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Senators Press Holder to Declassify Key Facts about Patriot Act

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Salem-News.com - Nov. 19 (News Report) - We believe that the information we referenced in those paragraphs – specifically about the use of section 215 – is essential to understanding the full scope of the PATRIOT Act, which is about to be debated in Congress. As we said in June, if you have concerns about declassifying the specific language contained in our letter, we ask that you work with us to find language that conveys enough information to allow for an informed public debate on the PATRIOT Act’s reauthorization

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Would U.S. Need To Read Bin Laden His Miranda Rights?

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

All Things Considered - By Frank James - Nov. 18 (News Report) - Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to give a federal court trial instead of a military commission hearing to five Guantanamo detainees the government has linked to the 9/11 attacks has led to criticism that the Obama Administration is transforming the war on terror from a military to law-enforcement affair. This has led some critics to wonder if captured terrorist suspects would have to be read their Miranda rights on being captured by U.S. military or law enforcement representatives.

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Dallas police chief: Dozens of tickets issued for not speaking English

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Dallas Morning News - By Scott Goldstein - Oct. 23 (News Report) - Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle said this afternoon that his officers have written at least 39 citations to people over the past three years for not speaking English

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Appeals court rules against Ashcroft in 9/11 case

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Associated Press - Sep. 04 (News Report) - A federal appeals court delivered a stinging rebuke Friday to the Bush administration's post-Sept. 11 detention policies, ruling that former Attorney General John Ashcroft can be held liable for people who were wrongfully detained as material witnesses after 9/11. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the government's improper use of material witnesses after Sept. 11 was "repugnant to the Constitution and a painful reminder of some of the most ignominious chapters of our national history

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Canada court says its officials knew U.S. abused detainee

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

McClatchy - By Carol Rosenberg | Miami Herald - Aug. 14 (News Report) - Canada must seek the immediate return of Toronto-born Guantanamo captive Omar Khadr rather than await the outcome of his U.S. military trial because American troops mistreated the alleged teen terrorist and Canadian officials knew about it, Canada's appeals court ruled Friday.

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Obama’s Military Is Spying on U.S. Peace Groups

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

TruthDig - By Amy Goodman - Jul. 28 (News Report) - Anti-war activists in Olympia, Wash., have exposed Army spying and infiltration of their groups, as well as intelligence gathering by the Air Force, the federal Capitol Police and the Coast Guard. The infiltration appears to be in direct violation of the Posse Comitatus Act preventing U.S. military deployment for domestic law enforcement and may strengthen congressional demands for a full-scale investigation of U.S. intelligence activities, like the Church Committee hearings of the 1970s.

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Revelations About the Nominee

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Ann Gerhart - Jul. 15 (News Report) - Sonia Sotomayor speaks slowly, deliberately and at length, and she has a ready sense of humor.

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Obama Goes to Bat for Bush Wiretap Program

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

San Francisco Chronicle - By Bob Egelko - Jul. 15 (News Report) - President Obama is adamant about maintaining the secrecy of a wiretapping program authorized by George W. Bush, an administration lawyer told a federal judge in San Francisco on Wednesday.

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Bush Spying Relied on Faulty Theories

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Consortium News - By Jason Leopold - Jul. 12 (News) - George W. Bush justified his warrantless wiretapping by relying on Justice Department attorney John Yoo’s theories of unlimited presidential wartime powers, and started the spying operation even before Yoo issued a formal opinion, a government investigation discovered.

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Sidebar - Guilty by a 10-2 Vote - Efficient or Unconstitutional? - Series - NYTimes.com

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Adam Liptak - Jul. 07 (News Report) - “Twelve Angry Men” might have been a much shorter movie had it been set in Oregon. Instead of letting Juror No. 8, the lone holdout played by Henry Fonda, methodically convince his fellow jurors that there was good reason to doubt the defendant’s guilt, an Oregon jury might have just voted and been done with it. That’s because Oregon is one of only two states that does not require juries to reach unanimous verdicts in criminal cases. Like Louisiana, it allows convictions by a vote of 10 to 2. In a pair of decisions in 1972, the Supreme Court said that was all right, that the Constitution does not require states to insist on unanimity.

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Stripping Away Free Expression: A Pennsylvania town tries—and fails—to ban a form of exercise.

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Reason Magazine - By Shawn Macomber - Jun. 27 (Special Report) - Despite its cheeky name, the city of Mars isn’t always amenable to cultural efforts perceived as alien. The “pink-and-black color scheme of Ms. Babines’ website and the high-heeled shoe in her logo” were enough, according to court documents, to convince Code Enforcement Officer Gary Peaco to protect the community from these exercise classes.

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Obama issues signing statement on $106B war bill

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The Hill - By Michael O'Brien - Jun. 26 (News Report) - President George W. Bush was heavily criticized for his use of signing statements, declaring he'd ignore some elements of legislation by invoking presidential prerogative. The Obama administration announced in the statement it would disregard provisions of the legislation that, among other things, would compel the Obama administration to pressure the World Bank to strengthen labor and environmental standards and require the Treasury department to report to Congress on the activities of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF).

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Dr. George Tiller (1941-2009): Murdered Abortion Provider Remembered for Lifelong Dedication to Women's Reproductive Health

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Dr. George Tiller, Ellie Smeal,Bonnie Scott Jones,Dr. Susan Robinson,Dr. Shelley Sella,Laura Shaneyfelt,AMY GOODMAN - Jun. 01 (Special Report) - The suspect, fifty-one-year-old Scott Roeder, has a history of involvement in anti-abortion activism and was once arrested and jailed on explosives charges. He has ties to the right-wing separatist group known as the Freemen. We look at the life of Dr. Tiller with five women who worked alongside him to uphold reproductive rights: two women doctors who fly into Wichita every month to work alongside him performing abortions; two of the attorneys who defended him through years of legal harassment, one in Wichita and one in New York; and Ellie Smeal of the Feminist Majority Foundation, who knew him for twenty years.

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Human Rights Attorney Vince Warren: Obama's "Preventive Detention" Plan Goes Beyond Bush Admin Policies

Fri, 22 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Vince Warren, Amy Goodman - May. 22 (News Analysis) - We get reaction to President Obama and Vice President Dick Cheney’s dueling speeches on torture from Vince Warren, the executive director of the Center for Constitutional Rights. Warren took part in a secret meeting Wednesday between Obama and several human rights groups. Warren says although he welcomes Obama’s willingness to hear critical views, he’s disappointed in Obama’s new support for preventive detention.

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Michael Scheuer -- Osama, Obama and Torture

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Michael Scheuer - Apr. 24 (News Report) - So if the above worst-case scenario ever comes to pass, Americans will have at least two things from which to take solace, even after the loss of major cities and tens of thousands of countrymen. First, they will know that their president believes that those losses are a small price to pay for stopping interrogations and making foreign peoples like us more. And second, they will see Osama bin Laden's shy smile turn into a calm and beautiful God-is-Great grin.

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Analysis: Guns, “chukas,” and the states

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

SCOTUSblog - By Lyle Denniston - Apr. 23 (News Analysis) - “Second Amendment law,” a federal appeals court remarked earlier this week, “remains in its infancy.” But, only about a year after the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling on gun rights in District of Columbia v. Heller, the Justices could soon be faced with one of the most significant issues left undecided by Heller.

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Pressure Grows to Investigate Interrogations

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Peter Baker, Scott Shane - Apr. 21 (News Report) - "The administration has...not ruled out prosecuting anyone who exceeded the legal guidelines, and officials have discussed appointing a special prosecutor."

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Obama Administration Claims "Sovereign Immunity" in Attempt to Dismiss Lawsuit Against NSA over Domestic Surveillance

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Glenn Greenwald, Amy Goodman - Apr. 16 (News Analysis) - We speak to attorney and blogger Glenn Greenwald about how the Department of Justice has demanded the dismissal of a lawsuit brought by the Electronic Frontier Foundation based on “state secrets” and “sovereign immunity.” Greenwald says the “sovereign immunity” claim is “of breathtaking scope—never before advanced even by the Bush administration—that the PATRIOT Act bars any lawsuits of any kind for illegal government surveillance unless there is ‘willful disclosure’ of the illegally intercepted communications.”

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Justice Dept. Whistleblower Defends Decision to Leak Bush Domestic Surveillance Program & Calls for Prosecution of Gov't Officials and Telecoms

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Thomas Tamm, Amy Goodman, Glenn Greenwald - Apr. 16 (News Analysis) - The New York Times is reporting the National Security Agency has been intercepting private email messages and phone calls of Americans in recent months on a scale that went beyond the broad legal limits established by Congress last year. The Times is also reporting the NSA attempted to wiretap a member of Congress, without court approval, on an overseas trip in 2005 or 2006. But the plan was ultimately blocked because of concerns from some intelligence officials about using the NSA to spy on a member of Congress.

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Colbert Torches Obama On Bagram Decision

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Colbert - Apr. 16 (News Analysis) - Colbert instead veered, giving major props to Obama's decision to appeal the recent court decision that granted habeas corpus rights to Bagram detainees. "He's just following the long-standing principle of American justice: guilty until proven forgotten about." "It's essentially the same stance taken by George Bush," Colbert added, "With one important difference: Obama makes the kids like it." Sad because it's funny because it's true.

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Obama Admin: CIA Officials Won't Be Prosecuted For Waterboarding

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Jennifer Loven, Devlin Barrett - Apr. 16 (News Report) - Senior administration officials told The Associated Press that Attorney General Eric Holder will release a statement Thursday giving the first definitive assurance to the CIA officials that they are legally in the clear.

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Glenn Beck and the rise of Fox News' militia media

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Media Matters - By Eric Boehlert - Apr. 07 (News Report) - Beck's sure "[d]epression and revolution" are what await America under Obama, and fears moving "towards a totalitarian state." The country today sometimes reminds Beck of "the early days of Adolf Hitler." Beck thinks that Obama, who has "surrounded himself by Marxists his whole life," is now "addicting this country to heroin -- the heroin that is government slavery."

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US tried to gag Binyam Mohamed with plea bargain

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Daily Telegraph - By Nick Allen - Mar. 27 (News Report) - He would also have been required to abandon a legal attempt to obtain documents which he believed could prove his innocence. Clive Stafford Smith, Mr Mohamed's lawyer, said: "This reflects the way the US government has consistently tried to cover up the truth of Binyam Mohamed's torture.

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U.S. Won’t Label Terror Suspects as ‘Combatants’

Sat, 14 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By William Glaberson - Mar. 14 (News Report) - But the Department of Justice filing portrayed the adjustment of the government’s position in expansive terms. In a public statement accompanying its filing, the department said the government’s position had been devised to adhere closely to the requirements of the international law of war, longstanding principles that permit enemy fighters to be held until the completion of hostilities.

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Senate Vacancies Should Be Filled by Special Elections, Common Cause Tells Congress

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Common Dreams - By Bob Edgar - Mar. 11 (News Report) - Common Cause President and CEO Bob Edgar testified Wednesday before a joint House and Senate Judiciary panel in support of a resolution proposing a constitutional amendment that would require that states hold elections to fill Senate vacancies.

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