"Enemy Belligerent" lawmakers: McCain and Lieberman

Cheneyism Lives
McCain and Lieberman have introduced one of the most despotic bills in memory: The Enemy Belligerent Interrogation, Detention and Prosecution Act of 2010 , a legislative monstrosity produced by John McCain and Joe Lieberman, goes further than any Bush-era legislation in abrogating the core principle of Anglo-American justice: that a suspect is innocent until proven guilty. While the bill is deplorable in every detail -- it denies terrorist suspects their Miranda Rights and codifies...

A Detention Bill You Ought to Read More Carefully
Why is the National Security community treating the "Enemy Belligerent, Interrogation, Detention, and Prosecution Act of 2010," introduced by Sens. John McCain and Joseph Lieberman on Thursday as a standard proposal, as a simple response to the administration's choices in the aftermath of the Christmas Day bombing attempt? A close reading of the bill suggests it would allow the U.S. Military to detain U.S. citizens without trial indefinitely in the U.S. based on suspected activity. Read the...

A Detention Bill You Ought to Read More Carefully
Why is the National Security community treating the "Enemy Belligerent, Interrogation, Detention, and Prosecution Act of 2010," introduced by Sens. John McCain and Joseph Lieberman on Thursday as a standard proposal, as a simple response to the administration's choices in the aftermath of the Christmas Day bombing attempt? A close reading of the bill suggests it would allow the U.S. Military to detain U.S. citizens without trial indefinitely in the U.S. based on suspected activity . Read the...

New York state assembly takes ‘salty language’ to a whole new level
Via Katherine Mangu-Ward this is probably the silliest thing since they banned Smoking in bars: That's right, folks, if the assembly has its way it will cost New Yorkers $1,000 a pinch.  Bland food suddenly sounds a whole lot better. For slightly more sinister legislation we turn to Andrew Sullivan , who gives us one more reason why John McCain and Joe Lieberman should not be trusted with even the smallest smidgeon of power: The Enemy Belligerent Interrogation, Detention and...

Maverick Fails The Test: McCain Votes Against Waterboarding Ban
Today, the Senate brought the Intelligence Authorization Bill to the floor, which contained a provision from Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) establishing one Interrogation standard across the government. The Bill requires the Intelligence community to abide by the same standards as articulated in the Army Field Manual and bans Waterboarding. Just hours ago, the Senate voted in favor of the Bill, 51-45 . Earlier today, ThinkProgress noted that Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), a former prisoner of...

A Hundred Years' War?: Hendrik Hertzberg :
John McCain—who, solely because of the grievous blow to Romney, seems to have been almost as big a winner last night as Huckabee or Obama—flew here yesterday for an early evening “town meeting.” He was accompanied by his own personal Chuck Norris, Joseph I. Lieberman. The setting was the nearby town of Derry, which looks like a Lionel Train layout, in a building called the Adams Memorial Opera House, which is not an opera house. It’s a cozy little auditorium with a...

Graham's Closest Senate Allies Want Indefinite Detention of U.S. Citizens
Here’s another measure of how unlikely it is that Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) can actually bring along GOP votes for closing Guantanamo Bay if only, only , the Obama Administration caves on trying Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in a civilian court. Last week, Graham’s two best Senate friends, John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), introduced a bill presenting , essentially, the GOP response to Obama’s legal approach to Terrorism. (PDF.) Here’s a sampling of what...

Entire FOX News Panel Defends John McCain Over Confrontation With NY Times While Ignoring The Underlying Issue Of McCain's Lack Of Candor
Here's a perfect example of Fox News bias: Hannity & Colmes discussed John McCain's confrontation with New York Times reporter Elisabeth Bumiller on Friday, March 7, 2008. But the sole guest was Republican pollster Frank Luntz, offered as usual as simply an expert on "words that work." Luntz and both hosts defended McCain. Meanwhile, the clip of McCain's confrontation, along with the parameters of the discussion, neatly avoided the underlying issue behind Bumiller's questions: that...

McCain Conflates Shiite Iran And Sunni Al Qaeda, Needs To Be Corrected By Lieberman
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has spent a majority of his presidential campaign trying to convince voters that he is the most qualified to tackle Foreign Policy issues: I would believe that my knowledge and experience and background clearly indicates that if the phone rang in the White House and I was the one to answer it, I would be the one to best address a National Security crisis . [ 3/3/08 ] I have the most experience of any presidential candidate when it comes to Foreign Policy and advancing...

Malaysia deports 2 terror suspects, including 1 Yemeni; to deport 7 other foreigners
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia — Malaysia has deported two terror suspects, including one Yemeni, while seven others await Deportation following their arrests on suspicion they were linked to a terrorist organization, officials said Monday. The nine foreigners and one Malaysian were arrested last January under the Internal Security Act, which allows Indefinite Detention without trial. The Home Ministry has said it arrested them on suspicion they had links with an international terror network and...

Graham Moves Forward With Indefinite Detention Proposal
Two weeks ago, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), in the midst of negotiations with the White House over trading a Military Tribunal for 9/11 conspirator Khalid Shaikh Mohammed for the closure of the Guantanamo Bay Detention facility, floated a new proposal: “a new National Security court” for Terrorism Detainees . Graham didn’t appear to press the point in interviews since. But his spokesman, Kevin Bishop, said Graham is busy drawing up a proposal for how such a system would work,...

"It's not McCarthyism if I get to be Tailgunner Joe"
Marc Thiessen and Rummy dwell upon their heroism The ‘liberal Post Editorial Page’s’ latest hire, Marc Thiessen is out there to prove his hippy punching bona fides by beating up James Madison : One lawyer in the National Security Division of Holder’s Justice Department, Jennifer Daskal, has written that any terrorist not charged with a crime “should be released from Guantanamo’s system of Indefinite Detention” even though “at least some of these...

Graham The Dealmaker In A World Without Deals
I have to highlight this Washington Independent post , because it provides the legislative language favored by the people Lindsey Graham is telling the White House he can bring along in a Detentions deal: An individual, including a citizen of the United States , determined to be an unprivileged enemy belligerent under section 3(c)(2) in a manner which satisfies Article 15 5 of the Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War may be detained without criminal charges and...

Judge H. Lee Sarokin: Liz Cheney Visits the Sins of the Client on the Lawyer
Among the frightening Cheneyisms , this is one of the most bizarre. Apparently carrying on the family tradition of advocating Torture and the illegal and Indefinite Detention of suspected terrorists, Liz Cheney now contends that lawyers who challenged such Torture and Detention are unqualified for public office. Under the auspices of Keep America Safe and joined by Sen. Charles Grassley , William Kristol and other conservative voices, the loyalty of Justice Department lawyers who (while...

Dissenters To Be Detained As “Enemy Belligerents”?
Since the establishment media is convinced that Tea Party members, 9/11 Truthers, libertarians, Ron Paul supporters, and basically anyone with a dissenting political opinion is a likely domestic terrorist, they should be celebrating the fact that a new bill would allow the government to detain such people as "enemy belligerents" indefinitely and without trial based on their "suspected activity". The "Enemy Belligerent, Interrogation, Detention, and Prosecution Act of 2010," introduced by...

Q&A: Torture and 'enhanced interrogation'
A shackled detainee at Guantánamo Bay. Photograph: Brennan Linsley/AP Does the US Torture people? The Bush Administration insists it does not Torture people, but says it uses "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques", which, according to critics, for all intents and purposes include Torture. When pressed on the issue, George Bush has repeatedly denied subjecting people to Torture. At a press conference in Panama in 2005, the US president told reporters: "We do not Torture people." He said...

Senator Bob Graham: A Majority of Senate Intelligence Committee Supported Interrogation Oversight in 2002
A couple of weeks ago, I noted that the CIA Memorandum for the Record from their February 4, 2003 briefing of Pat Roberts revealed that Bob Graham, Roberts’ predecessor as Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, had attempted to institute some oversight over the CIA’s Interrogation program in November 2002. After CIA discouraged the idea in the briefing, Roberts immediately backed off the idea of doing any oversight. Roberts' [redacted; staffer?] asked me whether I had...

Graham: CIA Gave Me False Information About Interrogation Briefings
In testimony that could bolster Speaker Nancy Pelosi's claim that the CIA misled her during briefings on detainee Interrogations, former Senator Bob Graham insisted on Thursday that he too was kept in the dark about the use of Waterboarding, and called the agency's records on these briefings "suspect." In an interview with the Huffington Post, the former Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman said that approximately a month ago, the CIA provided him with false information about how many times...

Busted bust?
CBS News' Farhan Bokhari in Islamabad writes that earlier reports the detained individual was Gadahn proved false. According to a Pakistan security official who spoke with CBS News on condition of anonymity, the arrested individual is in fact "a Taliban militant leader who is known as Abu Yahya." The official said evidence compiled from an Interrogation of the suspect and information exchanged with U.S. officials verified the man's identify. The reassessment only added to the confusion...

al-Qaeda man among two held in Karachi
 Karachi: Two terrorists, including a key Al-Qaeda commander, were arrested from Karachi, sources told Geo Sunday. According to sources, security agencies raided a house located at Super Highway in Karachi, in which two people, including a commander linked with the Al-Qaeda network, were arrested. The arrested men include Commander Abu Yahya Azam, a close accomplice of Usama bin Laden. They were later shifted to some undisclosed location for further Interrogation. Back  ...

John Yoo:
John Yoo , law professor at the University of California at Berkeley, former Justice Department deputy assistant Attorney General and author of "Crisis and Command: A History of Executive Power from George Washington to George W. Bush," was online Wednesday, March 3, at 1 p.m. ET to discuss his book, which explores the relationship between the three branches of government and the rules of war, including Surveillance, detention, Interrogation and trial. ____________________ John Yoo:...

Blast hits FIA building in Lahore; 11 dead
Lahore: A car bomb explosion killed 11 people and injured 61 others near the FIA and the Special Interrogation Unit buildings in Model Town, Lahore on Monday. "Eleven people have been killed and several others injured in a Suicide car bombing, which took place near the FIA and the Special Interrogation Unit buildings in Lahore," the commissioner of Lahore said. Division Commissioner Khusro Pervaiz said 61 people had been injured, 11 of the injured are said to be in critical condition,...

Dept. of Justice Memo from Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Yoo to White House Counsel Re: Interrogation Methods that don't violate torture prohibitions
Search Dept. of Justice Memo from Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Yoo to White House Counsel Re: Interrogation Methods that don't violate Torture prohibitions -->

3RD LD: Bomb blast kills 13 in Pakistan+
Islamabad, March 8 (AP) - (Kyodo)—(EDS: UPDATING WITH HIGHER CASUALTY TOLL, Taliban CLAIM OF RESPONSIBILITY) Thirteen people were killed and 70 injured in a Suicide car bomb attack in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore on Monday, local officials said. The Pakistani Taliban later in the day claimed responsibility for the attack, which targeted a security agency's Interrogation office in the city. "Security officials are the target. We will carry out more attacks," the Militants'...

Jonathon Narvey: Big news scoop, no proof required
Come quick, CBC! I have access to top-secret documents proving that the Canadian government officials at the highest levels deliberately handed over enemy combatants in Afghanistan to Lex Luthor and Gorrila Grod for super-villain style Interrogation. My research shows that the prisoners were probably subjected to unhealthy doses of Kryptonite and freeze rays. I can't actually show you the documents, of course. In fact, I can't offer any proof to substantiate my claim due to legal...