Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, doesn’t appear to be making much progress in persuading Defense Secretary Robert Gates, a native Wichitan, that the Air Force tanker contract needs a pro-Boeing do-over. “All I can say is that I think it would be a real shame if the tanker were to get delayed yet again,†Gates said Monday in Alabama, where the Northrop Grumman-EADS tankers would be assembled. “We’re long past due in terms of getting on with this program.â€
Gates added that the Pentagon was required by law only to consider the technology, capability and costs of the bids. “I think that some things unrelated to what the law says we can consider are being thrown into the mix, at least on Capitol Hill . . . and that’s a concern,†Gates said.
“In another era, a memo declassified just the other day would have been accounted a ‘smoking gun,’ and the nation would have been abuzz with speculation about whose heads would roll and how far. Nowadays? Ho-hum,†columnist Tom Teepen wrote about the Bush torture memo.
The 2003 memo by John Yoo, then a deputy in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, claimed that contrary laws could not bar the president from authorizing the abuse of detainees. Another memo by Yoo the previous year narrowed the definition of torture to acts that caused major organ failure or equivalent injury. The torture memo helped “drag the nation into international disrepute as a torturing power answerable neither to international law, treaty commitments nor even its own laws and Constitution,†Teepen wrote. Yet will anyone be held accountable?
Post-Sept. 11 airport security remains a work in progress, but this is ridiculous: Before a woman could board a February flight out of Lubbock, Texas, she had to remove her nipple jewelry, which required pliers. At least the Transportation Security Administration already has decided to change its procedures, which apparently were followed in this case, to give passengers the option to remove their piercings or be visually inspected. “TSA acknowledges that our procedures caused difficulty for the passenger involved and regrets the situation in which she found herself,†the agency said in a statement.
The rush to build a “virtual fence†along the U.S.-Mexico border has become a boondoggle. Big surprise. The Bush administration is having to scale back and scrap some its plans after its test phase of the project hasn’t worked as planned, the Washington Post reported. The Boeing Co. was paid $20.6 million for a 28-mile pilot project, but it has been beset with problems. Among them: Boeing used inappropriate software — which the government has paid Boeing an additional $65 million to replace — and rain and other environmental factors trigger the radar systems. As a result, we’re going to spend millions more on the project, and its first phase likely won’t be deployed until 2011 instead of 2008, as planned. But will it even work then?
A new book, “The Commission: The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation,†by New York Times reporter Philip Shenon, sets out to reveal what the official Sept. 11 commission report left out: evidence of incompetence at the highest levels of government.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice comes in for harsh criticism. “Whatever her job title, Rice seemed uninterested in actually advising the president,†Shenon writes. “Instead, she wanted to be his closest confidante — specifically on foreign policy — and to simply translate his words into action.â€
And New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani got kid-gloves treatment from the commission because of his hero status despite evidence that he failed to prepare New York for a terrorist attack.
How ironic — and possibly illegal. The CIA initially videotaped all its interactions with an injured top al-Qaida operative because it was concerned that he might die while in custody and the CIA wanted to be able to prove that it didn’t kill him, the New York Times reported. But after the CIA starting using waterboarding and other torture techniques on the operative, it wanted to destroy the tapes to avoid a scandal and possible legal proceedings. By destroying the tapes, the CIA is now facing just that, as Attorney General Michael Mukasey wisely has ordered a criminal probe into possible obstruction of justice.
Not only is waterboarding torturous to detainees and not an effective method of gathering reliable intelligence, it is corrosive to United States foreign policy and national security, as it is making other countries less likely to support us in future endeavors.
International polls show that it already has had an effect on some of our biggest allies. In Germany, 85 percent of the population think we are violating international law; in Great Britain, 65 percent think the same way.
With as many international missteps as we’ve had over the past few years, we could stand to keep a few friends.
Posted by Kristin Mehler
A Hutchinson News interview with former Halstead resident Brandon Mayfield is a sobering depiction of what it was like to be wrongly suspected and detained by the FBI after the Madrid train bombings in 2004.
“To feel certain someone is following and listening to you, and breaking into your home but not announcing they’re there is pretty unsettling. It hurt me to know this is the kind of country I’m living in,” Mayfield said.
Of his recent victory in federal court in his challenge of the constitutionality of parts of the USA Patriot Act, Mayfield said, “I was euphoric. It was even sweeter than our settlement with the government on the underlying portion of the suit. I was happy to be a part of the whole process, to try to assert our constitutional rights. This was not just for me. This was for everyone.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Congratulations to Brandon Mayfield (in photo), who grew up in Halstead and Hutchinson, for his legal victory Wednesday. A federal judge ruled as unconstitutional two provisions of the USA Patriot Act that allowed the government to conduct surveillance and searches of American citizens without showing probable cause.
Mayfield, now an attorney in Portland, Ore., was wrongly jailed in 2004 in connection with the Madrid train bombings. He received an apology and $2 million settlement from the government last November. Wednesday’s ruling was the result of a second lawsuit challenging the Patriot Act.
In making her ruling, U.S. District Judge Anne Aiken wisely noted: “For over 200 years, this nation has adhered to the rule of law — with unparalleled success. A shift to a nation based on extraconstitutional authority is prohibited, as well as ill advised.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
“I think I speak for a lot of people in town when I say that we don’t want hundreds of terrorists brought in here.”
— Donna Raymond, quoted in a Chicago Tribune article about how Leavenworth residents are uneasy about the prospect of detainees at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba being moved to the military prison at Fort Leavenworth
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Former CIA Director George Tenet and several other top CIA officials should be held accountable for not taking stronger action against al-Qaida prior to Sept. 11, the CIA’s inspector general recommended in a report released Tuesday. The report, which the CIA tried to withhold, also faulted the agency for its lack of cooperation with the FBI. At least 50 CIA officers knew of intelligence reports in 2000 that two of the Sept. 11 hijackers might have been in the United States, but none notified the FBI.
The report didn’t conclude that there was “a single point of failure” or a “silver bullet” that would have allowed the CIA to prevent the Sept. 11 attacks, the New York Times reported. But it fault the CIA for mismanaging resources devoted to counterterrorism, and it said that Tenet and other named CIA officials “did not discharge their responsibilities in a satisfactory manner.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
It might be, as President Bush argued, that the new law giving spy agencies expanded wiretapping powers is needed to prevent another 9/11 attack. But in rushing through the legislation, Congress didn’t do justice to Fourth Amendment civil liberty concerns.
The law gives intelligence agencies greater authority to monitor foreign-to-foreign calls that happen to pass through U.S.-based call "switches." That seems appropriate. The grayer territory is how the law allows greater surveillance of Americans calling abroad.
Under the law, an American who is phoning or e-mailing someone in London or Paris, say, could have his communication monitored by authorities without a warrant, as long as they could reasonably claim that their target of surveillance was the person on the foreign end of the line.
What’s disconcerting is how this important change was rushed through (much like the Patriot Act) with a minimum of debate, and with many Democrats caving out of political fear of being blamed in the likely event of another terror attack.
At least Congress put the new law on a six-month timeline for renewal. These broad spying powers must be accompanied by strict oversight.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said this week he had a "gut feeling" that there was a higher threat of an al-Qaida terrorist attack in the United States this summer. But he also said he saw no need to raise the threat level.
Seems a bit sketchy, but maybe that’s because fully one-quarter of top Homeland Security positions are vacant, according to a House oversight committee, which warned that the vacancies made the United States much more vulnerable to attack.
Maybe Chertoff should consult his gut about the need for new hires.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Big surprise: Vice President Dick Cheney was a key figure behind the administration’s warrantless wiretapping program, the Washington Post reported. Cheney met with Justice Department officials in March 2004 and told them that he disagreed with their legal objections to the program, according to congressional testimony submitted this week by former Deputy Attorney General James Comey. The next day, White House counsel Alberto Gonzales and Chief of Staff Andrew Card were dispatched to the hospital bed of Attorney General John Ashcroft to try to convince him to reauthorize the program; Ashcroft refused.
Comey said that eight Justice Department officials, including FBI Director Robert Mueller, were prepared to quit if the White House did not back down, which it eventually did. But he said that Cheney’s office later blocked the promotion of a senior Justice Department lawyer because he raised concerns about the program.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
It doesn’t give you much confidence in our border security that tuberculosis patient Andrew Speaker was able to get into the United States. His passport had been flagged so that he would be detained and isolated at the border. But when Speaker and his fiancee flew into Montreal and drove across the border into New York, they were stopped for just two minutes and then allowed to pass through. The inspector who let him through was removed from duty, but our borders must have significant weaknesses if a person with flagged passport is allowed in.
Posted by Andie Clum
Congratulations to law enforcement officials for arresting three suspects who were allegedly plotting to blow up fuel storage tanks and pipelines at Kennedy International Airport in New York City. Well done. But there is grumbling that the authorities overstated the scope and abilities of the alleged terrorists to make the arrests seems more significant. In announcing the charges, U.S. Attorney Roslynn Mauskopf described a plot that "could have resulted in unfathomable damage, deaths and destruction." But court filings portray the arrested men as not having much operational capability to actually carry out their scheme, the New York Times reported. Other experts also have dismissed the claim that the planned attack could have resulted in the catastrophic chain reaction, the Times reported. That said, one lesson of Sept. 11 is that law enforcement has to treat terrorism plots with deadly seriousness. Even small-time terrorist wannabes can do great harm.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
The American Civil Liberties Union is suing a Boeing subsidiary for supposedly aiding the CIA in torture activities. Jeppesen Dataplan allegedly helped the CIA transport terrorism suspects overseas where they were eventually tortured.
Representatives for Jeppesen said the company doesn’t provide actual flights, just flight services such as flight plans. They have not admitted to working with the CIA and said they do not make a practice of asking clients about the purpose of their trip.
But the ACLU said that companies “are not allowed to have their heads in the sand, and take money from the CIA to fly people, hooded and shackled, to foreign countries to be tortured.”
Posted by Andie Clum
“In a year when Congress will be authorizing more than half a trillion dollars in national security spending, there is no excuse for keeping the National Guard on perilously short rations,” a New York Times editorial argued. It noted that despite manpower and equipment shortages, Kansas fortunately had enough Guard members to respond to the Greensburg tornado. “But if the next disaster is a Category 5 hurricane, a terrorist attack or a nationwide flu epidemic, we fear the Guard will not be ready.” And with good reason. The editorial noted: “More than 25,000 National Guard troops are now serving in Iraq, and that number is expected to rise significantly as part of President Bush’s troop buildup. Nearly 5,000 are in Afghanistan and roughly 6,000 are stationed along the Mexican border. Because of equipment left behind in Iraq and Afghanistan, domestically based Guard units have only 40 percent of the equipment they need for disaster response. Nearly 90 percent of stateside Guard units are rated less than fully ready because of equipment and training shortfalls.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Hurricane season starts on June 1, but the Federal Emergency Management Agency admits it isn’t ready. Not only are emergency response plans not completed, the levees that failed in New Orleans in 2005 are still not up to code. The director of the National Hurricane Center, which is responsible for predicting and tracking hurricanes, complained about not having enough resources. And as was our own governor recently noted, the National Guard is missing people and equipment needed for emergency responses.
While states are preparing on their own, citizens along the east and Gulf coasts must be wondering if FEMA and the United States will be there to back them up. Don’t count on it.
Posted by Andie Clum
The British are reporting no significant problems since their integration and acceptance of gays in the military in 2000. The process has gone rather smoothly and hasn’t sparked the problems of harassment, blackmail, discord or bullying that many thought would occur.
So is it time for the United States to do the same and allow openly gay soldiers in the military? Gen. John M. Shalikashvili, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, thinks so. He told the New York Times that when the military is stretched so thin, the United States “must welcome the service of any American who is willing and able to do the job.”
So now it’s OK because we really need them?
Gen. Peter Pace, current chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Chicago Tribune in March that he supports the “don’t ask, don’t tell” ban on gays because he thinks homosexuality is immoral.
Posted by Andie Clum
The alleged conspiracy by six Muslim extremists to attack Fort Dix, N.J., was thwarted, as this article notes, not by tanks and combat but by a citizen tip and old-fashioned police work and intelligence. That’s been the case in almost every major anti-terrorist success since Sept. 11.
The Fort Dix case is a reminder of how irrelevant our war in Iraq is to preventing domestic and worldwide terrorist plots against the United States.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
“The attacks were appalling, but they don’t pose the threat politicians make them out to be,” Rosa Brooks wrote in the Los Angeles Times. And she urges the American public to keep the event in perspective. “We’re more likely to die on the road than as a result of al-Qaida’s machinations,” Brooks wrote.
What do you think? Is the American public falling prey to a “fear of terrorism” campaign? Is it making the public too willing to give up civil liberties?
Posted by Patrice Hein
Gov. Kathleen Sebelius has long been vocal among governors in noting the risk of the Iraq war to National Guard readiness at home. That concern has come home in recent days with the confluence of the Greensburg tornado, other deadly storms and flooding around the state. On Sunday in Greensburg, Sebelius said that half of the Kansas National Guard’s Humvee and flat-bed trucks are in Iraq. "Not having the National Guard equipment is really going to hamper this effort to rebuild," she said. She also has been forceful in the past in saying the Pentagon should replace the dump trucks, front loaders and the like that went to Iraq and likely aren’t coming back. Some will see this as a Democratic governor criticizing a Republican administration, but it’s fair for the Kansas governor to think Kansas National Guard equipment ought to be available when Kansas needs it.
By the way, how appalling that four Fort Riley soldiers and a reserve police officer — among those entrusted with safeguarding the ruins — were arrested for looting cigarettes and alcohol. Sadly, such tragedies always seem to bring out the worst as well as the best in human nature.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
In another interview aimed at getting above his underdog status, Sen. John McCain left no doubt on “Fox News Sunday” about where he stands on torture. Asked about former CIA Director George Tenet’s contention that the United States obtained lifesaving information through harsh interrogation of al-Qaida suspects, the former Vietnam War POW said he didn’t care what Tenet said: “The fact is if you torture someone, they’re going to tell you anything they think you want to know. It is an affront to everything we stand for and believe in. . . . We cannot torture people and maintain our moral superiority in the world.” He also said that as president, he probably would close Guantanamo Bay and move those detainees to Kansas’ own Fort Leavenworth.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Democrats in Congress were nothing less than irate when allies of the Bush administration blocked a bill to require the disclosure of the CIA’s secret prisons and the amount of money spent by U.S. intelligence agencies. The bill also included a provision that required the White House to release within 30 days any intelligence document that Congress requested.
The White House said the provision would “foster political gamesmanship and elevate routine disagreements to the level of constitutional crises.”
But surely there’s nothing routine about our government possibly holding people in jails all over the world without the promise of speedy or fair trials.
Posted by Ross Stewart
Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, doesn’t appear to be making much progress in persuading Defense Secretary Robert Gates, a native Wichitan, that the Air Force tanker contract needs a pro-Boeing do-over. “All I can say is that I think it would be a real shame if the tanker were to get delayed yet again,†Gates said Monday in Alabama, where the Northrop Grumman-EADS tankers would be assembled. “We’re long past due in terms of getting on with this program.â€
