An Administration of War Criminals

Well, it looks like killing the newspapers won't be enough - the Administration needs to get rid of at least one more Supreme Court Justice, as well, to cement its deathgrip on superconstitutional power.

The Hamdan decision today (NYT coverage) is notable for several reasons, but I will focus here on one in particular. A majority of the Supremes ruled that the Geneva Conventions (in particular, its "Common Article 3" provisions for the treatment of prisoners), is binding on the government generally, even in the "war on terrorism" and the ongoing conflict with the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.

This represents a direct overruling of the twisted arguments of our Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, our Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and their bosses the President and Vice President, that US law allows for torture of foreign noncombatants and even the occasional US citizen. Over at SCOTUSblog, Marty Lederman argues that CIA and military personnel who have relied on those arguments to justify their acts of torture since 9/11 may have legal recourse, but any who torture even a single prisoner going forward will be guilty of war crimes (and subject to the death penalty if convicted).

From a somewhat broader perspective, since these policies were promulgated from the top of the Administration, without much (if any) regard for whether they were consistent with the Constitution and laws of the United States, and are now shown to be in violation of them, I would argue, the Supreme Court has judged this to be an Administration of war criminals.

The Duds of 'The Devil Wears Prada' - New York Times

Clothes of the movie are reviewed at the NYTimes. My point, which I've made before: fashion is the new architecture. Everybody's going to have to bone up, and have *something* to say about it.

Get reading!

First thing we do, let's kill all the newspapers

The NYT recently exposed yet another "anti-terrorist" program of this Administration, the systematic data-mining of bank and financial institution records: NYT story.

Just to remind you of the litany, here are the programs we know of now thanks to the combined efforts of whistle-blowers & journalists:

• Blanket NSA wiretaps of calls with one terminus (or sometimes both, oops!) in the United States (NYT, which delayed publication at the Administration's request until after the Nov 2004 elections);
• Datamining of all domestic calling records (USA Today; one or two phone companies refused to comply);
• Datamining of international financial transactions for individuals suspected of terrorist ties (NYT, above).

The Administration and GOP allies are calling for a criminal investigation of the NYT and its reporters in this latest case: NYT story. This goes beyond the leak investigations spurred by the earlier stories - which threatened only the unknown officials, who may violate the law in the course of leaking classified information.

I would argue that there is nothing more threatening to our system of government than having the Executive and Legislative Branches banding together to kill the newspapers and their right to report on the doings of that government, both covert and overt. The current round of press attacks, led by Cheney and Bush personally, represents the absolute Nixonian apotheosis of this Administration.

Why Eighteen-Year-Olds should Not Be Trusted to Name Military Operations

ABC News: Coalition Troops Prepare Afghan Offensive. The name of the offensive? Operation Mountain Thrust. No kidding. Really.

I think it's being led by General T. Bagmyballs.

Why focusing on Al-Qaeda is Stupid

Toronto police arrested 17 people on charges of attempted terrorism today - Chicago Tribune story. The suspects are said to have been "inspired by Al Qaeda".

This case illustrates why it is stupid to focus on Al Qaeda itself - to almost any extent whatsoever - in attempts to protect US citizens from terror attacks:

• The attacks on 9/11 involved 17 attackers and roughly $500k. It was not a large effort, neither in terms of personnel nor in terms of finances.
• Now that Al Qaeda has shown the way, it is easy (in fact, predictable) for copycat groups to mimic Al Qaeda techniques.
• The supply of suicidal misfits, willing to sacrifice their own lives (either immediately, or via life imprisonment after the fact) is nearly limitless.
• Once a group has attained a reasonable size, the financial requirements for an attack are, likewise, not significant.
• While Islamic fundamentalism provides one motivation for indiscriminate attacks, it is by no means the only viable such motive. Consider, for example, the second-worst terror attack in American history, the Oklahoma City bombing.

The appropriate fraction of terror prevention efforts that should be devoted to any single group can therefore be roughly estimated by dividing the group membership by the total number of social misfits in the country/world, which - even in the case of Al Qaeda - is negligible.