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
Could a person in Afghanistan who has the same name as you be keeping you from landing your next job or getting a bank loan? Yes, he could, according to a report released by civil rights lawyers.
The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control maintains a terrorist watch list of more than 6,000 names on a Web site that employers, health insurers, car dealerships, credit bureaus and landlords use to check potential employees, tenants or customers.
Because of the possibility of fines and jail time, businesses don’t want to risk providing services to or hiring someone whose name appears on the list, many of which are common names. But an innocent American should not lose an opportunity because of a coincidence.
Posted by Ross Stewart
Michael “Heckuva job” Brown was not qualified to direct the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and it showed. But Brown was unfairly singled out for blame for FEMA’s inept response to Hurricane Katrina.
Brown spoke Wednesday at the Dole Institute at the University of Kansas. He said he tried to get the Bush administration to do a catastrophic disaster plan that included the possibility of a hurricane hitting New Orleans. But, he said, “the administration was so focused on terrorism and other stuff they turned a deaf ear.” He described Michael Chertoff, secretary of homeland security, as “clueless” — which had a pot-calling-the-kettle-black quality about it. He also admitted to lying to the public about how FEMA was responding to the hurricane, but blamed that on “White House talking points” and a fear that “people get fired for telling the truth.”
Of course, Brown got fired anyway.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Zbigniew Brzezinski, national security adviser to President Carter, wrote in the Washington Post that the Bush administration’s use of the term “war on terror” has created a culture of fear in the United States. And it was intentional. “Fear obscures reason, intensifies emotions and makes it easier for demagogic politicians to mobilize the public on behalf of the policies they want to pursue,” he wrote.
Posted by Patrice Hein
Interesting how FBI Director Robert Mueller chose to blame his management and agency rather than the USA Patriot Act in Senate testimony Tuesday about the FBI’s shocking misuse of the authority to gather phone, e-mail and financial records on Americans without a warrant. “The statute did not cause the errors. The FBI’s implementation did,” Mueller told the Senate Judiciary Committee. Still, in light of the abuses, the new Congress needs to ensure that the Patriot Act’s far-reaching tools are necessary.
Some of Tuesday’s talk did seem premature: The suggestion from Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., that the FBI’s spying powers might be better trusted in the hands of a new agency. Surely new bureaucracy isn’t the answer.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates sought to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the New York Times reported. The Wichita native argued that the facility had become so tainted abroad that its legal proceedings wouldn’t be viewed as legitimate.
Gates’ effort was supported by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, but was opposed by Vice President Dick Cheney and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who objected to moving detainees to the United States. Guess which side prevailed with President Bush?
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Good for Republican and Democratic lawmakers for rebuking the FBI this week for its abuse of power. Their outrage is warranted.
A Justice Department inspector general revealed in a report earlier this month that the FBI had been illegally and improperly gathering thousands of telephone, e-mail and financial records of Americans and foreigners. Then the Washington Post reported last weekend that these improper practices occurred despite concerns raised by bureau lawyers and managers.
As Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., asked during a House Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday: “If what was done was done by a private-sector individual, wouldn’t the FBI be arresting them? Wouldn’t the U.S. attorneys be prosecuting people who played fast and loose with these rules?”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
The coalition between Hamas and Fatah parties in Palestine changes nothing.
Fatah is a political group with a more moderately placed stance in Palestine. But with terrorist-supporting Hamas still in charge, the West will never get what it wants — for Palestine “to recognize Israel, forswear violence and accept previous Israeli-Palestinian agreements.”
This new arrangement between Hamas and Fatah fulfills none of those three conditions, even though they say they want to extend the often-broken cease-fire with Israel.
Posted by Ross Stewart
The company famous for bringing us America’s favorite fruit was fined $25 million for consorting with a terrorist organization. Officials from Chiquita said that the region in Colombia in which their bananas are grown is fraught with violence from leftist rebels and far-right paramilitaries, so company officials decided to “buy” some protection. Fernando Aguirre, Chiquita’s CEO, told Associated Press: “The payments made by the company were always motivated by our good-faith concern for the safety of our employees.” But an investigation showed that Chiquita attempted to conceal the payments to the terrorist organization and that its legal counsel advised company officials not to make the payments.
Posted by Patrice Hein
Marwan Jabour, a Palestinian, spent more than two years in CIA custody, mostly in Afghanistan, during which time he said he was stripped naked, chained to walls, bound into painful “stress positions,” sleep deprived and relentlessly interrogated. He told his story to reporters at the Washington Post, relating his arrest and incarceration in “black sites,” a system of secret CIA detainment centers in countries around the world.
Upon Jabour’s arrest, a U.S. official described him as “a committed jihadist and a hard-core terrorist who was intent on doing harm to innocent people, including Americans.”
The CIA released Jabour on June 30, 2006, just after the Supreme Court rejected the U.S. government’s assertion that the Geneva Conventions do not apply to prisoners such as Jabour. The article states that there is no U.S. government record available that shows Jabour was ever detained.
Congress must take a stand for human rights to ensure that American operatives don’t add more terror to the war on terror.
Posted by Patrice Hein
Most Americans, like most of the members of Congress who overwhelmingly voted for the USA Patriot Act, expected it be used judiciously in the war on terrorism, not routinely abused. But Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine has found instances of improper and illegal use of the law to obtain highly personal information about U.S. residents, including phone records. And the FBI has badly underreported its use of “national security letters” to acquire customer information from businesses. The FBI says it will fix the problems, but it can expect closer scrutiny from Congress. As Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., said, the report “proves that ‘trust us’ doesn’t cut it.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
A senior Pentagon official in charge of military detainees suspected of terrorism is getting a well-deserve pounding for suggesting that corporate clients shouldn’t do business with a legal firm that represents prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. On Federal News Radio last week, Charles D. Stimson named more than a dozen law firms that provide legal assistance, and he said that “CEOs are going to make those law firms choose between representing terrorists or representing reputable firms.”
But as Karen J. Mathis, president of the American Bar Association, responded: “Lawyers represent people in criminal cases to fulfill a core American value: the treatment of all people equally before the law. To impugn those who are doing this critical work — and doing it on a volunteer basis — is deeply offensive to members of the legal profession, and we hope to all Americans.”
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales agreed. “Good lawyers representing the detainees is the best way to ensure that justice is done in these cases,” he said.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
It was bad enough that the FBI has been using "national security letters" to obtain Americans’ banking and credit records. Now the New York Times reports that the Pentagon and CIA have also been using the letters. Besides the serious civil liberty concerns about the government looking at personal information without obtaining a warrant or subpoena, there is a jurisdictional problem: Domestic espionage is supposed to be done by the FBI, not by the Pentagon and the CIA.
Vice President Dick Cheney told "Fox News Sunday" that the Pentagon and CIA do have authority to obtain personal records without a court order. But since 2001, Congress has rejected several attempts by the Pentagon and CIA for such authority, the Times reported.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, promised to examine the practice. "Any expansion by the department into intelligence collection, particularly on U.S. soil, is something our committee will thoroughly review," he said.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Interesting quote from former Attorney General John Ashcroft, during a Tuesday night speech to the Salina Area Chamber of Commerce: “The Patriot Act is a friend of American liberty, not a threat to it.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
The government can’t open somebody’s mail without a warrant. Yet a recent signing statement by President Bush gave notice that his administration would construe that provision “in a manner consistent, to the maximum extent permissible, with the need to conduct searches in exigent circumstances.”
White House spokesman Tony Snow downplayed the signing statement. “This is not a change in law, this is not new, it is not . . . a sweeping new power by the president," he said. But some civil liberties and law experts said the statement’s language is unduly vague and appears to go beyond long-recognized limits, the Washington Post reported.
It sure sounds like the Bush administration thinks the government can open somebody’s mail without a warrant — and like a good issue for the new Congress to explore.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Possible 2008 presidential candidate and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich suggested on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday that the First Amendment, at least as interpreted now, may be incompatible with protecting the homeland. His first idea for where to curtail free speech in a time of terrorism: “You close down any Web site that is jihadist,” he said, noting a Web-inspired “jihadist” in Illinois recently sought to buy hand grenades to blow up a mall at Christmas. Gingrich went on: “This country has every right to defend itself, and you saw the same thing recently on this U.S. Airlines provocation, where you had six people go way out of their way to cause trouble, and then claim they were infringed upon. And I think, frankly, the president should invite that U.S. Airlines crew to the White House and thank them, because we ought to set a standard that if you’re provocative about killing people, we’re not going to show you any mercy.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Democratic congressional candidates pledged that, if elected to the majority, they would implement all of the recommendations of the Sept. 11 commission. But having won, they are dropping, at least for now, one key recommendation, the Washington Post reported. The commission wanted Congress reorganized so it could better oversee and fund the nation’s intelligence agencies. That’s unlikely to happen — mostly because of turf battles between the intelligence, armed services and appropriations committees.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Brandon Mayfield, the Oregon attorney and former Halstead resident wrongly arrested in 2004 in connection with the Madrid train bombings, has settled a lawsuit against the federal government for $2 million. Some Americans will think Mayfield, a convert to Islam, should have been satisfied by the apology the FBI offered him after re-examination of fingerprint evidence showed he had not handled a bag of detonators after all. But then they didn’t have their homes searched and conversations monitored without their knowledge, and they weren’t jailed and treated as terrorists in their own country.
Taxpayers can only hope this reminds the FBI to exercise its broad anti-terrorism powers with more care.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Especially after their criticism of newspapers’ printing of leaked classified information, it’s remarkable that congressional Republicans including Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan., were involved in setting up a Web site with Iraqi documents that constituted a “basic guide to building an atom bomb,” according to the New York Times. The site made public detailed information that reportedly shocked experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency. Those who posted the information may not have realized its significance, but such an oversight is alarming. At least the site has been shut down.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Christopher Soghoian said he was just pointing out gaps in airline security when he posted a tool on his Web site letting anyone create fake boarding passes.
Right. Just like I’d be pointing out gaps in convenience-store security if I put out a box full of pistols and ski masks.
While Soghoian’s stunt did publicize a known vulnerability in passenger screening, there was probably a better way to do it than potentially endangering travelers — maybe an e-mail to the nearest TSA office. Instead, he took the self-aggrandizing way, proclaiming altruism only after the fact.
Now he’s upset about unwelcome attention from the FBI. Given the times, you’d think a smart guy like that might have seen it coming.
Posted by Dave Knadler
Bob Woodward’s account in his new book, “State of Denial,” of a July 10, 2001, meeting between then-national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and CIA Director George Tenet is a bombshell revelation in the ongoing dispute about who did what to stop Osama bin Laden.
According to Woodward, Tenet and his top counterterrorism official, J. Cofer Black, made an urgent trip to the White House to warn Rice of an imminent al-Qaida attack on U.S. soil and to urge the administration “to take action that moment — covert, military, whatever — to thwart bin Laden.”
But Rice gave them a “brush-off,” writes Woodward, and they left frustrated. Later, “Tenet looked back on the meeting with Rice as a lost opportunity to prevent or disrupt the attacks.”
Some members of the Sept. 11 commission expressed surprise and outrage Monday that they had never been told about the meeting. For her part, Rice said Monday that she can’t remember the encounter, and finds it “incomprehensible” that she would have ignored a direct threat warning.
Then again, it was Rice who told the Sept. 11 commission that an August 2001 presidential security memo entitled “Bin Laden Determined to Strike Inside the United States” was just historical “analysis” and didn’t amount to anything pressing.
If Woodward is right about this meeting, then Rice is in serious trouble.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
It’s not surprising that the New York Times editorial board opposes the detainee interrogation bill that the Senate approved Thursday night. But its editorial Thursday is worth reading, because it provides a concise list of what it sees as the bill’s biggest flaws — including “a dangerously broad definition of illegal enemy combatant” that could give a president the power “to apply this label to anyone he wanted.”
One thing that seems clear is that the bill will end up in court. In fact, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (in photo), R-Pa., is counting on that. He had said the bill was “patently unconstitutional on its face” and tried to amend it. Yet he ended up voting for it anyway, explaining that “the court will clean it up” by striking the habeas corpus provisions, the Washington Post reported.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Clearer minds have prevailed as the government lifted the 6-week-old liquid restrictions, allowing airline passengers once again to pass through security checkpoints with a small bottle of hand cream, and to carry on drinks purchased after they’ve gone through security. This makes travel much easier for many people.
However, does this mean Sarah’s Bakery owner Steve Habtemariam needs to worry again about Starbucks, which put on hold its plans to open a store in Wichita Mid-Continent Airport because of the security restrictions?
Posted by Angie Holladay
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales responded to the “renditioning” of an innocent Canadian citizen to Syria by claiming that “we were not responsible for his removal to Syria.” Well, turns out we were. What Gonzales had intended to say, a Justice Department representative backtracked Wednesday, was that deportations are handled by the Department of Homeland Security, not the Department of Justice. However, at the time Maher Arar was sent to Syria, deportations were still handled by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, which was part of the Department of Justice.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
