rumsfeld

Republicans in Congress have been quick to point to the sometimes-riotous town-hall forums of recent weeks as indication that Americans en masse believe the Democrats’ plans for health care reform to be atrocious. Indeed, Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), chairman of the Republican Study Committee, is claiming this morning that President Obama’s decision to address a [...]

For those of you who missed it, MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show last night featured a terrific and news-breaking interview with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.),  in which Pelosi talked about, among other things, holding Bush administration officials criminally accountable.

Sorry, just have to do one more post on Jeh Johnson’s prepared answers from the Senate Armed Services Committee ahead of his confirmation hearing to become Pentagon general counsel. While on many questions he says he needs to review what exactly his predecessors have written and how they’ve reached their conclusions, he also indicates a [...]

In June 2005, Time magazine published the interrogation log of “Detainee 063,” Mohammed al-Qatani, whom his interrogators believed to be the intended 20th Sept. 11 hijacker. (He was detained at an Orlando airport in August 2001 by an extremely alert security official.) Among the treatment al-Qatani endured at Guantanamo Bay was forced hydration designed to [...]

The New York Times’ opinion page has long been a strong supporter of the rights of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, but the Times moved a step further today, to support detainees’ right to sue for monetary damages.

The US Supreme Court this morning granted certiorari in the case of Rasul v. Rumsfeld, Myers, et al., the first case in which plaintiffs who claim they were illegally detained, tortured and humiliated at Guantanamo Bay before they were released without charge have claimed civil damages against US officials. Instead of reviewing the case itself, [...]

For years, at the Pentagon press podium, Lawrence di Rita helped Donald Rumsfeld lie to the American people. Now, I see via Abu Muqawama that he’s taken to the Washington Post to continue to attack the legacy of a much better man, ret. Gen. Eric Shinseki, who told the truth about the force requirements for [...]

As I wrote on Wednesday, there are already several lawsuits from torture victims pending against the United States, and some legal scholars predict many more to come. So what if an Obama-sponsored investigative commission set up a means for compensating torture victims? That could save the government a whole lot of money.
A slew of [...]

Earlier this year, the Senate Armed Services Committee held blockbuster hearings with key figures in the creation of the Bush administration’s torture policies. The hearings represented a watershed, tracing the metaphorical chain of custody for torture techniques — starting in 2001 and early 2002 — from the SERE school to Guantanamo Bay to the office [...]

Every now and then, as I turn from Florida Avenue NW and walk north on Connecticut to get to The Washington Independent offices, I come across Donald Rumsfeld, ambling down the hill and toward Dupont Circle, heading for a destination unknown. He typically has a bodyman behind him, wearing a black suit and an earpiece, [...]