It's difficult to read the administration's brief in any other way than a reinforcement--even an inflation of--the unitary executive, or to attribute it to Bush holdovers. This is first of the cases in which the DOJ attorneys aren't carrying over arguments from the previous administration--they are initiating this case. And it appears that the promises of last summer and fall when FISAAA was being argued were pretty damned empty.

The Obama administration has filed a brief in EFF's lawsuit against the government for its program of illegal, mass wiretapping of Americans, defending the practice, arguing that the lawsuit should be dismissed, endorsing the Bush administration's invented "State Secret" theory, and augmenting it with a new theory, that "the Patriot Act bars any lawsuits of any kind for illegal government surveillance unless there is "willful disclosure" of the illegally intercepted communications." This brief was not written by Bush cronies left behind by the outgoing administration: this is an invention of the Obama administration.
I don't expect the guy to walk on water, but I'd sure like it if he'd stop wallowing in the mud.

Even better, Olbermann tonight will have on as a guest Kevin Bankston of EFF, the lead counsel for the plaintiffs suing Bush officials for illegal spying, which means Olbermann intends to cover this issue again tonight. Along with the ACLU and others, EFF has been truly heroic in defending the core constitutional liberties of Americans and serving as a key check on executive abuses.

For the record, the Bill of Rights and the Constitution take precedence over Party or Party leader each and every day of the week.

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But these legal maneuvers - repeating the discredited, unconstitutional arguments previously made by the Bush administration in an effort to radically expand executive power - are inexcusable and unjustifiable.

Full stop.

You display or use the “Gadsden Rattlesnake” Flag/Symbol.

You have watched the “Anti-Federal Reserve System” - Zeitgeist Movie.

You support a repeal of the 16th Amendment - the Income Tax.

You supported the candidacy of Representative Ron Paul (R-TX).

You are a member of The Committees of Safety.

You oppose mandatory citizen service for those aged 18 to 24 per Rahm Emanuel’s proposal.

You oppose the Security and Prosperity Partnership being out of the jurisdiction of Congressional oversight.

You support the abolition of the FEDERAL RESERVE private central bank and favor a return to Constitutional money.

You oppose any further restrictions on the inherent right to bear arms.

You have watched Aaron Russo’s “America: Freedom to Fascism”

You oppose any additional bailout bills for failing banks and/or private companies.

The Missouri Information Analysis Center, or MIAC is a "fusion center," combining resources from the federal Department of Homeland Security and other agencies, in particular local agencies. It collects intelligence from both the local agencies and the Department of Homeland Security and uses these combined sources to analyze threats and better combat terrorism and other criminal activity. The center opened in 2005 and is located in Jefferson City, Missouri[1].

As part of the U.S. Department of Justice's (DOJ) Global Justice Information Sharing Initiative's (Global) efforts to develop fusion center guidelines, the Criminal Intelligence Coordinating Council (CICC), in support of the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), Office of Justice Programs (OJP), recommended the creation of the Fusion Center Focus Group. This focus group was tasked with recommending guidelines to aid in the development and operation of fusion centers.

Concurrently, the Homeland Security Advisory Council (HSAC) Intelligence and Information Sharing Working Group focused on developing guidelines for local and state agencies in relation to the collection, analysis, and dissemination of terrorism-related intelligence in the context of fusion centers. The recommendations resulting from the HSAC's efforts assisted in the development of the fusion center guidelines.

The development of guidelines for fusion centers was separated into three phases-law enforcement intelligence, public safety, and the private sector. The Fusion Center Guidelines: Law Enforcement Intelligence, Public Safety, and the Private Sector, covering all three phases, is now complete and available. These guidelines may be used for homeland security efforts, as well as all crimes. By integrating these guidelines, agencies can resolve and overcome many common obstacles. In addition, guidelines can help guide administrators in developing policies, managing resources, and evaluating services.

The ultimate goal of a fusion center is to provide a mechanism where law enforcement, public safety, and private partners can come together with a common purpose and improve the ability to safeguard our homeland and prevent criminal activity. A police officer, fireman, or building inspector should not have to search for bits of information. They should know to call one particular place-the jurisdiction's fusion center.

The Fusion Center Focus Group, whose mission was to further many of the tenets outlined in the National Criminal Intelligence Sharing Plan (NCISP), included experts and practitioners from local, state, and federal law enforcement and public safety agencies, as well as representatives from DOJ, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). In addition, members from national law enforcement and public safety organizations, the private sector, and currently operating fusion centers participated in the focus group's efforts.

The focus group members recommended that the guidelines include all crime types and that centers provide an array of intelligence services. In addition, the group recommended that centers be scalable based on the needs of the city, state, or region and should conduct tactical, operational, and strategic intelligence functions in support of criminal investigations.

The NCISP and the Intelligence and Fusion Processes
Mission Statement and Goals
Governance
Collaboration
Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA)
Database Resources
Interconnectivity
Privacy and Civil Liberties
Security
Facility, Location, and Physical Infrastructure
Human Resources
Training of Center Personnel
Multidisciplinary Awareness and Education
Intelligence Services and Products
Policies and Procedures
Center Performance Measurement and Evaluation
Funding
Communications Plan

Post #2:
I think I have another solution. Its something I like to call "ethnic profiling." My logic is this: There is a common thread hidden within 20 years of relentless attacks on America by Muslim extremists: In every one of these attacks by Muslim extremists, there appears to be one or more Muslim extremists involved. This ought to help the airlines engage in more accurate risk assessment.

Post #5:
I have no problem if they racial profile to solve KKK style crimes or crimes typical of Aryan nation or Christian Identity. No point wasting time focusing anywhere else just to prove balance.

Post #32:
And yes they had Reid long enuff to possibly find out he was a muslim. So profiling for muslim background [the exact form of profiling Coulter is advocating] would have led to further questions that could have placed him at the same mosque as known 9/11 conspirators and recruiters.

Post #35:
Well you could notice that they come from or frequent predominantly muslim countries. Most moslem countries are well over 90% muslim so profiling for religion and ethnic bacground are not mutually exclusive undertakings.

You could notice that they come from cities that have mosques where radical islamicism is preached. Certain cities like Hamburg Germany come to mind that. Hotspots of recuitment are becoming easier to discern.

There are of course many other items that actually are being used such as one-way tickets, lack of luggage, and a host of things some of which are not being shared with the public for obvious reasons.

BTW PD and Pres are not the only gurupies informed enuff to know that large portions of the worlds muslim population reside in SE Asian countries or morally intelligent enuff to know that being swarthy does not make you a bad man. Sheesh but you libs are over-righteous.

Post #53:
Like it or not easy indictors like one way tickets, cash purchase, scant baggage will surely become less predictive as terrorists addess these silly holes in their plans. So look for racial profiling to become more neccessary not less.

Post #102:
When it comes to crime solving and prevention, the word profiling should not be a dirty word. Look at this" use of profiling. Notice profiling is not some simplistic the XXinsert unpopular minority hereXX did it easy substitute for real crime solving but rather a sophisticated approach.

For all the hectoring I am giving PD hes right that there are some indicators other than race in this problem. I want a computer program that targets any traveller who has ever lived in a town that has produced a terrorist, that has as complete a list as possible of everyone who has been to a mosque that has produced a terrorist, that has a list of everyone who has had contact with an organization that has been identified as funding terrorism, and I want these people so identified to receive extra scutiny. I want nervous people to receive extra scrutiny even if people with low self-esteem start complaining about discrimination. I want all young, single, men from countries that have produced terrorists [even if that includes the USA] to be singled out for increased scrutiny.

I then want these people who have been so discriminated, to be interviewed by well paid and trained, highly perceptive detectives to see if their cover stories and alibis stand up to further questioning, to see how they react to questioning, to see if further material comes to light which raises further suspicions.

Notice I did not say round up all the swarthy people. Notice however that young single male/muslim background is still overwhelmingly the single best predictor to begin narrowing down the search to a workable number.

Post #123:
Like it or not I believe there is scarcely a small church that has not had every 2-5 years a stiff looking stranger in a suit and white shirt show up five minutes late and leaves five minutes early who just screams I am FBI. Doesnt bother me really unless it got out of hand with infiltration and manipulation which I would expect is only used in the most extreme cases.

Updated After a tense internal debate, President Obama officially announced this afternoon that his administration would not prosecute C.I.A. operatives for carrying out controversial interrogations of terrorist suspects, as the Justice Department began releasing a number of detailed memos describing harsh techniques used against Al Qaeda suspects in secret overseas prisons.

“In releasing these memos, it is our intention to assure those who carrying out their duties relying in good faith upon the legal advice from the Department of Justice that they will not be subject to prosecution,” Mr. Obama said in a statement issued by the White House.

I've only read the Bybee memo [that's the first one -mith], as chilling an artefact as you are ever likely to read in a democratic society, the work clearly not of a lawyer assessing torture techniques in good faith, but of an administration official tasked with finding how torture techniques already decided upon can be parsed in exquisitely disingenuous ways to fit the law, even when they clearly do not.

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To read a bureaucrat finding ways to describe and parse away the clear infliction of torture on a terror suspect well outside any "ticking time bomb" scenario is to realize what so many of us feared and sensed from the shards of information we have been piecing together for years. It is all true. These memos form a coda to the Red Cross report, confirming its evidentiary conclusions, while finding exquisite, legalistic and preposterous ways to deny the obvious.

I do not believe that any American president has ever orchestrated, constructed or so closely monitored the torture of other human beings the way George W. Bush did. It is clear that it is pre-meditated; and it is clear that the parsing of torture techniques that you read in the report is a simply disgusting and repellent piece of dishonesty and bad faith. When you place it alongside the Red Cross' debriefing of the torture victims, the fit is almost perfect.

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Human beings were contorted into classic stress positions used by the Gestapo; they had towels tied around their necks in order to smash their bodies against walls; they were denied of all sleep for up to eleven days and nights at a time; they were stuck in tiny suffocating boxes; they were waterboarded just as the victims of the Khmer Rouge were waterboarded. And through all this, Bush and Cheney had lawyers prepared to write elaborate memos saying that all of this was legal, constitutional, moral and not severe pain and suffering.

Bybee is not representing justice in this memo. He is representing the president. And the president is seeking to commit war crimes. And he succeeded. This much we now know beyond any reasonable doubt. It is a very dark day for this country, but less dark than every day since Cheney decided to turn the US into a torturing country until now.

Stay tuned as I try to unpack and make sense of these documents. There is some feeling of relief that we now have the incontrovertible evidence in front of us. But there is also a feeling of great nausea as well. Look what they did to these suspects. And look what they did to America.

"You would like to place Zubaydah in a cramped confinement box with an insect. You have informed us that he appears to have a fear of insects. In particular, you would like to tell Zubaydah that you intend to place a stinging insect into the box with him," - Jay Bybee, judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.


"‘The worst thing in the world,’ said O’Brien, ‘varies from individual to individual. It may be burial alive, or death by fire, or by drowning, or by impalement, or fifty other deaths. There are cases where it is some quite trivial thing, not even fatal,’" - George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty Four.

Cheney Calls for Legal Memos to be Declassified
Mon Apr 20 2009 16:20:53 ET

In a two part interview airing tonight and tomorrow night on FOX News Channel’s Hannity (9-10PM ET), former Vice President Dick Cheney shared his thoughts on the CIA memos that were recently declassified and also revealed his request to the CIA to declassify additional memos that confirm the success of the Bush administration’s interrogation tactics:

CHENEY:

“One of the things that I find a little bit disturbing about this recent disclosure is they put out the legal memos, the memos that the CIA got from the Office of Legal Counsel, but they didn't put out the memos that showed the success of the effort. And there are reports that show specifically what we gained as a result of this activity. They have not been declassified.”

“I formally asked that they be declassified now. I haven't announced this up until now, I haven't talked about it, but I know specifically of reports that I read, that I saw that lay out what we learned through the interrogation process and what the consequences were for the country.”

“And I've now formally asked the CIA to take steps to declassify those memos so we can lay them out there and the American people have a chance to see what we obtained and what we learned and how good the intelligence was, as well as to see this debate over the legal opinions.”

Developing...

Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced this afternoon that he has "asked for the resignation" of Gen. David McKiernan, commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, and that he plans to replace him with Gen. Stanley McChrystal.

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For the past year, McChrystal has been director of the Pentagon's Joint Staff. More pertinently, for five years before that, he was commander of the Joint Special Operations Command, a highly secretive operation that hunted down and killed key jihadist fighters, including, most sensationally, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq.

Last fall, Bob Woodward reported in the Washington Post that JSOC played a crucial, unsung role in the tactical success of the Iraqi "surge." Using techniques of what McChrystal called "collaborative warfare," JSOC combined intelligence intercepts with quick, precision strikes to "eliminate" large numbers of key insurgent leaders.

This appointment will not be without controversy. McChrystal's command also provided the personnel for Task Force 6-26, an elite unit of 1,000 special-ops forces that engaged in harsh interrogation of detainees in Camp Nama as far back as 2003. The interrogations were so harsh that five Army officers were convicted on charges of abuse. (McChrystal himself was not implicated in the excesses, but the unit's slogan, which set the tone for its practices, was "If you don't make them bleed, they can't prosecute for it.")

If we don't have enough evidence to charge someone with a crime, we don't have enough evidence to hold them. Period

Essentially, officials want Congress to require all services that enable communications — including encrypted e-mail transmitters like BlackBerry, social networking Web sites like Facebook and software that allows direct “peer to peer” messaging like Skype — to be technically capable of complying if served with a wiretap order. The mandate would include being able to intercept and unscramble encrypted messages.