So is this why it is finally ok to call waterboarding torture?

Seems that ISIS is following our lead and waterboarding its hostages....so now waterboarding is torture.

AND SPEAKING OF HERO'S

More on the nurse who refused to force feed detainees at Guantanamo here?  Will they dare to court martial him for refusing to abandon the oath he took as a medical professional? Stay tuned....

ANOTHER HERO PUSHED OUT THE DOOR

The military lawyer representing Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is forced off the case and out of the army. Read his story here.

And so we wait....... UPDATED

As I am sure you have noticed I have not discussed my remaining client at Guantanamo for quite a while. That is because his case had been pending in the D.C. Court of Appeals until this spring and then I filed a Cert Petition in the U.S. Supreme Court over the summer. Last week I filed the final brief in this matter- the reply to my cert petition. The likelihood that the Supreme Court will hear my client's case is small- the Court only takes a tiny fraction of the cases that are filed but as Studs Terkel was fond of saying "hope dies last..." and so I wait and... hope. It has been ten years since I last (and first!) argued in the Supreme Court so perhaps it is my time again.
Marty Lederman has more on my clients Cert Petition here with links to the Petition, Opposition and Reply.
The Court will (most likely) make its decision on September 29th.

HAHAHA-- it was just pointed out to me that I spelled Barack Obama "Barrack Obama.".... kind of a fun typo if you ask me....while my client sits in the barracks at gitmo for going on 13 years.

More on my Country's right to kill me and other U.S. citizens without due process.....

I have discussed several times on this blog my governments assassination of american citizens. The memo justifying those murders has been released- although heavily redacted- because we don't have the right to know the full "analysis." Firedoglake has the memo and some discussion here. Emptywheel has more here and here. the bottom line? Well I leave that for all of you...but if you are a U.S. citizen you should be worried. If you are not a U.S. citizen you were probably already worried.

Judge demands answers regarding force feeding...

We of course don't know what she will do with the answers but at least she is asking the questions......and letting us (the public) know what the questions are!

What are we going to do about it?

That is the question Edward Snowden has put to all of us? Read this important story and then ask yourself that same question.

oh, and perhaps even more importantly -- Free James Risen

Today, fourteen Pulitzer Prize winners have issued statements in support of journalist James Risen and in protest of the Justice Department's attempt to force Risen to testify against his sources. Risen has vowed to go to jail rather than give up his source, but the Justice Department has steadfastly refused to drop its pursuit. On Thursday, many of the major US press freedom organizations will hold a press conference in Washington DC and deliver a petition with over 100,000 signatures to the Justice Department, calling on them to do the same.
what a cluster F*** our president has turned out to be...
Sigh.....
MORE HERE

FREE THE TORTURE REPORT

There are quite a few people that access my blog from government agencies. I assume not all of them are watching the blog for business reasons! So, for those of you out there working for the government with access to the torture report- why don't you do our country a favor and leak it to the press----No, not to me---but to someone out there that will make sure we all get to see the full report. This government secrecy has got to stop.

August 8, 1974

Nixon resigned in disgrace. I was so very proud of my country.... but we (or at least I) did not know the half of it. he was not just a crook he was engaged in treason.

Yes--Torture is torture and by any other name......

The news media has been complicit in my countries criminal activities by refusing to call torture what it is--torture. Instead they used words like "enhanced interrogation" to somehow make the torture seem more palatable. Yesterday the New York Times finally agreed that it should use the proper word....emptywheel has more here.

IN OTHER NEWS-- IN THIS HERE COUNTRY OF MINE....

oh, and in case you didn't hear

After 9/11"we tortured some folks..".

That would be my president speaking.
 I noticed shortly after he was elected he started holding himself like GW Bush-- the way he walked and his haughty stance. Then he started talking like that imbecile GW. This is a great example of Obama becoming Bush.
What an asshole.

Excuse me while I vent.....UPDATED

I am sick and tired of the DC Circuit allowing the military to do any god damn thing it wants to the men at Guantanamo..... todays decision can be found here.
enough said.

Steve Vladeck has more on the DC Circuit opinion here.