Author: Alejandro

Congress pushes back against Big Brother’s encroachment on liberties, by seeking to rein the FBI’s abuse of national security letters through tighter legislation… Lawmakers Want FBI Access to Data Curbed (Washington Post) …and South Carolina governor Mark Sanford slams REAL ID legislation for its lack of debate in Congress and its financial and privacy costs…

The Bush administration continues undermining liberties in the name of establishing a (false) sense of security by personally approving systematic torture abuses that have netted hundreds of innocents, like Al-Jazeera reporter Sami al-Haj… Bush Approved Meetings on Interrogation Techniques (Washington Post) The Torture Drawings the Pentagon Doesn’t Want You to See (Alternet) …forging ahead with…

With increasing pressure to respect the rights of Guantanamo detainees under American law Afghnais are sent to Afghanistan where lawyers allege they are denied their rights under Afghani law: Afghan Detainees Sent Home to Face Closed-Door Trials (Washington Post) President of the New America Foundation, Steven Coll, argues Pakistan’s re-democratization, not Bush’s counterterrorism policies, is…

Associated Press finally confirms the orders for torture came from VP Cheney himself, while AG Mukasey makes only a half-hearted attempt to distance himself the recently revealed anti-Fourth Amendment DoJ memo: Cheney, Others OK’d Harsh Interrogations (Associated Press/Wiredispatch) Mukasey Distances Himself From a Memo on Searches (New York Times) After caving into the Army generals…

Supported by the opinions of a growing list of political and security experts and 64 percent of the Israeli public, Jimmy Carter will head to the Middle East to talk to Hamas… Former President Carter to Meet With Hamas Chief (Washington Post) …while Yemen continues to mediate negotiations over a new unity government between Hamas…

Success, rather than failure, is now used as the excuse for maintaining the occupation in Iraq… A Plea From Petraeus (Washington Post) …meanwhile Sadr cancels a planned mass demonstration against U.S. troop presence to prevent further escalation of violence, but clashes continue as the Green Zone gets pelted with mortars and the Mahdi Army and…

As the Washington Post examines how invasive legislation and lack of judicial oversight allows the FBI to vacuum personal electronic information, US Representative Ron Paul warns of an impending surveillance state by further weakening FISA legislation… FBI Data Transfers Via Telecoms Questioned (Washington Post) The Emerging Surveillance State (Antiwar.com) …meanwhile the Justice Department continues to…

Unified political pressure, not military offensives seem to have greater effect on pacifying Sadr’s militancy… Iraq: Sadr Party Faces Rising Isolation (Associated Press/Wiredispatch) Iraq Sadr to Disband Militia If Clerics Give Order (Reuters/Washington Post) U.S. and Iraqis Battle Militias to End Attacks (New York Times) …but overall, experts conclude in a United States Institute of…

Glenn Greenwald slams the DoJ’s misleading reaction to his investigation of Mukasey’s recent use of fear-mongering and falsehoods to justify more surveillance and less privacy: The DOJ Comments on the Mukasey Controversy (Salon) More details emerge about Yoo’s extremely graphic discussions of torture in his infamous memos, including possible maiming, as well as evidence of…

Classified anti-Fourth Amendment legal memo also raised the possibility of further military deployment inside the US, and has not been formally withdrawn, but only “repudiated” by other DoJ officials… Administration Asserted a Terror Exception on Search and Seizure (Washington Post) …while others link it to possible justification for the warrantless wiretapping immediately begun after 9/11:…