First he questions Federal authority for roving wiretaps [h/t The American Prospect ]: In late September, during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota made a great show of questioning whether the roving wiretap provisions of the PATRIOT Act were constitutional. He read the Fourth Amendment, which guards against unreasonable search and seizure, aloud to a stunned Assistant Attorney General David Kris. Franken noted that the amendment contains "pretty explicit language" about such intrusions and asked Kris whether he thought the roving wiretap provision fit that standard. "This is surreal," Kris responded before going into a technical explanation of the legal justifications for roving wiretaps. But then he votes for the bill, anyway: Last week, the administration outmaneuvered most congressional efforts to strengthen civil-liberties protections in the PATRIOT Act reauthorization, inserted provisions in the Homeland Security appropriations ...

The only thing wrong with this post from Classically Liberal is that it gives too much power to former President Bush and doesn't have Americans themselves accepting the responsibility for what happened. As Rachel Carson said, in a very famous from Silent Spring : "The people had done it themselves." At any rate: The fear-mongering of Bush, combined with the hysterical cries of the "secure the border" crowd led to new restrictions. Of course, contrary to what the hysterics says, these restrictions actually restrict Americans not terrorists or would-be gardeners and day laborers. The war on terror was a fraud from the start, it was always a war on Americans. Every measure that was passed was used, first and foremost, against Americans not against potential threats to the country. All the new spying on bank accounts isn't being used to crack down on drug cartels or international terrorists but on Americans who have funds overseas, where the greedy hands of ...

... and finds out that a prophet is generally without honor in his own country. DV publishes a fisking of National Security Advisor James Jones' interview in which he claims we're killing a lot more terrorist now, but I can't tell you how many because we don't keep count, but it's impressive and we talk to a lot of people around the world that Bush ignored so everything is better now: It was pretty easy to pick apart a Bush loyalist especially when they would put out vague statements and watch the media lap them up. Well, here we have an Obama guy doing the same thing, and, well, the same thing happens. You should go read every damn word Donviti wrote. Despite my remaining questions about the size of his mangos, this is the first honest piece of blogging in the Delaware 'Sphere to take on the gigantic inconsistencies, outright fabrications, and continued Bushco policies in the Obama administration. Here's the crux of his point: you cannot evaluate this stu...

From Anti-war.com : Mohammed al-Adahi, a 47 year old Yemeni citizen who has been held by the United States since 2001 on charges stemming from owning a Casio brand wristwatch, has been ordered released by a federal judge today. Judge Gladys Kessler instructed the US government to “take all necessary and appropriate steps” to see to it that Adahi is released “forthwith,” though his failing health and ongoing negotiations with the Yemeni government make it unclear how soon he might be reunited with his family. Officials claimed that Adahi was a bodyguard for Osama bin Laden, though the sum total of its evidence was that the two met once and Adahi owned a Casio watch, which was somewhat similar to another watch used by al-Qaeda in IEDs. Adahi’s defense was that in 2001 he did meet bin Laden once at an official gathering in Kandahar which he was compelled to attend, but that he had no other contacts with al-Qaeda or the Taliban during his brief visit to Afghanistan. He also admitted to own...

Remember what Rahm Emmanuel said about being one of the 1,000,000 Americans on the No-fly list: “if you’re on that no-fly list, your access to the right to bear arms is cancelled, because you’re not part of the American family; you don’t deserve that right. There is no right for you if you’re on that terrorist list.” Now, it seems that your right to purchase a car has also been cancelled--from Alphecca [a car salesman in real life]: A guy of middle-eastern decent (born in Afghanistan) wants to buy a car. We agree on the price, he fills out a credit-ap and we run it. Rock Star, as we say in the biz, 815 FICO score with 92% of his current credit available. Well employed at a famous medical school. Should be “No Problem” getting him financed, right? Wrong. His name brings up a flag on AMPAC, the American Patriot Act terrorist watch list. Well, his name is similar to other names on the list, so, banks are not allowed to loan money to him. It means he can’t get the car and I can’t get th...

From WaPo : The Obama administration has objected to a provision in the 2010 defense funding bill currently before the Senate that would bar the military's use of contractors to interrogate detainees. The provision, strongly backed by Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.), describes interrogations as an "inherently governmental function" that "cannot be transferred to contractor personnel." It would give the Defense Department one year from the bill's enactment to ensure that the military had the resources to comply with it.... Last year, the Senate dropped a provision prohibiting the military from using contractors for interrogations after President George W. Bush threatened a veto unless it was removed.

What a surprise : “President Obama may mouth very different rhetoric,” said Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union. “He may have a more complicated process with members of Congress. But in the end, there is no substantive break from the policies of the Bush administration.” I'd say it was worth reading in its entirety, but by this point you either get it or you don't: President Obama is shaping up to be essentially just as authoritarian, just as cavalier about civil liberties, and just as dangerous to the Constitutional rule of law as somebody else with whom we recently parted company. But his supporters, much like the Stepford Republican faithful who followed Dubya over the cliff, mostly don't give a damn as long as he keeps them happy with domestic Bread and Circuses .

Youssef Megahed was acquitted by a jury on charges of illegal possession and transport of explosives : Megahed came to the United States from Egypt in 1998 as a legal immigrant when he was 12. His problems started two years ago when, as an engineering student at the University of South Florida, he went on a road trip with a new friend, Ahmed Mohamed. The men were pulled over on a highway, near Charleston, South Carolina, for speeding. Police say they searched their vehicle and found PVC pipe with potassium nitrate inside, along with detonator cord inside one of Mohamed's bags. The government said the materials were "low explosives." Mohamed said they were materials for homemade model rockets. Youssef Megahed claimed he did not know that the materials were in the car. A search of Mohamed's laptop computer found research concerning rockets and propellants and how to manufacture them, as well as information about Qassam rockets -- crude rockets used by terrorists in the ...

You gotta love how the NYT starts this story about the FBI's Terror Watch List and firearm purchases : WASHINGTON — People on the government’s terrorist watch list tried to buy guns nearly 1,000 times in the last five years, and federal authorities cleared the purchases 9 times out of 10 because they had no legal way to stop them, according to a new government report. In one case, a person on the list was able to buy more than 50 pounds of explosives. The new statistics, compiled in a report from the Government Accountability Office that is scheduled for public release next week, draw attention to an odd divergence in federal law: people placed on the government’s terrorist watch list can be stopped from getting on a plane or getting a visa, but they cannot be stopped from buying a gun. Gun purchases must be approved unless federal officials can find some other disqualification of the would-be buyer, like being a felon, an illegal immigrant or a drug addict. “This is a glaring omis...

In case you have ever wondered how our grandchildren will think about the way we have allowed fear to rule out lives since 9/11, maybe a look back at the good old days of the Cold War will help: You must obey the civil defense officials with the strange rain coats and the probing hands... I am actually old enough to remember these drills in first and second grade. You can find this and lots more neat period stuff here .

Make no mistake: Afghanistan, Pakistan, and whatever comes after are now President Barack Obama's war. He campaigned on it, primarily because by making such a big issue of his non-support for the decision to go to war in Iraq, and his opposition to the Surge, he needed something that would make him appear strong enough to defend the national interest. He got Afghanistan, I've come to think, either directly or indirectly from Joe Biden, who has always thought we should be there in force, going mano e mano through the caves of Tora Bora looking under rocks for bin Laden. It made great sound bites: We took our eye off the ball and The real frontline on the war on terror is in Afghanistan or ever I will order drone strikes across the Pakistani border . Today, President Obama officially made this his war, following up the 17,000 additional combat troops he's already started in motion there with 4,000 trainers from the 82nd Airborne, a new legion of civilian advisors and tec...

Unlike the Missouri Information Anaylysis Center, the Delaware fusion center (Delaware Information Analysis Center) flies mostly below the public radar. Since opening in late 2005, news stories about DIAC have been sparse, partly because investigative reporting in the First State is a non sequiteur, and partly because Captain William Harris (who oversees the center) is a bright guy who understands that it is in his best interest to operate quietly. Harris did make one interesting comment in the only News Journal story to appear on DIAC, back in May 2007: The facility, known as the DIAC, opened in December 2005 with help from a $925,000 grant from the federal Department of Homeland Security to buy high-powered computers, software and other equipment. It is overseen by Delaware State Police Capt. Bill Harris, who asked that its exact location, somewhere between Dover and Smyrna, not be disclosed.... "The fusion process is to take law enforcement information and other information -...

... talk substantively and truthfully about their claims and concerns. For example: the FEMA concentration camp myth, to which our own Delaware gadfly liz allen subscribes, along with good ol' Glenn Beck : Continuing his assigned role as corporate media siren of the apocalypse, Glenn Beck interrupted a discussion on Russia and Iran last night on Fox & Friends to mention a heretofore no-no for national television — FEMA camps. At two minutes into the video below, Beck declares he attempted to “debunk these FEMAS camps” because he is “tired of hearing about them,” but was unable to do so. “We now for several days have done research on them… I can’t debunk them.” Beck follows this with a declaration that the United States may be headed for totalitarianism. Here's the gist of the FEMA concentration camp myth permeating the righter wings of the internet: I never thought the day would come where I would write about such a horrible subject but the fact is our government, under a...

I'm trying to parse out just what principles the Obama/Holder DOJ is standing up for, as it continues to make the same arguments that Bushco made, now adding Don Rumsfeld to the list of officials it is defending. From The Raw Story : In a brief filed Thursday evening, Obama Justice Department lawyers extended many of the same arguments made by Bush attorneys -- that top government officials have qualified immunity from prosecution and that Guantanamo detainees do not have constitutional rights to due process. The Department of Justice has asserted that a Supreme Court ruling reaffirming the rights of Guantanamo detainees to habeas corpus does not apply to plaintiffs in a case against former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld because the plaintiffs were released from prison four years prior to the Supreme Court's decision. "It is fair to say that the current brief that is filed by the new administration supports a lot of the arguments that were made by the previous admin...

Interesting turn of events to find at least one (truly) maverick Republican calling for potential prosecutions against Bush-era officials: Sen. Arlen Specter, the ranking committee Republican, after noting his previous support for judicial review of the Bush administration’s terrorist surveillance program, referred to the recent disclosures of Office of Legal Counsel memos as potentially supporting the case for prosecutions. “You’ve had some rather startling disclosures, with the publicity in recent days about unusual—to put it mildly—legal opinions” to justify broad executive actions, including homicide. “They’re all being exposed now,” he said, and noted that a forthcoming report from the Office of Professional Responsibility in the Justice Department will likely expose even more. They’re “starting to tread on what may disclose criminal conduct,” he said. Rather than going off “helter-skelter” and conducting a “fishing expedition,” said Specter, “it seems to me that we ought to fo...

A lot of folks take comfort in the fact that the Obama administration is turning over control of medical marijuana to the States, and has signed onto the UN declarations that promote gay rights, and cite this as evidence that the new boss is not the same as the old boss . Except that in cases of state secrets, the shredding of the US Constitution continues unabated under Barack Obama. From the Washington Independent : When the Obama administration last week claimed that the executive’s “state secrets” privilege requires dismissal of a case challenging the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program, the move rang alarm bells. It was the second time that the new administration had asserted “state secrets” to try to dismiss a challenge to a program of its predecessor that is widely believed to have been illegal. In the first case, concerning the CIA’s “extraordinary rendition” of terror suspects, the Obama administration said the program itself was a secret, so the claims of fo...

... which, apparently, is the standard we're using, both here : Feb. 20 (Bloomberg) -- A Bush administration Justice Department official will lead a task force created by President Barack Obama to review the status of suspected terrorists detained at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba. Matthew Olsen, who was deputy assistant attorney general under Republican President George W. Bush, will lead a task force responsible for recommending how to handle the remaining detainees held in the prison camp, the Justice Department said in a statement today. And here : A Pentagon report requested by President Obama on the conditions at the Guantánamo Bay detention center concluded that the prison complies with the humane-treatment requirements of the Geneva Conventions. But it makes recommendations for improvements including increasing human contact for the prisoners, according to two government officials who have read parts of it.... The report concluded that the Pentagon was in compliance with...

... there's only one thing to do. Go find some whacko, right-wing, talking-points source to back up your worries: WASHINGTON — Even as it pulls back from harsh interrogations and other sharply debated aspects of George W. Bush’s “war on terrorism,” the Obama administration is quietly signaling continued support for other major elements of its predecessor’s approach to fighting Al Qaeda. In little-noticed confirmation testimony recently, Obama nominees endorsed continuing the C.I.A.’s program of transferring prisoners to other countries without legal rights, and indefinitely detaining terrorism suspects without trials even if they were arrested far from a war zone. The administration has also embraced the Bush legal team’s arguments that a lawsuit by former C.I.A. detainees should be shut down based on the “state secrets” doctrine. It has also left the door open to resuming military commission trials. And earlier this month, after a British court cited pressure by the United States ...

From Jonathan Turley : This has been a uniquely bad week for civil libertarians. The Obama Administration appears to be rushing to dispel any notions that Obama will fight for civil liberties or war crimes investigations. After Eric Holder allegedly assured a senator that there would be no war crimes investigation and seemed to defend Bush policies, Harvard Law Dean Elena Kagan, Obama’s Solicitor General nominee, reportedly told a Republican senator that the Administration agreed with Bush that we are “at war” and therefore can hold enemy combatants indefinitely. In the meantime, Obama himself seemed to tie himself in knots when asked about investigating war crimes and leading democrats are again pushing for a symbolic “truth commission.” I discussed these issues in this segment of Countdown this week. Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) both raised the issue with Kagan. Both supported Bush’s policies. Graham asked Kagan: “Do you believe we are at war?” “I do,...

After being told relentlessly during the presidential election campaign by Barack Obama that Afghanistan and Pakistan represent the front-line of the war on terror, it's strange to find out that the CIA disagrees. The frontline on the war on terror resides in Great Britain. Here's the Telegraph : American spy chiefs have told the President that the CIA has launched a vast spying operation in the UK to prevent a repeat of the 9/11 attacks being launched from Britain. They believe that a British-born Pakistani extremist entering the US under the visa waiver programme is the most likely source of another terrorist spectacular on American soil. Intelligence briefings for Mr Obama have detailed a dramatic escalation in American espionage in Britain, where the CIA has recruited record numbers of informants in the Pakistani community to monitor the 2,000 terrorist suspects identified by MI5, the British security service. A British intelligence source revealed that a staggering four ...