Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and the corporate “mainstream” media make quite a pair. We’re hearing a very “balanced” debate over whether KSM should be tried in New York City, and whether the most insane objections to that proposal are really insane or not. But what are we not hearing?
Opening my e-mail, the other day, after coming back from seeing “Collapse” for a second time, I’m immediately inundated with links to a new article on the Guardian’s website: “Key oil figures were distorted by US pressure, says whistleblower. Watchdog’s estimates of reserves inflated says top official.”
This video, released by the American Civil Liberties Union today, features family members of 9/11 victims calling for federal trials of terrorism suspects. The Obama administration is expected to announce by November 16 whether certain Guantánamo detainees will be transferred to the U.S. for trial in federal courts or be tried in the illegitimate military [...]
Last Monday, when Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his four co-defendants in the long-delayed 9/11 trial at Guantánamo were scheduled to make an appearance before their Military Commission judge, Army Col. Stephen Henley, to discuss some procedural arrangements and the ongoing dispute about the mental health of one of the men, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, the naval base’s airport was busy, as reporters, observers and relatives of the 9/11 victims were flown in to witness what some parts of the military clearly still regard as a viable trial system.
On Monday, following a request from the Obama administration, Army Col. Stephen Henley, the military judge in the proposed trial by Military Commission of five men charged in connection with the 9/11 attacks — Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, Mustafa al-Hawsawi, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali and Walid bin Attash — agreed to the government’s proposal for a 60-stay in the proceedings, to give the administration more time to decide what it wants to do next.
A month ago, rulings made by District Court judges in the habeas corpus appeals of prisoners held at Guantánamo seemed, for the most part, to confirm that the courts were uniquely placed to deliver justice to the prisoners after their long years of imprisonment, largely without charge or trial.
Fox News screaming head Glenn Beck now tells President Obama to fire White House employees, and Obama obeys.
While Obama presumably believes obedience will cause Beck to like him and begin praising him, Beck is building a list of additional people whose heads he will demand and denouncing Obama as hiding vast secrets by having [...]
A federal appeals court ruled Friday that former Attorney General John Ashcroft can be held personally responsible for the wrongful detention of Abdullah al-Kidd, a U.S. citizen, who was on his way to Saudi Arabia when he was arrested in Washington’s Dulles Airport on March 16, 2003 as a material witness in the trial of Sami Omar Al-Hussayem.
The lead story in today’s Washington Post, headlined “How a Detainee Became An Asset,” provides a one-sided and distorted account of the torture and abuse of Khalid Sheikh Muhammad (KSM) and demonstrates the urgent need for a blue ribbon bipartisan commission to create a comprehensive and authoritative narrative of the eight years of misgovernment of the Bush administration.
President Barack Obama has staked his presidency on winning his “necessary” war in Afghanistan. Coming into office, one of his first acts, on Feb. 18, was to boost US troop levels in that country by 17,000, bringing the total number of soldiers and Marines in the country to about 57,000, to which one must also [...]
