This stealth provision was added to the bill by the committee's chairman, Rep. Buck McKeon (R-Calif.), but has a bit of a history. It was first proposed by former Attorney General Michael Mukasey in 2008 after the Bush administration lost the Boumediene v. Bush case, in which the Supreme Court decided that federal courts would subject the administration's asserted law of war basis to hold Guantanamo detainees to searching review. An idea that may have originally been intended to bolster the Bush administration's basis for holding Guantanamo detainees is now being promoted as an authorization of a worldwide war — and could become the single biggest ceding of unchecked war authority to the executive branch in modern American history.
the real reason only 5 detainees are coming to new york? from history commons: US Attorney General Eric Holder recently announced that five detainees would be moved from Guantanamo Bay to New York, where they would stand trial for carrying out the 9/11 attacks. However, five other detainees will continue to be tried before military commissions, which have lower standards of evidence. The five detainees coming to New York have previously indicated they intend to plead guilty, although the five to be tried before military commissions have not.
According to this McClatchy article, the five Holder says will be tried before military commissions are: Ibrahim al Qosi, who is trying to have incriminating statements he says were made under torture/coercion suppressed and wants to go home to Sudan; Omar Khadr, who is fighting the charges against him. His lawyers claim most of the evidence against him is based on statements he made under coercion; Ahmed al Darbi, who says he was tortured into confessing; Noor Uthman Mohammed, who denied many of the charges against him; and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, who says he’s innocent and was also tortured into confessing.
As I pointed out earlier today, there is a lot of evidence against al-Nashiri. However, based on what I know of the Khadr case, he would stand a very good chance of acquittal, unless the bar was lowered from beyond reasonable doubt to “I guess he might have done it.” The other three to be tried before military commissions I don’t know much about.
Is it just a coincidence that the five detainees who have indicated they intend to plead guilty are going to New York, but the ones that are fighting the charges are getting military commissions?
teens streams suicide live on web from threat level: A 19-year-old Florida teen's suicide broadcast Wednesday on Justin.tv was a result of an overdose of opiates and benzodiazepine, the Broward County Medical Examiner & Trauma Services Division said Friday. The Pembroke Pines teen was pronounced dead about 6 p.m. on Wednesday, coroner spokeswoman Sherri Baker said in a telephone interview. She said benzodiazepine is used for depression and insomnia. About 185 people were viewing the feed on the San Francisco-based live-streaming service. The teen had announced his pending suicide on a bodybuilding.com chat forum, which linked to the broadcast. He left an online suicide note. Viewers were seen egging him on. The chat's moderator called the authorities, Baker said, and police broke into the residence. Justin.tv CEO Michael Seibel said in an e-mail: "We regret that this has occurred and respect the privacy of the broadcaster and his family during this time. We have policies in place to discourage the distribution of distressing content, and our community monitors the site accordingly. This content was flagged by our community, reviewed, and removed according to our terms of service."
argentine man kills himself on tv from bbc: A former police chief in Argentina, wanted for alleged crimes against human rights, has shot himself dead in front of television cameras. Mario Ferreyra was giving an interview on top of a water tank at his home in the northern province of Tucuman. Police were coming to arrest him when he killed himself. Mr Ferreyra was wearing his customary black shirt and cowboy hat and told the interviewer that he was innocent and had not committed any crimes. He then told his wife, Maria, that he would love her forever, pulled a pistol from his boot and shot himself behind the ear.
update: man shot by scientology guard was from oregon from ap: An Oregon man who was fatally shot as he wielded a pair of samurai swords and attempted to attack guests at a landmark Scientology building was a former follower of the religion who had made at least a dozen previous threats against the church, a Scientology official said Monday. Mario Majorski, 48, of Florence, Ore. was shot once by a security guard as he tried to use the swords to attack guests Sunday at the Scientology Celebrity Centre in Hollywood, police said.
from washington post: Justice Department officials released new guidelines yesterday that empower FBI agents to use intrusive techniques to gather intelligence within the United States, alarming civil liberties groups and Democratic lawmakers who worry that they invite privacy violations and other abuses.
Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey said the guidelines are necessary to fulfill the FBI's core mission to predict threats and respond even before an attack takes place. The ground rules will help the bureau become "a more flexible and adept collector of intelligence," as independent commissions urged after the strikes of Sept. 11, 2001, Mukasey said in a statement yesterday.
The guidelines, which harmonize five different road maps dating back more than a generation, take effect Dec. 1. That is two months later than initially planned, and authorities said the delay was a concession to privacy advocates and Arab American groups who expressed concern that their members could be subject to racial or ethnic profiling.
'vigilant guard' managers put the kaboom in terrorism exercises from national guard bureau: KaBOOM! Exercise managers for the Vigilant Guard homeland security exercise here added realism Sept. 16 by blowing up balloons filled with explosive gas. KaPOW! They tested the balloons today. Tomorrow the noisemakers will prompt police swat teams to move in on a suspected fake terrorist hideout at a hotel. Along with phony blown up cars, it’s all been fabricated by the National Guard’s civilian exercise managers. Vigilant Guard began here Sept. 12 with a regional tabletop exercise at the Guam Guard’s Joint Forces Headquarters. It continues through this week, culminating with a simulated terrorist attack on the island’s Tumon Beach, which is a popular tourist and vacation spot.
atf missing 418 laptops & 76 guns from ap: The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) lost 76 weapons and hundreds of laptops over five years, the Justice Department reported Wednesday(3.4mb PDF), blaming carelessness and sloppy record-keeping. Thirty-five of the missing handguns, rifles, Tasers and other weapons were stolen, as were 50 laptops, the internal audit found. Two of the stolen weapons were used in crimes. The audit by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine found "inadequate" oversight of weapons and laptops resulted in "significant rates of losses" at the ATF.
oklahoma firefighters team up with wmd unit for drill from kten: Wednesday in Ardmore, The National Guard's 63rd Weapons Of Mass Destruction Team out of Norman, paired up with local emergency responders to conduct a mock drill. The drill involved a chemical release in The Ardmore Convention Center with a large group of people inside. KTEN's Hailee Holliday reports.
drive-through clinic offers booster shots targeting hepatitis a from buffalo news: There were no burgers or fries at this drive-through. This weekend, hepatitis A booster shots are being given out drive-through style at the Amherst Highway Garage. On Saturday, hundreds of people rolled down their windows and pulled up their sleeves to receive the booster shot in their arms — without leaving their cars. “We’ve had minivans with entire families pull up and single cars, too,” said Daniel Neaverth, Erie County deputy commissioner of emergency medical services. By 3 p. m., more than 300 people had participated... The idea was to administer the shots in the most efficient way possible. But it also served as an exercise in giving out mass doses of a vaccine in the event of a pandemic outbreak or a biological attack. Neaverth said Erie County is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s “City Readiness Initiative.” Participants are encouraged to develop new ways to administer medicines to the masses.
military aircraft to conduct training exercises over washdc from wtop: If you see and hear military aircraft overhead Wednesday and Thursday, it's just an exercise. The North American Aerospace Defense Command starts conducting a two-day exercise in the D.C. area Wednesday. The exercise, a series of training flights, is designed to hone NORAD's intercept and identification operations. Civil Air Patrol and Coast Guard helicopters will participate in the exercise. The training flights were occur during late night and early morning hours. In the event of inclement weather, NORAD will run the exercise on the next clear day until the exercise has been completed.
nation inadequately prepared for severe pandemic from govtech: States are making significant progress toward safeguarding their citizens against an influenza pandemic, but the nation as a whole remains inadequately prepared for a severe pandemic outbreak according to a new report by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center). The report, Pandemic Preparedness in the States: An Assessment of Progress and Opportunity(412kb PDF), presents an overall appraisal of the current level of pandemic preparedness in the states and offers recommendations for improvement in five areas. "Even though this issue largely has fallen off the public's radar, states recognize that successfully managing a pandemic outbreak requires a sustained effort to combat the threat in all sectors of the economy and in society as a whole," said Chris Logan, program director of the NGA Center's Homeland Security and Technology Division. "The conclusions of this report serve a vital national service: they demonstrate both the extent of our readiness as well as the gaps in our current preparedness."
neocon think tank says US still lacks good continuity plan from aei: Seven years is a long time, but the enormity and depravity of the acts are fresh. Nonetheless, one would think that seven years is enough time for even a slow-moving political system to create basic insurance to prevent the kind of chaos and injury to the American constitutional system that would come with another, more successful, attack on official Washington. Never mind. In one of the more shameworthy lapses in our dysfunctional government, especially in Congress, nothing constructive has been done to protect our elections, our legislative branch, our presidential succession process or our Supreme Court from the consequences of the kind of terrorist attack that every expert we have believes is quite likely to occur in the future... The Presidential Succession Act of 1947 has no relevance to the challenges and potential disasters of 2008 and beyond... We are approaching an inauguration that will be historic in many ways--and also the single most vulnerable day for our constitutional system. The plans to ensure that the worst-case scenario there will not turn into an even worse scenario for the country and its future? Zero. Happy seventh anniversary.
new york offers 'enhanced' rfid driver’s licenses from times union: Starting Tuesday, New Yorkers will be able to buy new driver's licenses containing a radio chip that will let them travel between the U.S. and Canada or Mexico without a passport. The new Enhanced Drivers License, which will cost an additional $30 on top of the standard $50 license fee, also will allow those on boats or ships to travel to Bermuda and Caribbean nations without a passport. Starting in June, federal law will dictate that passports or other proof of citizenship - or an enhanced license - will be needed to visit neighboring countries, including Canada and Mexico. "This is an opportunity for individuals, at their option, to get through the borders more quickly," said Ken Brown, a spokesman for the state Department of Motor Vehicles.
mukasey's justice dept codifies cointelpro into fbi 'ground rules' from 9/11 blogger: Every once in a while, the Washington Post actually prints something of note. Yesterday, they published this article, Rule Changes Would Give FBI Agents Extensive New Powers. Previously, the FBI was required to have a case before they started screwing around with you. Under Mukasey's "New Rules", we now have a situation ripe for abuse. The Justice Department is currently working out the wording for placing "undisclosed participants" in organizations... Just in time for the November elections.
lieberman wins: youtube bans videos that incite violence from washington post: The video-sharing service YouTube is banning submissions that involve "inciting others to violence," following criticism from Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) that the site was too open to terrorist groups disseminating militant propaganda. The company earlier this year removed some of the videos that Lieberman targeted, many of which were marked with the logos of al-Qaeda and affiliated groups. But the company refused to take down most of the videos on the senator's list, saying they did not violate the Web site's guidelines against graphic violence or hate speech. Now that videos inciting others to violence are banned, more videos by the terrorist groups in question may be removed. "YouTube reviews its content guidelines a few times a year, and we take the community's input seriously," YouTube spokesman Ricardo Reyes said. "The senator made some good points."
military industrial complex 2.0 from information clearinghouse: Seven years into George W. Bush's Global War on Terror, the Pentagon is embroiled in two big wars, a potentially explosive war of words with Tehran, and numerous smaller conflicts – and it is leaning ever more heavily on private military contractors to get by. Once upon a time, soldiers did more than pick up a gun. They picked up trash. They cut hair and delivered mail. They fixed airplanes and inflated truck tires. Not anymore. All of those tasks are now the responsibility of private military corporations. In the service of the Pentagon, their employees also man computers, write software code, create integrating systems, train technicians, manufacture and service high-tech weapons, market munitions, and interpret satellite images. People in ties or heels, not berets or fatigues, today translate documents, collect intelligence, interpret for soldiers and interrogators, approve contracts, draft reports to Congress, and provide oversight for other private contractors. They also fill prescriptions, fit prosthetics, and arrange for physical therapy and psychiatric care. Top to bottom, the Pentagon's war machine is no longer just driven by, but staffed by, corporations.
photo ticket cameras to track drivers nationwide from the newspaper: Private companies in the US are hoping to use red light cameras and speed cameras as the basis for a nationwide surveillance network similar to one that will be active next year in the UK. Redflex and American Traffic Solutions (ATS), the top two photo enforcement providers in the US, are quietly shopping new motorist tracking options to prospective state and local government clients. Redflex explained the company's latest developments in an August 7 meeting with Homestead, Florida officials.
smile for the cameras from willamette week: Portland Public Schools is giving the bus company that schleps around students $18,000 to buy 20 digital cameras to monitor rider behavior on district buses. The school board OK’d the expenditure at its Sept. 15 meeting on top of the district’s $58 million contract with Laidlaw Transit, now doing business as First Student. Andy Leibenguth, of the district’s transportation office, says no incident precipitated the camera purchase. The district isn’t targeting a specific route; it plans to rotate the cameras, which will supplement the 15 cameras First Student already uses.
ksm, alleged 9/11 architect, gets navy lawyer from miami herald: For two decades, attorney Prescott Prince was a solo practitioner with a small family and criminal law practice in eastern Virginia, and a reserve Navy career on the side... Tuesday, the soft-spoken 53-year-old with a mustache and thinning hair found himself with what well could be the case of a lifetime, if not the century: The Pentagon assigned him to defendKhalid Sheik Mohammed, the reputed al Qaeda kingpin and alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks...
we have no record of mukasey's 'warning' from raw story: The vice chair of the prominent 9/11 Commission is denying Attorney General Michael Mukasey's claim that the US received a warningbefore the attacks of Sep. 11, 2001, Salon reports. "I am unfamiliar with the telephone call that Attorney General Mukasey cited in his appearance in San Francisco on March 27. The 9/11 Commission did not receive any information pertaining to its occurrence," said former Rep. Lee Hamilton in a statement received by Salon's Glenn Greenwald, who has closely followed the Mukasey revelation.
jesse ventura joins the 9/11 truth movement from 9/11 blogger: Jesse Ventura tells Alex Jones that he could kick himself for believing the official 9/11 story at first and wishes he would have raised more questions, questions that still haven't been answered to his satisfaction.
saddam tapes: cia/mossad behind wtc93? from newsweek: Perhaps most revealing of all was a tape of Saddam's conversations with his ministers after the World Trade Center bombing in February 1993 - a plot linked to a group of Islamic radicals, one of whom, Abdul Rahman Yasin, was an Iraqi-American who fled to Baghdad after the attack... But the newly discovered tape shows that Saddam and his ministers were puzzled by the bombing and wondered whether the "Zionists" or U.S. intelligence were secretly behind it.
mukasey hints US had attack warning before 9/11 from paul joseph watson: During a speech at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco on Thursday, Attorney General Michael Mukasey tacitly admitted that the U.S. government intercepted a call about 9/11 - before 9/11. Before the 2001 terrorist attacks, he said, "we knew that there had been a call from someplace that was known to be a safe house in Afghanistan and we knew that it came to the United States. We didn't know precisely where it went," reports the San Francisco Chronicle.
'9/11 contradictions' excerpt: 3 official denials of ted olson's report of calls from barbara olson from david ray griffin: Late in the day on 9/11, CNN put out a story that began: “Barbara Olson, a conservative commentator and attorney, alerted her husband, Solicitor General Ted Olson, that the plane she was on was being hijacked Tuesday morning, Ted Olson told CNN.” ... Ted Olson’s report was... the sole source of the widely accepted idea that the hijackers had box cutters. However, although Ted Olson’s report of phone calls from his wife has been a central pillar of the official account of 9/11, this report has been completely undermined.
specter confirms able danger & anthrax coverups from 9/11 blogger: Questions posed by members of Philly 9/11 Truth to Senator Arlen Specter about the pre-9/11 military intelligence program Able Danger and the post-9/11 anthrax attacks were responded to with a fair degree of candidacy.
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from aclu.org: Tucked inside the National Defense Authorization Act, being marked up by the House Armed Services Committee this week, is a hugely important provision that hasn't been getting a lot of attention — a brand new authorization for a worldwide war.
