DhafirTrial

Special to The Washington Post and Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 19, 2010

The FBI illegally collected more than 2,000 U.S. telephone call records between 2002 and 2006 by invoking terrorism emergencies that did not exist or simply persuading phone companies to provide records, according to internal bureau memos and interviews. FBI officials issued approvals after the fact to justify their actions.  (more…)

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Scott Horton Harpers February 2010

1. “Asymmetrical Warfare”

When President Barack Obama took office last year, he promised to “restore the standards of due process and the core constitutional values that have made this country great.” Toward that end, the president issued an executive order declaring that the extra-constitutional prison camp at Guantánamo “shall be closed as soon as practicable, and no later than one year from the date of this order.” Obama has failed to fulfill his promise. (more…)

A Spanish MP has been horrified to learn that the FBI used an online photograph of him to create an image showing what Osama bin Laden might look like in the present day.  (more…)

By Pat LaMarche Commondreams 1/14/10

Miep died this week at the tender age of a hundred.  (more…)

“….For the six major banks of the United States, their total balance sheet is over 60 percent of U.S. GDP. [The banks] got bigger during the crisis. All the big guys are out there looking to take risk. So would you — and so would I — if we felt we were immune. If you had a ‘get out of jail free card,’ wouldn’t you go take a lot risk right now?”  (Watch the video.)

Chris Floyd Empire Burlesque 1/08/10

It is often forgotten how “legal” the Nazi regime in Germany really was. It did not take power in a violent revolution, but entered government through the entirely “legal” procedures of the time. The “legal” vote of the “legally” elected Reichstag gave Adolf Hitler the powers to rule by decree, thus imparting strict “legality” to the actions of his government. (more…)

The Confinement of Hashmi

Paul Craig Roberts Counterpunch 1/05/10

I had just finished reading the uncensored edition of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s book, In The First Circle (Harper Perennial, 2009), when I came across Chris Hedges article (more…)