Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal sent a written statement to the Senate Armed Services Committee on detention policy, which is a focal point of criticism for his nomination to head the Afghanistan war. “We must at all times obligation treat detainees humanely … military necessity does not permit us” to More…
Strange as it sounds, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was a strong proponent of President Obama’s decision to reverse course and argue in court that photographs depicting torture of Iraqis by U.S. troops ought to be kept private, according to McClatchy’s Nancy Youssef:
The official said Maliki warned that
Yesterday President Obama announced his intent to establish a system of preventive detention to stop would-be terrorists from “carrying out an act of war” — even when they “cannot be prosecuted for past crimes, in some cases because evidence may be tainted.” One of the most senior officials in the More…
So Ari Shapiro’s NPR story yesterday placed then-White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales — a.k.a. God‘s gift to Talking Points Memo — at the center of the decision to torture Abu Zubaydah in the spring of 2002. Gonzales didn’t respond to Shapiro’s request for comment. But More…
Michele Flournoy, undersecretary of defense for policy, testified that imprisoning some Guantanamo detainees in the United States would make it politically easier for European allies to take custody of some of the detainees. Robert Mueller, director of the FBI, testified to some concerns about holding Guantanamo detainees in America, out More…
The headline of a just-released Senate Republican Policy Committee document on what to do with Guantanamo Bay detainees:
Meet Your New Neighbor, Khalid Sheikh Mohammad?
There’s actually nothing in the 15-page paper suggesting that Khalid Sheikh Mohammad could be released into American society. There is, however, an exposition of the More…
Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell assured reporters yesterday, “I see nothing to indicate that that date” — that is, the date to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, set by President Obama in a January executive order by year’s end — “is at all in jeopardy.” OK. The Democratic-controlled More…
In denying the right of a Muslim Pakistani immigrant to sue former Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI director Robert Mueller for his prolonged imprisonment and harsh treatment based on his religion and national origin, the Supreme Court on Monday raised the bar for plaintiffs seeking to sue
Why would the Obama administration, after having suspended the Bush military commissions that President Obama called an “enormous failure,” now be pushing to finalize the conviction and life sentence of a detainee who boycotted his trial due to procedures that he — and much of the world — insisted were More…
Recent reports quoting anonymous officials within the Obama administration suggest the president is considering reviving the same military commissions that he called “an enormous failure” as a candidate and that were created by a law he voted against when he was a U.S. senator. Some of the More…
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