The Daily Muck

The Daily Muck

Peter Sheehy and John Amick | April 11, 2008, 10:22AM

When Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud Qosi, a Sudanese detainee at Guantanamo Bay, was arraigned Thursday he refused to accept legal representation and informed the military court that he would boycott future proceedings. In a "rambling statement" he told the judge, "I leave in your hands the camel and its load for you to do whatever you wish." (LA Times)

An advisory panel of scientists has slammed the Environmental Protection Agency's Administrator Stephen Johnson for ignoring its advice and implementing air quality standards that fail to protect public health. When Johnson lowered the allowable ozone levels that are considered healthy (from 80 parts per billion to 75 parts per billion) 345 counties nationwide were deemed to be in "violation of the federal air quality standards for ozone, commonly known as smog." (AP)

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates apologized to Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) after Gates told Levin he must be confused for believing that the Pentagon was still involved in the physical reconstruction business in Iraq. Levin had received a letter from the Pentagon discussing an allocation of $600 million in reconstruction aid, yet Gates mistakenly told Levin that the money must have been for something else. After receiving a note from an aide that confirmed Levin's understanding, Gates admitted that “[T]here are actually things that go on that I don’t know about." (Politico's "The Crypt")

And in the same line of questioning with Sen. Levin and the Senate Armed Services Committee, Gates said he doesn't hold out hope for getting troop levels in Iraq down to 100,000 by 2009, despite the past prospects he's had on the subject. (ThinkProgress)

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The Daily Muck

The Daily Muck

Peter Sheehy and John Amick | April 10, 2008, 10:22AM

The ACLU has petitioned the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on behalf of Khaled el-Masri, a German citizen who alleges that he was abducted in December 2003 and then tortured by the CIA. El-Masari was denied his day in a U.S. court when the Bush administration successfully employed a state secrets defense. (AP)

A Saudi detainee at Guantanamo Bay who has denounced the U.S. government's case against him as a "sham," had himself removed from his military tribunal as a protest. Ahmed Mohammed Ahmed Haza Al-Darbi, whose brother-in-law was one of the September 11 hijackers, stated that "history will record these trials as a scandal," Al-Darbi said. "I advise you, the judge, and everyone else who is present to not continue with this play, this sham." Al-Dabri, who is yet to be classified as an enemy combatant, has also claimed that he was beaten in custody and left hanging from handcuffs while he was detained and interrogated at Bagram air base. (Los Angeles Times)

A senior official of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention testified to Congress that climate change "is likely to have a "significant impact on health" and that the "CDC considers climate change a serious public health concern." Though this testimony relates directly to the EPA's regulatory policies on CO2 emissions, the official refused to comment directly on whether the Environmental Protection Agency should regulate CO2 under the federal Clean Air Act. (AP)

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The Daily Muck

The Daily Muck

Peter Sheehy and John Amick | April 9, 2008, 10:27AM

Attorneys for Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, a detainee being held as "enemy combatant," argued to an appellate court yesterday that a memo that the Justice Department declassified and released only last week proves that their client's detention is illegal. According to the attorneys, the memo "makes plain as day that al-Marri was declared an enemy combatant based on discredited legal opinions and for the illegal purpose of abusive interrogations." (Washington Post)

The Washington Post has published a guide to the 11 multicolored charts that General Petraeus presented to Congress yesterday because "a close look at the facts indicates that the data often lacked context or were misleading." In the case of Petraeus' first chart, the paper notes that "the figures for 2009 appear to be based on guesswork, and Petraeus's office declined to provide supporting information." (Washington Post)

Jury deliberations have resumed in the trial of the six men accused of conspiring with al Qaeda to destroy the Sears Tower in Chicago. The Bush administration has claimed that this case is an important accomplishment in the war on terror but the first trial ended in a deadlocked jury and Neal Sonnett, past president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, believes the case is "more hype than evidence." (ABC's "The Blotter")

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The Daily Muck

The Daily Muck

Peter Sheehy and John Amick | April 8, 2008, 9:42AM

Since 1994 the FBI has maintained a surveillance link (the Digital Collection System) between 40 of its offices, Quantico, and networks belonging to major telecommunications companies. Three Democratic lawmakers are concerned about the scope of this surveillance and have demanded more information about "transactional data" captured in these networks without court warrants. (Washington Post)

Lawmakers also have concerns about the Department of Homeland Security's domestic surveillance program. Known as the National Applications Office, the DHS' satellite program provides government officials with spy satellite imagery (sub. req.) and has no legal safeguards in place to prevent domestic spying. (Wall Street Journal)

Key legal opinions and documents related to the Department of Justice's torture memos of 2002 and 2003 and warrantless surveillance program remain under lock and key at the DOJ. Though lawmakers have requested the documents for years - and Attorney General Mukasey promised that "there isn't going to be any stonewalling" over Congressional requests for documents - the DOJ seems to be too busy to fill the requests. DOJ spokesman Peter Carr noted that congresisonal inquiries take "an enormous amount of department time and resources." (Washington Post)

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The Daily Muck

The Daily Muck

Peter Sheehy and John Amick | April 7, 2008, 10:13AM

Defense lawyers of detainees at Guantanamo Bay assert that the government's efforts to introduce evidence obtained through abusive interrogation "heralds a very dark chapter in American history." The lawyers for Salim Ahmed Hamdan have asked a military judge to acknowledge that Hamdan was beaten and sexually humiliated. (New York Times)

The Senate Armed Services Committee has been "quietly but aggressively scrutinizing" the role of top administration officials in the abuse of detainees under Depart of Defense custody. In February, the committee informed the Pentagon that it wanted to speak with former Pentagon legal counsel William Haynes, the official who requested that Justice Department lawyer John Yoo draft the recently released March 2003 torture memo. Haynes has agreed to speak without being subpoenaed. (Newsweek)

Federal legislation from 2006 that makes it possible for civilian contractors in Iraq to be tried under the military justice system will be tested for the first time. The case, which centers on a knife fight between two Arabic-speaking interpreters, is considered to be "significant" "because it's an untested power" and could have a massive impact on all independent contractors working overseas. (U.S. News and World Report)

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