laure Bernadac, Henry-Claude Cousseau, and Stéphanie Moisdon] . . . for having, within the exhibition entitled 'presumed innocent- contemporary art and childhood' . . . exposed 'violent and pornographic art works.'

* * * * *
"For the first time in France, two museum directors and a curator are to be tried in a criminal court for exhibiting works of art that have already been shown throughout the world or put on view since the Bordeaux exhibition in art shows that have not elicited the least unfavorable reaction from the public. The thinking that went into preparing the incriminated exhibition, focused on a major subject of art history, was developed collectively and was shared by the relevant state oversight authorities."

(Thanks, e-flux!) I believe people in Bordeaux probably have access to the internets; since I'm showing this pic, guess they'll have to indict me, too.

Elizabeth Warren on the U.S. Middle Class Since 1970 (Screwn)

This is long but worthwhile and quite watchable. If you're willing to take her mega-qualificiations as given, you can skip the first 5 min.