tdog

Coming as it does exactly 69 months to the day after September 11th, one of the most conservative courts in the United States, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Richmond, issued a stinging rebuke to the Bush Administration and granted a habeas corpus petition filed by our old friend Saleh Al-Marri. You will recall that Mr. Al-Marri is a lawful U.S. resident, native and national of Qatar, who had been living in Peoria, IL with his wife and five children when he was arrested on various charges, but then at the whim of the President...

In this case, that would be former Secretary of State Colin Powell calling for the closure of the detention facility at Guantanano Bay. Powell suggested he would close it not tomorrow, but this afternoon– immediately, and move its detainees to within the United States, with full access to the appropriate legal system, whether the federal courts or proper military courts martial. Powell correctly notes that the perception of the United States running a legal black hole undermines our standing in the world and our carrying out our strategic goals in combatting terror, and it would be better if we were...

WaPo gives us this account of a recently released report from the Council of Europe and its point-man on this, Swiss legislator Dick Marty, documenting European cooperation in CIA detention/torture facilities in Poland and Romania, in which, among other things, the CIA abused NATO relationships to enable it to do these things in those venues. I think that’s a little extreme; both Poland and Romania are relatively poor countries very close to the former Soviet Union who were more than eager to help out their new pal, Uncle Sam, in any way they could. Either way, our readers are already...

Proving that his vaunted personal loyalty is about as real as his Texas accent, the President “reluctantly” acceded to the decision of Poppy, Jim Baker and the Cabal SecDef Robert Gates, and hence, Gates announced that General Peter Pace, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will not be reappointed. General Pace kind of went over the top recently with his remarks that homosexuality shouldn’t be tolerated in the military because its “immoral,” and by sending in his personal recommendation letter for old Scooter Libby to get a lighter sentence… but, come to think of it, for that and...

Because… after an almost inconceivable thirty month blog hiatus, one of the most original blogs in the sphere (and, btw, one of the all-time TD faves) Granny Rant… is… back! Granny comes to us from her undisclosed location somewhere in rural Tennessee… and Granny treats us to a wake-up call to consciousness… Whether railing on matters of science, religion, politics, or the infinite variety of (only seemingly crackpot) conspiracy theories, from our seemingly almost “done deal” North American Union to chemtrails to Area 51… Gran is on a rant… and Gran is on it, and putting it in the context...

The title is about the mirth and merriment coming out of Guantanamo today pertaining to Canadian national Omar Khadr (the beaver being, IIRC, the national animal of Canada). This blog was really never intended to go “All Gitmo all the time”; indeed, there are better sources for that, notably the great Guantanamo Blog and Cage Prisoners, both of which I frequently consult myself. My interest is almost at a meta-level… what interests me almost as much as the subject itself is the [obscene] lack of interest in the subject on the part of most Americans, largely driven by a feckless...

Not much to add to what Julia, and Patrick, or especially what Kevin, and most of the known-liberal-blog-world has already had to say about the untimely loss of Steve Gilliard, who passed away at 41. Familia TD met Steve at a number of gatherings of the Sinister Barbecue Cabal. Steve was always a friendly guy, and knew his s***, whatever the subject at hand… and he was also a humble guy, who, despite the success he had with his blog, eschewed things like awards. I’m glad to see that his net was cast wide, and tributes to him have come...

Regular readers know all about our nation’s not-so-slow slide into the “dark side” (see, for instance, our interview with former Guantanamo (GTMO) Army Arabic linguist Erik Saar, where he (more or less) confirms (albeit by qualifying that it is “his hunch”) that so-called “SERE” (“Survive, Evade, Resist, Escape”) training methods, i.e. abuses designed for our members of our military to prepare for the exigency of being captured by hostile forces, were used by members of our military against detainees at GTMO.) Well now… via Bruce the Veep and Andrew Sullivan, we give you this Time report confirming that the Pentagon,...

The mirth and merriment coming to us from the Super-Max Pleasure Palace we have created to satisfy our paranoia (and throw a few bucks to Kellog, Brown & Root) down Guantanamo-way continues… with this story that Canadian detainee Omar Khadr has decided to fire his American lawyers. While the story mentions Lt. Col. Colby Vokey (USMC) by name, we suspect the firing also includes Rick Wilson, who we interviewed here. There may be an issue that Khadr wants a Canadian lawyer… though who really knows? Our friend Candace also brings our attention to this piece (also in the Globe and...

So far, no flippant responses from the Defense or Justice Departments to the latest news that yet another GTMO detainee, this time a Saudi national, has managed to kill himself at our gulag beach resort at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. (Around this time last year, when three detainees killed themselves, GTMO commanding officer Rear Adm. Harris insisted that this was some kind of gesture of “asymmetrical warfare”.) While we do get the usual explanation of a detainee “found not responsive”, we get no details such as the name, or whether the detainee was one of those scheduled for release (because they’re...