The Washington Independent

Posts Tagged war on terror

Conservatives Attack Administration for Upholding Constitution

By | 12.29.09 | 1:23 pm

The Wall Street Journal, Pat Buchanan and others are already condemning the Obama administration for treating Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab as a civilian criminal rather than an illegal warrior to whom we can presumably do whatever we please. We are in “a war,” The Journal More…

Charging of Plane Bombing Suspect Highlights Obama’s Inconsistencies

By | 12.28.09 | 7:00 pm

The Obama administration’s decision to try the Nigerian man suspected of attempting to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight on Christmas as an ordinary civilian criminal rather than as an “unprivileged enemy belligerent” in a military commission, as the 9/11 hijackers initially were, highlights the inconsistent approach taken by both More…

Gitmo Habeas Scoreboard — Government Wins

By | 12.16.09 | 3:09 pm

Detainees U.S. Government
32 11

Below is a list of the Guantanamo More…

Supreme Court Shuts Door on Gitmo Torture Case

By | 12.15.09 | 6:00 am

The Supreme Court dealt a harsh blow on Monday to victims of abuse by U.S. officials during the “war on terror.” The court announced it would not review a federal appeals court ruling that dismissed a lawsuit by four British citizens who claim they were wrongly arrested, detained More…

Draft Memo Reveals Plans to Move Gitmo Detainees to Thomson, Ill.

By | 12.14.09 | 8:55 am

Conservative bloggers were abuzz over the weekend over a leaked memo that appeared to show President Obama has decided to send all Guantanamo Bay detainees to the Thomson Correctional Center in Northwest Illinois “as expeditiously as possible.”

In fact, it turned out that the memo was a draft More…

Blackwater’s Participation in CIA Raids Raises Critical Questions

By | 12.14.09 | 8:51 am

The news on Friday that Blackwater Worldwide (now known as Xe Services) participated in clandestine CIA operations in Iraq and Afghanistan that included targeted killings, kidnapping and “extraordinary renditions” raised more questions than it answered.

After all, we already knew that the U.S. government has relied More…

Holder Struggles to Defend 9/11 Trial Decisions

By | 11.19.09 | 6:00 am

Attorney General Eric Holder surely knew he’d be facing a tough audience when he prepared to testify to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. That may be why instead of delivering the written testimony he’d prepared, he focused his opening remarks on

More…

International Justice Group Takes Aim at Bush Officials

By | 11.16.09 | 10:53 am

The International Center for Transitional Justice usually focuses on bringing to light and holding perpetrators accountable for such heinous crimes as genocide, mass murder and systematic torture, often in far-off war-torn countries with dismal human rights records.

So it’s significant that today they’ve released a report More…

Awaiting Dick Cheney’s Retraction

By | 11.12.09 | 2:04 pm

This looks incredible. Steve Coll introduces us to a collection of scholarly essays called ‘Decoding The New Taliban’.

Coll:

In an essay entitled “Reading the Taliban,” Joanna Nathan of the International Crisis Group updates some of her work on Taliban propaganda and communications strategies. Her analysis of the repetitious

More…

Italy Convicts 23 Americans in Rendition Case

By | 11.04.09 | 11:40 am

Breaking news from Reuters:

An Italian judge sentenced 23 former CIA agents to up to eight years in prison on Wednesday for the abduction of a Muslim cleric in a landmark ruling against the “rendition” flights used by the former U.S. government.

The Americans were tried in More…