President Obama announced at a press conference the other day, seemingly out of the blue, that he intends to try again to get the prison at Guantanamo Bay closed down. The chances of getting that through Congress are slim and none, but there are some things he can do on his own. Here’s part of …
Category Archive: Terrorism
Apr 30 2013
Muslim Terrorism vs. Right Wing Domestic Terrorism
Mother Jones has a story that details all of the terrorist violence in the United States since 9/11 (terrorism being defined as violence committed to make a political, religious or ideological statement). The article is based largely on this report from the New America Foundation (I spent a weekend at a conference a couple years …
Apr 25 2013
Wingnut on Wingnut Crime: McCarthy v Paul, Lee
Andrew McCarthy, one of the leaders of the right wingers who think that the constitution should be completely irrelevant when dealing with terrorism, has a column at NRO attacking Sens. Rand Paul and Mike Lee for supporting a prohibition on locking up American citizens in military prisons and denying them due process.
Apr 24 2013
Kuhner’s Alternate Reality
Jeffrey Kuhner has a problem. Writing at the Washington Moonie Times, he wants desperately to claim that political violence in the United States comes primarily from the left, but that flies in the face of the evidence. So what to do? Oh, just play pretend:
Apr 23 2013
Terrorism and Public Policy
Kevin Drum was asked a few days ago who he was secretly hoping the bombers would turn out to be. His answer was “whatever kind of person is least likely to have any effect whatsoever on public policy.” And that’s a good answer. Because such situations are often exploited to support very bad policies (Patriot …
Apr 19 2013
The Boston Bombings and White Privilege
On Wednesday, a report came out that the FBI had a potential suspect in mind, a man who had dropped a backpack at the site of the second bombings shortly before they went off. Several reports said that the man was “dark-skinned,” though those same reports also said the man had already been arrested, which …
Apr 17 2013
The Boston Bombing and Self-Awareness
I was in and out of airports when the bombings at the Boston Marathon took place, so I only heard snippets of it. Now that I’m home and have time to watch the news, I find myself deliberately avoiding it, both because of the horror of it all and because I can’t stand the immediate …
Apr 17 2013
Beck: American Terrorists Only Target Government
Glenn Beck went on the air shortly after the bombs went off in Boston and immediately declared that it must be Islamic terrorists because American terrorists never target groups of people, only the government. Apparently he’s never heard of the Olympic Park bombing by Eric Robert Rudolph. Or any abortion clinic bombings. Or the targeting …
Mar 14 2013
McCarthy Lies About Civilian Trials Again
The DOJ has arraigned Osama Bin Laden’s son in law in federal court in New York and, naturally, the right wing media is throwing a hissy fit about it. And Andrew McCarthy is throwing fuel on the paranoid fire and telling ridiculous lies about it as well.
Feb 11 2013
Who Leaked the Drone Memo?
I definitely would like to know who leaked the memo that has an abbreviated version of the Obama administration’s legal justification for the drone strike program, a memo so badly written and reasoned that you can see now why the DOJ has refused to make it public. Jack Shafer has some ideas:
Feb 08 2013
The Obama Administration’s Targeted Killing Memo
It appears the Obama administration has another whistleblower to prosecute after someone leaked a memo to NBC’s Michael Isikoff that provides a partial justification for President Obama’s claimed — and practiced — authority to order the assassination of American citizens. The reaction from civil libertarians is what one might expect, and accurate as well. You …
Dec 21 2012
Obama Spying Program Exceeds Bush’s Program
In an article that should surprise no one who has been paying attention, the Wall Street Journal reported last week that the Obama administration rewrote the rules on government surveillance to make them even worse than they were under the Bush administration.
Dec 03 2012
Senate Votes to Rescind Military Detention Authority
There’s good news and bad news from this year’s debate over the National Defense Authorization Act. The good news is that the Senate passed an amendment that would rescind the president’s authority to detain American citizens in military prison indefinitely.
Dec 03 2012
GAO: Lots of Places to Hold Gitmo Prisoners
A new GAO report finds that there are 104 prison facilities where those still imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay could be moved with no real risk to anyone’s security. My former colleague Spencer Ackerman has some of the details:
Sep 17 2012
Limbaugh’s Dumbest Statement Ever?
Rush Limbaugh has said a lot of stupid things over the years, but this one may top them all. On his radio show on Sept. 12, he actually suggested that Al Qaeda may have given up Osama Bin Laden to be killed in order to help Obama get reelected because he helps them so much.
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