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When you run down the list of issues the Oath Keepers are worried about, it reads a lot like a bill of particulars from the American Civil Liberties Union. The Oath Keepers don't like warrantless searches. They're upset that the executive branch has claimed the power to classify American citizens as enemy combatants, detain them indefinitely, and try them before military tribunals. They worry that a large-scale terrorist attack similar to 9/11 could lead to the mass detention of Arabs or Muslims, just as Japanese Americans were detained during World War II. They worry about crackdowns on political speech, protest,...

December 3, 2006: In the United States, a federal judge has ruled that the President does not have the authority to designate certain organizations as terrorist groups. This ruling is the latest round of lawfare against the war on terror. In this case, two foreign terrorist organizations, the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elan (LTTE), were the beneficiaries of this suit. Why is this case, filed on behalf of the Humanitarian Law Project, important? After all, a number of human rights groups have still been waging lawfare, largely on behalf of al Qaeda. This suit...

President Obama announced Monday that military trials will resume for detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp, saying the tribunals are an "important tool in combating international terrorists."

The Obama administration plans to move ahead with a new round of military tribunals in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, underscoring the president's difficulty in meeting his goal to close the U.S. prison there. Defense Secretary Robert Gates is expected soon to approve military court charges against Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the accused plotter of the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen, and four others, U.S. officials said Thursday. Attorney General Eric Holder in November 2009 announced that the five would be tried in military courts at the same time he announced civilian criminal trials in New York City for Khalid...

The Rules of War Can't Protect Al Qaeda By RUTH WEDGWOOD NEW HAVEN — It makes no sense to win a trial but lose the war. With this in mind, a majority of the American public favors giving President Bush the option to use military tribunals against the Qaeda terror network. The tribunals are designed to permit a "full and fair trial" of war crimes without compromising our ability to track the network's future plans. Al Qaeda's skill at countersurveillance has made plain the need to protect sensitive intelligence sources at trial. But some international-law scholars suggest that President Bush's ...

When I was a kid, we had a tough little dachshund. Then we got a poodle who was as arrogant as you'd expect a poodle to be. The poodle constantly attacked the dachshund, even though time after time the dachshund would have the poodle on her back with her teeth around the poodle's throat in about 2 seconds every time they got into it. That's sort of like Obama and Bush. With Obama being the poodle, and Bush (despite the fact that he doesn't bother to defend his policies in the media) being the dachshund. Renditions? Obama got his butt...

Top advisers to President Obama are close to a decision recommending that the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks be prosecuted in a military tribunal, The Washington Post reported Friday, citing unnamed administration officials. According to the report, the president's advisors have grown increasingly wary of bipartisan opposition to the planned civilian federal trial in New York City, mere blocks from where nearly 3,000 Americans were killed in the spectacular attack on the World Trade Center. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and prominent state Democrats, who initially embraced Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to try Khalid Sheikh...

White House advisers are reportedly ready to recommend a major policy reversal regarding the trial of admitted 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four of his accomplices. Instead of following Attorney General Eric Holder's plan to try the terrorists in a New York City civilian court, advisers are nearing a recommendation for President Barack Obama to choose a military trial.

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-4127 Congress > Legislation > 2009-2010 (111th Congress) > H.R. 4127 Text of H.R. 4127: To amend title 10, United States Code, to provide that alien unprivileged enemy belligerents may... Nov 19, 2009 - Introduced in House. This is the original text of the bill as it was written by its sponsor and submitted to the House for consideration. This is the latest version of the bill currently available on GovTrack. HR 4127 IH 111th CONGRESS 1st Session H. R. 4127 To amend title 10, United States Code, to provide that alien unprivileged...

Politics: A battle ensues between one vice president who defended freedom well and another who sorely needs his boss's teleprompter. Biden accuses Cheney of rewriting history while claiming that Iraq is this administration's victory. Maybe Vice President Joe Biden should think about writing talking points on his hand as his rhetoric reaches levels of absurdity where no politician has gone before. After last weekend's round of competitive gabfests, one would expect to see a billboard of former Vice President Dick Cheney with a caption, "Miss me yet?" We do, sir, we do. After yeoman service helping President Bush fight the...

Sen. Scott Brown thinks Vice President Joe Biden was “off base” when he suggested Sunday that the Massachusetts Republican get his facts straight on the legal procedures for military tribunals. “It was insulting,” said Brown, who frequently jabbed the administration during his Senate campaign, for giving suspected terrorists legal representation. On CBS's “Face the Nation” last weekend, Biden shot back that he doesn’t “know whether the new senator from Massachusetts understands: When you get tried in a military tribunal, you get a lawyer too.” “He’s trying to give me a lesson on military law, and I didn’t think it was...

Sen. Scott Brown thinks Vice President Joe Biden was “off base” when he suggested Sunday that the Massachusetts Republican get his facts straight on the legal procedures for military tribunals. “It was insulting,” said Brown, who frequently jabbed the administration during his Senate campaign, for giving suspected terrorists legal representation. Biden shot back that he doesn’t “know whether the new senator from Massachusetts understands: When you get tried in a military tribunal, you get a lawyer too.” “He’s trying to give me a lesson on military law, and I didn’t think it was appropriate,” Brown said. “And I thought he...

Holder's decision to Mirandize the Christmas bomber was bad enough. Telling the world he was talking again waseven worse Security: The administration says the Christmas bomber is now cooperating with authorities. We thought they got all the information he had in a 50-minute chat. So just why are we letting our enemies know he's talking? In any war, it's vitally important that you know what your enemy is planning and doing, just as it's important that your actions and plans remain secret. And when you know about your enemy's plans it's important they don't know that you know. We were...

For much of President Obama’s first year in office, his national security team worked to devise a secure plan to send dozens of Yemeni detainees held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba — the largest single group at the prison camp — home to Yemen, perhaps to a rehabilitation program. Then came the Christmas Day airliner bombing attempt, which was planned in Yemen, and the president put all transfers there on hold. Since November, the administration had been preparing to move the highest-profile Guantánamo prisoners — Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and four accomplices accused of plotting the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks — to...

The U.S. Supreme Court said on Monday that it rejected an appeal by four former Guantanamo Bay prisoners arguing that they should be able to proceed with their lawsuit against top Pentagon officials for torture and religious abuse. The justices refused to review a U.S. appeals court ruling that dismissed the lawsuit by the four British citizens over their treatment at the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba on the grounds the officials enjoyed immunity. The four men -- Shafiq Rasul, Asif Iqbal, Rhuhel Ahmed and Jamal al-Harith -- were captured in late 2001 in Afghanistan and were...

Attorney General Eric Holder lacks authority to make a decision on moving terror detainees to civilian courts for trial, one of his predecessors said Wednesday. Former Attorney General John Ashcroft, who held his position during the Bush administration from 2001-2005, said that Holder lacked the legal standing to decide to move alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and other terror detainees to federal courts in New York City to stand trial. >p> "The attorney general doesn't have the authority to mandate that the secretary of Defense turn somebody over to him and yield jurisdiction so that something that would have...

WASHINGTON (AP) - South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham says he doesn't think Congress should pay to close the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay until there is a more detailed plan for what to do with detainees there. A Senate panel on Thursday considered a war spending bill that would provide $50 million to the Pentagon to begin the promised closure of the facility. Graham said he would like to see a new system in place before that money is spent, including a national security court to review each detainee's status. More certainty about the detainees will make moving the...

President Barack Obama, who was one of the Bush administration’s sharpest critics concerning the military tribunals used to prosecute detainees at the Guantanamo detention facility, may be backing away from his election promise to abolish them. Last week, a story in the New York Times reported that the Obama administration is now likely to retain the military commission system, but in a modified form. According to the Times, the announcement regarding this stunning about-face could come as early as next week. “The more they look at it,” one official told The Times, “the more commissions don’t look as bad as...

Nathan Whitling and Dennis Edney, who are representing Omar Khadr, a 16-year old Canadian being held at Guantánamo Bay, released 10-minutes of snippets from videotaped interrogations by Canadian Security Intelligence Services agents “with hopes that public reaction to the footage will prompt Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to lobby for his repatriation” reports The New York Times. “The video was made public under Canadian court orders … after intelligence reports made public last week showed Khadr was abused in detention at the U.S. naval base.” Abused? Puhleeze! The Stiletto has watched more brutal questioning on “Homicide: Life on the Street.”...

WASHINGTON, June 17, 2008 – Despite the Supreme Court decision last week, the military is still moving ahead with military commissions at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said today. During a news conference, Morrell said Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates will be briefed on the issue by the Pentagon’s undersecretary of defense for policy and the DoD general counsel. “He is scheduled to get that brief, I believe, later this week,” Morrell said. “But in light of that, and while we wait for that, I can tell you we continue to go forward with our military commissions...