Appeals Court Decides, Unasked, To Rehear Maher Arar Case
The Center for Constitutional Rights:
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals issued an extremely rare order that the case of Canadian rendition victim Maher Arar would be heard en banc by all of the active judges on the Second Circuit on December 9, 2008. For the court to issue the order sua sponte, that is, of its own accord without either party submitting papers requesting a rehearing, is even more rare.
“We are very encouraged,” said CCR attorney Maria LaHood. “For the court to take such extraordinary action on its own indicates the importance the judges place on the case and means that Maher may finally see justice in this country. As the dissenting judge noted, the majority’s opinion gave federal officials the license to ‘violate constitutional rights with virtual impunity.’ Now the court has the opportunity to uphold the law and hold accountable the U.S. officials who sent Maher to be tortured.”
Christy Hardin Smith notes the legal significance:
The legal beagles out there know how rare a sua sponte decision for rehearing is. That someone at the appeals court reviewed the panel decision and evidence and decided further review was warranted — and then managed to convince a majority of the appeals court judges to vote for an en banc rehearing? That says that someone caught something troubling in the filings or the arguments. The big question is: what caught their eyes?
En banc means the entire appeals court bench will hear the case, not just a three judge panel. Which is a very big deal, because that means that whatever the issues in question are, the full court feels they are important enough to be addressed emphatically. And they determined this on their own without being prodded yet by counsel. Very, very intriguing.
Upchuck and Vomit
Earlier this evening, I blogged at Liberty Street about Alan Brinkley’s review of Jane Mayer’s new book, “The Dark Side.” At the very end of the post, having just heard about Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s death, I wrote the following:
Interestingly, just as I was about to wrap up this post, I read the news that Alexander Solzhenitsyn died today, at the age of 89. I expect that we will soon be treated to reams of laudatory praise for this towering human rights hero (which he was) coming from the mouths of people who are responsible for exactly the same horrors Solzhenitsyn experienced.
Well, guess what? It’s started.
How To Do Illegal Torture and Get Away With It
That’s the way Spencer Ackerman sums up the gist of the August 2002 Torture Memo — one of three memos that the ACLU received today pursuant to an FOIA request:
The Articles That Got Away
I admit, I missed some:
The great thing about Tom Friedman is that he never gives us a chance to forget what an idiot he is.
Colonialism off: Pres. Bush will not get his Status of Forces Agreement before he leaves office.
Jeralyn’s post about the Omar Khadr interrogation video includes links to transcripts of previous trial proceedings and TalkLeft’s prior coverage of the case.
Matthew Yglesias’s post, “War for War’s Sake,” is one of his last as an Atlantic contributor (he’s moving to the Center for American Progress).
Ron Beasley writes about a radioactive river.
We already know that John McCain called his wife a “cunt.” Now we find out he is a fan of rape jokes as well.
Did you know that the only way to get around Arizona is by small private plane?
Over 100 University of Chicago professors have signed a letter to the university president objecting to the university’s new $200 million investment.
The Bush administration is trying to push through a new rule requiring recipients of federal health aid funding to certify that opposition to abortion or to contraception will not be a bar to employment. (To bypass compulsory free registration, go to www.bugmenot.com.)
Maliki wants the Green Zone back, too.
If I Write About It, I’ll Feel Better
I’m starting to notice a trend among far right bloggers. Instead of insisting that particular interrogation techniques like waterboarding are not torture, and that what the rest of the world calls torture is not torture at all but simply “aggressive interrogation,” bloggers on the right are starting to acknowledge — sometimes tacitly, sometimes outright — that torture is torture.
Christopher Hitchens Finds Out That Waterboarding Is Torture
We could have told him that, but he had to find out for himself:
Late last year, the writer, polemicist and fierce proponent of the US-led invasion of Iraq Christopher Hitchens attempted, in a piece for the online magazine Slate, to draw a distinction between what he called techniques of “extreme interrogation” and “outright torture”.
From this, his foes inferred that since it was Hitchens’ belief that America did not stoop to the latter, the practice of waterboarding - known to be perpetrated by US forces against certain “high-value clients” in Iraq and elsewhere - must fall under the former heading.
Enraged by what they saw as an exercise in elegant but offensive sophistry, some of the writer’s critics suggested that Hitchens give waterboarding (which may sound like some kind of fun aquatic pastime, but is probably best summarised as enforced partial drowning) a whirl, just to see what it was like. Did the experience feel like torture?
Read’ems
If anyone missed the NY Times scoop on the Bush Administration’s failures concerning the hunt for bin Laden and our Pakistan policy, it’s a must read. To summarize, between Bush’s over-reliance on former Pakistani President Musharraf to remove al-Qa’ida from his country’s soil, shifting too many resources to the Iraq war, and squabbling between the CIA Kabul and Islamabad field offices along with the Pentagon, al-Qa’ida has been allowed to shift its bases from Afghanistan to Pakistan and return to its pre-Sept. 11 strength. My favorite part of the article is when it discusses how the CIA team whose objective was to find bin Laden was booted out of the Langley headquarters building to, instead, reside on the lawn at Langley:
Chris Dodd Gives Hope To Constitution Advocates
I’m listening to the audio of Chris Dodd’s speech on the Senate floor last night about why immunity for telecoms is such a terrible idea. This is a take-no-prisoners speech. One of the best things Dodd does is tie together all the other constitutional crimes committed by the Bush administration, and he makes it clear they are not separate issues and should not be treated as if they were:
The Banality of Evil, Redux
The great and wonderful Dahlia Lithwick reflects on the Bush administration’s less-than-lucid explanations for why they turned the Bush administration into a torture regime. They just don’t really know why, but they meant well:
New Report by Medical Group Confirms Detainees Tortured
Physicians for Human Rights has confirmed via medical examinations that suspected terrorists in U.S.-run detention centers were tortured:
The Detainee Report
Glenn Greenwald has a must-read post about John Yoo’s deeply dishonest Wall Street Journal op-ed (which I also wrote about, here and here). The lies, Glenn writes, serve a clear purpose: Without them, Yoo’s entire narrative falls apart.
A Debate We’re Happy To Have
Seriously, the deja vu couldn’t be more defined; the latest salvo in the current national security debate in the presidential election so frighteningly similar to the nature of the debate four years ago it’s enough to make your head spin.
And at the heart of it, despite all the talk that McCain is somehow a different form of Republican, he’s already telegraphing that he intends to use the dirtiest of the Republican dirty tricks. Not push polls, not whisper campaigns, but the politics of fear.
Somehow, I’m simply not all that shocked.
The United States Does Not Torture
And if you believe that, you probably know better than to read about the experiences of detainees held at Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan:
Exclusive: Congresswoman Attempts To Blow Smoke Up My Ass
She probably didn’t realize she was corresponding with a blogger.
And The Must Read of the Day for Everyone Else
Okay, before we get to the heart of the matter, let’s take a hypothetical situation. You’re driving to work. It’s a 55, but you’re doing 70. If you’re anything at all like me, you probably got something hard and heavy playing and it’s cranked. Your head’s bobbin’ and you’re getting totally amped in preparation of sitting at a desk all day long.
Then you see flashing lights in your rear view.
Helen Thomas to the Rest of the White House Press Corps: Do Your Damn Jobs!
Helen Thomas is my new hero of the moment. After relative media silence in the aftermath of learning that George W. Bush not only authorized the usage of torture, but actually admitted to it, Helen Thomas had enough.
On Jack Bauer and US Interrogation Policy
I know this has already been revealed by Philippe Sands in the April May issue of Vanity Fair. However, after reading this excerpt from Sands’ upcoming book, Torture Team: Deception, Cruelty And The Compromise Of Law, I still can’t fathom the callous indifference of the sick fucking bastards who drew up the blueprints for US torture policy:
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