Civil Rights / Liberties

Here's a new claim of state secrets asserting the power to shut down an entire case. But don't worry. Some lawyers looked at it first.

New Law Could Allow Military Commissions to Continue Indefinitely
By Daphne Eviatar

In signing the Defense Authorization Act, which, among other things, amends the laws governing military commissions, President Obama confirmed yesterday that he plans to keep the controversial military commissions alive. The effect is to deny at least some suspected terrorists — now called “unprivileged enemy belligerents” — the right to a trial in a civilian federal court. And though Obama has promised to use the commissions sparingly, the new law sets up a parallel justice system that could outlive the Obama administration and leave an indelible stamp on its legacy.

READ MORE AT WASHINGTON INDEPENDENT.

See also Center for Constitutional Rights.

Fatally Flawed System Is Beyond Repair, Says ACLU
http://aclu.org

WASHINGTON – President Obama today signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which includes significant changes to the Guantánamo military commissions. The American Civil Liberties Union is calling on the Obama administration to abandon the fatally flawed military commissions system and, where evidence of terrorism crimes exists, try the Guantánamo detainees in federal courts.

http://www.bordc.org

A few weeks ago, the Senate Judiciary Committee rejected an opportunity to place crucial limits on the PATRIOT Act and other domestic spying authorities. These limits, proposed in the JUSTICE Act developed by Senator Feingold (D-WI), would have protected the privacy of law-abiding Americans and their right to be free from government spying.

The House Judiciary Committee, led by Chairman John Conyers (D-MI), still has a chance to protect Americans' rights. The House is our last chance to change the debate over PATRIOT Act reauthorizations.

BBDY 4 Pack

Even the least of us deserves justice and accountability starts with you. So why don't you send out a reminder. Even Bush deserves all the justice he can get and we should ensure he gets his day in court.

Use these images as a 4 PAK and send 4 different cards to the same person; or, choose your favorite and send the same postcard to 4 different persons.

It's easy. Each individual postcard is formatted to the dimensions of 4.25"x5.5". Quarter a sheet of paper and combine the cards as you like. Don't forget to print the other side. Remember the postage stamps. Then mail one to your best beloved, your friends and neighbors, some acquaintance--your politicians and their parties. Show someone you care about them and about justice. Don’t forget Cheney, Condi, Gonzales and Rove: CCGR 4 PAK.

MAY BE USED AS HANDBILLS W/O REVERSE SIDE.

Justice for Bush

Justice for Bybee

Justice for Delahunty

Justice for Yoo

Reverse Side Postcard

By: emptywheel

After railing against Senators and Representatives for their cowardly, uninformed and unacceptable attempts to prevent President Obama from bringing any Guantánamo prisoner to the US mainland for any reason — even for trials — which I wrote about most recently in an article entitled, “On Guantánamo, Lawmakers Reveal They Are Still Dick Cheney’s Pawns,” I’m delighted to report that, last Tuesday, the Senate finally saw sense, voting, by 79 votes to 19, as part of a $42.8 billion bill for Homeland Security, to accept that the administration can bring prisoners to the US mainland to face trials.

READ THE REST FROM ANDY WORTHINGTON.

By Stephen Lendman

Post-9/11, Muslims have been victimized, vilified, and persecuted for their faith, ethnicity, prominence, activism, and charity. They've been targeted, hunted down, rounded up, held in detention, kept in isolation, denied bail, restricted in their right to counsel, tried on secret evidence, convicted on bogus charges, given long sentences, then incarcerated for extra harsh treatment as political prisoners in segregated Communication Management Units (CMUs) in violation of US Prison Bureau regulations and the Supreme Court's February 2005 Johnson v. California decision.

An October 21 FBI press release announced Tariq (mispelled Tarek) Mehanna as its most recent target saying:

"A Sudbury, Mass. man was charged today in federal court with conspiracy to provide support to terrorists."

By Julian Sanchez

We know the rules by now, the strange conventions and stilted Kabuki scripts that govern our cartoon facsimile of a national security debate. The Obama administration makes vague, reassuring noises about constraining executive power and protecting civil liberties, but then merrily adopts whatever appalling policy George W. Bush put in place. Conservatives hit the panic button on the right-wing noise machine anyway, keeping the delicate ecosystem in balance by creating the false impression that something has changed. We've watched the formula play out with Guantánamo Bay, torture prosecutions and the invocation of "state secrets." We appear to be on the verge of doing the same with national security surveillance.

READ THE REST AT THE NATION.

More Proposed Oversight from John Conyers
By emptywheel | FireDogLake

John Conyers has been busy. In addition to drafting bills to improve FISA and PATRIOT (more on that later), he has introduced three more bills that would improve Congressional Oversight of the Executive.

The Department of Justice Inspector General Authority Improvement Act of 2009

This Act will authorize the Department of Justice Inspector General to investigate attorney misconduct within the Department of Justice. Under current law, all allegations of wrongdoing by the Department of Justice attorneys are required to be investigated by the by the department’s Office of Professional Responsibility, rather than the Inspector General. In contrast with the statutorily independent Inspector General, the Office of Professional Responsibility is supervised by the Attorney General.

This limitation on authority does not exist for any other agency Inspector General. The Department of Justice Inspector General Authority Improvement Act of 2009 will make the authority of the Department of Justice Inspector General consistent with that of all other agencies and will prevent future abuses and politicization within the Department.

DOJ’s Inspector General, Glenn Fine, has been pushing for this authority for some time (and not just because it would give him more authority). It fixes two problems that exist right now–one, that lawyers in DOJ are not held legally responsible in the same way as others might be, because they escape IG oversight (and often benefit from quiet settlements on complaints handled by OPR). And, more importantly, the current situation (in which OPR–which reports to the Attorney General–conducts investigations of lawyers) makes it almost impossible to investigate the actions of the Attorney General or his close allies. Alberto Gonzales was able to put off investigations into the US Attorney scandal for some time this way. Read more.

Top U.S. Scientist Arrested in FBI Sting Attempting to Sell Nuclear Secrets to Israel
Allegations mirror those long made by FBI translator / whistleblower Sibel Edmonds...
By Brad Friedman | Brad Blog

This is, of course, the precise sort of thing which FBI linguist-turned-whistleblower Sibel Edmonds has been alleging concerning both Turkish and Israeli interests for some time. In her case, she has testified under oath to nearly-identical behavior by U.S. scientists, military personnel and academics at top-secret nuclear and military installations who are alleged to have done precisely what Stewart David Nozette has now been busted for, as reported today by AFP...

A top American scientist who once worked for the Pentagon and the US space agency NASA was arrested Monday and charged with attempted spying for Israel, the Department of Justice said.

Stewart David Nozette, 52, developed an experiment that fueled the discovery of water on the south pole of the moon, and previously held special security clearance at the Department of Energy on atomic materials, the DOJ said. Read more.

House Judiciary Committee to Propose PATRIOT and FISA Reforms
By emptywheel | FireDogLake

John Conyers, Jerry Nadler, and Bobby Scott just introduced bills that will provide needed reforms to PATRIOT and FISA while reauthorizing most of the sunsetting authorities this year.

From the Committee press release, the PATRIOT bill does the following.

Title I: Patriot Act Related Amendments

Roving Wiretaps

• Clarifies roving wiretap laws in order to ensure that the government only conducts surveillance on a single, identifiable target.

Section 215 Orders

• Improves the standard for issuing a Section 215 order by requiring specific and articulable facts to show that the tangible things sought are relevant to an authorized investigation, other than a threat assessment.

• Provides recipients of Section 215 orders with the ability to immediately challenge both the underlying order and any gag order associated with it.

• Facilitates compliance with already existing minimization procedures to ensure proper safeguards pertaining to information collected via Section 215 orders.

• Prohibits a request for Section 215 records to a library or bookseller for documentary materials that contain personally identifiable information concerning a patron.

Criminal “Sneak and Peak” Searches Read more.

By David Swanson

Most city council members take oaths to defend the Constitution. The Constitution makes the rights and standards in its amendments and in international treaties the supreme law of the land. Our nation has a rich tradition of local governments lobbying state and national governments through the passage of resolutions. Under Clause 3, Rule XII, Section 819, of the Rules of the U.S. House of Representatives local governments may petition Congress. Under the First Amendment, we all can.

On the second day of his presidency, President Obama declared to the world that he would end torture by the United States of America. To prove his determination, he announced he would close the Guantanamo Bay detention center, our shameful symbol of torture.

Since that day, former Vice President Dick Cheney has waged a public campaign against closing Guantanamo and ending torture. Not surprisingly, he has employed the same fear-mongering tactics that led us into a disastrous war in Iraq. He and his supporters have used false and intimidating rhetoric to confuse both voters and Congress.

Congress must not give in to Dick Cheney's politics of fear. We call on Congress to stand with President Obama and our military leaders to reject torture and support the closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility.

The United States must once again be a champion of justice, human rights and the rule of law.

Sign the petition

Covering prosecutors calls for tough-minded reporters
By Andrew Kreig | Nieman Watchdog

A federal judge who lashed out at Justice Department prosecutors over misconduct in last fall’s trial of Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska is just one of the experts who fear widespread threats to our country’s basic civil rights.

“In nearly 25 years on the bench,” U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan told his District of Columbia courtroom in April, “I’ve never seen anything approaching the mishandling and misconduct that I’ve seen in this case.” Under such pressure, the Justice Department launched a criminal investigation of the Stevens prosecutors and vacated the convictions. But those actions were too late, of course, to save the Senate seat the Alaska Republican narrowly lost in November after serving 40 years.

Cases like this are creating bipartisan alarm nationally among legal experts, including criticism from longtime chief federal judges who wrote Attorney Gen. Eric Holder last spring seeking better oversight of prosecutors (see here for one such letter, and here for context).

I’ve witnessed the change after covering the department fulltime for five years as a Hartford Courant newspaper reporter from 1976-1980 during the Justice Department’s better days. I’m now researching abuses in DoJ’s handling of official corruption cases nationally, particularly in light of University of Missouri research by Prof. Donald Shields indicating that the department targeted Democrats over Republicans by a 7:1 ratio from 2001 to August 2007 during most of the Bush administration.

By David Swanson

Pulling pranks on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is just too easy. The Yes Men held a press conference this week pretending to speak for the chamber and fooled the journalists in the room, because "We are no longer going to promote the destruction of the earth's climate" is such a compelling position that it's very tempting to imagine that any human being could adopt it.

But Tom Donohue and his chamber take the opposite position and have for years. William Kovacs, a senior vice president at the chamber, told the LA Times he'd like to stage a "Scopes monkey trial of the 21st century" to deny, not evolution, but human-made climate change.

By MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court said Tuesday it will hear a new case about the rights of Guantanamo detainees, this time involving prisoners who remain in custody even after the Pentagon determines they're not a threat to the United States.

The high court said it will take a challenge from Chinese Muslims at the U.S. naval base in Cuba who no longer are classified as enemy combatants. Last year, the court said in a 5-4 ruling that federal judges could ultimately order some detainees to be released, depending on security concerns and other circumstances.

But a federal appeals court overturned a judge's order to do just that in the case of the Chinese Muslims, or Uighurs, saying judges lacked authority to order detainees released into the United States.

The Obama administration urged the court to stay out of the case, noting that diplomatic efforts to find a place for the Uighurs are ongoing.

Demonstrators in the pink in Copley Square
Antiwar protest draws hundreds from NE region
By Jeannie Nuss | Boston Globe

Pink wigged-protesters and hundreds of other demonstrators wielding posters calling for peace converged on Copley Square in an antiwar rally yesterday.

The regional gathering in Boston - one of more than 40 nationwide - brought protesters from throughout New England to shout, sing, and march against conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq.

Karyn Savage, a 26-year-old mother of two from central Maine, clutched a magenta poster covered in glitter glue and peace signs that read: “War is Expensive, Peace is Priceless.’’

Savage, drenched in hues of pink, from a bubble gum tutu to fuchsia ribbons in her hot pink hair, and her husband, Jacob, 23, dressed in a matching tutu trekked three and a half hours to march with CODEPINK, a women’s peace group. The group’s name is a play on the color-coded homeland security alerts.

“You’ve got innocent people being killed every day, and that’s not justice,’’ said Savage, one magenta and one rose glove wrapped around her sign. Read More.

AN APPEAL: TIME TO OPPOSE MILITARY RECRUITING
By Sherwood Ross

From every appearance, President Obama intends to step up the war in Afghanistan. Even though the American people voted for peace last November and would prefer to devote themselves to the ways of peace –working a full-time job if they can find one, educating their children, providing essential services in their communities, etc., Obama plans to remain in Afghanistan, squandering billions more on a war that the latest poll shows 57% of the American people oppose. Obama also has given no signal that he will withdraw the remaining U.S. troops from Iraq and is providing the Pakistanis with the money, means, and encouragement to expand President Bush’s criminal wars’ into yet a third nation.

We need to ask ourselves: who is better off for all these wars? Are Americans better off today than nine years ago? What of our 30,000 wounded? What of our 5,000 dead? (Contractors are human beings, too, so I count them.) What of the 1-million slaughtered Iraqis? What of the millions of Iraqi civilians wounded and/or driven from their homes? What of the ruined Iraq infrastructure and economy? What of millions of motorists and homeowners world-wide who have seen oil prices escalate? What of the homeless and malnourished Iraqi children? The only ones who appear to be better off from the Bush-Obama wars are the arms manufacturers and various public officials vegetating on the government payrolls in Washington. From steel mills to banks and from airlines to automobiles, the rest of American industry is suffering.

Long ago, Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (1828-1910), the author of “War and Peace,” wrote these harsh words about Russia: “The truth is that the state is a conspiracy designed not only to exploit, but above all to corrupt its citizens.” It takes little imagination to divine what the good Count would have said about America today and its serial wars of aggression centered upon the Middle East oil fields and the proposed pipeline access routes to and from them. Face it: USA today is corrupting its people, turning its children into killers, and sending them out to fight and die in wrong wars half way around the world.

Translated from original

Climate Organizations: “Trouble-maker legislation” scares demonstrators

New “trouble-maker legislation” is unnecessary and prevents people from using their democratic right to demonstrate, say climate organizations.

The government is playing double jeopardy when they on one hand donate 20 million Danish kroner to peaceful activists and on the other want to impose hard punishment on people who wish to speak up.

This is the opinion of the organization People’s Climate Action (PCA), founded in 2008 by the Danish Foreign Ministry in order to secure a peaceful and organized course with activists during the climate conference.

Today the Danish Minister of Justice, Brian Mikkelsen presents “trouble-maker legislation”, which will give the police more opportunities to make arrests and sentence demonstrators during the climate conference.