"Just Trust Us..."
...doesn't seem to be working anymore.
In the past several months, the regime has suffered some setbacks in its preferred way for doing business, imperially and in secret. The surfacing of information on warrantless phone tapping, massive data compiling on all Americans, and 'renditions' to secret prisons located in Europe has caused our allies, our courts, even our sleepy Congress to demand more information and control over the Emperor's Global War on Terra. Whether those demands have any teeth in them remain to be seen. From Dana Priest's article in today's Washington Post.
Five years after the attacks on the United States, the Bush administration faces the prospect of reworking key elements of its anti-terrorism effort in light of challenges from the courts, Congress and European allies crucial to counterterrorism operations.
The Republican chairman of the House intelligence committee and other members of Congress have complained about not being briefed on classified surveillance programs and huge unprecedented databases used to monitor domestic and international phone calls, faxes, e-mails and bank transfers.
European governments and three international bodies are investigating secret prisons run by the CIA, and some countries have pledged not to allow the transport of terrorism suspects through their airports.
Six European allies have demanded that President Bush shut down the prison for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, citing violations of international law and mistreatment of detainees.
And the Supreme Court recently issued a rebuke of the military commissions created by the administration to try detainees, declaring that they violated the Geneva Conventions and were never properly authorized by Congress.
Accustomed to having its way on matters related to the nation's security, the administration is being forced to respond to criticism that it once brushed aside. The high court ruling rejected the White House's assertion that the president has nearly unlimited executive powers during a time of war, and now executive branch lawyers are reviewing whether other rules adopted after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon will have to be revised, especially those concerning the Geneva Conventions. [Emphasis added]
Europe seems especially poised to challenge the Emperor. Italy has arrested several of its leading intelligence and police officers on grounds that their cooperation with the CIA in the rendition of an Italian Muslim leader was illegal. Implied in the arrests were that the officials were actually getting paid by the CIA. Several other countries have indicated that their airports will be off limits to the airplanes used by the CIA for transferring those picked up for rendition.
The courts in this country are beginning to snap back at the Emperor for the terms and conditions under which 'detainees' at Guantanamo Bay are being held. The latest Supreme Court holding in the Hamdan case makes it clear that the Geneva Conventions, treaties that the US is signatory to (after approval by Congress), do in fact apply to prisoners being held by the US. Cases on the wholesale gathering of telephone information, currently pending at the trial level, will eventually make their way up the appellate ladder to the Supreme Court and the Court will then have to deal with the standard governmental excuse of "state secrets."
Congress is at least making noise about being kept in the dark on several intelligence gathering efforts. Whether the noise-making is simply election year electioneering, the noise is being reported on by the press and heard by the American public. Questions have been asked, and no amount of back pedaling by people such as Senator Specter and Representative Hoekstra will unask those questions.
It almost looks like the perfect storm is gathering, one that will force the regime to back off on some of its more egregiously illegal activities. I certainly hope so.
In the past several months, the regime has suffered some setbacks in its preferred way for doing business, imperially and in secret. The surfacing of information on warrantless phone tapping, massive data compiling on all Americans, and 'renditions' to secret prisons located in Europe has caused our allies, our courts, even our sleepy Congress to demand more information and control over the Emperor's Global War on Terra. Whether those demands have any teeth in them remain to be seen. From Dana Priest's article in today's Washington Post.
Five years after the attacks on the United States, the Bush administration faces the prospect of reworking key elements of its anti-terrorism effort in light of challenges from the courts, Congress and European allies crucial to counterterrorism operations.
The Republican chairman of the House intelligence committee and other members of Congress have complained about not being briefed on classified surveillance programs and huge unprecedented databases used to monitor domestic and international phone calls, faxes, e-mails and bank transfers.
European governments and three international bodies are investigating secret prisons run by the CIA, and some countries have pledged not to allow the transport of terrorism suspects through their airports.
Six European allies have demanded that President Bush shut down the prison for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, citing violations of international law and mistreatment of detainees.
And the Supreme Court recently issued a rebuke of the military commissions created by the administration to try detainees, declaring that they violated the Geneva Conventions and were never properly authorized by Congress.
Accustomed to having its way on matters related to the nation's security, the administration is being forced to respond to criticism that it once brushed aside. The high court ruling rejected the White House's assertion that the president has nearly unlimited executive powers during a time of war, and now executive branch lawyers are reviewing whether other rules adopted after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon will have to be revised, especially those concerning the Geneva Conventions. [Emphasis added]
Europe seems especially poised to challenge the Emperor. Italy has arrested several of its leading intelligence and police officers on grounds that their cooperation with the CIA in the rendition of an Italian Muslim leader was illegal. Implied in the arrests were that the officials were actually getting paid by the CIA. Several other countries have indicated that their airports will be off limits to the airplanes used by the CIA for transferring those picked up for rendition.
The courts in this country are beginning to snap back at the Emperor for the terms and conditions under which 'detainees' at Guantanamo Bay are being held. The latest Supreme Court holding in the Hamdan case makes it clear that the Geneva Conventions, treaties that the US is signatory to (after approval by Congress), do in fact apply to prisoners being held by the US. Cases on the wholesale gathering of telephone information, currently pending at the trial level, will eventually make their way up the appellate ladder to the Supreme Court and the Court will then have to deal with the standard governmental excuse of "state secrets."
Congress is at least making noise about being kept in the dark on several intelligence gathering efforts. Whether the noise-making is simply election year electioneering, the noise is being reported on by the press and heard by the American public. Questions have been asked, and no amount of back pedaling by people such as Senator Specter and Representative Hoekstra will unask those questions.
It almost looks like the perfect storm is gathering, one that will force the regime to back off on some of its more egregiously illegal activities. I certainly hope so.
posted by Diane at 3:59 AM
1 Comments:
i like that you refer to the Junta as 'the Regime.' We must never grant them legitemacy, even by default. They took control through a judicial coup, which we should never--nor allow anyone else to--forget...
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