Think Abu Ghraib was just a handful of photographs and a couple of isolated incidents? Think again: Salon has obtained files and other electronic documents from an internal Army investigation into the Abu Ghraib prisoner-abuse scandal. The material, which includes more than 1,000 photographs, videos and supporting documents from the Army’s probe, may represent all of the photographic and video … Read More
United Arab Emerates To Handle American Ports
This seems like a really bad idea: A company in the United Arab Emirates is poised to take over significant operations at six American ports as part of a corporate sale, leaving a country with ties to the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers with influence over a maritime industry considered vulnerable to terrorism. The Bush administration considers the UAE an important … Read More
Waas’s New Scoop
Pretty big news: Beyond what was stated in the court paper, say people with firsthand knowledge of the matter, Libby also indicated what he will offer as a broad defense during his upcoming criminal trial: that Vice President Cheney and other senior Bush administration officials had earlier encouraged and authorized him to share classified information with journalists to build public … Read More
Many GITMO Detainees Are NOT “Enemy Combatants”
Another right wing meme shot to hell. About 500 detainees at Gitmo are not "enemy combatants". They were not captured on the battlefield. In fact, any of them are not affiliated with al Qaeda or the Taliban. They just happened to have been at the wrong place at the wrong time. The Rude Pundit has a few words.
On The L.A. Terrorist Plot
The headlines this morning were all about how Bush was going to defend the NSA wiretap program by giving examples of how it thwarted terrorist plots. Sadly, Bush isn’t doing that. Instead, he’s giving some details about a 2002 al Qaeda plot to fly an airplane into a Los Angeles skyscraper, but he’s giving credit to international cooperation. The president … Read More
Kindergarteners Banned From NASA
Well, not American ones. Just foreign exchange students. The kindergarten class at Lakewood’s Taft Elementary was planning a field trip to NASA Glenn Research Center. It’s a popular trip because it’s free, because the NASA staff already has age-appropriate tours that fit well with school curriculum, and, well, it’s outer space, for pete’s sake. They’ve got rocket ships. And NASA … Read More
Free Speech For Me But Not For Thee
Dateline Missouri: Saying the nation’s symbol "deserves more respect than the protest message of some liberal hippie," a Missouri state lawmaker has introduced a bill legalizing the use of force to stop someone from desecrating the American flag. Republican Rep. Sam Gaskill, a former fighter pilot in Vietnam, defended his bill yesterday, insisting the measure would prevent the defilement of … Read More
We’re Up To The 4’s
The #1 man in al Qaeda is bin Laden. On that, we can all agree. But having caught half a dozen "#2 men in al Qaeda", and a few "#3 men", the Bush Administration has pretty much exhausted credibility. And now, we just caught the first of what I’m sure will be many #4 men. By the way, who assigns … Read More
Dizazter For Kidz
Shakespeare’s Sister is right. There’s something a little, well, gay about Rex, the mascot on the recently-unveiled Homeland Security for Kids website called "Fear Can Be FUN!!!"* Especially when you read his bio: HE LOVES: Making friends! He talks to everyone he meets and loves to learn all about them. Rex knows that everyone has a special story and something … Read More
Terrorism: A Risk-Benefit Analysis
Glenn Greenwald writes a post which will no doubt drive the right wingers batty: All of this seems obvious at this point. The total number of Americans killed by Islamic terrorists in the last 5 years — or 10 years — or 20 years — or ever — is roughly 3,500, the same number of deaths by suicide which occur … Read More
Delayed Learnin’
Bush Taking Bin Laden Threat Seriously reads the headline. Really. I’m not kidding. The fact that Bush is taking a bin Laden threat seriously . . . is news. So 9/11 did change something. Albeit belatedly. Recall in March 2002, Bush said this in response to a bin Laden-related question from the press: [T]he idea of focusing on one person … Read More
Michael Moore? Or James Dobson?
I’ve been amused by Chris Matthews’ comment that bin Laden is like Michael Moore. Others on the right have also said that bin Laden’s rants sound like it comes from lefties. Oh, really? Here are some direct quotes from bin Laden in his recent "Letter to America". Assume, for this thought experiment, that all references to Islam, Allah, and the … Read More
Someone Please Send A Copy Of The Constitution To The U.S. Department Of Justice
From the NYT: Nor does the N.S.A. program conflict, the Justice Department said, with what many legal analysts had regarded as the exclusive authority for intelligence wiretaps under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, passed by Congress in 1978 in response to Watergate-era political abuses. Some presidential powers, particularly in the area of national security, are simply "beyond Congress’ ability to … Read More
Bin Laden Offers Threat, Truce
Not sure what to make of this: Al-Jazeera on Thursday broadcast portions of an audiotape purportedly from Osama bin Laden, saying al-Qaida is making preparations for attacks in the United States but offering a possible truce to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan. The voice on the tape said heightened security in the United States is not the reason there have been … Read More
No Sense At All
Josh Marshall: Says Cheney … "And Steve Hayes is of the view — and I think he’s correct — that a lot of those documents that were captured over there that have not yet been evaluated offer additional evidence that, in fact, there was a relationship that stretched over many years between Saddam Hussein and the al Qaeda organization." …So … Read More