Cheney Lies, Obstruction Of Justice & Torture Tape Destruction

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graphic by PirateCat

graphic by PirateCat

Marcy earlier noted the article in today’s Washington Post by Peter Finn and Joby Warrick detailing the story surrounding abu-Zubaydah’s capture and torture. I want to pick up with Marcy’s last line:

Yet more reason they destroyed the torture tapes showing Abu Zubaydah’s interrogation.

Well, yes, because it was crystal clear at the outset the explanation initially given by the Bush/Cheney Administration – that they had researched the matter completely and the tapes had no evidentiary value in any possible proceeding whatsoever and they were concerned about privacy of hard working investigators – was totally bogus.

It has been my belief from the outset that the reason the "torture tapes" were destroyed was not simply because they depicted the brutal torture of detainee subjects but, just as importantly, if not more so, they demonstrated there was no credible/usable information produced as a result of that torture. Warrick and Finn confirm this. Even worse, they confirm what little good information the Bushies did extract from abu-Zubaydah was obtained through traditional interrogation prior to the onset of the torture program:

In the end, though, not a single significant plot was foiled as a result of Abu Zubaida’s tortured confessions, according to former senior government officials who closely followed the interrogations. Nearly all of the leads attained through the harsh measures quickly evaporated, while most of the useful information from Abu Zubaida — chiefly names of al-Qaeda members and associates — was obtained before waterboarding was introduced, they said.

Moreover, within weeks of his capture, U.S. officials had gained evidence that made clear they had misjudged Abu Zubaida. President George W. Bush had publicly described him as "al-Qaeda’s chief of operations," and other top officials called him a "trusted associate" of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and a major figure in the planning of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. None of that was accurate, the new evidence showed.

Abu Zubaida was not even an official member of al-Qaeda, according to a portrait of the man that emerges from court documents and interviews with current and former intelligence, law enforcement and military sources.

And there you have it. The Bushies made the conscious and criminal decision to go full tilt torture having direct reason to Read more →

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Trash Talk – F1 Circus Begins and Elite Eight

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It is here; can you feel the anticipation? That’s right, the start of the 2009 Formula One season. There are many changes for the coming season as Bernie Ecclestone and Max Mosely try to reel in the costs of fielding a ride on the F1 grid. Bernie is his usual cocky self, but Max had a bit of a rough year last year (If you aren’t familiar, do click the link; it is an, interesting story. The hot and kinky video here).

The big news for the 2009 campaign are the new rules on engine and car design intended to equalize competition and reduce costs across the sport. A very cool video is provided and it is narrated by Sebastian Vettel of the Toro Rosso (Red Bull) team. Here is a good written synopsis of the new rules.

Enough of the chit chat, let’s get down to business. The opening race of the year is down under in glorious Australia. The Australian GP is run at Albert Park in Melbourne (circuit diagram here). Here is the grid of teams and drivers for 2009. Toyota and Mercedes looked hot in practice last night. Qualifying is starting tonight soon after I post this; coverage on SpeedTV. The race will be live tomorrow night on SpeedTV at 1:30 am EST and 10:30 pm PST/FDL time.

Same as every year, my heart rides with Ferrari. Always has, always will. There is a reason Ferrari Red is blood red, that is what the heart pumps. Felipe Massa will, I think, again be ahead of Kimi Raikkonen. Both will be trying to reclaim the crown for Ferrari from Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes-McLaren. Keep an eye out for young Robert Kubica though, the guy is an up and coming talent behind the wheel.

Also on tap this weekend is the Elite Eight in NCAA Basketball. My brackets got semtex exploded Thursday with both Duke, and the team I picked to win the Championship, Memphis, getting taken out. I am truly screwed in my group pool. Oh well, what ya gonna do? Good golly did Missouri and Villanova look good though. Louisville absolutely kicked the you know what out of my local Arizona Wildcats. Oklahoma ripped Syracuse. Michigan St. and Carolina round out the Elite Eight. Who ya got? Trash is open!

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Darrell Issa Fears Michelle’s Triceps, But Not Dick’s Guns

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I’m honestly not surprised that Darrell Issa is so insecure in the face of Michelle Obama’s buff triceps that he is now trying to regulate her.

Under Issa’s amendment, any government policy group that Mrs. Obama or another first spouse regularly participates in would be subject to a law requiring meetings to be announced in advance and, in most instances, public.

At the March 10 markup, Issa’s proposal triggered more than 35 minutes of impassioned debate. I’ve linked video of the exchange below, but Democrats clearly seemed to be recoiling at what some viewed as an effort to target Mrs. Obama.

[snip]

“We are trying actually to protect the historic role of the first lady,” Issa insisted, repeatedly invoking the “transparency” mantra of the Obama administration. “I believe this is open government at its finest.”

[snip]

“We should have a set of rules that future presidents, vice presidents, first ladies and spouses of vice presidents, understand what their do’s and don’t’s are. Can they have an open meeting? Can they have a closed meeting?” Issa said. “Perhaps we need to get to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for an opinion.”

(Nor am I surprised that the Politico has titled this article as, "GOP transparency push seen as attack on Michelle O.")

But I want to know where the fuck Darrell Issa was when we were trying to protect "the historic role of the Vice President" for the last eight years?!?!? I mean, Issa had no problem with Mr. Fourth Branch conducting major policy work in hiding. But apparently he has decided now is the time to regulate Veeps and First Ladies. 

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Geithner Likes It Naked

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Joe Donnelly asked Tim Geithner whether we ought to eliminate naked default swaps. Geithner said that it’s too hard to distinguish hedges from gambling. Donnelly pointed out that we’re taking money out of truck drivers’ pockets and waitress’ pockets to pay off Wall Street’s gambling debts. Ultimately, though, Geithner said we don’t need to–and that it would be very hard to–do that.

I guess the truck drivers will still be asked to pay off rich men’s gambling debts. 

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Declining Justice: DOJ Lets Statute Run On Bush Criminality

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graphic by politicalbase

graphic by politicalbase

On March 10, 2009 Emptywheel noted that the five year statute of limitation on the initial criminal wiretapping acts by the Bush/Cheney Administration were expiring.

…the statute of limitations on the potentially criminal March 11 wiretaps of Belew expire today. By all appearances, that means the statute will expire without George Bush being punished for illegally wiretapping an American citizen, even though clear evidence of that criminal wiretapping almost certainly exists.

This is because the one period of time that it is crystal clear that the Bush/Cheney surveillance program was operating without legal sanction was subsequent to the hospital incident:

On March 11, 2004, remember, the warrantless wiretap program was operating without the approval of the Acting Attorney General. After Jim Comey refused to recertify the program on March 9, after Andy Card and Alberto Gonzales tried to get John Ashcroft to overrule Comey from his ICU bed on March 10, Bush reauthorized the program using only the legal sanction of then-White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales on March 11.

Thus, even if the rest of the program were somehow deemed legal (which it wouldn’t be, because it violated FISA, which is the question at hand), it would be not be deemed legal on March 11, 2004, because the program didn’t have sanction from the Attorney General.

There are, or were at least, three critical dates on which the lawyers for the al-Haramain organization knew themselves to be wiretapped that occurred during the period in which criminality would undoubtedly attach, March 10, 11 and 25 of 2004. It is believed that the program was reinstated under formal footing (as opposed to being run on Alberto Gonzales’ worthless signature as was the case in the days after the hospital incident) in early April, 2004. So, while Emptywheel gave the obituary on the expiration of the first two dates of known criminal culpability, I am here to give the post mortem on the last. It died at 12 pm Eastern time last night.

Now the one entity that has, and has had all along, the proof of the Bush/Cheney criminality in its hot little hands is the United States Department of Justice. You would think that the national press would be swimming with articles about the DOJ declining to pursue Executive Branch crimes in the biggest conspiracy against American citizens in the history of the country. But nary a peep. Read more →

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The Clarion Call Of Gideon’s Trumpet

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images5thumbnail1.thumbnail.jpegA few days ago, on March 18, fell the 46th anniversary of a momentous day in American jurisprudence, the day the decision in Gideon v. Wainright was rendered. Prior to Gideon, criminal defendants in the United States had a right to be represented by counsel, but not the right to have counsel appointed if they could not afford their own attorney. It was a watershed moment of enlightenment that is worthy of a fresh look.

Clarence Gideon was wrongly charged with breaking and entering a pool hall that had been burglarized, all based on a false accusation. Gideon was a poor man who lived in a rooming house and literally had but $25 to his name. From Wiki:

He appeared in court and was too poor to afford counsel, whereupon the following conversation took place:

The COURT: Mr. Gideon, I am sorry, but I cannot appoint Counsel to represent you in this case. Under the laws of the State of Florida, the only time the Court can appoint Counsel to represent a Defendant is when that person is charged with a capital offense. I am sorry, but I will have to deny your request to appoint Counsel to defend you in this case.

GIDEON: The United States Supreme Court says I am entitled to be represented by Counsel.

Gideon was forced, therefore, to act as his own counsel and conduct a defense of himself in court, emphasizing his innocence in the case. Nevertheless, the jury returned a guilty verdict, sentencing him to serve five years in the state penitentiary.

From his prison cell at Florida State Prison, making use of the prison library and writing in pencil on prison stationery, Gideon appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court in a suit against the Secretary to the Florida Department of Corrections, Louie L. Wainwright. He argued that he had been denied counsel and, therefore, his Sixth Amendment rights, as applied to the states by the Fourteenth Amendment, had been violated.

But what the Supreme Court gave in Gideon is under an attack that is destroying one of the tenets of the modern due process guarantee in the American criminal system. In a chilling opinion piece in the March 10, 2009 Washington Post, former Vice-President Walter F. Mondale, who as Minnesota Attorney General participated along with AGs from 21 other states in amici support of Gideon’s demand for appointed counsel, details just how far the nation has regressed:

Yet states across the country routinely fail to appoint Read more →

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Bad Brackets – Hoops Trash Talk Part Deaux

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Sorry about the sparse posting but your happy hosts here are, you know, off being happy this weekend. Marcy has pounded her poor fingers into a pulp and me, well I am tired just from watching her. So here is a copy of my brackets for the NCAAs. I was 15-1 at the end of the first day Thursday. Looked simply golden I did. Then Friday came. Jeebus, what a nightmare, and Cleveland State taking out Wake Forest seriously buggered a whole side of my bracket. My bracket I filled out is here to the right; click on it for a full size and then comment on how much better you are doing.

So today is my wife’s birthday and we are up in Sedona at Junipine Resort on Oak Creek with our daughter too. It is absolutely beautiful here. Enjoy yourselves, trash the joint up, and consider this an open thread to chit chat, post and discuss anything you wish. Cheers.

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emptywheel at University of Michigan College Dems Event

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For those of you who are local (to me, I mean), I’ll be speaking at a U Michigan College Dems event tonight. And there will be the requisite socialization at Arbor Brewing Company afterwards. I’d love to see some of you there.

Details:

The College Democrats at the University of Michigan will be hosting a Statewide Blogging Convention to talk about the role of blogs, politics, and new media today. It will feature

  • State Democratic Party Chairman Mark Brewer
  • Marcy Wheeler who blogged about the Libby Trial and wrote a book about it
  • Christine Barry from Blogging for Michigan about state progressive politics
  • Graham Davis, who blogs for Governor Granholm and Lieutenant Governor Cherry
  • John from the Rainbow Mittens blog about LGBT politics

When: 8PM this Thursday, March 16th

Where: Vandenberg Room of the Michigan League at 911 N. University Avenue Ann Arbor, MI 48109

Facebook Event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=55427994462&ref=mf

A reception will follow after at Arbor Brewing Company to have a meet and greet with our speakers.

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March Madness Bracket Trash Talk

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picture-1.thumbnail.pngBack by popular demand: It’s teh Wheelhouse March Madness Road to the Final Four Bracket Extravaganza! I gotta tell you, this is a great year to argue for your favorite team, because with the exception of a few small conference champion entrants, there is a lot of parity in the field, some key injuries here and there and some intriguing matchups. Bottom line, this is a very unpredictable field and it will be very hard to pick all the way through the championship.

Click on the graphic immediately to the left for a full size detailed set of brackets that include teams, dates, locations and times of the games. Here is a link to a fully printable set of brackets you can print off and fill out.

And this year, the first in the last eight that we have not had an imbecilic moron in the White House, we have a special treat for you: Baracketology. Yep, the Big O fills out a set of brackets!

Now, we have a bit of a conundrum here. Marcy is not, by nature, a hoops fan; she like those funny looking footballs instead of the perfect symmetry of Dr. Naismith’s round ball. And we may have a hook to reel her in with. Yep, a honest to god real live team from Michigan that is in the playoffs and that doesn’t involve octopi on ice. That’s right, the Michigan Wolverines are in the Big Dance thanks to that nice coach, John Beiline, they stole from Christy Hardin Smith and the fine folks of West Virginia. Big Blue plays Clemson at 7pm Eastern Thursday night in the Kansas City portion of the South bracket. Of course, her odds are better with Michigan State, which will play a puny 15 see, Robert Morris at 10pm Eastern Friday night.

Obviously, those games are not quite as exciting as the ASU Sun Devils’ first foray into the dance since 2003. ASU will be playing Temple at 2:45pm Eastern in the Miami portion of the south bracket. If you haven’t seen the Devils in the last couple of years, they have a fantastic sophomore guard, James Harden, who was the Pac-10 player of the year and a consensus first team All-American. He is really good. They also have a senior center, Jeff Pendergraph and a point guard, Derek Glasser that are pretty good. Temple has a couple of studs in Dionte Christmas and Lavoy Allen that can light it up. Quite frankly, I am worried Temple may upset the Devils. But, like EW, I Read more →

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Lawyers Revolt Against Haynes And Yoo; Where’s The OPR Report?

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h/t Leeofland

h/t Leeofland

As a card carrying member of the bar, I have to say it is about time that American lawyers learned something from their feisty compatriots in Pakistan. Sure enough, they have done exactly that. From the LA Times:

In an attempt to win sanctions against a former top Bush administration official over brutal interrogations of prisoners at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, a lawyers group deployed a strategy Monday that worked against Presidents Nixon and Clinton.

Former Defense Department General Counsel William J. Haynes II is the first of several former policymakers the National Lawyers Guild wants reprimanded, suspended or disbarred for their roles in detainee abuse, said Carlos Villarreal, executive director of the San Francisco Bay Area guild chapter that filed a complaint against Haynes with the State Bar of California.
…
A similar complaint is being prepared in Pennsylvania against former Justice Department lawyer John C. Yoo, the UC Berkeley law professor who is currently a visiting professor at Chapman University School of Law in Orange, for his role in drafting the legal guidelines that approved enhanced interrogation techniques including waterboarding.

Would the National Lawyers Guild have only been so aggressive earlier, but, hey, better late than never. And it may have some effect as it is coming just before the DOJ Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) is on the verge of releasing what looks to be a scathing report on just this conduct from the Bush/Cheney Administration.

It has now been exactly a month since the Washington Post related the following:

Senate Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin (Ill.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.) are demanding an update on the probe by the department’s Office of Professional Responsibility, which for more than a year has been examining whether the lawyers who prepared the memos followed professional standards.
…
Two sources briefed on a draft of the report said there is a strong likelihood that its findings will be shared with state legal disciplinary authorities, who could launch their own investigation into whether the lawyers who prepared the memos abided by their professional responsibilities.
…
Matthew Miller, a spokesman for new Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., said that "the matter is under review" but declined to comment further yesterday about whether Holder would endorse the investigators’ conclusions.

So, Attorney General Holder, let’s have the report and let’s have it now.

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