The White House is too preoccupied with ensuring illegal detention of American citizens without clear charges to even consider the helpless situation of Americans held hostage abroad.
The lawyers for Jose Padilla told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit that "the government has repeatedly altered its factual allegations to suit its goals, and it has actively manipulated the federal courts to avoid accountability for its actions," according to Linda Greenhouse's article in Sunday's New York Times.
The same Times article later quotes a statement from the 4th Circuit, asking both sides to submit new briefs:
"in light of the different facts that were alleged by the president to warrant Padilla's military detention and held by this court to justify that detention, on the one hand, and the alleged facts on which Padilla has now been indicted, on the other."
take the jump and come along for a ride....
After actively petitioning the Court to transfer jurisdiction of the case, in November,
Attorney General Albert Gonzales freshly indicted Padilla, who had been detained for over three years as a suspected al-Qaeda operative, with unrelated charges.
The administration, now wants the Court to vacate this criminal conviction so there will be no case for Padilla to bring to the Supreme Court (his lawyers filed an appeal in October).
How self-absorbed and unaware of anything outside the beltway (much less Iraq) is the Bush Administration? To better understand the slippery-slope of disconnect, disillusionment and self-aggrandizement overtaking the upper echelons of the administration, I recommend, for starters, the Bush(transcript and video) and Rumsfeld (script/audio/video) interviews over the past two weeks on Jim Lehrer's NewsHour.
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The president signed John McCain's anti-torture bill Thursday video, after it glided to Congressional approval, despite the BushCo argument that the bill's too tight a harness on intelligence operations by Bush, Cheney, Dana Rohrabacher, and the handful of other government officials who exist in a certain state of paranoia dominated by inevitable disaster.
You see, this president has never vetoed a bill, and he never will.
Because he doesn't have to.
By Friday, but one half day after Bush's photo op with the oft-Rovictimized John McCain, David Addington, Scooter Libby's successor as Cheney's chief of staff and co-creator of the new hit video game Grand Theft Democracy: Above the Law, authored a presidential order PRACTICALLY VOIDING the torture-banning content of McCain's bill.
Eric Schmitt quietly broke this story in the packed Saturday NY Times:
Mr. Addington, who was a primary architect of the presidential order, argued in the debates earlier this year that by explicitly prohibiting evidence obtained by torture, the administration would raise an unnecessary red flag. suggesting at least implicitly that prisoners in American custody were, in fact, being tortured, officials said.
Not to implicate that President Bush is a "flip-flopper," as I understand that he must often change and disguise his actions and statements to protect our national security. See, if HE foils the next 9/11 plot with his secret plans, he'll be able to one up the CIA, FBI, DHS, and Defense when he saves the day, inevitably defusing an active bomb MacGyver-style with seconds before RFK Stadium -- or as some national security mavens have suggested -- San Francisco, is blown into dust.
In light of the president's Sunday night and Monday morning addresses, one would think that this "September the eleventh" he repeatedly referred to took place but three months ago. White House counter-terrorism czar Richard Clarke's deputy Roger Cressey told Sunday's WaPo:
...[W]hen terrorists destroyed the World Trade Center and a wing of the Pentagon, "the amount of domestic surveillance is an admission of fundamental gaps in our understanding of what is happening in our country."
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Back to hostages, the current hostage situation in Iraq involving four members of the Christian Peacemaker Team is especially intriguing. While the "Christian" in CPT might imply that President Bush would be greatly concerned about crusaders of his faith being kidnapped and threatened with death by evil terrorists, this is far from the case.
While CPT is grounded in the Christian faith, and two of the four hostages are American, the organization is international, and committed to peace, regardless of religion.
Jonathan Bartley, director of the UK-based religious think-tank Ekklesia, which partners the CPT recently told The Observer:
CPT teams were there in Falluja; they told the world of Abu Ghraib months before it came out officially; they are recognised as an outstanding team with an incredible track record.
The only reason these hostages are still alive -- after being kidnapped last month -- is because the UK government sent Anas Altikriti, a senior sponsor of the British anti-war movement and a member of the Muslim Association of Britain to Baghdad.
In Baghdad, Alikriti held urgent meetings with trade union leaders, politicians and the Association of Muslim scholars - a group with close links to the Muslim Brotherhood and within days had an extension granted to the original deadline for the hostages execution. "It was absolutely extraordinary," he told the Observer:
'I cannot remember a time when people from opposite ends of the Muslim spectrum came together to say the same thing.'
That same week, a former Guantanamo Bay prisoner, British citizen Moazzam Begg, called for the hostages' release.
Reuters recently reported that the Muslim Brotherhood is open to meetings with U.S. officials, but the American government is hesitant to act without the approval of the standing Egyptian government.
Of course, negotiating with terrorists = bad. But, historically, doesn't it seem like anybody the U.S. negotiates with at some point seems to turn to "islamofascism." (just tell me how Bush's Saudi connection is NOT funding "islamofascists.")
Today, the Islamic Army of Iraq website broadcast a video in which an unidentifiable victim was murdered, followed by shots of Ronald Schulz's identification card. I recently wrote about this kidnapping here.
Families and friends "keep hope alive," unsure of the fate of the above hostages.