Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Louise Slaughter Defends Wounded Vets Against Department of Defense Retaliation (11:56 am)

Jesse Lee at The Gavel (Speaker Pelosi’s blog) reports on the statement by Rep. Slaughter, Chairwoman of the House Rules Committee:

“The only acceptable course of action for our military and civilian leaders to take is to fully and openly address any and all concerns regarding veterans’ facilities nation-wide,” Congresswoman Slaughter continued. “Any attempt to silence the very soldiers who brought their own mistreatment to light, or to hide ongoing abuses from the public eye - if such attempts are occurring - would be morally reprehensible. It would be an abdication of one of the most fundamental responsibilities of our government: the protection of those who have fought to protect us.”

“Secretary Gates should act on the same principals of accountability and responsibility he so recently advocated and address these reports immediately. As a nation, we need to be honest about the care our veterans are receiving. Their enormous sacrifice demands nothing less.”

posted by Brian Zick | 2 comments

Which Two GOP Members of Congress Leaned on a Prosecutor to File Charges Before the Elections? (9:56 am)

Marisa Taylor for McClatchy reports:

WASHINGTON - The U.S. attorney from New Mexico who was recently fired by the Bush administration said Wednesday that he believes he was forced out because he refused to rush an indictment in an ongoing probe of local Democrats a month before November’s Congressional elections.

David Iglesias said two members of Congress separately called in mid October to inquire about the timing of an ongoing probe of a kickback scheme and appeared eager for an indictment to be issued on the eve of the elections in order to benefit the Republicans. He refused to name the members of Congress because he said he feared retaliation.
(…)
“I believe that because I didn’t play ball, so to speak, I was asked to resign,” said Iglesias, who officially stepped down Wednesday.

Iglesias acknowledged that he had no proof that the pressure from the Congress members prompted his forced resignation. But he said the contact in of itself violated one of the most important tenants of a U.S. attorney’s office: Don’t mix politics with prosecutions.

via Josh Marshall

update:
Josh has Republican House member Heather Wilson in his sights.

posted by Brian Zick | start the discussion

“Senior Administration Official” Moron of Mystery (9:09 am)

The WSJ’s Washington Wire invites speculation about the identity of the unnamed “Senior Administration Official” speaking in this interview transcription, from the White House Office of the Press Secretary:
Interview of a Senior Administration Official by the Traveling Press
Aboard Air Force Two

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: “Let me just make one editorial comment here. I’ve seen some press reporting says, ‘Cheney went in to beat up on them, threaten them.’ That’s not the way I work. I don’t know who writes that, or maybe somebody gets it from some source who doesn’t know what I’m doing, or isn’t involved in it. But the idea that I’d go in and threaten someone is an invalid misreading of the way I do business.

Doubtless the Bush White House actually thinks nobody could ever figure it out. Then again, Wolf Blitzer, David Broder, and Katie Couric may not.

posted by Brian Zick | 1 comment

New Baker/Christopher Commission to Examine Constitutional Questions of War Powers Authority (8:00 am)

Steve Clemons reports:

The University of Virginia’s Miller Center of Public Affairs — of which Philip Zelikow used to serve as Director before becoming Condi Rice’s Counselor — has announced the creation of a bipartisan commission that “will examine how the Constitution allocates the powers of beginning, conducting, and ending war.”

Former Secretaries of State James A. Baker III and Warren Christopher will co-chair this enterprise.

Regarding non-traditional wars, the Miller Center announcement states:

When armed conflict is looming, debates about separation of powers and the uncertainty they often generate can impair relations among the branches of government, cast doubt on the legitimacy of government action, and prevent focused attention on policy. Armed conflicts with non-state actors and other non-traditional “wars,” as well as the courts’ involvement in war powers questions, make the Commission’s work relevant.

posted by Brian Zick | start the discussion

Bush Administration Supports the Troops by Ordering Wounded Vets to Shut Up (7:20 am)

Kelly Kennedy for the military publications Air Force Times, Army Times, and Marine Corps Times reports

Soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center’s Medical Hold Unit say they have been told they will wake up at 6 a.m. every morning and have their rooms ready for inspection at 7 a.m., and that they must not speak to the media.

“Some soldiers believe this is a form of punishment for the trouble soldiers caused by talking to the media,” one Medical Hold Unit soldier said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
(…)
The Pentagon also clamped down on media coverage of any and all Defense Department medical facilities, to include suspending planned projects by CNN and the Discovery Channel, saying in an e-mail to spokespeople: “It will be in most cases not appropriate to engage the media while this review takes place,” referring to an investigation of the problems at Walter Reed.

posted by Brian Zick | 1 comment

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Two “Detainees” Seek Expedited Hearing from Supreme Court (2:02 pm)

Lyle Denniston at SCOTUSblog reports:

Two Guatanamo Bay detainees, both facing war crimes charges before U.S. military “commissions,” on Tuesday asked the Supreme Court to put their joint appeal on a fast track for decision in the current Term. The motion to expedite involves the first two rulings by federal courts on Congress’ move last year to strip the federal courts of any authority to hear habeas challenges by prisoners at the military prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
(…)
Putting the court-stripping issue before the Court in the new case are Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a Yemeni national who was the detainee in last Term’s decision in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld nullifying a White House version of new military commissions, and Omar Khadr, a Canadian national. On Feb. 2, the Pentagon notified both of them (along with an Australian, David Hicks) of new charges they will face at war crimes trials.
(…)
Since the lower court rulings take away any constitutional protection for detainees, the motion argued, they cannot prepare for trial “as they do not even know if due process and other fundamental rights secured by the Constitution will govern their trial and punishment. Such uncertainty, in turns, makes a plea nearly impossible.”

“Expediting review would serve the dual purpose of prompt determination of the legality of the jurisdiction-stripping provisions of the MCA in the two related contexts in which it is presented” — for those facing war crimes charges, and for those detained as “enemy combatants, the motion said.

In the Pentagon’s Feb. 2 notice of the new charges, it said Hamdan was accused of conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism, and Khadr was accused of those same two offenses, as well as spying, murder and attempted murder. The conspiracy charge appears close to the same accusation that four Justices of the Supreme Court found wanting in last Term’s decision in Hamdan’s case.

posted by Brian Zick | 1 comment

Another Bush Provocation Sabre Loses Its Rattle (8:46 am)

Paul Kiel at TPM Muckraker calls attention to the explosion, so to speak, of the administration’s false justification for threats against Iran, premised on the assertions that certain very powerful bombs (explosively formed penetrators or E.F.P.s) could have been made only in Iran.

James Glanz and Richard Oppel for the NY Times report that the same type of explosive devices were discovered in a raid on Saturday by the U.S.’ First Cavalry Division:

But while the find gave experts much more information on the makings of the E.F.P.’s, which the American military has repeatedly argued must originate in Iran, the cache also included items that appeared to cloud the issue.

Among the confusing elements were cardboard boxes of the gray plastic PVC tubes used to make the canisters. The boxes appeared to contain shipments of tubes directly from factories in the Middle East, none of them in Iran. One box said in English that the tubes inside had been made in the United Arab Emirates and another said, in Arabic, “plastic made in Haditha,” a restive Sunni town on the Euphrates River in Iraq.

posted by Brian Zick | start the discussion

Brokered Democratic Convention In ‘08? (7:30 am)

Jerome Armstrong at MyDD (who first suggested the possibility January 20) thinks a brokered convention is increasingly likely.