Here Comes The Judge; Gitmo Military Commissions Redux
The handwriting for a complete ObamaRhama cave to the neocon howlers on military commissions instead of civilian trials is getting carved awfully deep in the granite wall.
John Adams and Patrick Fitzgerald
About a million of you, seeing Isikoff and Hosenball's and Justin Elliott's coverage of a story about Fitzgerald getting involved in an investigation of how photos of torturers ended up at Gitmo have emailed me the story in alarm. (This is a…
Coordinated Anti-Democratic Vandalism in at Least 3 States
On Friday, former militia leader Mike Vanderboegh called for anti-Democratic vandalism across the country to protest the health care bill.
Vanderboegh posted the call for action Friday on his blog, “Sipsey Street Irregulars.” Referring…
The Chuck and Huck Show
Say, have you noticed how often Chuck Schumer has been nuzzling up to Lindsey "Huckleberry" Graham lately?
There's their plan on immigration reform which, among other things, calls for a national biometric ID card.
And there's a bill to pressure…
Judge Orders Mohamedou Slahi Released
Remember Mohamedou Slahi, the Gitmo detainee who they loaded onto a boat and drove around to give him the impression he was being moved? The judge in his habeas case has just ordered him released--though we don't know why yet. (h/t cs)
Slahi…
British Unit Used Sleep Deprivation, Stress Positions, Hooding
It looks like the Brits are discovering they were engaged in the same kind of torture we were in Iraq.
Fresh evidence has emerged that British military intelligence ran a secret operation in Iraq which authorised degrading and unlawful treatment…
Jane Mayer to Marc Thiessen: Your Guys' Ignorance Got Us Attacked
Jane Mayer has a great general purpose slapdown of torture apologist Marc Thiessen love letter to torture. She hits on most of the weaknesses of Thiessen's arguments: his false claims about what prevented the 2006 liquid explosive plane plot,…
The Prisoner Shellgame
On Friday, I pointed out that Eric Holder and Dennis Blair used language in a letter on Gitmo's detainees that suggests some subset of the detainees at Gitmo is not covered by Obama's Executive Order requiring some resolution to their status.
In…
DOD's Empty Vessel for Torture Authorization
When I asked whether DOD had any authorization for torture after 2004, Jeff Kaye reminded me we just recently saw one new aspect of authorization: an April 2006 Steven Bradbury Opinion authorizing Appendix M of the new version of the Army Field…
Did DOD Have ANY Authorization for Torture after 2004?
There are a couple of things that have been bugging me about the authorizations DOD got for interrogations. It's not clear what kind of authorization DOD used to justify detainee interrogations after the Yoo memo was withdrawn in 2003-2004--they…
Congressman Dingell: Call Bart Stupak on His Lies about Abortion
John Dingell says he is going to try to persuade Stupak to drop his efforts to sink healthcare with his anti-choice efforts.
The Congress is a place where we represent our people and where we serve our conscience. I strongly disagree with Bart,…
The "Detainees Subject to the Review"
MadDog linked to the letter that Dennis Blair and Eric Holder sent the Senate describing the process by which 6 agencies and a 100 staffers meticulously decided the ultimate fate of Gitmo detainees--who could be released or imprisoned elsewhere,…
Steven Bradbury: Breaking His Own Rules Even as He Writes Them
I'm working on a big post on the May 2005 Bradbury Memos. But I wanted to point out this tidbit about them in the interim.
As you might recall, the Jim Comey emails (probably leaked by the torture apologists last summer) provide a few clues…
Random Friday Afternoon Links
I've had a frazzled few days (dealing with stuff like dodgy cars) and I'm about to bury myself deep in the weeds. So I thought I'd throw up a few links to keep you all occupied so as to ensure there's still something left in the likker cabinet…
The Anonymous Coward Calling Holder Weak
Time has another one of those Rahm v. Holder profiles. It is notable from the slew of other ones for two reasons.
The anonymous source calling Holder a coward
First, the story features several main sources for this story: Lindsey Graham, speaking…
Bybee's Circuit: Ashcroft Can Be Sued for Wrongful Detention
The 9th Circuit has ruled that John Ashcroft can be sued for wrongful detention of an American citizen. From an ACLU press release:
The American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit charging that former Attorney General John Ashcroft is personally…
When Lawyers Equate Law with PR
Jack Goldsmith and Ben Wittes have an op-ed up in which, claiming that the PR value to military commissions is minimal, Obama should just not give KSM a trial of any sort. They make a clever move in which they first cursorily dismiss the value…
The Request for Reaffirmation of Torture
This is going to be another weedy post...
I wanted to put two totally bureaucratic pages (PDF 23-24) from the recent FOIA dump into the context of the other known documents in the chronology. The first page is an "Executive Correspondence Routing…
Obama's Intelligence Leaders: For GAO Oversight Before They Were Against It
Yesterday, we talked about how Rahm Emanuel opposed indefinite detention before he started working for it with Lindsey Graham.
Today, Steven Aftergood shows that Obama's two intelligence heads, Leon Panetta and Dennis Blair, supported GAO oversight…
Kiriakou: CIA IG Report Confirmed They Waterboarded Before Getting Approval (?)
I believe Jon Kiriakou is still engaging in disinformation, so while I suppose I'll read his book, I won't accept anything in it without corroboration.
Take this weird tidbit in his appearance on Tweety (just after 2:05). The statement is…