Homeland Security

Every now and then, I like to shine a spotlight on the shenanigans of our beloved U.S. Congress and its members. After all, there’s so much “news” being generated in this town that it’s nearly impossible to catch it all. So with this feature, I’ll try and call attention to items that should really make Americans’ blood boil. Rest assured, this column will be an equal-opportunity critic — challenging both Democrats and Republicans.

This week’s spotlight looks at a story that barely registered a blip on Washington’s audacity-meter last week. I’m referring to a story in Congress Daily reporting on turmoil within the House Homeland Security panel. Read more...

This post was also published in today's Chicago Sun-Times. — Ed.


Sen. Barack Obama's (D-Ill.) announcement that he would support the compromise bill providing court and congressional supervision of the president's Terrorist Surveillance Program (TSP) and immunity for certain telecom companies that cooperated with it has led to a barrage of criticism from his "netroot" supporters on his campaign website and in much of the liberal blogosphere.

But the senator's position is not only correct on the merits from a pro-civil liberties and -privacy rights perspective. It also provided the senator an important chance to demonstrate his "Sister Souljah moment." Read more...

If Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) believes his prediction of a terrorist attack within a year, he is admitting the Bush-McCain policies have created these dangers and we should answer him with this:

It all began when the CIA briefed George W. Bush about the danger of Osama bin Laden flying planes into buildings and Bush reacted with arrogance, ignorance and contempt and did nothing.

It then continued throughout a six-year obsession with the Iraq war that let bin Laden off the hook at Tora Bora and tied down the American military in a war that should never have been fought, that prevented our winning the war that was necessary. Read more...

As they adjourned for the summer, the Supreme Court ruled this morning in a close 5-4 decision that terrorist detainees at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, are afforded rights and protections under the Constitution.

What a travesty of justice handed down by justices more interested in political correctness than protecting the American people from very dangerous people who seek to kill us and end our way of life. Make no mistake, these are not Boy Scouts held against their will in Camp Gitmo. No, these are enemy combatants who have been captured on the battlefield and sent to Cuba. Let me say that again: captured on the battlefield waging war against our brave men and women. Read more...

Peter Fenn & Frank Donatelli discuss the issues surrounding the reauthorization of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

On Tuesday, Jose Padilla was sentenced to 17 years and four months in federal prison for conspiring to commit terrorism — even though the judge declared that the government failed to prove he was a terrorist to start with.

Most Americans don’t care. But they should. Here’s why.

When Padilla was arrested in May 2002. John Ashcroft accused him of carrying a “dirty bomb” into the United States.

Yet, even though he was an American citizen, Padilla was charged with no crime. Instead, he was labeled an “enemy combatant” and held and tortured in a Navy brig for three and a half years without being able to see a lawyer or defend himself in a court of law. Read more...

Peter Fenn & Frank Donatelli look at why Congress failed to act on FISA before the session ended and what needs to be reconciled before a deal is reached.

In the most astounding testimony to Congress that I can remember, Gen. Hartmann
refused to state that waterboarding against American POWs is illegal. The entire upper strata of American military leadership, plus vets, plus military families, plus virtually all Americans, would vehemently disagree with Gen. Hartmann.

The general's problem is that he cannot say that waterboarding against American troops is illegal without saying waterboarding by the CIA or other U.S. agencies is illegal.

It is time to end waterboarding once and for all. Read more...

You know, democracy and the rule of law can be mighty inconvenient. If I were the members of the congressional intelligence committees I'd be outraged that the CIA decided I couldn't be trusted with its torture tapes. To say nothing of some judges. "Too much danger of leaks," says the CIA director, explaining that the video clearly showed some of the agency's waterboarders.

We can't have their covers blown. After all, then we would have some idea who should be punished for "just following orders." (By the way, don't you like that term, "waterboarding"? I can't get it out of my head that before the interrogators begin, they holler, "SURF'S UP!!!")

In fairness, we really should consider the argument that those who were on the receiving end of the abuse possessed information vital to the protection of the United States. Still, shouldn't we always remember what it is about the United States that we're protecting? Read more...

The reason a special prosecutor is needed in the torture tapes obstruction of justice case, and the reason there is private panic in many Democratic and Republican circles, is that it now appears that some prominent Democrats, along with some prominent Republicans, gave a private thumbs-up to torture in 2002.

Waterboarding is torture. Torture is a crime.  Looking at the various creative means of torture that have been publicly reported, the laws that were broken include the Geneva Convention, European law, the U.S. War Crimes Act, the domestic laws of probably a dozen countries at least, especially in Europe, and very possibly the Nuremberg rules.

Flashing back to 2001 and 2002, when torture was instituted and some Democrats and Republicans were briefed: That was the time when most senior Democrats joined Republicans in supporting the Iraq war and voting for the Patriot Act (including the
majority in the Congress who did not read the Patriot Act before voting for it). Read more...