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Latest Articles: Dead Constitution
Torture, Lies and Videotape: Are Americans Really "Better Than That?" (RAY MCGOVERN)
Post Date: 2007-12-12 14:50:47 by aristeides
3 Comments
Torture, Lies and Videotape Are Americans Really "Better Than That?" By RAY McGOVERN A boyish, inquisitive face with an innocent look peered out from the Washington Post's lead story yesterday on torture. It was well groomed, pink-shirted John Kiriakou, a CIA interrogator who could just as easily pass for the local youth minister The report by the Post's Joby Warrick and Dan Eggen, which describes Kiriakou's experience in interrogating suspected terrorists, raises in an unusually direct way an abiding question: Should the United States of America be using forms of torture dating back to the Spanish Inquisition? Nowhere is the mood of that infamous period better ...
Citing Destruction of Torture Tapes, ACLU Asks Court to Hold CIA in Contempt
Post Date: 2007-12-12 13:31:24 by Brian S
2 Comments
NEW YORK - The American Civil Liberties Union today filed a motion asking a federal judge to hold the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in contempt, charging that the agency flouted a court order when it destroyed at least two videotapes documenting the harsh interrogation of prisoners in its custody. In response to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests filed by the ACLU and other organizations in October 2003 and May 2004, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York ordered the CIA to produce or identify all records pertaining to the treatment of detainees in its custody. Despite the court’s ruling, the CIA never produced the tapes or even acknowledged ...
Hypocrite Kucinich Drafts Legislation To Ban Guns [Full Thread]
Post Date: 2007-12-12 11:09:33 by christine
75 Comments
Entertains notion that bloodthirsty Neo-Fascists carried out 9/11, then says we should hand over our only protection against them Dennis Kucinich has shot himself in the foot, pardon the pun, by alienating a huge majority of his most vocal and active online supporters, the 9/11 Truth Movement, in drafting legislation that will completely ban the purchase, sale, transfer, or possession of handguns by civilians. Kucinich has effectively ended any minute chance he had of becoming President in 2008. The Congressman from Cleveland has received plaudits for being the only man on Capitol Hill, besides Ron Paul, to even consider pushing for a new inquiry into the events of 9/11. Though ...
Dennis Kucinich crafting 50-page Articles of Impeachment Against Bush?
Post Date: 2007-12-12 10:47:27 by aristeides
2 Comments
Dennis Kucinich crafting 50-page Articles of Impeachment Against Bush? by xxdr zombiexx [Subscribe] Tue Dec 11, 2007 at 08:28:09 PM PST The mention comes at a campaign stop in Reno Nevada recently. The keyword here is mentions "On the way over here, I was reading a 50-page document that relates to Articles of Impeachment for the President of the United States," Kucinich said to a standing ovation."And I want you to know that I'm actually preparing this document for submission to the House." I found this to be exciting. Kucinich said under the current administration, citizen's rights to due process and fair trial are in jeopardy. He's got that right. ...
If the CIA hadn't destroyed those tapes, what would be different?
Post Date: 2007-12-12 06:21:52 by Ada
1 Comments
Ifs and Buts In the uproar over the destruction by the CIA of taped interrogations of suspected al-Qaida operatives in the aftermath of Sept. 11, we are discovering creative new ways to speculate about past events. The pastime has begun with what should have been done differently—finger-pointing at congressional Democrats who'd been briefed about the tapes and remained silent, or distress over the failure to inform superiors at the CIA or the Bush administration. But here's a different thought experiment: How would the national debate over torture have changed if we'd known about the CIA tapes all along? How would our big terror trials and Supreme Court cases have played ...
No cages for convention protesters
Post Date: 2007-12-11 19:48:49 by Zipporah
4 Comments
ST. PAUL, Minn. - The assistant police chief on Monday assured state lawmakers that demonstrators outside the Republican National Convention won't be confined to fenced-in areas. Matt Bostrom said the city might erect barricades but he doesn't envision enclosures where protesters would be relegated. He told a legislative panel that demonstrators will be granted "sight and sound" access to the Xcel Energy Center, where the main convention business will be conducted next September. At the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston, that city set up a "free-speech zone" outside the FleetCenter surrounded by fences, barricades and razor wire. Protesters ...
Why has the CIA agent come out now about waterboarding?
Post Date: 2007-12-11 19:31:41 by Zipporah
2 Comments
Play (966) Last night’s ABC News interview with former CIA Agent John Kiriakou has raised more than a few eyebrows. Perhaps Steve Benen at The Carpetbagger Report gets it exactly right when he wrote: As a matter of crass politics, Kiriakou’s assessment seems to offer a little something for everyone. For the right, Kiriakou is saying that torture produced intelligence that saved lives and thwarted possible attacks. For the left, Kiriakou is conceding that the Bush administration authorized and utilized torture (i.e., committed a felony), and he now believes the U.S. should stop using these “enhanced interrogation techniques.” There is, however, one angle that warrants ...
The Shadow War, In a Surprising New Light (ABU ZUBAYDAH LOW-LEVEL, HALF-CRAZY, KNEW NOTHING. BUSH ORDERED TORTURE)
Post Date: 2007-12-11 17:27:05 by aristeides
4 Comments
The Shadow War, In a Surprising New Light By Barton Gellman, a Washington Post staff writer who reports on intelligence and national security Tuesday, June 20, 2006; Page C01 THE ONE PERCENT DOCTRINE Deep Inside America's Pursuit of Its Enemies Since 9/11 By Ron Suskind Simon & Schuster. 368 pp. $27 This is an important book, filled with the surest sign of great reporting: the unexpected. It enriches our understanding of even familiar episodes from the Bush administration's war on terror and tells some jaw-dropping stories we haven't heard before. One example out of many comes in Ron Suskind's gripping narrative of what the White House has celebrated as one ...
Blackwater aims high with unmanned aircraft (BLIMP WITH SENSORS)
Post Date: 2007-12-11 17:04:52 by aristeides
2 Comments
Blackwater aims high with unmanned aircraft By Jon W. Glass, The Virginian-Pilot ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. For nearly two years, Blackwater has been developing an airship to tap a growing government demand for aerial surveillance and security - from patrolling U.S. borders and coastal waters to guarding military bases in hostile lands. Earlier this month, its efforts finally got off the ground. Officials with Blackwater Airships, a business unit of the Moyock-based tactical training and security company, say they successfully field-tested a 170-foot prototype on the grounds of a former Navy air station here. Called the Polar 400, the non rigid blimp is designed to be unmanned and ...
It's Waco All Over Again: Preventive Detention and the Constitution (PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS)
Post Date: 2007-12-11 14:38:05 by aristeides
1 Comments
It's Waco All Over Again Preventive Detention and the Constitution By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS The US Supreme Court has taken up the issue whether the executive branch can detain people indefinitely merely by declaring them to be suspected terrorists or illegal enemy combatants. The case is a habeas corpus issue and, therefore, of the utmost importance. Without the protection of habeas corpus, government can lock away anyone on the basis of unsubstantiated charges as the Guantanamo detainees have been for nearly six years. Reporting on the Court's deliberations about Odah v. US and Boumediene v. Bush, Tom Curry, a national affairs writer for MSNBC, reports that Justice Stephen Breyer ...
Only few saw the key FISA court rulings
Post Date: 2007-12-11 11:53:20 by aristeides
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Only few saw the key FISA court rulings By Helen Fessenden December 11, 2007 Only a handful of lawmakers have seen a set of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court rulings on eavesdropping that have been cited by the Bush administration and Republicans as one of the principle reasons to transfer authority away from the court to the attorney general and director of national intelligence (DNI). The House and Senate intelligence committees are the only full panels that have read the rulings issued earlier this year on the National Security Agency’s surveillance program, according to panel members and aides. In addition, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and ...
AT&T whistleblower
Post Date: 2007-12-11 10:36:47 by kiki
1 Comments
Will Liberty Succumb to Federalist Society Ideology?
Post Date: 2007-12-11 06:27:15 by Ada
1 Comments
The US Supreme Court has taken up the issue whether the executive branch can detain people indefinitely merely by declaring them to be suspected terrorists or illegal enemy combatants. The case is a habeas corpus issue and, therefore, of the utmost importance. Without the protection of habeas corpus, government can lock away anyone on the basis of unsubstantiated charges as the Guantanamo detainees have been for nearly six years. Reporting on the Court’s deliberations about Odah v. US and Boumediene v. Bush, Tom Curry, a national affairs writer for MSNBC, reports that Justice Stephen Breyer suggested to US Solicitor General Paul Clement that the executive branch could indefinitely ...
Appeals Court Says Some Patriot Act Provisions Unconstitutional [Full Thread]
Post Date: 2007-12-10 19:39:52 by Brian S
72 Comments
(12-10) 16:15 PST Los Angeles (AP) -- A federal appeals court ruled Monday that some portions of the U.S. Patriot Act that govern dealings with foreign terrorist organizations are unconstitutional because the language is too vague to be understood by a person of ordinary intelligence. The ruling released Monday by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco affirms a 2005 decision by U.S. District Judge Audrey Collins. Collins ruled on a petition seeking to clear the way for U.S. groups and individuals to assist organizations in Turkey and Sri Lanka with training on applying for disaster relief or conducting peace negotiations. Collins said language in the Patriot Act was ...
White House goes mum on CIA video case
Post Date: 2007-12-10 18:15:29 by robin
3 Comments
The White House said Monday it would not answer questions about the CIA's destroying interrogation tapes of terrorism suspects, citing ongoing investigations into what some have called a cover-up. Spokesman Dana Perino said that US President George W. Bush's official lawyer had requested a no-comment policy while the US Justice Department and Central Intelligence Agency looked into the simmering controversy. "Until that process works itself out, I'm going to adhere to their request," she told reporters. "I think that that's appropriate, and I'll adhere to it." When a reporter noted that the White House has similarly stonewalled questions about ...
White House Mum On Destroyed CIA Tapes (LAWYERS ADVISED BUSH NOT TO TALK)
Post Date: 2007-12-10 16:17:40 by aristeides
3 Comments
White House Mum On Destroyed CIA Tapes Congress Presses For Answers On Destruction Of Terror Interrogation Videotapes (CBS/AP) As Congress seeks answers about why the CIA destroyed tapes of terror suspects under interrogation, White House lawyers have advised President Bush's spokeswoman not to answer specific questions about the matter. The U.S. Justice Department and the Central Intelligence Agency's internal watchdog are conducting a joint inquiry into the spy agency's destruction of videotaped interrogations of two suspected terrorists, to determine whether a full investigation is warranted. With that review ongoing, the White House counsel's office has instructed ...
Did Iceland Teen Call Secret White House Phone? Icelandic Boy, 16, 'Wanted to ... Have a Chat, Invite Him to Iceland and See What He'd Say'
Post Date: 2007-12-10 13:49:03 by aristeides
5 Comments
Did Iceland Teen Call Secret White House Phone? Icelandic Boy, 16, 'Wanted to ... Have a Chat, Invite Him to Iceland and See What He'd Say' By FABIOLA ANTEZANA LONDON, Dec. 8, 2007 When Vífill Atlason, a 16-year-old high school student from Iceland, decided to call the White House, he could not imagine the kind of publicity it would bring. Introducing himself as Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, the actual president of Iceland, Atlason found President George W. Bush's allegedly secret telephone number and phoned, requesting a private meeting with him. "I just wanted to talk to him, have a chat, invite him to Iceland and see what he'd say," ...
Chronicling the Shredding of Our Rights Since 9/11
Post Date: 2007-12-10 06:04:30 by Ada
2 Comments
Chronicling the Shredding of Our Rights Since 9/11 by J. H. Huebert Not long ago, attorneys across the United States organized to protest Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's move to dissolve that country's Supreme Court. In city after city, black-clad lawyers ostentatiously assembled in public to send a message halfway around the world about the importance of the rule of law. For sure, there's bad stuff happening in Pakistan. So good for my fellow attorneys for objecting, even though something tells me President Musharraf isn't much moved by the views of a bunch of American lawyers, if he even got wind of their protests at all. But where were all those American ...
US Democrats to allow more Iraq funding
Post Date: 2007-12-09 15:41:19 by richard9151
0 Comments
08 Dec 2007 19:32:28 GMT (Adds Office of Management and Budget reaction, paragraphs 9-11) WASHINGTON, Dec 8 (Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives Democratic leaders are contemplating legislation that would give President George W. Bush $70 billion in new funds for war but without any timetables for withdrawing troops from Iraq, The Washington Post reported on Saturday. The deal would also include about $11 billion in additional domestic spending through September 2008 that Bush had opposed, said the Post, quoting House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland, who met with the paper's editorial board on Friday. Still unclear, however, is whether House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a ...
AZ - Flagrant skirting of the Constitution
Post Date: 2007-12-08 19:15:02 by Peppa
11 Comments
The U.S. Constitution could not be clearer: "No state shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation. ..." Nevertheless, the state of Arizona, U.S.A., and the state of Sonora, Mexico, have entered into an agreement, which is called a Declaration of Cooperation. Obviously, Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano considers this agreement to be neither an alliance nor a confederation. On the surface, this agreement appears to be nothing more than a mutual desire by both states to work together to improve economic development in the region. From all the press releases and the hoopla on the governor's website, she is quite proud of her achievement, without consideration of the ...
Did the CIA Also Destroy Padilla Interrogation Tapes?
Post Date: 2007-12-08 13:26:56 by Zipporah
3 Comments
A long time ago when AOL Newsbloggers first started, I had a debate with the Powerline guys about Jose Padilla. One of the elements of that debate was a missing interrogation tape. I was incredulous -- as was the judge in the case -- that a critical interrogation tape simply disappeared. Paul Mirengoff and John Hinderaker, on the other hand, were more than happy to trust the government, as is their nature (as long as the government is a Republican one).Well, it turns out that the CIA has indeed destroyed several interrogation tapes after all. This was not an honest mistake where the tapes were misplaced. They took evidence and threw it in the garbage. Now, they might be facing obstruction ...
Fascists Will Save Our Houses
Post Date: 2007-12-08 08:54:43 by YertleTurtle
3 Comments
Most people today believe that Fascism is a "right wing" movement. I say "right wing" in quotes because I don't believe the left-right political spectrum is a very useful tool for political analysis, but that's another story already told; but to the extent that "left" and "right" have meaning, Fascism, a movement started by the Syndicalist-Socialist labor leader Benito Mussolini, certainly was a "left wing" movement. The successful deception to put it on the "right" was a tactic of the Communists, who tried to build an "anti-Fascist" coalition that would attract respectable people like J. Robert Oppenheimer. Of ...
PUT Option on America
Post Date: 2007-12-08 06:13:26 by noone222
2 Comments
The entire American political establishment is so rotten the stench wafts around the world. Why is it that Americans seem among the least aware that the radical changes needed for America to regain its Constitution, and survive as a Republic, will never happen within our rotted-out system? All the tinkering and primping, lying, killing and pimping masquerading as hope aren’t touching the core problem. The latest episode, with Hillary and Rudy leading the packs—the majority of Americans seem to believe it is something believable, actual hope for righting the ship. Unfortunately, the same machine that delivered us a two-term president who never won an election is still delivering. ...
Bush 'cannot recall' CIA videos
Post Date: 2007-12-07 16:44:11 by aristeides
5 Comments
Bush 'cannot recall' CIA videos US President George W Bush has said he has "no recollection" of the existence of video tapes of CIA interrogations and the plan to destroy them. The CIA says it wiped two tapes of interrogations of al-Qaeda suspects to protect the identities of its agents. But human rights groups accuse it of destroying evidence of practices that may be tantamount to torture. A US Senate committee has promised a thorough investigation into the history of the making and wiping of the tapes. Mr Bush continued to have confidence in CIA Director Michael Hayden, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said. The president "did not remember" being told ...
Sheldon Whitehouse: Proof Bush Believes he is the Law
Post Date: 2007-12-07 14:14:10 by aristeides
6 Comments
Sheldon Whitehouse: Proof Bush Believes he is the Law by MLDB [Subscribe] Fri Dec 07, 2007 at 10:53:32 AM PST Sheldon Whitehouse ripped the Bush administration's legal opinion of itself today. He has gotten his hands on some of the documents from the Office of Legal Counsel and had this to say about them: For years under the Bush Administration, the Office of Legal Counsel within the Department of Justice has issued highly classified secret legal opinions related to surveillance. This is an administration that hates answering to an American court, that wants to grade its own papers, and OLC is the inside place the administration goes to get legal support for its spying program. As ...
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