Former Assistant Attorney General Jack Goldsmith was a Bush Administration insider, with a stack of conservative credentials. As Glenn Greenwald notes, Goldsmith is “no hero.” He “is a hard-core right-wing ideologue who continues to support many of the administration’s most radical positions, including his view that Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions does not apply to terrorist suspects (the … Read More
Just When I Start To Warm Up To Her…
…she goes and says something like this: "It’s a horrible prospect to ask yourself, ‘What if? What if?’ But if certain things happen between now and the election, particularly with respect to terrorism, that will automatically give the Republicans an advantage again, no matter how badly they have mishandled it, no matter how much more dangerous they have made the … Read More
Clinton v Obama
It’s a minor skirmish in my eyes, but it has had "legs". Obama recently gave a tough speech about combatting terrorism: Obama said if elected in November 2008 he would be willing to attack inside Pakistan with or without approval from the Pakistani government, a move that would likely cause anxiety in the already troubled region. "If we have actionable … Read More
Six Years Ago Today
Larry Johnson, a former CIA officer and the State Department’s counterterrorism chief, had written dozens of PDBs during Bush 41’s presidency. PDBs, he said, are usually brief and dispassionate documents. But the PDB dated of Aug. 6, 2001 was a page and a half, and had a title meant to capture the president’s attention. It was "the intelligence-community equivalent of … Read More
But, But, But…
ABC: Senior U.S. intelligence officials tell ABC News new intelligence suggests a small al Qaeda cell is on its way to the United States, or may already be here. But, but, but… I thought we were fighting them there so we wouldn’t have to fight them here. Does this mean we are losing? Anyway, rest assured. The Bush Administration is … Read More
4,000
That’s the number of U.S. military casualties to date in Iraq and Afghanistan (3,596 in Iraq) since Bush started the "war on terra" 5 1/2 years ago, according to Bloomberg. AP adds, "All told, Congress has appropriated $610 billion in war-related money since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror assaults, roughly the same as the war in Vietnam. Iraq alone has … Read More
Religious Extremist Terrorists Attack U.S.
Think they only come from the religion of Islam? Try Christianity: Three Burleson men who belong to a “radical Christian activist group” were in the Johnson County Jail on Friday night after a church deacon caught two of them attempting to ignite an explosive device on Independence Day at a church under construction in north Burleson, authorities said Friday. Dayton … Read More
London Falling
…and that’s not all: A secret U.S. law enforcement report, prepared for the Department of Homeland Security, warns that al Qaeda is planning a terror "spectacular" this summer, according to a senior official with access to the document. "This is reminiscent of the warnings and intelligence we were getting in the summer of 2001," the official told ABCNews.com. And we … Read More
The Seventh Sense Cited In Law Journal Article
Got a nice bit of recognition from an article in The Legal Intelligencer, which you can read here. It’s a nice round-up of responses and observations relating to the al-Marri decision.
Gays In The Military: A Change In The Offing?
Today, the Service Members Legal Defense Network released a Pentagon statement that “includes the first language from Pentagon leaders suggesting that lesbian and gay service personnel should continue to use their skills in support of national security efforts, even after facing dismissal under the law.” The statement reads: These separated members have the opportunity to continue to serve their nation … Read More
Presidential Scholars Scholar President
God bless them, indeed: While meeting with a group of high school seniors from the Presidential Scholars program in the East Room of the White House, President Bush received an unexpected surprise: a letter signed by 50 of them urging Bush to halt “violations of the human rights” of terror suspects held by the United States. More: According to AP, … Read More
Scalia Doesn’t Cite International Law; Cites Hollywood Instead
This guy is an idiot: Senior judges from North America and Europe were in the midst of a panel discussion about torture and terrorism law, when a Canadian judge’s passing remark – "Thankfully, security agencies in all our countries do not subscribe to the mantra ‘What would Jack Bauer do?’ " – got the legal bulldog in Judge Scalia barking. … Read More
They Followed Us Home Anyway
Why did we invade Iraq? Um, let’s see. The WMDs right? Uh, not so much. Oh, then it was to bring peace and stability and democracy and love and understanding and warm fuzzy kissybear hugs to the people of Iraq? Nope. Guess not. Oh, thaaaat’s right. It was so all the other countries in the Middle East would see Iraq … Read More
The Sippy Cup Saga
I don’t know if you caught the story last week, but there was an incident at the Reagan National Airport. A mother by the name of Monica Emmerson claims she was threatened with arrest for trying to carry her child’s sippy cup with four ounces of water through a security checkpoint (the allowed limit is three ounces). She claims that … Read More
Criminal or Combatant?: Orin Kerr On The Al-Marri Case
UPDATE: Screenshots of the al-Marri opinion added. Orin Kerr has some thoughtful objections to the recent Fourth Circuit case (Al-Marri v. Wright) holding that the U.S. government cannot hold a lawful visitor to this country in "indefinite military detention" simply by declaring him an "enemy combatant". According to the Fourth Circuit, the government can do many things — including transferring … Read More