Rights

D.C. Federal Judge Orders Bush Administration to Produce Evidence About Bagram Prisoners

After hearing arguments on whether prisoners held indefinitely without charge at the U.S.-controlled prison at the Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan have the right to challenge their detention in American courts, Judge John D. Bates of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia late Wednesday ordered the government to provide certain basic information [...]

Obama’s pick for OLC: ‘Just Say No’ To The President

Most of the discussion of President-elect Barack Obama’s appointments announced Monday focused on whether Leon Panetta does or doesn’t have the experience to run the CIA. However, it’s worth noting that Dawn Johnsen, Obama’s pick for the once-obscure post of head of the Office of Legal Counsel in the Department of Justice – made famous [...]

Email Reveals Bush Personally Authorized Detainee Abuse

Jason Leopold at The Public Record writes about an email that turned up in the ACLU’s Freedom of Information Act lawsuit revealing that, contrary to Bush administration claims in the past, an executive order signed by President Bush specifically authorized hooding, sleep deprivation, the use of attack dogs, loud music and other “aggressive” techniques to [...]

Detention and Torture Cases Demand Fast Action from Obama DoJ

As Adam Liptak wrote in The New York Times on Saturday, the President-elect Barack Obama’s Justice Department is going to have to quickly figure out what positions it will take in some thorny legal cases involving the indefinite detention and torture of “war on terror” detainees.
The Al-Marri case Liptak writes about, and which I’ve been [...]

Let the Blago Showdown Begin

So does Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich have the right to appoint Roland Burris as the next senator from Illinois or doesn’t he?
A helpful analysis from CNN.com notes the following:
Article 1, Section 5 of the Constitution gives Congress the power to be “judge of the elections, returns and qualifications of its own members.” Democratic senators in [...]

Gonzales Still Feeling Sorry for Himself

Steve Benen over at The Washington Monthly has a nice commentary on Alberto Gonzales and his recent lament that he’s “one of the many casualties of the war on terror,” as he told the Wall Street Journal earlier this week.
Echoing some of the themes running through my story posted today, Benen writes:
Is Gonzales really that [...]

‘Flying While Muslim,’ the New ‘Driving While Black’

The Washington Post reports that a large group of Muslim travelers were removed from a flight Thursday at a Washington-area airport after one of them made a comment about airline safety.
Officials ordered nine Muslim passengers, including three young children, off an AirTran flight headed to Orlando from Reagan National Airport yesterday afternoon after two other [...]

Britain May Take Gitmo Prisoners

Although Britain repeatedly refused Bush administration requests to take prisoners being held by US authorities at Guantanamo Bay, UPI reported on Thursday, via the Times of London, that the British government has changed its mind.
Eager to help president Obama close down the prison when he takes over in January — and no doubt hoping to [...]

The Best of TWI in 2008

TWI launched just a year ago. Since then, our staff has run over 4,400 posts and pieces and broken news that furthered some of the most important stories of the year. Check out the most viewed stories of 2008 and the TWI staff’s favorite reads.

Obama Steps Over the Line

In an insightful column in The New York Times Sunday, Frank Rich attributes Obama’s choice of the Rev. Rick Warren — the megachurch pastor who has likened gay marriage to pedophilia, incest and polygamy (watch it here on CNN) — to arrogance.  The decision “was made with the certitude that a leader with a mandate [...]