Are We Safer? A Report Card on the War on Terror

LA Times:
We have more than six years of experience with the Bush Administration's war on terror and there has not been another attack on U.S. soil. But can the administration take credit for that?

There are some very interesting statistics from this report:

Number of people detained at Guantanamo since Jan. 2002.... 775

Number of detainees released.... 470

Number of detainees tried for any crimes.... 0

To read the full report Click Here

Turley: “It Is Rather Clear That What The President Ordered Was A Federal Crime”

C&L:
The Bush administration has been using the “state secrets” defense in order to have federal law suits challenging their illegal eavesdropping programs thrown out of court. So far, they have been successful; thanks, in most cases, to lazy or partisan judges who have given little or no scrutiny of the validity of their claims which, according to Constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley on Tuesday’s Countdown, are nothing more than unconstitutional attempts to cover up their own federal crimes.

To watch the video Click Here

Thompson backers second-guessing their man

C&L:

There was a point a few months ago in which the anticipation in Republican circles about Fred Thompson’s candidacy was palpable. The GOP’s three most-competitive candidates — Romney, Giuliani, and McCain — each caused consternation, for one reason or another, among conservatives, and Thompson was going to be the guy on the white horse who would save the day.

Fairly quickly, 21 congressional Republicans endorsed the former senator, which is nearly as many endorsements as McCain and Giuliani. But that was the late-summer. Now, even some of Thompson’s backers are wondering whether they’ve bet on the wrong horse.
Several House Republicans who endorsed Fred Thompson for president now say that they are frustrated with what they view as an apathetic campaign, and at least one regrets having committed to the former Tennessee senator.

“I think he’s kind of done a belly flop,” said an estranged Thompson backer who indicated he will not pull his public support before the “Super Tuesday” primaries. “We’ll just wait till after Feb. 5 because I think he’s going to get beat.”

Another GOP lawmaker said, “I’ve kind of pulled back. I’m not not supporting him, but I’m not doing anything.” With six weeks to go before the first contest, that’s not quite the enthusiasm a presidential hopeful wants to hear.

Ex-spokesman: Bush used me to lie

Rawstory:

President Bush, Karl Rove, and other top administration officials were "involved" in misleading the White House press corps about the outing of ex-CIA agent Valerie Plame, a forthcoming book from former Press Secretary Scott McClellan alleges.

Entitled What Happened, the new tell-all features McClellan's account of his days as the White House's top spokesman -- including a behind-the-scenes look at the Bush administration's handling of the Plame affair, according to a tantalizing excerpt from the book released on its publisher's website.

PBS Frontline: Extraordinary Rendition

Frontline (courtesty of C&L):

On Tuesday PBS Frontline: “Extraordinary Rendition” explored Bush’s use of the CIA to kidnap persons from sovereign nations and fly them to secret locations at CIA Black Sites or to prisons in other countries to be tortured and held indefinitely in secret without charges. Although the practice of “extraordinary rendition” did not originate under Bush, after Sept 11 “the program expanded beyond recognition—becoming, according to a former C.I.A. official, “an abomination.” What began as a program aimed at a small, discrete set of suspects—people against whom there were outstanding foreign arrest warrants—came to include a wide and ill-defined population that the Administration terms “illegal enemy combatants.”

Ill defined doesn’t really begin to cover it. In the two cases looked at in this clip, both men had actually previously been informants helping in the fight against terrorism prior to 9-11. Abu Omar had once been the “CIA’s most productive source of information” on a group of Islamic fundamentalists living in Albania, and Bisher al-Rawi had been a source for the MI5, helping keep tabs on Muslim extremists in the UK. Evidence in Italy’s case against 26 CIA operatives charged in Abu Omar’s kidnapping shows “that the abduction was a bold attempt to turn him back into the informer he once was,” not for his suspected ties to terrorism, and Al-Rawi believes he too was held “just on the hope he’d offer new intelligence.”

Both men have since been released without ever having been charged with anything, as were most of the hundreds of so-called “enemy combatants” held without due process by the Bush administration that have been released thus far. And if just wanting someone to become a potential informant being enough to get someone kidnapped and tortured wasn’t heinous enough for you, the documentary (which you can watch online) also tells the story of the US’s involvement in the (outsourced?) rendition and detention of the “wife and three children of a senior al-Qaeda suspect” in Somalia. Was Mukasey ever asked his opinion about the legality of any of that?

To watch the video click here

Special Comment: George Bush’s Criminal Conspiracy of Torture

C&L:
In his latest fire-breathing Special Comment Keith tears into President Bush for firing a true patriot that spoke out against torture, while cowardly and simultaneously ordering others to commit the very same heinous crime.

To watch the video click here

Retired JAGs On Waterboarding: "It Is Inhumane, It Is Torture, And It Is Illegal"

Alternet:
Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey has repeatedly refused to state whether or not waterboarding is illegal. In a legal dodge, Mukasey called the torture technique "hypothetical" and said that he would need the "actual facts and circumstances" to strike a "legal opinion."

But in a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT), four retired Judge Advocates General (JAGs) -- the judicial arm of the U.S. military -- sharply criticize Judge Mukasey's legal hedging. They unequivocally state that waterboarding is torture.

Fred Thompson is Dangerous

Reuters:
This guy is not ready for what we face today, let alone being prepared to be commander in chief of the U.S. Armed Forces. The answer Thompson gave about Pakistan is jaw dropping in its unpreparedness and naked cluelessness.

Pakistanis lose right to free speech, assembly

The Associated Press took a look at some of the restrictions of rights suspended by President George W. Bush's key terrorism ally General Pervez Musharraf Sunday. They follow:

-Protection of life and liberty.
-The right to free movement.
-The right of detainees to be informed of their offense and given access to lawyers.
-Protection of property rights.
-The right to assemble in public.
-The right to free speech.
-Equal rights for all citizens before law and equal legal protection.
-Media coverage of suicide bombings and militant activity is curtailed by new rules.

Broadcasters also face a three-year jail term if they "ridicule" members of the government or armed forces.

Thompson Advisor Trafficked Drugs

Washington Post:
Republican presidential candidate Fred D. Thompson has been crisscrossing the country since early this summer on a private jet lent to him by a businessman and close adviser who has a criminal record for drug dealing.

Martin entered a plea of guilty to the sale of 11 pounds of marijuana in 1979; the court withheld judgment pending completion of his probation. He was charged in 1983 with violating his probation and with multiple counts of felony bookmaking, cocaine trafficking and conspiracy. He pleaded no contest to the cocaine-trafficking and conspiracy charges, which stemmed from a plan to sell $30,000 worth of the drug, and was continued on probation.