Our Unlawful Enemy Combat-Drones and Their Spooky Button-Pushers
If you haven't already read these two posts at Danger Room, you should do so. It reports and elaborates on the discussion at a Congressional hearing yesterday about whether or not our use of drones is legal.
As you recall, State Department…
Do Bloggers Suck or Does TradMed Just Suck More?
Above the Law, reporting on a speech 9th Circuit Court Chief Judge Alex Kozinski gave at Fordham Law, summarized his argument as, "A New Argument in Favor of Cameras in the Courtroom: Bloggers Suck."
Now, for the record, I'm all in favor of…
Risen Gets Subpoenaed for Merlin Story. Again.
Charlie Savage reports that James Risen just got subpoenaed to reveal the source for the chapter of his book, State of War, in which he described a wacky effort to sell Iran faulty blueprints for a nuclear bomb.
The Obama administration is seeking…
The Right to Counsel at Gitmo
Best as I understand it, the shiny new military commission manual says the following about right to counsel:
Defendants will generally get military lawyers
Defendants can use civilian attorneys, but the government isn't going to pay those…
Breaking! Torture Is Illegal! Except when Consistent with the Interests of Justice!
Thanks to BoxTurtle for linking to the manual for military commissions rushed out last night in time for the Omar Khadr hearing.
There are a number of interesting details in it, but since Khadr's hearing today pertains to torture--whether statements…
Pleading Terror Trials
Will the GWOT go on trial today? Or will the Administration avoid having its policies on terror detainees go on trial, along with two accused terrorists?
In Gitmo, Omar Khadr's military commission is due to start shortly, in spite of the fact…
George Will Goes Bipolar Over Brown
George Will comments on the new Arizona immigration law and proves he is past his "use by" date and needs to be put out to pasture with the other jackasses.
The Protective Order on Khadr's Interrogators and the John Adams Project
In addition to the bombshell that Omar Khadr's military commission will start Wednesday, less than a day after lawyers in the case will have received the thick manual laying out the rules for the newfangled military commissions, Gitmo released…
Claire McCaskill: Synthetic CDOs Are Not Like Corn
One of the highlights of today's hearing on Goldman Sachs (aside from my Senator saying "shitty deal" over and over, was Claire McCaskill's insistence on referring to Goldman Sachs's Synthetic CDOs as gambling. (She did this earlier with another…
Obama-Era Military Commissions: Cramming on the Rules
Spencer's down in Gitmo this week, supposedly watching the beginning of Omar Khadr's hearing. Only, as he just reported, the manual laying out rules for the military commissions only got signed an hour ago by Secretary of Defense Bob Gates.
A…
BP's Procedural Spills
Another thing that happened while I was tromping around one of the most beautiful places on earth (Yosemite) is that the BP drilling rig that had an explosion and fire last week sunk and oil has started to spill into the Gulf (as this dramatic…
Dick Cheney's Counterterrorism Incompetence Continues to Endanger Us
When I was out tromping around Yosemite (!!) on Friday, one of Najibullah Zazi's co-conspirators, Zarein Ahmedzay, plead guilty to two terrorism-related charges.
Mark that up as yet another counterterrorism victory for civilian courts.
But…
David Iglesias: Obama's Used Car Salesman For Gitmo Show Trials
The Obama Administration is using David Iglesias as a shill for its wholesale adoption of the military commissions and prosecution based on torture championed by George bush and Dick Cheney.
I Guess The Comfy Chair Was Not An Option
Utah inmate Ronny Lee Gardner has chosen firing squad as his method of execution; if that is his choice, what's wrong with that?
SEC: CoxSlackers & BushWackers Fiddled While Wall Street Burned
The big outrage de jour making the rounds in the media currently is the porn scandal at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The problem was born and matured under Bush and Cox, it is the fact that it is symptomatic for the emaciation and gutting of the SEC which occurred at their hands and express direction.
Anthrax and Blago for Breakfast
I forgot to mention this yesterday. But I'm going fishing this weekend, and you're going to be blessed with the fine hospitality of bmaz and the likker cabinet until sometime Monday.
But while I'm sneaking my last Toobz fix in before Mr. EW…
Scott Bloch Cops A Plea For Bloching Justice
Scott Bloch, the former head of the Office of Special Counsel is copping a plea.
Why Were the Torture Tapes Destroyed?
Bob Baer has a column out stating that he can't figure out why the torture tapes were destroyed--and repeating CIA spin claiming the torture depicted in the tapes should not, itself, be a legal problem, since it was approved by DOJ. (h/t cs)
Did…
Court Slaps Government Over Use Of Torture Evidence
A Federal Court in Washington DC has issued a very hard slap down by of the government's continued use of bogus evidence obtained by brutal torture to try to justify continued detention of detainees at Guantanamo.
Mudd Wrestling and Torture
Spencer's got one of the big scoops of the day: that Philip Mudd left the FBI about six weeks ago (so early March).
Philip Mudd, one of the intelligence community’s leading al-Qaeda analysts, has quietly retired from the FBI, where he was…