IN THE CATEGORY OF WTF???

I guess someone should mention this to the Afghani men being held at Guantanamo because of their connection to the Taliban.....

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Saturday welcomed remarks from the Obama administration that the Taliban were not necessarily America's enemies.

Earlier this month, Vice President Joe Biden said in an interview with Newsweek magazine that the Islamist militants did not represent a threat to U.S. interests unless they continued to shelter al-Qaida.

"Look, the Taliban per se is not our enemy. That's critical. There is not a single statement that the president has ever made in any of our policy assertions that the Taliban is our enemy because it threatens U.S. interests," Biden was quoted as saying by Newsweek....


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2076564/Taliban-enemy-says-Joe-Biden-US-negotiate-deal-end-Afghanistan-war.html

SETTING THE TONE FOR THE NEW YEAR

That is what the military is doing at Guantanamo right now....in a way they are only codifying what we all knew to be a fact: that the military commission system for trying the men at Guantanamo stinks to high heaven and has not a shred of legitimacy. The powers to be have now decreed that all legal mail between the detainees being tried in the military commission and their attorneys will be read by the military, department of justice, the janitor and whomever else is hanging about. Fitting start for the "new"....kinder, gentler....kangaroo system.
read the Order here.

From Roger Fitch and our Friends down under....

The Republican dream

ROGER FITCH ESQ • THURSDAY, DECEMBER 22, 2011

Congressional fat cats ... Corporate crime and financial defalcation ... Constitutional violations ... Gridlock on judicial and ambassadorial nominations ... Roger Fitch surveys the Washington landscape 

.....

Heedless of all this corporate crime and financial defalcation, Congress is busy stripping law courts of jurisdiction over citizens and others the government calls "enemy combatants" due to their "terrorism", although terrorism, like banking, is hardly a military matter. 

It's hard to count the ways the National Defense Authorization Act violates the Constitution, but one might start with Article III, Section 2:

"The Trial of all Crimes, except in Cases of Impeachment, shall be by Jury; and such Trial shall be held in the State where the said Crimes shall have been committed; but when not committed within any State, the Trial shall be at such Place or Places as the Congress may by Law have directed."

That might permit a civilian trial at Guantánamo, except for the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution: 

"In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed..." 

Anyway, military jurisdiction over civilians isn't a given, according to law prof Steve Vladeck.

This latest Pentagon pre-emption of civilian justice is opposed - by the Pentagon, the Director of National Intelligence, the CIA, the FBI and the Justice Department.

Japanese-Americans don't think much of it, either, but nothing seems likely to stop Congressshort of a presidential veto. 

Senator Ayotte: more torture
One senator wants to bring back torture.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE WHOLE FITCH......

BE THERE OR BE SQUARE- OCCUPY DC JANUARY 2-12

ANTI-TORTURE ACTIVISTS TO “OCCUPY” 

WASHINGTON, JAN. 2-12

MARKING TENTH ANNIVERSARY OF GUANTANAMO, EVENTS TO INCLUDE 10-DAY FAST, COURTROOM SUPPORT FOR ACTIVISTS WHO SPOKE OUT IN CONGRESS, AND A HUMAN CHAIN FROM THE WHITE HOUSE TO CONGRESS

WASHINGTON, D.C. — January 11 will mark the tenth anniversary of the first detainees' arrival at the U.S.-controlled detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. To remember this travesty, Witness Against Torture is planning 10 days of activities in Washington, D.C. demanding an end to torture and indefinite detention at Guantanamo, Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, and elsewhere, and that the president reject the just-passed National Defense Authorization Act.
Jan. 2-12: WAT sponsors Hungering for Justice, a 10-day fast highlighting the ongoing crimes at Guantanamo and Bagram. Dozens of activists are expected to participate in the fast in Washington as well as other cities. Locations of daily activities in support of the fast to be announced.

Jan. 3: The jury trial of 14 anti-torture activists is scheduled to begin in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, Moultrie Courthouse, 500 Indiana Ave., N.W. In June 2011, the 14 stood one by one in the Gallery of the House of Representatives to petition lawmakers to uphold the Constitution by not making funding for Guantanamo permanent. WAT will stand with the 14 in the court room, outside the courthouse, and around the city as their trial proceeds.

Jan. 11: A dramatic Human Chain from the White House to the Capitol Building marks the
10^th anniversary of detention at Guantanamo. WAT joins a broad coalition of human rights groups in sponsoring this vigil, which will begin after a noontime rally in Lafayette Park. During the rally and vigil, activists will be wearing orange jumpsuits and holding signs and other visuals demanding that the detention center be closed.
“Despite his campaign pledge to shut down Guantanamo, President Obama has continued the Bush administration's practice of indefinite military detention there and at Bagram,” says Jeremy Varon, professor of history at the New School and an organizer with WAT. “Now, Obama says he will sign the National Defense Authorization Act, which extends this abusive regime by allowing the president to order U.S. citizens, as well, to be held indefinitely without due process on American soil. Not one more year – not one more day – of such policies is acceptable. Witness Against Torture is here in Washington to add our message to the 'Occupy' movement's call for a return to a just political and economic system by demanding an end to the national disgrace that is Guantanamo.”
Witness Against Torture is a grassroots movement that came into being in December 2005 when 24 activists walked to Guantanamo to visit the prisoners and condemn torture policies. Since then, it has engaged in public education, community outreach, and non-violent direct action. January 2012 will be the sixth year the group has “occupied” Washington, DC to call for justice, accountability and mercy. To learn more, visitwww.witnesstorture.org

Amnesty International on Guantanamo

Follow this link to Amnesty's latest report on Guantanamo....a decade of damage to human rights.

Defense department authorization act.....

For those of you who are wondering exactly how bad this new law is...the one that Obama is going to sign into law very soon I will put some links to things to read that will bring you up to date. The bottom line is that Obama not only bought into Guantanamo but has now expanded the concept to include U. S. citizens....This has been a slippery slope since 2001 but instead of slowing things down Obama has put soap on the slide.

http://www.salon.com/2011/12/16/three_myths_about_the_detention_bill/singleton/

Emptywheel has a few good posts about it...start here:


 http://www.emptywheel.net/2011/12/14/obama-will-not-veto-defense-authorization/

The talking dog has some thoughts on this too:
http://www.thetalkingdog.com/archives2/001603.html

As Senator Franken said, this was not a good way of celebrating the birthday of the bill of rights.....

INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS DAY- so sorry my country doesn't believe in human rights anymore....

93-7

what a fucking mess.  Emptywheel has more here.