Václav Havel: From the Prague Spring to the Velvet Revolution to the Year of the Protestor
We're an empire now. And when we act, we create our own reality. --Senior Bush Advisor to Ron Suskind
It can be said, therefore, that ideology, as that instrument of internal communication which assures the power structure of inner…
Tebowling For Columbine Trash
Not since Michael Moore's 2002 epic "Bowling For Columbine" has life in Denver been under such a national microscope. But even that is nothing compared to Tebowmania! which is running wild and rampant in the Mile High City. And good lawdy, here…
Mitch McConnell's Greatest Fear: DOJ Proved Him Wrong for 5% of the Cost
When the Obama Administration charged two Iraqis on al Qaeda related charges in Bowling Green, KY, Mitch McConnell wrote an op-ed wailing about all the fearful things that could happen as a result.
In short, these two are not common criminals…
Obama's Re-elect Strategy: Vote for Me, or Newt Will Have Authority to Indefinitely Detain You
Ken Gude, writing for the Democratic Party's house think tank, offers a thoroughly disgusting defense of Obama signing the Defense Authorization and its detainee provisions. In his first paragraph, he asserts that the detainee provisions don't…
Jay Carney: NDAA Still Doesn't Give the Courts Any Oversight Over Detention and Killing
Jason Leopold pointed out this language in Jay Carney's press briefing yesterday:
Q You had objections to the defense bill; you’ve dropped them. There’s still a lot of civil liberties experts who are convinced that that bill contains…
Our Trade Pact Partners--Colombia and Panama--and Multinational Hezbollah Plots
The government continues to crack down on Ayman Joumaa's Hezbollah-tied money laundering ring, yesterday suing some exchange companies and the auto dealers tied the ring.
The announcement reads like a Bush Axis of Evil speech, emphasizing…
Russia's Description of Sodium-22 in Bag Headed for Iran As "Work of a Nuclear Reactor" Misleading
Radioactive sodium-22 has been found in a bag checked at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport that was headed for Tehran. The earliest reports on this finding were quite misleading, as the initial statement from Russia indicated that the material…
Feinstein Tries Again to Fix the Detainee Provisions
Kudos to Dianne Feinstein for trying to eliminate the President's ability to indefinitely detain (and kill?) American citizens. This time, she's trying a free-standing bill titled the Due Process Guarantee Act of 2011. It says,
(1) An authorization…
Senate Passes Defense Authorization
The final vote was 86-13. No votes were Lee, Paul, DeMint, Risch, Crapo, and Coburn (the last three not on civil liberties grounds), and Cardin, Wyden, Sanders, Durbin, Franken, Harkin, and Merkley.
I'm sure Obama will sign this in time for…
How to Indefinitely Detain Jamie Dimon
Kagro X and I were engaging in a little thought experiment on Twitter to show how easy it would be to solve our dangerous bankster problem by indefinitely detaining them.
It turned out to be pretty easy to do. Here's how.
First, before…
Zardari Released From Hospital, Remains in Dubai; Memogate Reply Delayed
Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari was released from the hospital in Dubai on Wednesday, but has not returned to Pakistan. His reply to Pakistan's Supreme Court investigation into the Memogate scandal had been expected today, but could be…
No, the Iraq War Is NOT Over
The NYT, which played a key propaganda role in getting us into the Iraq war, has a 1000-word article telling us the Iraq war has officially been declared over.
And while it is true that the Administration had a campaign event dog and pony…
Did Dianne Feinstein's "Fix" on AUMF Language Actually Authorize Killing American Citizens?
To explain why it caved on its Defense Authorization veto threat, the Obama Administration had the following to say about the affirmation of detention authority.
Ensuring that we track current law and minimize risks associated with legislating…
Obama Will Not Veto Defense Authorization
I said this about the detainee provisions in the conference Defense Authorization bill.
It seems to me the language does enough to avoid a veto from the cowardly Obama, but still does terrible damage to both the clarity of national security…
England Gave Us Habeas Corpus Once Before...
Can they do it again?
The British human rights organization today won a habeas corpus petition for their client, Yunus Rahmatullah, who has been detained at Bagram for 7 years, in the English Court of Appeal.
The Master of the Rolls, Lord…
Robert Mueller Reveals Counterterrorism Intelligence Techniques Being Used to Combat Healthcare Fraud
We've long known that many of the techniques used to combat terrorism derived from the drug war. We've known that law enforcement agencies around the country are adopting counterterrorism techniques--and even PATRIOT Act tools--in regular law…
The Scary Used Car Broker Plot
Consider these two data points. First, Jo Becker reports that the money laundering scheme run by the Canadian Lebanese Bank involved brokering used cars purchased in America.
In that inquiry, American Treasury officials said senior bank managers…
What If We Scrubbed Wachovia Like We Did the Lebanese Canadian Bank?
I'll have several things to say about Jo Becker's story on the big Hezbollah money laundering ring. For the moment, I'm most interested in how Treasury Department authorities uncovered the ring: by first declaring Lebanese Canadian Bank a money…
Lanny Breuer Rewards DOJ Lawyers for Winning Impunity for Prosecutorial Misconduct
I always like reading DOJ's various expressions of their investigative and prosecutorial priorities--because they usually show a disinterest in prosecuting banksters, a thorough waste of resources on entrapping young Muslims, and an ongoing…
US Keeps Losing Control of Its Drones
Funny how these drones keep experiencing failures in areas where they're engaging in a covert war and not--say--where they're being used to arrest American citizens in North Dakota.
One of the Air Force’s premier drones crashed Tuesday morning…
