Liz Cheney- douchebag McCarthyite

This nasty skank really takes the cake. She has the audacity to go after the lawyers who upheld their oath and provided the best representation they could for their clients.  She is a lawyer and therefore very familiar with the oath. The following video from Friday’s Countdown show, hosted by Lawrence O’Donnell, highlights military minds from the Bush administration that believe this skank is so full of shit…her damn eyes better be brown.

Folks on the right are also duly pissed about the video produced by Lizard Cheney’s website, Keep America Safe. One of the Powerline bloggers
Paul Mirengoff wrote a piece about this heinous horseshit. John Bellinger III, legal advisor to Condi Rice has also weighed in on this fuckery:

“I think it’s unfortunate that these individuals are being criticized for their past representation. It reflects the politicization and the polarization of terrorism issues,” Bellinger said. “Neither Republicans nor Democrats should be attacking officials in each other’s administrations based solely on the clients they have represented in the past.”

“We’ve had a long-standing tradition in our country for lawyers to represent unpopular causes, and they shouldn’t be attacked for doing so,” Bellinger added.

Peter D. Keisler, who headed the Civil Division of the Justice Department under the Bush43 administration, has also defended the attorneys in a piece printed by the NYTimes:

“There is a longstanding and very honorable tradition of lawyers representing unpopular or controversial clients,” Mr. Keisler said. “The fact that someone has acted within that tradition, as many lawyers, civilian and military, have done with respect to people who are accused of terrorism – that should never be a basis for suggesting that they are unfit in any way to serve in the Department of Justice.”

I have no problem with the request to name the attorneys, it’s called transparency, but what jerks my chain is the sliming of these attorneys as the “Al-Qaeda 7″. It’s a purely political motivation on the part of Cheney and her co-horts in slime. Even Ted Olsen, Bush43’s Solicitor General, and widower, who’s wife was killed on 9/11 and the lead attorney for The Shrub in Bush v Gore, wrote (pdf) a scathing piece in the Legal Times in 2007 about the witch hunt for lawyers that represented Gitmo detainees. HuffPo has more on Mr. Olsen’s pov along with the reprint of the LT piece. A few quotes from Mr Olsen  and Mr. Neal Katyal’s 2007 article, which rings as true today as it did in 2007:

“The ethos of the bar is built on the idea that lawyers will represent both the popular and the unpopular, so that everyone has access to justice. Despite the horrible Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, this is still proudly held as a basic tenet of our profession,” Olson wrote.

“When government officials are called ‘war criminals’ and when public-interest lawyers are called ‘terrorist huggers,’ it not only cheapens the discourse, it scrambles the dialogue. The best solutions to these difficult problems will emerge only when the best advocates, backed by weighty resources, bring their talents to bear. And the heavy work of creating solutions for these complicated issues can only move forward when the name-calling ceases.”

*Snip*

“One of the wisest things the administration did after Sept. 11 was to permit lawyers to do their jobs in defending detainees,” he and Katyal wrote. “From the enormously talented judge advocates general who directly represented Guantánamo detainees to the hundreds of private practitioners who took on individual cases, they have upheld our best principles by providing a vigorous defense. Patriotism is believing that the American system, not whim and insult, will reach the right results.” (emphasis mine)

That last line should be engraved in stone, in my humble yet vocal opinion.The ABA (American Bar Association) has weighed in on the video as well, from TPM Muckraker:

In response to the Liz Cheney Web ad that questions the loyalty of lawyers who have represented Guantanamo detainees, the president of the American Bar Association said it is “a divisive and diversionary tactic” to impugn “the character of lawyers who have sought to protect the fundamental rights of unpopular clients.”

In a statement to TPMmuckraker, ABA President Carolyn Lamm said that lawyers have an ethical obligation to “provide representation to people who otherwise would stand alone against the power and resources of the government–even to those accused of heinous crimes against this nation in the name of causes that evoke our contempt.”

Lamm added: “The American people understand this obligation, and the corollary principle that representing a client is a commitment to a legal system that requires justice, not to any one client’s political, economic, social or moral views or activities.”

So fuck you Liz Cheney and the burro you rode in on. If brilliant minds on the right lambast your fuckwitted ass for this politically-motivated shit…you sincerely deserve it..and I hope you rot in hell sooner than later, ya worthless cunt.

And take Charles Grassley with you.

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Sometimes the Stupid…. It Hurts

(Side note: this is, I believe, the first time I’ve awarded Boehner “the badge,” but his sleazy fearmongering has earned him the award. For those who don’t like “the badge,” go read some history. I suggest the “Reichstag Fire” as your starting point.)

The never-ending fearmongering of the Rushpubliscums sometimes reaches proportions of utter stupidity that are astounding.

I’ve got so many ways to pick this drunken asshat’s slurred nonsense apart that I’m not even going to try until after we read what he has to say this time. I’ll be kind, and assume Junket John has begun his New Year’s celebrations a hair early. If I were being less kind, I’d say he’s been celebrating the upcoming New Year’s Day for at least a couple of decades…

Republican leaders on Wednesday, seizing on the claim that ex-Guantanamo detainees were linked to the foiled Christmas Day terror attack, called on the White House to stop sending captives home to Yemen from the detention center in southeast Cuba.

“The terrorist plot to bring down Northwest Airlines Flight 253 exposed a near-catastrophic failure at every level of our government,” said House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio.

“We know the decision to close this prison has not stopped al Qaeda from plotting attacks on Americans, turning these terrorists over to other countries is not working, and we shouldn’t import them into the United States,” he added. “It’s time for the president to halt terrorist transfers to other countries, including Yemen, and to reevaluate his decision to close the prison at Guantanamo.”

Boehner’s remarks came on the heels of a written appeal to President Barack Obama from three leading leading senators — John “Geezer” McCain, R-Ariz., “Luscious” Lindsay Graham, R-S.C. and Joe LIEberman, W-UnitedHealth. — to suspend any planned releases of Guantanamo detainees to Yemen.

OK……. (1.) the Nigerian who tried to blow up that plane is NOT a Yemeni, or a Jordanian, Iraqi, Saudi, etc… so how would not releasing Gitmo detainees (most of who are innocent of anything beyond wrong place/wrong time) do anything to have stopped this hump?

(2.) How in the HELL are guys in a Supermax PRISON going to do anything HERE that they couldn’t do in Cuba? Is Boehner under the impression that American prison guards are somehow more susceptible to radicalized violent Middle Eastern dogma than Armed Forces personnel are? (hint: that stupidity got shredded in Fort Hood a few weeks ago, John. And the guy who got radicalized never met a freed Gitmo detainee, either.)

(3.) Gitmo was just ramping up when Richard Reid tried his stunt back in 2001. So WHO is responsible for Reid’s radicalization, seeing as how he lived in London (and surely never met an ex-Gitmo detainee?) And why is it that it was OK to try Reid in a CRIMINAL Court, and send him to an AMERICAN prison, but somehow because of this latest idiot we now have “proof” that we cannot either detain or try terrorists in the US?

(4.) Last but not least, why is it always me, or one of my felow evildoers of the left, who always ask these questions? Why do drunken, corrupt idiots like Junket John Boehner inevitably get a “talk stupid bullshit all you want to” ticket from the MSM, and NOBODY ever seriously questions anything they say? The media really needs to remember how they are hand-in-glove complicit in our involvement in Iraq for PRECISELY this sort of thing. Do they really have to wonder why fewer and fewer of us tune in?

Damn, the stupid has my head aching. I think I need a snort from John’s jug.

Crossposted at Reconstitution.

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Senate passes bill to allow Gitmo prisoners to be tried in US

The yahoo’s in the House passed their version last week. From Jurist:

The US Senate voted 79-19 Tuesday in favor of a bill permitting Guantanamo Bay detainees to be brought to the US for trial. The measure was part of a $42.7 billion spending bill for the US Department of Homeland Security.While the detainees still may not be released on US soil or housed in US jails, the bill requires the Obama administration to develop a plan for the anticipated closure date of Guantanamo Bay in January 2010. Navy Rear Admiral Tom Copeman has announced that he can clear the base of all detainees given only 10 days notice and appropriate logistical support. Meanwhile, a group of retired generals has launched a national ad campaign in support of closing the facility. Tuesday’s bill also extends the life of the E-Verify program, which permits employers to check on the immigration status of their new employees. The bill will now go to President Barack Obama for his signature.

This doesn’t mean the US can now house prisoners in the US proper..Oh hell no..the assholes in congress won’t allow that. My thought is they don’t want the scrutiny that would come with incarcerating them in US prisons.

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Uighurs Released From Guantanamo!

Cue The Scary Music…

(Crank up the volume and right click on ScaryMusic and open in a new tab for the full effect: scarymusic )

Shortly after 6:00 A.M. Thursday, four Chinese Muslims (Uighurs) were released from detention in the U.S. prison facility at Guantanamo Bay and resettled as free men in Bermuda (roughly 500 miles due east of Charleston, South Carolina) with guest worker status. The four men released Thursday were among 17 Uighurs who had been captured and held by the United States since 2001, despite being determined to not be enemy combatants early on.

It was also announced that the remaining 13 Uighurs will be resettled in the island nation of Palau, in the South Pacific, with Palau President Johnson Toribiong claiming a U.S. aid payment had nothing to do with the decision.

As reported by the Associated Press report in Thursday’s New York Times:

Bermuda Premier Ewart Brown said the men will be allowed to live in Bermuda, a British territory in the Atlantic, initially as refugees but they would be permitted to pursue citizenship and would have the right to work, travel and ”potentially settle elsewhere.”

Brown said negotiations with Washington over settling the Uighurs began last month and he had no security concerns because the men had been cleared by U.S. courts…

[Paulau President]Toribiong said the Uighur detainees from China’s arid west would start their new lives in a halfway house to see how they acclimatize to his tropical archipelago west of the Philippines…

Beijing said Thursday that all 17 Uighurs are terrorists and should be handed back to China. Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said China ”opposes any country taking any of these terrorist suspects.”

Abdul Nasser, one of the four detainees who landed in Bermuda early Thursday morning, issued a statement through his lawyers, saying: ”Growing up under communism we always dreamed of living in peace and working in free society like this one. Today you have let freedom ring.”

Meanwhile scared, ignorant, paranoid, marginalized pawns of the conservative ideologues, from the back woods of Maine to the streets of Wasila, Alaska, are filling their larders, breaking out their ammunition, locking their doors, battening down their hatches, booby trapping their front doors, and hiding in their moldy, dark bedroom closets, with just the useless, cynical right wing racist screamers like Rush Limbaugh Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, or Michael Savage on their portable radios and portable TV’s to give them their daily dose of lies and twisted history, stoking their fears and paranoia, while keeping them ignorant of the truth.

What might happen next? Likely eventual adjudication and disposition of the remaining Guantanamo detainees, (despite any amount of political posturing or delaying tactics or fear mongering ginned up) some may end up in American federal penal custody, some may find themselves deported to other countries where they may be incarcerated there, or maybe not. What must happen, is that what ever form of adjudication and ultimate disposition results for each detainee, it must be done under the light of day, and according to the rule of law and the ethical values of our justice system.

Will those detainees removed from Guantanamo eventually find their way to Main Street, U.S.A, and wreck havoc and terror upon Americans? Only in the minds of Dick Cheney and those who perform as his stooges. What is probably statistically guaranteed is that another lunatic fanatic, such as Timothy McVeigh, Theodore Kaczynski, John Allen Muhammad, or James W. von Brunn will surface sooner or later, another domestic terrorist from within our borders, and strike against his or her peace loving, law abiding neighbors, before any foreign initiated threat may harm us at home.

Let us not succumb to fears based upon ignorance, ignorance caused by the withholding of all known facts by devious, dissembling, lying, criminal government officials (whether former or current officials). We must require our government to lay out everything it knows truthfully about the remaining detainees, in an open, transparent manner, and then follow the rule of law in dealing with each remaining detainee. Let the chips fall where they may.

And while we are at it, let us not overlook what the release of four former U.S. prisoners, four Uighurs who’s crime was that they tried to seek a better life, outside of China, have now been unleashed upon the Bermudian people:

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Dancing With The Pols In Vegas & DC

Readers may remember that I called out Harry Reid’s ludicrous comments last week relating to his contention that he was withholding approval of funding for the shutdown of the Guantanamo detention facility and subsequent transfer of the prisoners because he did not want terrorists released to (in his telling of it) roam the streets of the United States:

We will never allow terrorists to be released into the United States…

We don’t want them around the United States…

I’m saying that the United States Senate, Democrats and Republicans, do not want terrorists to be released in the United States. That’s very clear.

[Reporter's question: No one’s talking about releasing them. We’re talking about putting them in prison somewhere in the United States.]

Can’t put them in prison unless you release them.

[Reporter's question: Sir, are you going to clarify that a little bit? …]

I can’t make it any more clear than the statement I have given to you. We will never allow terrorists to be released in the United States.

When I commented on this last week, it was my contention that Reid’s words, and handling of the Guantanamo issue were simply an indication of his political pandering, that his response to the issue was motivated by his fear of a small segment of the electorate that might be the swing voters who could prevent or facilitate his return to the Senate after his current term expires. It was my contention that Senator Reid was not standing up like an honorable, courageous leader, working for fairness and justice, working for the best interests of the United States, but was cynically responding in a manner that would (in his mind) prolong his political career.

It seems, at least to this skeptic’s eyes, that Senator Reid, is in fact, still practicing his political pandering, just changing his dance steps to exploit the current audience. It was reported by NickBaumann writing in Mother Jones and Marc Ambinder in The Atlantic that in a segment video taped this past Tuesday for Jon Ralston’s “Face to Face” television interview program in Las Vegas, that Reid has begun to alter his view of the prisoner situation:

Reid, who has been criticized for his contradictory positions on Guantanamo Bay, said some prisoners will be put in maximum security prisons on U.S. soil, emphasizing the safety of those facilities:

“A maximum security prison in the United States, there has never been a single escape.”

JR: “You think eventually the plan is going to be to put them in maximum security prisons here in this country, correct?”

I think some. Keep in mind, Jon, there’s so many different issues. There’s no question that a number of these people who are there are not guilty of anything. The Uighurs, these are a group of Muslim Chinese who are guilty of nothing. They were arrested, put in there. They are there. They are doing nothing. We’re going to have to find someplace to put them. We can’t send them back to China. Should they go into a maximum security prison? Probably not.”

Has Reid had a real change of heart? Not likely, more likely it is politically expedient this week to soften his stance, given that President Obama traveled to Las Vegas this past Tuesday to give Reid a little fund raising help, as reported by Nick Baumann in Mother Jones:

President Barack Obama is scheduled to visit Nevada on Tuesday to participate in a Las Vegas fundraiser for Sen. Harry Reid, who hopes to raise $25 million to fend off possible GOP challenges to his 2010 reelection campaign. The trip coincides with a sudden—and convenient—change of heart by Reid on the thorny issue of what to do with Guantanamo Bay detainees once the facility is shuttered.

Nothing fundamental has changed in Reid’s outlook, he just changed up his dance steps, to give the impression that he is a team player with the president, but in reality Reid is just dragging his feet, and through his leadership as the Majority Leader, dragging the feet of his Democratic Senate colleagues about facing the reality that the Guantanamo detention facility will be closed, and adjudication and ultimate disposition of the prisoners will occur in a manner transparent to Americans and the entire world. It is time for Reid to stop dancing around, take a stand with the president, and with what is the right thing to do in order to correct some of the mistakes our country made while under the influence of the previous, criminal administration.

(The image of Reid at the top of this post is the same image as used last week, only I felt it appropriate to put a frown on Reid’s face, as he can’t be too happy, having to learn so many dance steps.)

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Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas & DC

Harry Reid was born (1939) and raised in Searchlight, which is a small mining town in Clark County, Nevada, roughly 58 miles southwest of Las Vegas, which also is a part of Clark County.  Reid’s home town, where the gold mines have been dormant since the 1950’s, had a population of 576 according to the 2000 Census.  Overall, Nevada had a population estimated at 1,998,257 in 2000, and Clark County with 68.85% of the total state population, concentrated around Las Vegas, had 1,375,765 residents.

In the 2000 Census the total population of the United States was calculated as 281,421,906 residents.  Using these figures, Democrat Harry Reid shares with his Senate colleague Republican John Ensign, a constituency that comprises .007% of the total population of the country, and 68.85% of those constituents live in the greater Las Vegas area.  In January of 2009 the Nevada secretary of state reports there were 542,902 registered Democrats (44% of the state electorate), 438,747 registered Republicans (36% of the state electorate) and 252,916 registered Independents or other (20% of the state electorate).

Reid has held elective office since 1967, as a member of the state Assembly from 1967-1971, serving as Lieutenant Governor of Nevada from 1971-1975, Chairman of the Nevada Gaming Commission (a non-elective position appointed by the governor) from 1977-1981, Member of Congress from 1983-1987; United States Senator 1987-present.  Reid assumed office as the Majority Leader of the United States Senate in January of 2007.

All of this history clearly establishes that Harry Reid has enjoyed a long and successful career as a professional politician, Reid has established himself as being astute and well versed in the “rules of the political game” and used his knowledge and talent to achieve the most powerful position in the United States Senate.  Reid’s history will also explain why he has, up to this point, acted as a “road block” to the will of the majority of the people in the United States, including the president of the United States, in our desire to close the Guantanamo detention facility and place the remaining detainees in the prison system on American soil.  Harry Reid has behaved as if he were a pawn of the fear mongering former Vice President Cheney with the twisted logic he demonstrated this past Tuesday when confronted by reporters during a press conference:

We will never allow terrorists to be released into the United States…

We don’t want them around the United States…

I’m saying that the United States Senate, Democrats and Republicans, do not want terrorists to be released in the United States. That’s very clear.

[Reporter's question: No one’s talking about releasing them. We’re talking about putting them in prison somewhere in the United States.]

Can’t put them in prison unless you release them.

[Reporter's question: Sir, are you going to clarify that a little bit? …]

I can’t make it any more clear than the statement I have given to you. We will never allow terrorists to be released in the United States.

Does any rational, thinking person believe that closing down the Guantanamo detention facility means that any of those prisoners held there would simply be turned loose, allowed to roam free in the United States? Of course not! When the Guantanamo detention facility is finally shut down, all of those detainees previously held there, will already have been transferred, in a secure manner, to another, appropriately secure prison facility in the United States. Does anyone think that the president of the United States, the secretary of defense, the entire military establishment, the Justice department, the U.S. Marshall’s Service and the U.S. Bureau of Prisons are stupid?

Besides the draft dodging Dick Cheney, who was part of an administration that totally dropped the ball and allowed the 9/11 attacks to occur, and subsequently has been scared shitless, Harry Reid believes that a significant segment of the electorate in Nevada, can make or break any future Senate campaign that Harry would mount, and Harry is scared shitless about that.  Reid believes that a segment of the electorate, across the board, including Democrats, Republicans and Independents are apparently stupid, clueless, and scared beyond their wits of those “terrorist devils”.  Reid is particularly sensitive to the 20% of the Nevada electorate who are registered as Independents or Others, that 20% can make or break any Senate race that Reid would enter and he is pandering to a group of voters that in his assessment may be close to the paranoid fringe, not so he can serve the people, but so he can further his political career.

Harry Reid is allowing .0014% of the United States population (Nevada represents .007% of the U.S. population, and Independent voters in Nevada represent less than one fifth of that population) to sway how he is leading the United States Senate in responding to the issue of the Guantanamo detention facility and the detainees currently held there, bowing to the fear spread by the previous, negligent administration, and the paranoia of the last remaining, vociferous remnant of a negligent and arguably criminal administration.

Dick Cheney is spinning his tales of  national security and terror in fear for his own, cowardly corpus, afraid that when the entire truth is revealed, he could find himself in detention.  Harry Reid is acquiesing to what he perceives as the power of Cheney and a very small minority segment of the population in order to insure his tenure in office, more interested in his political career, than he is interested in making the difficult, but honorable and pragmatic decision to begin the process of shutting down a symbol of  justice gone awry, a symbol of an incompetent, politically driven American government making decisions based upon fear and ignorance, which have delayed justice and which have destroyed America’s standing as a leader among nations in the pursuit of liberty, freedom and justice.

Harry Reid has had a long run in his political career, achieved higher office than most people would dream about, as Majority Leader of the Senate is bringing home an annual salary of $193,400 plus benefits, and is fully vested in the federal employee retirement plan.  If Reid were to retire this year, he could draw as much as 80% of his Senate salary, for life.  Senator Reid has an opportunity now to stand up, like an honorable, courageous leader,  and rather than giving in to his fear of losing office, demonstrate the character and fortitude to stand up to the ignorant fear mogers, regardless of the potential impact on his political career.  It would be far better for Senator Reid to risk ending his political career today, if it is captive to the paranoid fringe, and stand up like a true patriot and support President Obama’s efforts to shut down the Guantanamo detention center and place the detainees in other, appropriate, secure locations, within the continental United States.  Stop being an impediment to a process that will lead to ultimate justice and resolution of the problems created by a previous, criminal administration, which captured and held captive people who have become pawns in a political game.  Let the current, honest administration do what they have pledged to do, and begin to turn the corner on a nightmare that was largely based upon self-fulfilling delusions.

Even if it means returning to your roots in Searchlight, leave behind the fear Senator Reid, and you will lose our loathing.

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Obama’s National Security speech- May 21st

I found his speech lacking in a plan. I found myself comparing him to Bush43 in regard to how he skated around several of the issues, all of which are major issues for America. I was disappointed but will of course give him his kudo’s for another grand speechifying moment..it just lacked substance.

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They are not above outright lying to us.

And that fact just totally pisses me the hell off. The obvious, blatant lies being spewed by The Big Dick Cheney^TM, Boss Limbaugh, Michael Steele, Boehner, et. al. are just incredibly disingenuous..and outright fuckery. Cheney used a noun, a verb and 9/11 over 20 times this morning during his stint.

I missed The Big O’s speechifying this morning..but my dumb ass caught TBDC in all his glory. MSNBC showed Cheney’s entire speechifying at that massage parlor known as AEI.

The Ball n’ Chain^TM asked me to find something to do…away from the house for awhile. I was that bitchy after watching Cheney lie his ass off.

So I went out and about for a while, running household errands. But when I got home..Cheney and Obama were still on my boob tube. Tweety is now proselytizing about both of them along with former CIA spook Jack Rice, Lawrence ODonnell and that fucktard Pat Buchanan.

Larry looks like he is gonna have a stroke listing all the lies that Cheney told at AEI this morning. I know that feeling too after watching TBDC this morning. It’s hazardous to one’s health to watch that fucker for more than 60 seconds I think.

I am just not in the mood for these guys today. I am going to find a baseball game to watch until the Lakers game starts.

Because these fearmongering fuckwits just drive me to scream and holler like a mental patient.

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Gitmo lawyer reassigned after filing complaint

The assholes running the kangaroo court at Guantanamo are still screwing around with the truth, inspite of having a new Commander in Chief. From Jurist:

The US Navy on Friday reassigned Lieutenant Commander William Kuebler, a military lawyer who had been in charge of defending Guantanamo detainee Omar Khadr, after Kuebler filed a formal complaint against a military official overseeing the case. Kuebler had worked on the case for two years before he was fired after alleging that the military’s chief Guantanamo defense lawyer, Colonel Peter Masciola, had a conflict of interest in overseeing the case. Kuebler said Masciola should be removed from the case because Masciola said Khadr should also face civil liability for the alleged killing of a US soldier, despite his role overseeing Khadr’s defense. Khadr is the only Canadian citizen currently being held in Guantanamo, and Canadian officials have said they may investigate the circumstances surrounding Kuebler’s removal.

Kuebler has long criticized Masciola’s handling of the case, and in February said that he had prompted an investigation of the defense team’s ethics based on Masciola’s leadership. In January, a US intelligence official said in pre-trial testimony that Khadr admitted he threw a grenade that killed a US soldier in 2002. He has been charged with murder, attempted murder, conspiracy, providing material support to terrorists, and spying. In January, US President Barack Obama ordered Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to halt all military-commission proceedings involving Guantanamo detainees pending a review of their detentions. That month, a military judge granted the Obama administration’s request for a continuance of Khadr’s case until May 20.

Khadr was 15 years old when he was tossed in Gitmo and the key thrown away. He is now in his 6th-friggin-year of being held at Guantanamo. Not only was this kid renditioned..he was also tortured. He has spent a quarter of his life behind bars in Guantanamo.

What kind of people torture children? What do they tell themselves so they can look in the mirror each morning?

Related articles by Zemanta

• Omar Khadr’s defence lawyer fired (cbc.ca)
• Robert Gates follows through on his promises to reform the Pentagon. (slate.com)

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Guantanamo, Iraq and Iran — a digest

Attorney General Eric Holder is indicating that he is reluctant to examine detainee treatment under the Bush administration. This followed the publication of information about a 2007 International Red Cross report containing detainee interviews that claimed torture. Holder did say that he would be bound by “wherever the law and the facts take” the DOJ, noting once again that they do not want to criminalize policy differences. The DOJ has recently had discussions with European officials about taking some of the detainees. The AG reported that they are looking who and what method might be used to try other detainees, suspected of crimes. This comes from CQ Politics of 3/18.

The Obama administration’s new definition of terrorists looks a lot like the old one, says Christopher Weaver, writing for ProPublica on 3/17. The administration is no longer using the phrase “war on terror” and now, “enemy combatant.” In a detainee habeas corpus case, the DOJ did not substantially change the claim to hold suspected terrorists, as it is tied to the 2001 Congressional resolution known as the AUMF. New rules will still have to be adopted. To quote the article’s conclusion:

The filing is littered with ambiguous phrases like “private armed groups” and a “novel type of armed conflict” instead of “enemy combatants” and the “war on terror.” The scrapping of martial lingo backs away from the Bush-era argument that asserts the commander in chief’s right to lead the military independently from Congress. However, in a press release the Justice Department explained that the latest definition still relies on the international laws of war as they apply to a 2001 congressional resolution that authorized the president to use military force.

“They’re recognizing a right to detain,” Madeline Morris, a Duke law professor who helped prepare a major brief to the Supreme Court on behalf of several detainees. “They’re recognizing that that right is not governed by existing [laws of war],” in these cases, and that new rules will need to be articulated.

What they’re not doing, so far, is showing their hand, our experts agree. “In every way, it’s better than the old definition,” said Mariner, the Human Rights Watch expert. “It’s just not substantially different.”

Several Republican senators are attempting to derail the nomination of Christopher Hill as the new Ambassador to Iraq, according to CQ Politics (3/17/09). Led by Senator Sam Brownback (R-Kansas), five senators sent a letter to President Obama urging the withdrawal of Hill’s name from consideration. Brownback has also threatened to but a hold on the nomination. The others are Jon Kyle, John McCain, Lindsey Graham, James Inhofe and Christopher Bond.

Just exactly how to engage with Iran was the subject of a very interesting analysis by Adam Graham-Silverman of CQ Politics on 3/16. The headline points to a “just right approach.” Dennis Ross is Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s special adviser on the Persian Gulf and Southwest Asia. In addition to Ross, Richard Haas, Senator Kerry, who chairs the Foreign Relations Committee, and Zbignew Brzezinski also weighed in with opinions. It is a good read. To quote further:

The administration’s review of U.S. policy toward Iran could be completed this week and will have to provide answers to some pressing questions, from what concessions and pressure the United States can bring to the table to what kind of Iranian nuclear program it can accept

In conclusion, here are a couple of excerpted paragraphs regarding the Middle East from my most recent CQ Behind the Lines newsletter by David C. Morrison:

Courts and rights: . . . another Post piece has the ACLU calling for an independent prosecutor to investigate CIA torture allegations. . . Old terror case files are being dusted off as the Obama administration considers prosecuting high-profile Guantanamo Bay detainees in civilian courts, focusing on pre-9/11 crimes, AP reports. . .

Over there: . . . “What failed in Iraq, fails in Afghanistan,” The Strategy Page flatly concludes — as The Long War Journal sees two Taliban leaders denying recent reports that their leader is in peace negotiations with the Afghan government. The White House is considering expanding strikes inside Pakistan against Taliban power centers beyond the tribal areas currently targeted, The New York Times reveals.

See also Behind the Links, for further info on this subject.

Carol Gee – Online Universe is the all-in-one home page for all my websites.

Technorati tags: news middle-east iran iraq guantanamo DOJ>

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What is our responsibility?

House Judiciary Committee Chairman, John Conyers (D-Mich), posted a must-read at The Huffington Post yesterday titled “Our Responsibility#.” In his excellent and important piece he discussed the various possibilities for actions to hold the Bush administration accountable for its misdeeds. Rep. Conyers begins:

. . . the question remains how best to respond to the severe challenge posed to our constitutional structure, and to our national honor . . . and in particular its national security programs. Faced with a record of widespread warrantless surveillance inside the United States, brutal interrogation policies condemned by the administration’s own head of the Guantanamo Bay military commissions as torture, and flawed rendition practices that resulted in innocent men being abducted and handed to other countries to face barbaric abuse, what actions will we take to meet our commitment to the rule of law and reclaim our standing as a moral leader among nations?

Closing Guantanamo Bay – was a very important start to redressing the damage done to the United States during the previous administration. It was one of the first actions taken by President Obama after his inauguration, according to ProPublica: “Obama Begins to Fulfill Gitmo Promise” (1/22/09). To quote:

President Obama has just signed a series of executive orders essentially dismantling the former administration’s detention system for terror suspects. Top among those orders is a directive to close Gitmo “no later than one year from now.”

Closing this offshore detention facility will prove to be very difficult, according to those who have been thinking about how to do it. Many on both sides of the question wonder just how much is possible, including Politico.com, who headlined, “Why the Gitmo policies may not change“ (1/23/09). To quote the 6 signs seen by skeptical author Josh Gerstein:

1. Everyone has to follow the Army Field Manual — for now . . . 2. Obama ordered a 30-day review of Guantanamo conditions—by the man currently responsible for Guantanamo. 3. Obama vowed no torture on his watch, but force-feeding and solitary confinement apparently continue at Guantanamo for now. 4. The vast majority of detainees in American custody may see no benefit from Obama’s orders. 5. The orders downplay the possibility that some prisoners might be set free in America. 6. Military commissions are shut down…. for now.

One of the most vexing problems is what to do with all the suspects who seem too dangerous to release. Already many in Congress are saying NIMBY, (not in my back yard). AfterDowningStreet asks, “Should “Homeland Security” Set Up Detention Camps on Military Bases?*” (1/28/09).

Legally speaking — Another ironic reality has to do with how the new administration will represent the interests of the U.S. government in all of the upcoming court cases involving detainees. Under a change of leadership the government’s representations in court may not change as we would have assumed. Politico.com has the story: “Obama’s lawyers set to defend Yoo” (1/28/09). To quote:

. . . now President Obama’s incoming crew of lawyers has a new and somewhat awkward job: defending Yoo in federal court. Next week, Justice Department lawyers are set to ask a San Francisco federal judge to throw out a lawsuit brought against Yoo by Jose Padilla, a New York man held without charges on suspicion of being an Al Qaeda operative plotting to set off a “dirty bomb.”

. . . That’s not all. On Thursday, Justice Department lawyers are slated to be in Charleston, S.C., to ask a federal magistrate there to dismiss another lawsuit charging about a dozen current and former government officials with violating Padilla’s rights in connection with his unusual detention on U.S. soil, without charges or a trial

Torture — is probably the easiest to see as outrageous, unlawful, not what the United States is about, etc. The world is not shy about pointing this out to us. For example, from Buzz Flash: comes the report that “Bush, Rumsfeld should be pursued for torture: UN rappporteur*” (1/20/09). See also, The Raw Story#. To quote:

“Judicially speaking, the United States has a clear obligation” to bring proceedings against Bush and Rumsfeld, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture Manfred Nowak said, in remarks to be broadcast on Germany’s ZDF television Tuesday evening.

And the majority of professional interrogators are not shy, at least not since January 20, in telling us that torture simply does not work well in obtaining credible intelligence information. Here is a good illustration from Yahoo! News: “Obama says no to torture; interrogators say yes to Obama#” (1/23/09). The story explores the fact that many professional interrogators welcome President Obama’s decision.

Intelligence gathering – is necessary in order to protect the citizens of the United States from its enemies. During the period before the attacks of 9/11/01 the intelligence gathered may not have been well analyzed or well shared among those who needed it to keep us safe. According to The Raw Story, “PBS [said]: NSA could have prevented 9/11 hijackings#” (1/27/09). To quote:

The super-secretive National Security Agency has been quietly monitoring, decrypting, and interpreting foreign communications for decades, starting long before it came under criticism as a result of recent revelations about the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program. Now a forthcoming PBS documentary asks whether the NSA could have prevented 9/11 if it had been more willing to share its data with other agencies.

Intelligence gathering has, up until the summer of last year, been covered by the civil liberties protections of the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Because the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act was changed, and the companies assisting the government to spy on its own citizens were immunized from suit, we are not guaranteed protection from unreasonable search and seizure of much of our private information. Recent revelations are covered in this piece from The Raw Story: “Whistleblower: NSA spied on everyone, targeted journalists#” (1/21/09) To quote:

Sen. Rockefeller believes NSA may have spied on him; Ex-NSA analyst believes program a remnant of ‘Total Information Awareness’ . . .

Former National Security Agency analyst Russell Tice, who helped expose the NSA’s warrantless wiretapping in December 2005, has now come forward with even more startling allegations. Tice told MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann on Wednesday that the programs that spied on Americans were not only much broader than previously acknowledged but specifically targeted journalists.

. . . “In one of the operations that I was in, we looked at organizations, just supposedly so that we would not target them,” Tice told Olbermann. “What I was finding out, though, is that the collection on those organizations was 24/7 and 365 days a year — and it made no sense. … I started to investigate that. That’s about the time when they came after me to fire me.”

Senator, now President, Barack Obama voted for the FISA bill that granted immunity to the telecoms and that stripped much of the civil liberties protection out of the surveillance statutes. I had hoped that his election would remind him that he is an expert in constitutional law, and that the warrantless domestic surveillance now in place is, in my opinion, unlawful. But it does not appear to be the case. CQ Politics reported that, “Blair backs retroactive immunity for companies under FISA overhaul.” To quote:

President Obama’s choice for director of national intelligence says he supports continuing Bush administration efforts to provide retroactive legal immunity to companies being sued for their alleged role in the National Security Agency’s warrantless surveillance program. . . . Blair was unequivocal in answers posted on the committee Web site to written questions after the hearing.

“Do you believe that those private partners who assisted the government should be given civil liability protection?” Christopher S. Bond of Missouri, the ranking Republican on the panel, asked Blair in the written questions.

“Yes,” Blair answered. “The terms and conditions of that civil liability protection are spelled out in the FISA Amendments Act.”

. . . Although Blair could hold sway over the matter, [Attorney General Eric] Holder is the official who would take any court action on retroactive immunity.

CQ – Behind the Lines has more on these issues:

(1/22/09) — As one of its last acts, the Bush administration asked a federal judge late Monday night to stay enforcement of a ruling that would keep alive a lawsuit testing presidential authority to eavesdrop on Americans without warrants, Threat Level’s David Kravets recounts.
. . . In narrowly affirming the constitutionality of warrantless surveillance, a secret intel court relied on an incomplete and likely misleading factual record, Secrecy News has Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., alleging.(1/26/09) The Obama administration “fell in line with the Bush administration” last week when it urged a federal judge to set aside a ruling in a closely watched domestic wiretap case, Threat Level’s David Kravets recounts.

Unitary Executives and secrecy — make for the kind of lawlessness that worries a lot of people, including Chairman John Conyers (above). But our new President is operating in a much more open style than former President Bush. Transparency has been his watchword. Perhaps a combination of pragmatism, determination to gather usable intelligence, and a willingness to commit to transparency explains his FISA stance. He may be thinking that, since he is having to have everything out in the open (transparency) then we citizens should be willing to live that way, also. But that means that we are forced to trust the government (even his good government) with all of our private information. That includes credit card records, library records, phone conversations, e-mails, and medical records. And as a civil libertarian, my responsibility is not to give up on this fight. On this one the President is wrong and I will remain a member of the loyal opposition regarding these issues.

Do not get me wrong, on balance I am delighted that we have such a wonderful new President. So I will go back and remind myself of the way it was until he came into office. ProPublica:“Obama reverses Bush’s executive privilege claim over documents” (1/21/09), making open records advocates very happy. ProPublica has the story regarding “Bush’s Secret Counterterrorism Law Book—and the Demands to Release It” Related: “The missing Memos.”

Reference: The Missing Memos,” a comprehensive interactive list (1/28/09). To quote the list description:

The Bush administration’s controversial policies on detentions, interrogations and warrantless wiretapping were underpinned by legal memoranda. While some of those memos have been released (primarily as a result of ACLU lawsuits), the former administration kept far more memos secret than has been previously understood. At least three dozen by our count. The decision to release them now lies with President Obama. To help inform the debate—and inject an extra dose of accountability—we’re posting the first comprehensive list of the secret memos. (The ACLU first compiled a list, which ProPublica verified and expanded on.

Hat Tip Key: Regular contributors of links to leads are “betmo*” and Jon#.

(Cross-posted at The Reaction.)

My “creativity and dreaming” post today is at Making Good Mondays.

Technorati tags: news news and politics politics domestic surveillance national intelligence torture guantanamo

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Obama signs executive order to close Gitmo, end torture.

Oh Happy Day! He just finished signing the executive order to close Gitmo within one year of today. He also signed an E.O that disallows torture of prisoners. From MSNBC:

Moving quickly to reverse his predecessor’s policies on the treatment of terror suspects, President Barack Obama on Thursday signed an executive order to shut down the Guantanamo Bay prison within a year.

He also signed an executive order to require that all U.S. interrogations of terror suspects must now conform to the U.S. Army Field Manual, a move meant to restrict what the CIA can do. The presdient created an interagency task force to advise him on detainee policy.

He is starting off on the right foot…or is that the left foot?

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120-day Hold put on Gitmo trials.

AP WaPo and Reuters are reporting that a 120 day hold has been placed on any military tribunal trials at Gitmo…by order of President Obama. From the Reuters writeup:

Hours after taking office on Tuesday, U.S. President Barack Obama ordered military prosecutors in the Guantanamo war crimes tribunals to ask for a 120-day halt in all pending cases.

Military judges were expected to rule on the request on Wednesday at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, an official involved in the trials said on condition of anonymity.

The request would halt proceedings in 21 pending cases, including the death penalty case against five Guantanamo prisoners accused of plotting the September 11 hijacked plane attacks in 2001.

Prosecutors said in their written request the halt was “in the interests of justice.”

This is a great day folks.

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Where will they go?? How about home?

I am talking about Gitmo, and the ‘prisoners’ that are still held there. From Jurist:

A spokesman for Australian Prime Minister Kevin Ruddsaid Saturday that Australia would be willing to consider acceptance of Guantanamo Bay detainees on a case-by-case basis, according to a report in The Australian. Rudd’s spokesman confirmed that Australia, along with other countries, has been approached by the United States concerning prisoner resettlement possibilities. Australia strongly supported US policy in the “war on terror” under the leadership of former prime minister John Howard and was complicit in the Guantanamo detention of Australian national David Hicks, who was finally transferred to Australian custody in 2007. While no final decision on the closure of the detention camp has been reached, US President-elect Barack Obama remains committed to closing the facility.

The prospect of closing Guantanamo Bay has raised concerns about where to relocate the released prisoners. US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates recently ordered the Pentagon to draft a proposal for closing the facility in anticipation of a possible presidential order. Germany and Portugal have both stated a willingness to accept Guantanamo detainees in support of the facility’s closure and have urged other countries to do so as well. The Netherlands, on the other hand, has said it will not accept detainees for resettlement and Spain has expressed strong reservations. The United Kingdom has said it will consider transfers on a case-by-case basis. French officials Friday suggested a unified European Union stance on the issue but France has not explicitly expressed a willingness to accept detainees itself. France holds the European Union presidency through December 31.

What a fucked up mess, how many were tortured, how many are innocent..and yet…these people have never been convicted of doing shit. We paid people to rat them out, we held many of them for years before letting them go home….it makes me scream.

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Gates tells the Pentagon to start planning the closing of Gitmo

From Jurist:

US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has ordered the Pentagon to draft a proposal for shutting down the military prison at Guantanamo Bay in preparation for a possible order from President-elect Barack Obama, a Pentagon spokesperson said Thursday. Press Secretary Geoff Morrell told reporters that Gates wants to have a plan in place in the event Obama issues an order shortly after his inauguration to close the facility. Morrell said:

[Gates] has asked his team for a proposal on how to shut it down [and] what would be required specifically to close it and move the detainees from that facility, while at the same time ensuring that we protect the American people from some very dangerous characters.

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Executive Director Anthony Romero applauded the move [press release], saying:

The fact that Defense Secretary Gates is finally taking steps to close down Guantanamo and its unconstitutional military commissions is a welcome and encouraging sign that President-elect Obama intends to fulfill his campaign pledge. This is an important first step toward turning the page on eight years of shameful policies that allowed torture and violations of domestic and international law.

Also Thursday, the ACLU, along with Amnesty International USA, Human Rights First, and Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued a letter to Obama calling on him not to create a similar detention system, should he close Guantanamo and end the military commissions system.

It can not happen soon enough for those still languishing there. Obama must end the torturing of this individuals as well as provide them with due process. Gates is stepping up to the plate on this issue and I do applaud him for that move.

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