NYT: After Terror, a Secret Rewriting of Military Law

[neomonkey]

WASHINGTON - In early November 2001, with Americans still staggered by the Sept. 11 attacks, a small group of White House officials worked in great secrecy to devise a new system of justice for the new war they had declared on terrorism.

Determined to deal aggressively with the terrorists they expected to capture, the officials bypassed the federal courts and their constitutional guarantees, giving the military the authority to detain foreign suspects indefinitely and prosecute them in tribunals not used since World War II.

The plan was considered so sensitive that senior White House officials kept its final details hidden from the president's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, and the secretary of state, Colin L. Powell, officials said. It was so urgent, some of those involved said, that they hardly thought of consulting Congress.



http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/24/international/worldspecial2/24gitmo.html?ex=1256270400&en=f44aff040a0217ce&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt

[seemslikeadream]

1. more from link

"They hadn't changed a thing," one official said.

In fact, while the military lawyers were pulling together their response, they were unaware that senior administration officials were already at the White House putting finishing touches on the plan. At a meeting that Saturday in the Roosevelt Room, Mr. Cheney led a discussion among Attorney General Ashcroft, Mr. Haynes of the Defense Department, the White House lawyers and a few other aides.

Senior officials of the State Department and the National Security Council staff were excluded from final discussions of the policy, even at a time when they were meeting daily about Afghanistan with the officials who were drafting the order. According to two people involved in the process, Mr. Cheney advocated withholding the draft from Ms. Rice and Secretary Powell.

When the two cabinet members found out about the military order - upon its public release - Ms. Rice was particularly angry, several senior officials said. Spokesmen for both officials declined to comment.

Mr. Bush played only a modest role in the debate, senior administration officials said. In an initial discussion, he agreed that military commissions should be an option, the officials said. Later, Mr. Cheney discussed a draft of the order with Mr. Bush over lunch, one former official said. The president signed the three-page order on Nov. 13.

No ceremony accompanied the signing, and the order was released to the public that day without so much as a press briefing. But its historic significance was unmistakable.

more
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/24/international/worldspecial2/24gitmo.html?pagewanted=6&ei=5088&en=f44aff040a0217ce&ex=1256270400&partner=rssnyt

[neomonkey]

3. How can Colin Powell

Look himself in the mirror every morning and report back to duty and face and support this traitorous circle?

[NVMojo]

9. because he doesn't yet get it that this order

will primarily be used against people of color. He and Condi are corporate sellouts. He may be so dim in reality that he does he's not working for true Republicans but NEOCONS.

[Amigust]

10. "How can Colin Powell"

Because he has become one of them.

[calimary]

19. He's been completely cuckolded. And relieved of his cojones.

They've turned him into a pathetic shell of a man. Evil bastards. They've made him into a eunuch. When you lie down with these dogs, you get up with knives sticking out of all your body parts.

[natrat]

11. maybe he is less

inteligent than he seems

[neomonkey]

14. I always held a faint thread of hope for him

Based on the wildly "different" life experiences he brought to the table of this mis-Administration; that they would counteract and hopefully inject some sense of reason into the mindset behind the unabashed and voracious aims of Bush & Syndicate.

I guess it's time to relinquish that hope.

[Carolab]

20. Not less intelligent

just not as STRONG--he strikes me as a very WEAK person in many ways

[saigon68]

16. Because he is complete puppet and tool of the NeoCons

He has sold his soul to them. He is a total lackey to a gang of Fascist & Racist white men

[seemslikeadream]

17. Colin how could you let this happen to the people of Haiti?

Marines in Haiti : A supporter of former Haitian President Jean Bertrand Aristide shouts as US marines patrol the Bel Aire district of Port-Au-Prince. (AFP/Yuri Cortez)

Hundreds of supporters of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide protest around US Marines patrolling the streets of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Thursday, March 4, 2004. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

A supporter of Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide cries outside the presidential palace in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, after his departure Sunday, Feb. 29, 2004. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

EVERY DEATH CREATES NEW ENEMIES
MORE TERRORISTS
MORE DANGER
MORE DEATH
AND REMEMBER...

HE IS JUST GETTING STARTED...

BUSH'S PLAN FOR PEACE
IS THE PEACE OF THE COMMON GRAVE

http://www.bushflash.com/pax.html WATCH THIS VIDEO TAKES 3 MINUTES


Haiti and the Impotence of Black America

Roll Back this Coup, Mr. Bush
March 19, 2004
By CYNTHIA McKINNEY

....
Now, according to one of my investigative sources, one of the contracts that Preval put in place was with the Steele Foundation to provide presidential security. The Steele Foundation, headquartered here in the Bay Area, is reportedly very close to the Pentagon, with its former leader coming directly from the Pentagon's Office of Intelligence. Interestingly, it reportedly maintains an office in Miami, the home of the headquarters of the U.S. Special Operations Command, which was reportedly involved in training the rebels who ousted Aristide. So, at the time of Aristide's "capture," he supposedly was protected by a Pentagon-sanctioned security team that just happened to fail to secure him.

Additionally, according to this same source, some of the Dominican troops and Spanish and English-speaking paramilitaries trained by the U.S. during last year's Operation Jaded Task in the Dominican Republic were fighting alongside Haitian rebels in the north and on the southern coast of Haiti. We are told further that Haitian government authorities intercepted vans carrying new M-16s across the border from the Dominican Republic. According to the report I have received, Haitian authorities began intercepting vans carrying the weapons from the Dominican Republic beginning last year, and shortly after the U.S. military delivered 20,000 M-16s to the Dominican Army.....


Black America, vibrant with authentic leaders, in active partnership with all progressives, can change what is happening here at home and the policies being implemented abroad.

And so I end with a plea and a charge for us as a people to stand up, speak truth to power, don't cower, and say to those who control this awful machine, "It's time for you to stop, right now."

http://www.counterpunch.org/mckinney03192004.html

[Carolab]

21. If only Powell and Rice

had just 1/10th of Cynthia McKinney's integrity and strength

[HereSince1628]

Besides being Republicans in Bush's Administration

Have you noticed something else Powell and Rice have in common?

[kodi]

2. at least the Nazis published the Nuremberg Laws

but not the Busheviks.

cowards

[Rose Siding]

4. "...political agenda...little to do with fighting terrorism"

Sheesh. Ten pages in the Sunday Times. I'm looking forward to this one.

[dqueue]

8. dig the pic

Nice wolf pic! Have you seen this yet? Such a viable response, but I don't expect the sheeple will get it.

[natrat]

12. very cute

[ewagner]

18. I like this

<>

[GarySeven]

5. "They hate our freedoms"

is what those feckless Bush thugs say.

Damn them to hell.

[shanti]

6. will kerry repeal this

when he takes office?

[Laelth]

7. I certainly hope so.

If we give up our due process rights, if we cease to be the America we know and love, then the terrorists have won. They will have turned us into a fundamentalist, Nazi state.

President Kerry, on top of a hundred other things, must reverse this executive order.

IMHO, anyway.

:dem:

-Laelth

[DELUSIONAL]

13. Now we know where Cheney was hiding

From the graphic that goes with this article -- Cheney lead this moldy band of idiots in the re-write of military law.

Also from the reading -- it appears that *ushita attitude was "yea -- whatever". I just don't get the feeling that the chimpster has any real comprehension of -- action -- reaction.

The worst part is leaving the professional military JAG out of the process. The real worst part is that there was a "secret" re-write in the first place.

The Cheney-*ush legacy -- how many secrets are waiting for Kerry/Edwards to muck out of the white house??

[teryang]

15. Addington, Yoo and Haynes incompetent and venal

...such find themselves quite at home in the fascist neocon movement. No need to consult the professionals in the military or State who have spent their entire careers studying these issues and international law. Why bother with rule of law?

This is a rogue regime.