The Conscience of Abe’s Turn freedom of speech, defense, and life

From Rediff.com: “Pakistan frees terrorists due to lack of evidence.” This article describes a crime report that explored how the Pakistani police have been unable to build a case against “a large number” of “dreaded terrorists” from Al-Qaeda and other organizations. Because they didn’t have evidence against them, they had to let them go.

The article goes on to relay that “most of them have vanished into thin air soon after their release and were probably planning or participating in more attacks… [A]s many as ’121 high-profile terrorists were released between 2002 and 2007. In each case, the prosecution’s case was not strong enough.’”  read more »

A new year. A new U.S. president.

An editorial by Aziz Huq on The Nation website offers a prescription for “Dismantling the Imperial Presidency”, with a warning reminiscent of Lord Acton’s famous quote:

Radical change is needed to re-establish legitimate bounds to executive power. We must again place beyond the pale Nixon’s famous aphorism that “when the president does it, that means it’s not illegal.” But radical change—as early appointments and policy signals from the Obama transition team suggest—comes easier as campaign slogan than governing practice…

No matter how decent, any new president is tempted by the tools and trappings of executive authority. However tainted the Oval Office is now, Obama’s perspective will change dramatically on entering the White House…

(Click here to read the whole article.)

He goes on to offer measure Obama can take in three important areas: torture, the law that the executive follows, and accountability.

Always watching!
-TimK

WEBWIRE – Monday, October 06, 2008

Washington, DC – New FBI guidelines governing investigations were released today after being signed by Attorney General Michael Mukasey. The American Civil Liberties Union quickly blasted the Department of Justice and FBI for ignoring calls for more stringent protections of Americans’ rights. The guidelines replace existing bureau guidelines for five types of investigations: general criminal, national security, foreign intelligence, civil disorders and demonstrations. The ACLU has been vocal in its disapproval of the overly broad guidelines, citing both the FBI’s and DOJ’s documented records of internal abuse.  read more »