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Iraq 
Wed Jun 15, 2011 at 06:45:23 AM MST
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There are a lot of problems without the United States military tribunal system. Not the least of which is that we have set a separate track for some prosecutions when it comes to terrorism and terrorism related crimes. This leads to a confusion of effort but also risks the expansion of our gulag in Cuba.
Take the example of two men who were arrested in Kentucky. Waad Alwan and Mohanad Hammadi, href="http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-kentucky-terror-arrests-20110601,0,6989529.story
">two Iraqi men arrested in May on charges of trying to send Stinger missiles and other weapons to Al Qaeda related insurgents in Iraq. Both men were part of the refugee program that has allowed 56,000 Iraqi's into the United States.
Mr. Alwan was, apparently, an insurgent himself who came to the U.S. with the intention of getting out of Iraq, where he was wanted, and gaining a U.S. passport which would allow him a much greater freedom of travel world wide.
He had been under investigation by the FBI since sometime in 2009. The details are sketchy but he had been working with an FBI informant who gave him weapons to ship to Iraq with the express intent of attacking Americans there.
All of this is pretty standard for anti-terror cases but it is when we get people like Sen. Mitch "Box-Turtle" McConnell involved that we see the perils of our "two track" justice system in regards to terrorism. The Senate Minority Leader is loudly saying that he wants the two men transferred from Federal custody to Guantanamo Bay.
Here is part of what he said, from the href="http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20110614/NEWS01/306140053/Mitch-McConnell-wants-2-Kentucky-terrorism-suspects-sent-Guantanamo?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Home">Courier-Journal article:
In a Senate floor speech, McConnell said he wanted to "get these men out of Kentucky."
"Send them to Guantanamo where they belong," the Kentucky Republican said. "Get these terrorists out of the civilian (court) system - and out of our backyards. And give them the justice they deserve."
There are a lot of problems that that single sentence. First off it is hard to understand how a court system that is designed to let evidence that would never see the light of day in Article III courts be admissible is going to be any kind justice.
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Thu May 12, 2011 at 06:22:59 AM MST
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They tell us we're dropping about $10 billion a month in Afghanistan so we can catch that Bin Laden guy...but eventually, we're gonna catch him, and as soon as we do you can imagine that folks will be wondering why we're still over there - and I gotta tell ya, I'm one of those people.
I mean, we're over here talking about how we're so broke that we have no choice but to cut a couple of billion from heat assistance for the poor, and a billion-and-a-half from the Social Security operations budget, and money from food stamps and childcare assistance and tornado forecasting in Alabama...but every single month, just as regular as clockwork, we seem to be able to find another $10 billion to spend in Afghanistan, even as we have an economy that could badly use another round of truly productive stimulus.
And I don't think y'all even realize just how much money $10 billion really is - but today we're gonna see if we can't fix that with a bit of a thought exercise.
Imagine if we set up a program that took that Afghanistan money and spent it right here at home for a year or two - and it was spent in the form of a lottery, where we stimulate the larger economy, help fix the mortgage crisis, and create a more energy-independent nation, all at the same time.
I got all we need except a catchy name; with that in mind let's move on to the description of how the Happy Super Fun Day Peace Lotto Stimulus Thingy works.
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Fri Aug 20, 2010 at 15:52:00 PM MST
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( - promoted by Fong)
Cross-posted from spoonfighter.com
The last US combat brigade left Iraq yesterday, which raises a very important question: where should we invade, er, I mean, protect our freedom, next?
Here are some possible candidates:
Canada
1) They have oil.
2) They sponsor terror (Justin Bieber).
More after the jump.
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Wed Aug 18, 2010 at 15:50:24 PM MST
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The last U.S. combat troops are pulling out of Iraq tonight. MSNBC is reporting live as the last Striker Brigade is driving out of Iraq.
Rachel Maddow is live in Baghdad. There are 50,000 non-combat troops remain, but the end of Operation Iraqi freedom is ending at this hour.
More soon.
Read More at this link.
Lets make this a open thread. What are your thoughts community? Is this the right thing at this time?
Is it the Administrations "August Surprise" for the elections?
Give me your thoughts in comments.
That's it, at 3:53am Kuwait time, the last U.S. combat troop left Iraq. The war is over, but there is still a lot to go before next June when all of our troops will be out.
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Sat Jun 19, 2010 at 21:41:06 PM MST
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Blackwater has been THE mercenary outfit of choice by the Bush - Cheney Whitehouse to conduct operations in the Global War on Terror.
Recently the Justice department and FBI discovered Blackwater had committed unjustified homicides or perhaps outright assassinations in conjunction with the CIA under Dick Cheney's orders.
Furthermore, Blackwater paid millions in bribes to local officials to remain silent after a bloody massacre of civilians in Iraq.
Now, Erik Prince is moving to United Arab Emirates, a country with no extradition policy with the U.S. coming on the heels of further investigations.
You'd think this company would never get another dime from the State Department.
You'd be wrong.
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Sat May 15, 2010 at 15:50:13 PM MST
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A $59 Billion supplemental spending package passed the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee Thursday. The package includes $33.5 Billion for the wars occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq.
When the health care insurance legislation was being unnecessarily delayed due to hypocritical ConservaDems' refusal to consider it without demanding that it reduce the national deficit, a number of folks, especially in the blogosphere, wondered where this rekindled interest in the deficit had come from. Nobody remembered those same deficit peacocks braying about the unfunded occupations of two countries; no evidence that I'm aware of has been found to contradict that observation.
Now that more occupation funding is coming up for a vote in the full Senate, now would be a prime time for those deficit peacocks to focus their supposedly righteous ire on billions of taxpayer dollars being tossed around.
Indeed, the Senate's climate and energy legislation unveiled earlier this week not only includes PAYGO language, but up to 25% of proceeds from pollution allowances sold in out-year auctions are being designated to paying the deficit down!!
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Thu Apr 29, 2010 at 11:21:10 AM MST
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There are a lot of reasons to be frothing at the mouth angry at the criminal Bush administration. One of the biggest is the way that they not only managed to overturn a half century of certainty about what torture is and the use of it, in doing so they have also extended the immunity of those committing torture in the name of national security. The use of the State Secrets privilege to quash cases brought by torture victims was the standard operating procedure in the Bush administration.
It has sadly continued in the Obama administration. Without letting our current Executive Branch off the hook at all, it is easy to understand how that happens. How many of us have ever been willing to give up privileges we have, even if we are fairly sure it is not a good idea for anyone to have them? Since no one, not even the former V.P. Dick Cheney is the villain in the movie of their life, everyone thinks they will use these powers only for good.
This is why we need groups like the ACLU and the Center for Constitutional Rights to fight against the expansion of governmental power and accountability for any illegal acts the government might commit.
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Tue Apr 27, 2010 at 06:39:55 AM MST
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Any tool can be abused or used ineffectively. Some tools can be used in such a way that it looks as though you are giving all the information anyone could want while subtly diverting attention from the areas you don't want to talk about. Power Point by Microsoft is one of the very best tools for doing this. I will probably get kicked out of the presenters union for talking about this, but if you want to overload an audience with seeming information, just find yourself someone who is skilled in Power Point.
Our military is learning this lesson as it fights the war in Afghanistan and tries to wind down the occupation of Iraq. The New York Times has a story today about the institutional love affair the military is conduction with the presentation program.
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