The Administration Guts Its Own Argument for 9/11 Trials

"What I'm absolutely clear about is that I have complete confidence in the American people and our legal traditions and the prosecutors, the tough prosecutors from New York who specialize in terrorism" -- Barack Obama, yesterday.

Posted in guantanamo, rule of law, war on terror

The Difference Between 'Legal' and 'Illegal'

In 2006, when the British police -- using (among other things) electronic surveillance conducted by both the U.S.

As Judge Orders Release Of Tortured Guantanamo Prisoner, Government Refuses To Concede Defeat

On Thursday, in a long-anticipated ruling (PDF), Judge Ellen Segan Huvelle granted the habeas corpus petition of Mohamed Jawad, an Afghan teenager seized after a grenade attack on a jeep containing two U.S. soldiers and an Afghan translator in December 2002, and ordered the government to transfer him to the custody of the Afghan authorities, who have already stated that he will be released on arrival.

Partisan Politics and the Accountability Commission

Notwithstanding commanding support in Congress and with the American public, the creation of an Accountability Commission is now being held up by the Obama White House.

Obama is Confused over Terror Trials

Since sweeping into office pledging to undo all the malign results of the Bush administration's brutal and ill-conceived "war on terror," Barack Obama has struggled to make as decisive a point as he did on that first day, when he pledged to close Guantanamo prison within a year, to ban the use of torture, and to ensure that the US military abided by the Geneva Conventions in its treatment of prisoners.

We Betrayed the Rule of Law for 'Fool's Gold'

Our story so far:

In the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, hundreds of men identified as members of al Qaeda were captured and imprisoned at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. There, they were subjected to sexual humiliation, sleep deprivation, dehydration, extreme temperatures, waterboarding, being chained to the floor for hours in their own waste, and other so-called ''enhanced interrogation'' techniques even as the president was assuring the world that we don't torture because we are America and America doesn't do that sort of thing.

Obstruction of Justice

U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema is scheduled to issue a ruling in the Eastern District of Virginia at the end of April in a case that will send a signal to the Muslim world and beyond whether the American judicial system has regained its independence after eight years of flagrant manipulation and intimidation by the Bush administration. Brinkema will decide whether the Palestinian activist Dr.

The Sanctity of AIG's Contracts

Larry Summers, Sunday, on AIG's payment of executive bonuses:

We are a country of law. There are contracts. The government cannot just abrogate contracts. Every legal step possible to limit those bonuses is being taken by Secretary Geithner and by the Federal Reserve system.

Posted in bailout, labor, rule of law