Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Does McCain Agree With His Blogger Who Doesnâo[dot accent]t ‘Care’ If Bush Policies Are Increasing Terrorist Recruitment?. In an interview with ABC News’s Jake Tapper yesterday, Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) argued that “we can crack down on threats against the United States” while staying “within the constraints of our Constitution.” He added that the Bush administration’s approach has “given a huge boost to terrorist recruitment in countries that say, ‘Look, this is how the United States treats Muslims.’” Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) presidential campaign is now trying to attack Obama over a reference to the first World Trade Center attack in the interview, accusing him of embracing a “mindset” that “contributed to the tragedy of September 11th.” On the McCain campaign blog, Michael Goldfarb takes issue with Obama’s “gall” for suggesting that Bush policies have helped “terrorist recruitment“: Obama wants to take us back to the bad old days of going after terrorists with prosecutors rather than predators. And he even has the gall to blame the Bush administration’s methods as having been a boon to terrorist recruitment. With all the international credibility the Clinton administration earned, and the international terrorists they incapacitated, one wonders how bin Laden even recruited 19 men to attack this country on September 11. This is a curious line of argument coming from Goldfarb. Soon before he was “detailed” to the McCain campaign, Goldfarb declared on the Weekly Standard blog, “As to whether Bush is a recruiting tool for terrorists — who cares?” What’s more, Bush’s policies have actually helped terrorist recruitment. Just today, staunch McCain ally Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) noted during a Senate Armed Services hearing that Abu Ghraib had inspired people to “join al Qaeda in Iraq.” Watch it: An April 2006 National Intelligence Estimate found that “the Iraq War has become the [base ']Äòcause celebre[base ']Äô for jihadists…and is shaping a new generation of terrorist leaders and operatives.” A McClatchy investigation published today “found that instead of confining terrorists, Guantanamo often produced more of them” by “inspiring a deep hatred of the United States” in “men with no allegiance to radical Islam.” Marcy Wheeler and Spencer Ackerman are liveblogging the Senate Armed Services hearing. Transcript: (more…) [Think Progress] 11:33:09 AM    comment []

Officials Warned Against Using Snarling Dogs, Forced Nudity During Interrogations, Senate Investigation Finds WASHINGTON — Military psychologists were enlisted to help develop more aggressive interrogation methods, including snarling dogs, forced nudity and long periods of standing, against terrorism suspects, according to a Senate investigation. Before they were approved by then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, such harsh techniques had drawn warnings from military lawyers that they could be illegal, an investigation by the Senate Armed Services Committee has found. Officials familiar with the findings discussed them on condition of anonymity because the information has not been formally released. The psychologists who helped interrogate terror suspects for the CIA were set to testify Tuesday before the Senate committee, which was expected to release details of the investigation. The hearing is the committee's first look at the origins of the harsher methods used in Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba and Abu Ghraib in Iraq and how policy decisions on interrogations were vetted across the Defense Department. Its review fits into a broader picture of the government's handling of detainees, which includes FBI and CIA interrogations in secret prisons. Democrats contend that the Senate investigation will refute the Bush administration's argument that abusive conditions in some military prisons were only the result of a handful of personnel. Instead, they say, the conditions were the consequence of senior defense civilians eager to extract intelligence in the months following the Sept. 11 attacks. The Pentagon's top civilian lawyer at the time, chief counsel William "Jim" Haynes, was expected to testify Tuesday. Also scheduled to be present were Richard Shiffrin, Haynes' former deputy on intelligence matters, as well as legal advisers at the time to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Guantanamo Bay prison. According to the Senate committee's findings, Haynes became interested in using harsher interrogation methods as early as July 2002 when he sent a memo inquiring about a military program that trained Army soldiers how to survive enemy interrogations and deny foes valuable intelligence. Jerald Ogrisseg, a former top military psychologist, was expected to testify Tuesday that the program was never intended to be a means of finding tougher ways to interrogate U.S. prisoners. Shortly after requesting more information about harsh techniques, Haynes traveled in September 2002 to Guantanamo Bay with other administration lawyers, including then-White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales and Vice President Dick Cheney's chief counsel, David Addington. A month later, the military commander in charge of Guantanamo Bay, Gen. Michael Dunlavey, asked his superiors at U.S. Southern Command for approval to employ harsher interrogations. According to officials familiar with the Senate investigation, the military services' lawyers told the Joint Staff that the techniques warranted further study, and the Air Force and Army specifically warned that the methods could be illegal. Their objections were ignored. <img alt="" style="border: 0; height:1px; width:1px;" border="0" src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?i=caadd8892a97408be606abccf022a82e"; height="1" width="1"/> <img src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=caadd8892a97408be606abccf022a82e"; style="display: none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> - The Huffington Post News Editors [The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com] 9:46:10 AM    comment []

Creators of ‘The Sock Obama’ toy plan to move forward with production.. Last week, ThinkProgress reported on a racially-charged stuffed monkey toy called “The Sock Obama” being sold online. After strong public reaction, the creators decided against manufacturing the product, and they posted an apology on their site: An Apology We are very apologetic to all who were upset by our toy idea. We will not be proceeding with the manufacturing of this toy. Thank you. GD The Salt Lake City Desert News now reports, however, that the creators have retracted their apology and said that they plan to move forward with manufacturing, as “a few new opportunities have been presented.” They also “issued a long news release that defended the monkey as a victim of double standards and unfair censorship.” They blamed “blogging dens of resistance” for the initial outcry. [Think Progress] 9:09:32 AM    comment []

Army Overseer Tells of Ouster Over KBR Stir.     Washington - The Army official who managed the Pentagon's largest contract in Iraq says he was ousted from his job when he refused to approve paying more than $1 billion in questionable charges to KBR, the Houston-based company that has provided food, housing and other services to American troops. read more [Truthout - All Articles] 8:45:25 AM    comment []

Bush/Cheney Transcripts Subpoenaed. The House Oversight Committee has formally demanded that the Justice Department turn over FBI transcripts of interviews with President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney about the leaking of a CIA officer's identity five years ago. June 17, 2008 [Consortiumnews.com] 8:33:29 AM    comment []

The Independent: ‘The end of this disastrous presidency is finally in sight.’. On the heels of President Bush’s farewell tour of Europe, the Independent (UK) issued a scathing editorial today reflecting on his visit and presidency: [P]erhaps Mr Bush’s most significant legacy, as far as Britain is concerned, will be the destruction of the instinctive trust of America and its leaders that once prevailed here. It is no exaggeration to say that Mr Bush has done more damage to relations between our two nations than any president in living memory. This rupture is not an accident of circumstance; there are no impersonal forces of history to blame. This sorry state of affairs is the consequence of the actions of a single leader and his small coterie of advisers. […] And whatever the future holds for transatlantic relations, there will be very few in this country who watched President Bush’s plane depart yesterday without a feeling of profound relief that the end of this disastrous presidency is finally in sight. [Think Progress] 8:32:07 AM    comment []

Israel and Hamas Agree to a Cease-Fire, Egypt Says. The Egyptian state media announced the truce, which followed intensive negotiations, while attacks continued in Gaza, as Israeli airstrikes reportedly killed at least six militants. [NYT > NYTimes.com Home] 8:14:23 AM    comment []