Tag Archives: Guantanamo Bay
Novel Torture Techniques
Andrew Sullivan reports on the worst outlet for American creativity: devising new and all-but-deadly ways of torturing war-on-terror detainees. Here, “dryboarding,” practiced on Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, whose detention the Fourth Circuit resoundingly rejected years ago.
Disappointment on Detention: Reviewing President Obama’s Latest Executive Order
There’s a lot to dislike in President Obama’s latest executive order, continuing detention at Guantanamo Bay, and permitting military tribunals to resume for some (as of yet undisclosed) subset of individuals. But let’s keep two things in mind. First, if we’re looking for someone to blame, the target remains Republicans, who’ve blocked any attempt to […]
The Illusory Status of the Enemy Combatant
Over the course of the past week, we focused on the media’s dominant line of discussion about the January 8th shooting in Tucson, Arizona — namely, whether the chance of violence, made manifest by this particular madman, necessitates a nationwide reevaluation of political discourse. We answered in the affirmative and, for the sake of completeness, […]
Guantanamo Tribunals *Might* Produce Their First Post-Bush Conviction
Eighteen months after Obama took office. Seven years (to the day) after the tribunals were first set up by executive fiat (pdf). And still, only on a guilty plea. To be clear, Bush’s combatant status review tribunals (CSRTs) produced some convictions on his watch — but very few with any degree of permanence, and even […]
Ignore NRO: No Easy Answer on Executive Detention
A recent letter from Attorney General Ben Holder to Senator McConnell (R-KY) (pdf) confronts, head on, Republican allegations that the civilization system is inappropriate for trying putative terrorists. Holder characterizes the debate as follows: The decision to charge Mr. Abdulmutallab in federal court, and the methods used to interrogate him, are fully consistent with the […]
KSM Trial May Be Moved, Over Federal Funding
NY Daily News reported, late last night, and Fox News confirms: per “senior administration officials,” new locations are being sought for the trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. The trial will still be in federal court, triggering none of the harms I mentioned (read last night’s post). Also as our source suggested, one possible motivation is […]
Fears of a Backslide
America’s briefly improving relationship with war is in danger of a serious backslide — all thanks to a single abortive attack on an airliner. The would-be bomber apparently had ties with a number of former Yemeni Guantanamo detainees, released during the Bush years and known to have returned to terrorism. Although some former detainees have […]
The Strange, Ill-Informed Cowardice of Phyllis Schlafly
Apparently you all didn’t find the special congressional race in upstate New York — or its would-be recount, and the potential fallout for New York’s new voting systems — all that interesting. For shame! That stuff was cool. Anyways, in partial atonement for my sins, this commentary on Phyllis Schlafly’s latest insanity (h/t Pi). – […]
Stateside Trial of Terrorists Raises Interesting, Long-Answered Questions of Public Policy
Friday’s news that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed — the self-professed “mastermind” of the 9/11 attacks — would be tried in New York City did not fail to generate the frenzied blend of misinformation and paranoia that we’ve come to expect from the right. Let’s have a look. First, there’s Politico (which reads the post-Boumediene release of […]
For Obama, a Quiet Victory on Guantanamo
Despite increasing liberal skepticism regarding Obama’s plan to close Guantanamo (the administration itself admits that they’ll be late), and Republican opposition to the same, the Obama Administration scored a serious victory on the matter yesterday, securing congressional authorization for the transferal of Guantanamo detainees to the U.S., for trial only (release is another issue). Perhaps […]
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