Author: Alejandro

George Mason economics professor Tyler Cowen looks at the hidden opportunity costs of the Iraq war and argues the price tag is much more than the $1 trillion estimated by the Congressional Budget office: What Does Iraq Cost? Even More Than You Think. (Washington Post) Bush’s personal liking of Musharraf for his supposed opposition to…

While the House of Representatives passes a bill that restores some oversight powers to regulate the unrestrained NSA spying and contains an “exclusion provision” barring immunity for telecoms, the Senate Judiciary Committee releases its own bill that also leaves out telecom immunity: House OKs Surveillance Oversight Bill (Associated Press/Washington Post) Panel Drops Immunity From Eavesdropping…

After intense outcry from Muslim and civil libertarian groups as well as facing practical obstacles, Los Angeles Police Department scraps its program to “map” Muslim communities in the city: LAPD’s Muslim Mapping Plan Killed (Los Angeles Times) Although Musharraf pledges to step down as head of the army at the end of November, his martial…

Bush finally stops stonewalling Justice Department inquiry on NSA domestic spying and grants the necessary security clearances to investigators: Bush Gives Clearances for N.S.A. Inquiry (New York Times) Report from some members of Congress puts current price tag of Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts at $3.5 billion over the next decade when “[h]igher oil prices, treating…

European human rights watchdog slams UN and EU methodology for blacklisting terrorism suspects as “totally arbitrary” and finds recent attempts to modify the process are “just as flawed as the previous ones”: Panel Decries Terrorism Blacklist Process (Washington Post) Musharraf continues to slip on political and military fronts in Pakistan as Bhutto calls for his…

Big Brother makes a big push on both sides of the Atlantic: In Britain lawmakers push for legislation allowing terrorism suspects to be detained for up to 56 days without criminal charges, while a top US intelligence official states in Congressional testimony that privacy no longer means anonymity, but trusting that the State and businesses…

In a letter to the Washington Post, MFI responds to the witch hunt against the Islamic Saudi Academy as immoral, ineffective and counterproductive to the efforts of the United States and Muslim organizations to promote religious freedom: How Not to Promote Religious Freedom (Washington Post) New York Times editorial slams certain congressional leaders for their…

Both the British State and the City of Los Angeles use Islamophobia and racial profiling as tools for dismantling liberties and real security in the name of fighting terrorism: Security Plan To Map Muslim Areas Draws Skepticism (Los Angeles Times)  UK Terror Tactics ‘Create Unease’ (BBC News)  Seeking to assert some sort of competency and…

Mukasey causes unease among some members of Congress by mimicking previous attorney generals by not only remaining ambiguous on waterboarding torture but also on his views of expanded presidential power: · Wartime Powers and Mukasey (Christian Science Monitor) In another shooting incident involving Blackwater in Iraq, the State Department conducts only a slipshod investigation of…

America’s ongoing saga with torture continues as Senators give Mukasey the green light despite his failure to give a definite opinion on whether or not waterboarding constituted torture and against the concerns of 24 former intelligence and national security officials, meanwhile the ACLU finds out that three, not two torture memos under Gonzales’ DoJ exist:…