Copyright 2005 - Steal what you wantWed, Jul 09:53:47 2 GMTWed, Jul 09:53:47 2 GMTDaily Kos Daily Kos This is an XML content feed. It is intended to be viewed in a newsreader or syndicated to another site, subject to copyright and fair use.
You know, it's really easy to play cowboy from the safety of a Secret Service protective ring in the United States.
Our soldiers in Iraq don't have that luxury.
"There are some who feel like that conditions are such that they can attack us there," Bush told reporters at the White House. "My answer is bring them on."
Our Cowboy in Chief is now daring Iraqi irregulars to attack our men and women on the ground?
Is he literally out of his fucking mind?
Meteor Blades Blast from the PastGeorge W. BushIraq WarWed, 02 Jul 2008 07:10:20 GMT
Tonight's Rescue Rangers are vcmvo2, Painty Kat, jlms qkw, dopper0189, shayera, srkp23 and grog.
If you enjoy Diary Rescue, please consider joining the Rescue Rangers. It's a great way to become more involved with the Daily Kos community. Did we mention it's rewarding and fun? To volunteer or learn more, please contact us (don’t forget to tell us your screen name) at: dkos.rescuerangers@gmail.com.
Not lions and tigers, but polar bears and Penguins Dying Out, highlight this stark picture of the world's oceans by prestochango. (jlms qkw)
Gemina13 explains why the Johnson family, like the Tillmans before them, are fighting the military to obtain justice for their daughter who was murdered and raped in Justice for Pfc. LaVena Johnson. (PaintyKat)
America has a mixed history on tariffs. In Tomatoes Are Like Motorcycles, Daveparts looks at their success in saving Harley Davidson. (dopper0189)
Last Years Man shares this diary-shortcut tool in Daily Kos Mad Libs. (jlms qkw)
MotleyPatriot notes that some Swift Boat Veterans are now complaining that the name of their group has become associated with liars in SwiftBoat Veterans speak out 4 years later? (vcmvo2)
kyledeb reminds us that despite progress, prejudice remains even in unlikely places, but still he finds hope in The Intolerant States of America. (srkp23)
A panel of the Appeals Court in the DC Circuit on Monday released the first ever ruling on a habeas habeas-like review for a Guantanamo prisoner under the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 (PDF). It's devastating to the Bush administration. The unanimous opinion even mocks Bush & Co.'s argument, comparing it to a nonsense poem by Lewis Carroll.
Nearly all the procedings at Combatant Status Review Tribunals have relied heavily on hearsay allegations whose reliability the Tribunals have admitted they can't assess adequately because of government assertions of secrecy. The Appeals Court found that the Tribunal was wrong to depend on unvetted secret 'evidence' to classify the prisoner, Huzaifa Parhat, as an 'enemy combatant'. It also rejected the administration's preposterous and tortured argument that tried to link Parhat to al Qaeda. From the opinion:
"The documents repeatedly describe those activities and relationships as having "reportedly" occurred, as being "said to" or "reported to" have happened, and as things that "may" be true or are "suspected of" having taken place. But in virtually every instance, the documents do not say who "reported" or "said" or "suspected" those things. Nor do they provide any of the underlying reporting upon which the documents' bottom-line assertions are founded, nor any assessment of the reliability of the reporting. Because of those omissions, the Tribunal could not and this court cannot assess the reliability of the assertions in the documents."
[...]
We merely reject the government's contention that it can prevail by submitting documents that read as if they were indictments or civil complaints, and that simply assert as facts the elements required to prove that a detainee falls within the definition of enemy combatant. To do otherwise would require the courts to rubber-stamp the government's charges...
The opinion also declared, "To affirm the Tribunal's determination under such circumstances would be to place a judicial imprimatur on an act of essentially unreviewable executive discretion." The Court bristled at the Bush administration's argument that the accusations against Parhat had credibility just because they'd been repeated in at least three secret documents.
"The government insists that the statements made in the documents are reliable because the State and Defense Departments would not have put them in intelligence documents were that not the case. This comes perilously close to suggesting that whatever the government says must be treated as true, thus rendering superfluous both the role of the Tribunal and the role that Congress assigned to this Court."
It mocked the administration by referring to Lewis Carroll's poem "The Hunting of the Snark". Here is Carroll's lead buffoon exhorting his followers onward in a farcical search for a non-existant prey:
"Just the place for a Snark!" the Bellman cried, As he landed his crew with care; Supporting each man on the top of the tide By a finger entwined in his hair.
"Just the place for a Snark! I have said it twice: That alone should encourage the crew. Just the place for a Snark! I have said it thrice: What I tell you three times is true."
"Lewis Carroll notwithstanding, the fact the government has 'said it thrice' does not make an allegation true," said the ruling (quoting the final sentence above).
The Court ordered the administration either to release Parhat or hold another tribunal in which the reliability of the evidence was assessed rather than simply assumed.
It was the first time a court has reviewed the military's decision-making and considered whether a detainee should be held. The ruling provides guidance to federal district judges, who are about to begin reviewing dozens of such cases now that the Supreme Court says detainees can challenge their detention in federal court...
"The big issue now is, can any CSRT decision survive this kind of scrutiny?" Parhat's lawyer, Susan Baker Manning said.
A lawyer representing other detainees, Marc D. Falkoff, said the evidence against many of the 270 men now at Guantánamo was similar to that in the Parhat case.
“This opinion shows that the government is going to have a hard time defending the military’s decision to detain many of these men,” said Mr. Falkoff, a professor at Northern Illinois University College of Law.
The administration's maltreatment of the Uighur prisoners is notorious. They fled to Afghanistan in 2001 to escape Chinese oppression. Though nobody disputes that they've never taken up arms against the US, Bush agreed to salt the Uighurs away at Gitmo as a favor to China at a time he was seeking Chinese support for the invasion of Iraq. Secret (very likely Chinese) allegations that the Uighurs support al Qaeda served as the basis for imprisoning them. So it's highly fitting that the first, devastating habeas habeas-like challenge to Bush's CSRTs should come from a Uighur prisoner.
(Update): As kenm points out, the DTA created an ambiguous habeas-substitute review in the US Court of Appeals in DC in lieu of a standard habeas review. That provision was struck down recently by SCOTUS in Boumediene. I've changed the wording from "habeas" to "habeas-like" to reflect that ambiguity.
Sen. Feingold has a video message for everyone who's been calling and writing about FISA:
The outpouring of support from you and across the country, in letters and e-mails and phone calls and the blogs has been absolutely fantastic. It really made a difference, as we mounted a challenge this week that almost nobody thought could work. We did stop this thing for now -- it is delayed until after the July 4th weekend.
I teased some of my colleagues...I said, we can celebrate the constitution on July 4th, and when we come back maybe you'll decide not to tear it up....I'm deeply grateful for your support.
Senators Dodd and Feingold have managed to stop this thing since last December, against all odds, and with your help. It doesn't seem like we'll be able to stop it now, but that's what it looked like every other time. So keep at it. Call your Senators. Go to the 4th of July parades this weekend that they'll surely be walking in, and take the message to them. Meet with them in person and ask them to read the bill.
Take Sen. Feingold's lead and tell them to celebrate Independece Day by resolving to fulfill their oath do support and defend the Constitution.
Tell them to vote yes on the Feingold/Dodd amendment to strip the immunity provision from the bill and yes on the Bingaman amendment to require further review before immunity is granted. Tell them to fulfill their oath do support and defend the Constitution.
