Entries by emptywheel

The Rule of Law Prevailed

I’m just getting off a conference call with the Center for Constitutional Rights, one of the organizations that has been pushing for Habeas at Gitmo for years. Gita Gutierrez, one of the CCR lawyers that’s been fighting this fight the longest, said of the ruling that “unambiguously the rule of law prevailed.”

Here’s some of what they believe the opinion to mean:The 40 to 60 people who have already been determined

Happy Habeas Day

Apparently, Anthony Kennedy understands a few things about the Constitution that many seem to have forgotten.

The laws and Constitution are designed to survive, and remain in force, in extraordinary times.

Which means the detainees in Gitmo and elsewhere will have their day in a real court, not the Show Trials put together at Gitmo.

The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that foreign terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay have rights under the Constitution to

Scottie and Condi and the Niger Intelligence

My posts on Scottie McC’s book have, thus far, treated issues closely connected to the CIA Leak investigation (well, except for the post in which he calls cracking down on deadbeat dads “trivial”).

In this post, I want to look at how he deals with the underlying issue–the Niger intelligence and the White House’s response to it.

The Missing Emails and the OVP Coverup

Both the defense and prosecution introduced a bunch of articles referencing the Plame leak–and particularly OVP’s role in it–between September 27, 2003 to October 12, 2003. But some are missing–most importantly, a bunch that came out while Libby was in Jackson and Cathie Martin was apparently in DC making statements claiming Libby wasn’t involved.

The FISA Fix and Obama’s Profile In Courage Leadership Moment

The desperate push on FISA by the Bush Administration, complicit and subservient Republican Congressional leaders, and their telco partners is about to explode onto the forefront again. We are either a nation of laws that protects citizens and their right to seek redress for being wronged by their government and it’s agents, or we are a nation of self serving men like George Bush and Dick Cheney that can do, and get away with, whatever illegal and immoral acts they desire. Barack Obama could put an end to this today if he wanted. It is time for a Profile In Courage.

Four News Outlets and the Libby Exoneration

Scottie McC describes his reluctant efforts on October 4, 2003 to exonerate Libby this way:

“Were you involved in the leak in any way?” I asked him.

“No, absolutely not,” Scooter replied.

“All right,” I said. “I plan to tell reporters that you did not leak the classified information, nor would you condone doing so.

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