A federal judge on Wednesday said the George W. Bush administration illegally eavesdropped on the telephone conversations of two American lawyers who represented a now-defunct Saudi charity.
via Court Says Bush Illegally Wiretapped Two Americans | Threat Level | Wired.com – Mozilla Firefox.
Boo. Also, Yah.
Senate Joins House in Caving to White House Immunity Demands | Electronic Frontier Foundation
“We thank those senators who courageously opposed telecom immunity and vow to them, and to the American people, that the fight for accountability over the president’s illegal surveillance is not over,” said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Kurt Opsahl. “Even though Congress has failed to protect the privacy of Americans and uphold the rule of law, we will not abandon our defense of liberty. We will fight this unconstitutional grant of immunity in the courtroom and in the Congress, requesting repeal of the immunity in the next session, while seeking justice from the Judiciary. Nor can the lawless officials who approved this massive violation of Americans’ rights rest easy, for we will file a new suit against the government and challenge warrantless wiretapping, past, present and future.”
Here’s hoping that the EFF and ACLU can smack some sense into enough judges to get this tragedy of a law thrown out.
Watchdog Blog » Blog Archive » Answering for War Crimes
Prisoners in U.S. hands have been battered, even killed, in flat-out violation of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. The U.S. is a party to the convention. The evidence of mistreatment is overwhelming, and it comes not just from detainees but from Red Cross and FBI eyewitneses.
Just in case you had forgotten.
Peace, order and good government, eh?: There’s offensive and then there’s really offensive
When asked about the list, U.S. Ambassador David Wilkins was indignant. “We ought to be removed … I just think it’s absurd … and quite offensive.”
Awww, pumpkin.
Land of the free.
Tomgram: How Bush Took Us to the Dark Side
“After 19 months of imprisonment and torment at the hands of the CIA, the agency released him [in Yemen] with no explanation, just as he had been imprisoned in the first place. He faced no terrorism charges. He was given no lawyer. He saw no judge. He was simply released, his life shattered.”
Google says that gbombing has been fixed, but any attempt to link shameful and ignorant to the ongoing vitriol that spews from the mouths of the US Republican presidential candidates is fine by me.
Torture doesn’t work. Torture is wrong. Even if it is Jack Bauer doing the deed.
Mark off the day in your calendars. The significance? 1347 days since the 1st of May, 2003. The significance of that? On that day, the number of days after “the end of major comabt operations in Iraq” will equal the number of days the US was involved in World War II, from Pearl Harbor to V-J Day. I wonder if they will still be there.
Hat tip to the Kossacks.
I think that Canadian Cynic is likely derive a smidgen of righteous anger at the first two sentences this paragraph of a Toronto Star editorial:
Hamas’s soldiers tunnelled into Israel, kidnapped an Israeli soldier and stepped up their firing of rockets at Israeli civilians. Hezbollah militia then snuck into Israel, killed eight soldiers and kidnapped two others.
I love the implication that Israel stood by ringing its hands in dismay between the two acts. I must admit, it is possible that the rest of the article contains words of wisdom so profound that I would weep at their revelation but given the apparent bias I couldn’t be bothered. So much for the old phrase “Don’t judge an editorial by it’s 3rd paragraph.”
Let me re-iterate my position on this – I think Hamas and Hezb’allah are acting like the terrorist scum that they are. And Israel is traipsing down that slippery slope to join them as fast as it can.
Obama wins the right to detain people with no habeas review
23.May.2010 at 08:28 UTC · Filed under Law, Law & Politics, Legal Commentary, Political/Social Commentary, Politics, Stupid Government Tricks, War and Peace
Today, a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals adopted the Bush/Obama position, holding that even detainees abducted outside of Afghanistan and then shipped to Bagram have no right to contest the legitimacy of their detention in a U.S. federal court
via Glenn Greenwald – Salon.com.
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