Your government at work in the Hamdan trial.

Special Agent Robert McFadden testified that during interrogation, Hamdan had admitted swearing an oath of loyalty to Bin Laden.

Of 10 federal agents called to testify about their interrogations of the accused, McFadden was the only one who said Hamdan had made such an admission.

McFadden, an agent with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, also told the court that Hamdan had described feelings of “uncontrolled passion or zeal” upon learning of Al Qaeda’s most devastating terrorist strikes.

But defense lawyers pointed out that in four appearances before the court since December, McFadden had used three different Arabic words when recounting Hamdan’s statement. The agent’s Arabic proficiency also came into question when he was asked to read from documents in that language, one of which he failed to point out had been presented to him upside down.

The interrogator and supposed interpreter changes his testimony about which arabic words Hamdan said 3 times, then pretends to be reading arabic from an upside down document?

Just surreal.

Is Michael Mukasey as nutty as Alberto Gonzalez is dishonest?

Congress should explicitly declare war against al Qaeda to make clear the United States can detain suspected members as long as the conflict lasts, U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey said on Monday.

Mukasey urged Congress to make the declaration in a package of legislative proposals to establish a legal process for terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo, in response to a Supreme Court ruling last month that detainees had a constitutional right to challenge their detention.

“Any legislation should acknowledge again and explicitly that this nation remains engaged in an armed conflict with al Qaeda, the Taliban and associated organizations, who have already proclaimed themselves at war with us,” Mukasey said in a speech to the American Enterprise Institute.

“Congress should reaffirm that for the duration of the conflict the United States may detain as enemy combatants those who have engaged in hostilities or purposefully supported al Qaeda, the Taliban and associated organizations,” he said.

I don’t recall recall Francis Biddle telling Congress that December 7th was a date which will live in infamy and asking it to declare war on Japan. Presumably, if President Bush actually wanted a declaration of war against a non-state actor, he could have asked for such a declaration at any point in the last 7 years. A declaration of war is obviously a serious matter, and not one which should be taken to make an attorney general’s task of defending unwise and unconstitutional detention schemes any easier.

Who knows, maybe they’re thinking of issuing some Executive Orders and repopulating Manzanar? I do know that asking Congress to give the Bush administration even more executive powers after his systematic abuse and usurpation of power aided by a largely supine Congress is a non-starter.

Purple fingerz=freedom

Or not so much.

Zimbabweans voted Friday in a runoff presidential election with only one candidate - President Robert Mugabe - and some said they had been coerced, fearing punishment or even death unless they could produce a finger colored with red ink as evidence of having cast a ballot.

But even so, participation at many locations was sparse, a contrast with the long lines of people who voted in the March 29 election in which, by the official count, Morgan Tsvangirai finished ahead of Mugabe, 48 percent to 43 percent.

~~~

In some other suburbs of Harare, the capital, residents said they had been rounded up Thursday night, forced to chant pro-Mugabe slogans until daybreak and then force-marched to the polls. They were told to copy the serial numbers off their ballots so it could be confirmed later that they had voted for their 84-year-old president.

May 4, 1970

Rocky!!! Rocky!!! Rocky!!!

Here’s hoping for the knockout …

Source

I didn’t know this story until I heard it on KPFK today.

Maybe everyone else did, but I didn’t.

On this day in history (March 5, 1937), the United States government — specifically Secretary of State Cordell Hull — apologized to Adolp Hitler and the German government for remarks made by New York City Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia. Said Hull:

“I very earnestly deprecate the utterances which have given offense. . . . They do not represent the attitude of this Government toward the German Government.”

Hull also noted that “”in this country, the right of freedom of speech is guaranteed by the Constitution to every citizen and is cherished as a part of the national heritage,” which the Time Magazine notes was in and of itself a subtle dig at Germany.

So, what did LaGuardia say?

It wasn’t just one thing. The New York Times reports on its web site that:

Fiorello H. La Guardia denounced Hitler before it was fashionable, calling him a “perverted maniac” in 1933. In 1934, he revoked the massage license of a German citizen, provoking an apology to Germany from the State Department. The next year, he objected when Robert Moses ordered 500 tons of German steel for the Triborough Bridge. And in 1937, he suggested that the World’s Fair include a “chamber of horrors for that brown-shirted fanatic,” which brought another apology from Washington.

More specifically, Time says:

[The] (c)ause of Germany’s paroxysm was found to be a proposal by Mayor LaGuardia that adjoining a proposed “temple of tolerance” at New York’s 1939 World’s Fair there be erected “a chamber of horrors” containing a figure of “that brown-shirted fanatic who is now menacing the peace of the world.”

Laguardia’s remarks came in a speech in front of the the Women’s Division of the American Jewish Congress. Germany’s response was to call the mayor “a “Dirty Talmud Jew,” a “shameless Jew lout” and “a whoremonger.”

One other interesting aspect of the story comes from the Virtual Jewish Library. (First of all, I learned here that Laguardia’s mother’s name was “Coen” and that Laguardia was Jewish, though most identified him more with his Italian heritage.)

Secretary Hull was not necessarily speaking for the president when he issued his apology. Here is how the Library tells it:

Hull complained privately to President Roosevelt that LaGuardia was poisoning German-American relations, but Roosevelt asked Hull, “What would you say if I should say that I agreed completely with LaGuardia?” Several months later, LaGuardia visited Roosevelt and recorded the following scene:

The president smiled as I entered his office. Then he extended his right arm and said, “Heil, Fiorello!” I snapped to attention, extended my right arm and replied, “Heil, Franklin!” And that’s all that was ever said about it.

Until today, I guess …

Oh, it’s time to read the news from “back home.” I’m thinking cocoa with Fluff, a nice warm fireside, snow on the trees … but NO!

Critics of the Rotenberg school say the case shows that school officials have failed to live up to their public promises to deliver electric shocks only sparingly and with great oversight.

WHAT?!

Prank led school to treat two with shock
Special ed center duped, report says

Two special education students at the controversial Judge Rotenberg Educational Center in Canton were wrongfully delivered dozens of punishing electrical shocks in August based on a prank phone call from a former student posing as a supervisor, a state investigative report has found.

School staffers contacted state authorities after they realized they had been tricked on Aug. 26 into delivering 77 shocks to one student and 29 shocks to another, according to Cindy Campbell, a spokeswoman for the Department of Early Education and Care, which drafted the report. Both students were part of a Rotenberg-run group home in Stoughton for males under age 22.

The Judge Rotenberg center, which serves about 250 adults and children from across the country, has been under fire for more than two decades for its unorthodox behavior-modification treatments, including electric shock treatments. Its defenders say that the school takes in troubled students, some with self-damaging behavior, who have been rejected by other schools. The center, which Massachusetts officials have tried twice to close because of its treatment methods, focuses on serving people with autism, mental retardation, and emotional problems. Ernest Corrigan, a spokesman for the Rotenberg center, said the school contacted law enforcement “within hours” after discovering the prank, and that such an incident has never before happened at the school. Corrigan said they have instituted new safeguards to prevent such occurrences. He also said that while the school regrets the incident, the two male students who received the wrongful shocks did not experience any serious physical harm and did not need medical treatment afterwards.

The shock devices, which are strapped to some students’ arms, legs, or torsos, deliver two-second electric jolts to the skin. The devices are controlled remotely by teachers.

State officials said the identity of the prankster is known to law enforcement authorities, but they would not release his name publicly and he has not been arrested. The identity of the staffer who was fooled into administering the shocks has also not been released. State officials indicated that some disciplinary action took place, though they would not specify what it was.

Source

The OC weekly interviews him, too.

“I explained there was no permit required at this time for street performers and received assurances that [Domingue] would not be approached by the police department regarding the possession of a street performer permit,” McGrath says in a signed letter dated Aug. 22.

But some time later, police kicked him off the pier again, Domingue says, after a supposed complaint was received that a “man is committing suicide by pounding a nail in his head.”

Domingue maintains his show, however insane it may seem, is safe, but Huntington Beach Police Lieutenant Dave Bunetta says that, in this particular instance, some spectators grew worried.

“He was bleeding all over,” Bunetta says. “And there’s kids walking around, and there’s bodily fluids. We informed him he could be involved in a hazardous activity that could harm the public.”

But “Lucky” John Domingue says he relies not on good fortune to prevent his various stunts—sword swallowing, fire eating and the nail-in-the-nose, or “blockhead,” act—from going horribly wrong and killing him, but rather on years of practice.

Pakistan’s Musharef declares state of emergency, suspends constitution:

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) — Gen. Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency on Saturday, ahead of a crucial Supreme Court ruling on his future as president, thrusting the country deeper into political turmoil as it struggles with spreading Islamic militancy.

Seven Supreme Court judges immediately rejected the emergency, which suspended the current constitution. The government blocked transmissions of private news channels in several cities and telephone services in the capital, Islamabad, were cut.

“The chief of army staff has proclaimed a state of emergency and issued a provisional constitutional order,” a newscaster on state Pakistan TV said, adding that Musharraf would address the nation later Saturday.

It gave no reason for the emergency but it follows weeks of speculation that the military leader, who took power in 1999 coup and later made Pakistan a U.S. ally in its war on terror, could take that step. Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, a longtime rival of Musharraf who has been negotiating with the president about forming a pro-Western political alliance, was returning to Pakistan from Dubai where she was visiting family, an advisor said.

Military vehicles patrolled and troops blocked roads in the administrative heart of the capital. Police barred the doors to the Supreme Court decision, with the judges believed inside.

The U.S. and other Western allies urged Musharraf this week not to declare martial law or an emergency that would jeopardize the country’s transition to democracy. Crucial parliamentary elections meant to restore civilian rule are due by January.

I wonder how all that “Freedom on the March” talk from W will apply to Pakistan?

Or maybe the wheels will start turning in W’s head. . .

“If this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I’m the dictator.” — George W. Bush