Here’s what we have today:
- Court Backs Rendition (NYT) — The CIA wins a battle in the War on Terror, this one in a federal appeals court. A sharply divided court, that is. But if the ACLU can’t win in the 9th Circuit, where can it win?
- Karzai seeks to limit role of U.S. corruption investigators (WashPost) — Which is not exactly the way to clean up Afghanistan.
- Obama Takes Aim at Republicans (WSJ) — He’s had a certain edge in his speeches the last couple of days. Evidently, he has decided not to take this midterm election lying down.
- BP spreads blame over oil spill (BBC) — I’d play this bigger, but it was in newspapers this morning, so it’s old now.
- Candidates urged to keep Gov’s budget blueprint (thestate.com) — This is a small followup story, but worth your attention.
- Pastor Still Plans Quran Burning Despite Pressure (WSJ) — Just in case you’re still following this. I’m mindful about what some of y’all have said to the effect that if the media would have ignored this, we wouldn’t have a problem. True, as far as I know. But now it’s out there… Meanwhile, “Most Americans object to planned Islamic center near Ground Zero, poll finds.”
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Rendition makes no sense to me. It simply hands our enemies another stick to beat us with.
If the Islamic community center ( think of it as a JCC or
YMCA) starts building SEVERAL blocks away from Ground Zero now, it will be completed in 15-20 years, according to a story on NPR. How will the country feel then? All this hype about “the mosque at ground zero” is nothing but total FUD.
So let’s get this straight. It’s ok for the US to allow torture. And then we have our soldiers dying to prop up a government that is apparently corrupt. What a sad day for freedom.
Re #1: this court’s ruling notwithstanding, at the very least, the ACLU is keeping the pressure up on the executive branch (of whatever party, you’ll note—the ACLU being the ultimate Unparty entity) to try to argue their case for superseding normal civil liberties. At a minimum, this keeps the government’s moves in this regard in the spotlight.
Several interesting points regarding this ruling: one, it was sharply divided as you noted…even the majority ruled that the government must pay the court costs of the losing plaintiffs—highly unusual…and the ruling also suggested the possibility of reparations. Secondly, this will be appealed to the SCOTUS.
Meanwhile, the ACLU has just filed another suit against the Obama Administration on behalf of Anwar Al-Awlaki, who is an American citizen but in Yemen, linked to the Fort Hood shooter and the Christmas Day bomber. Al-Awlaki is on a list for assassination, and the ACLU has filed the suit saying that no matter how heinous the allegations against him, the government cannot just circumvent due legal process for an American citizen and roam the world to act essentially as judge, jury, and executioner, just on their say-so alone.
http://www.salon.com/news/politics/barack_obama/index.html?story=/opinion/greenwald/2010/08/30/assassinations