The full story is here; I’ll just give the funny bits. Today, the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the case of Rumsfled v. Hamdan. At issue in the case is whether a provision in last year’s Detainee Treatment Act ("DTA") effectively strips the Court of jurisdiction to hear Hamdan’s case. The Government contends that it does. In support of … Read More
Scalia Recusal
According to Think Progress: Newsweek reports that in a controversial unpublicized March 8 speech, Scalia “dismissed the idea that the detainees have rights under the U.S. Constitution or international conventions.” “War is war, and it has never been the case that when you captured a combatant you have to give them a jury trial in your civil courts,” he says … Read More
What Connected Dots Look Like
Via Think Progress: Former FBI Director Louis Freeh, My FBI, pg. 289: But in theory – and I stress theory – if we had been able to do that, and if we had connected that information with the arrest the next month in Minnesota of Zacarias Moussaoui, the French-Moroccan who aroused a flight instructor’s suspicions when he asked to learn … Read More
Dubai Debacle II
Seeing as how the ports deal was such a hit, it looks like we’re in for a sequel. A Dubai company is now seeking to buy American arms manufacturers. Dubai, which agreed this month to sell its interest in U.S. ports, said its $1.2 billion takeover of a U.K. company with U.S. plants that make military equipment is delayed while … Read More
Hindrocket Follies
You have to hand it to Powerline’s John Hindrocket, for combining so many lies, hypocrisy, and tortured logic into such a compact sentence. Here he was on CNN’s Reliable Sources this past weekend: KURTZ: OK. Let’s move — let’s move beyond the legal justification. You think the public doesn’t have a right to know because classified information is involved that … Read More
Dubai’s Lies
ABC News: The Dubai-owned company that promised to surrender its U.S. port operations has no immediate plans to sell its U.S. subsidiary’s interests at Miami’s seaport, a senior executive wrote Monday in a private e-mail to business associates. But why should we care? It’s not like Florida could become a hotbed for terrorist cells, right?
Poll Spin
Instapundit cites a new Harris poll for the proposition that the military is the most "trusted" institution in America. I didn’t know what Instapundit meant by that (the military is trusted how?), so I followed his link. It took me to this United States Department of Defense website, where I read the first line of the press release: The military … Read More
Bush Is Worried Abouted Offending Arab Non-Democracies
This is "breaking news" at CNN, but apparently Bush is "worried" that the failed Dubai Ports deal will send a bad message to our "Arab allies in the war on terrorism". Come again? Isn’t the message that countries like the United Arab Emirates better work harder to disassociate themselves from people like al Qaeda and bin Laden? Do you have … Read More
Update On Historical Documents
The nation’s chief archivist of the National Archives has put a "moratorium" on the re-un-de-re-classicification of prevously declassified documents, following complaints from historians. Full story here. By the way, how cool is it to have the title Chief Archivist of the United States?
Paying Down Your Debt Can Raise A Red Flag With The Department Of Homeland Security
Go ahead. Read that headline again. We’ll wait. Done? Yup, it’s true. Under certain circumstances, an attempt to pay down your debt triggers a concern with the Department of Homeland Security, as Walter and Deana Soehnge found out. The story is quite simple. The Soehnges had run up a huge debt on their JC Penney Platinum MasterCard. So, as reasonable … Read More
Quote Of The Day
"OK, big boy, I’ll just vote to override your veto." – Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS) on Bush’s threat to veto any legislation related to the Dubai port deal.
Dubai Ports World Boycotts Israel
Bush argues that DPW should manage six twenty-one American ports because they are an ally in the war on terrorism, and it would send a terrible sign if we blocked the deal. Okay, fair enough. But what sign will it send to Israel (also an ally), considering that DPW supports the boycott of Israel? UPDATE: They’re also trying to stifle … Read More
Who Does Port Security?
Fred Barnes writes: This isn’t true. Security would remain in the hands of the U.S. Coast Guard and Customs Service. And the personnel operating the ports would be the same. Only the company owning the terminals would change. I’ve come to accept this as true, which is why I’m not terribly up in arms about the Dubai Ports World deal. … Read More
Government Secrets For Sale At Amazon.com
The government’s program to reclassify (or de-un-classify) documents, as discussed here and elsewhere, is leading to absurd results. For example, if you go to the National Archives, you can no longer find a copy of the 1958 Department of Defense "Emergency Plans Book," an early cold war description of response planning for a nuclear attack on the United States. But … Read More
This Is Old News…
…to most of us, but Flickr now has images of the notes of Department of Defense staffer Stephen Cambone, taken on September 11. 2001. The notes (11 pages of them) include Donald Rumsfeld’s 2:40 PM instructions to General Myers to find the "[b]est info fast… judge whether good enough [to] hit S.H. [Saddam Hussein] at same time – not only … Read More