The Military Commissions bill must be rejected. There is no reason Congress has to pass it before it adjourns. Here is a sign-on letter for you to fax to your Senator. Some of the language is taken from a letter that 13 groups sent to Sen. McCain this weekend urging him to clarify ambiguities in the War Crimes definitions, but this letter addresses the overall bill and urges Members to vote "no" on final passage.

Please, flood your Senators' offices with objections to the bill moving forward.

Dear Senator:

We are writing to strongly encourage you to reject the "compromise" Military Commissions Act of 2006 and to vote no on final passage of the bill. More than anything else, the bill compromises America's commitment to fairness and the rule of law.

For the last five years the United States has repeatedly operated in a manner that betrays our nation's commitment to law. The US has held prisoners in secret prisons without any due process or even access to the Red Cross and has placed other prisoners in Guantanamo Bay in a transparent effort to avoid judicial oversight and the application of US treaty obligations.

There's a federal terrorism trial going on in Albany, NY I've written about a few times. It is US v. Aref, which came about as a result of an FBI sting involving Yassin M. Aref and Mohammed M. Hossain, two members of an Albany mosque.

Prior to trial there were issues of warrantless NSA electronic surveillance. From a defense motion:

"The government engaged in illegal electronic surveillance of thousands of U.S. persons, including Yassin Aref, then instigated a sting operation to attempt to entrap Mr. Aref into supporting a nonexistent terrorist plot, then dared to claim that the illegal NSA operation was justified because it was the only way to catch Mr. Aref."

Fast-forward to today, the Government is about to call its final witness, a so-called terrorism expert named Evan F. Kohlmann. The Government's initial expert became unavailable so it hired Kohlman as a last-minute substitution.

by TChris

Fearful of being labeled "soft on terror," Senate Democrats continue to be timid in their opposition to the president's plan to give detainees sham trials before military tribunals. They need to wake up. Recent Republican changes in the bill endanger the rights of everyone.

The current definition of "enemy combatant," to whom the law would apply, broadens its reach from those who "engaged in hostilities against the United States" to those who "purposefully and materially supported hostilities against the United States." Material support is a vague concept that can be, and has been, applied to lawyers and interpreters assisting clients. Should lawyers who are United States citizens, acting within the boundaries of the United States and plainly protected by the Constitution, be subjected to trials before a military tribunal rather than a criminal court?

Another change undermines the meager progress that Republicans made to improve the bill. To avoid trials based on secret evidence, the bill gave suspects the right to "examine and respond to" the evidence. The latest version drops the word "examine," leaving suspects with the useless right to respond to evidence they aren't permitted to see.

(Guest Post by Big Tent Democrat)

Barack Obama quoted Justice Brandeis:

Do you worry that people are piling too many expectations and hopes on you? Some people seem to say, "OK, there is an easy answer, it's Barack Obama."

I go back to the quote from the speech I just gave: Justice [Louis] Brandeis saying that "the most important office in a democracy is that of citizen." I come from a community-organizing background and a civil-rights background. I always believe that ultimately, if people are paying attention, then we get good government and good leadership. And when we get lazy, as a democracy and civically start taking shortcuts, then it results in bad government and politics.

Amen. More on the other side.

by TChris

This is good news, if the prediction is accurate:

Congress is unlikely to approve a bill giving President Bush's warrantless wiretapping program legal status and new restrictions before the November midterm elections, dealing a significant blow to one of the White House's top wartime priorities.

With domestic wiretapping off the table, those who care about their country can spend the rest of the week worrying about the administration's attempts to gut habeas corpus and build expensive fences.

Last week I was optimistic on Studio 60 and looking forward to the season premieres of Gray's Anatomy, Desperate Housewives.

What happened? Desperate Housewives was terrible -- over-playing the cliches by miles until it seemed like slapstick comedy. Studio 60 didn't move me last night, I didn't care for the musical number and I don't get what's so great about Harriet. She and Matt don't even have good chemistry. Brothers and Sisters was barely watchable despite Calista Flockhart, whom I really liked as Ally McBeal. It was excruciating watching Sally Field, a woman of tremendous talent, denigrated to the role of hapless, helpless aging, cheated-on mother.

What's left? Grey's Anatomy, my favorite show of last season, had a lackluster opener. Meredith and the doctor need to get it on quick, the suspense has turned to irritation, at least with me.

On September 22, an updated report by the Congressional Research Service was filed with Congress, The Cost of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Other Global War on Terror Operations Since 9/11. From the introduction:

Through FY2006, Congress has appropriated a total of about $437 billion for military operations, base security, reconstruction, foreign aid, embassy costs, and veterans' health care for the three operations initiated since the 9/11 attacks: Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) covering Afghanistan and other Global War on Terror (GWOT) operations, Operation Noble Eagle (ONE) providing enhanced security at military bases, and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), Iraq.

In the last week of September 2006, the House and Senate are slated to consider the conference versions of the FY2007 defense appropriations bill, H.R. 5631, and the national defense authorization bill (H.R. 6122/S. 2766), both of which include an additional $70 billion for war costs. .... The Administration is expected to submit a FY2007 supplemental for additional war costs some time next year.

If the FY2007 defense appropriation bill passes, total war appropriations for all three operations would reach about $507 billion. Another $2 billion is included in other appropriations bills for foreign and diplomatic operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and VA medical costs. In its July 2006 mid-session update, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) estimates that war funding in FY2007 will total $110 billion, including bridge funding. Based on this OMB projection, cumulative war funding for all of FY2007 would reach about $549 billion. OMB also assumes a $50 billion bridge fund for FY2008.

Enron's former CFO Andrew Fastow caught a big break from the sentencing judge today. Instead of the ten year sentence he agreed to in his plea agreement, (pdf) the Judge granted him leniency and sentenced him to only six years.

As I wrote here about Bernie Ebbers (who entered prison today) and Scott Sullivan, there is something morally bankrupt about a system that allows a defendant who exercises his constitutional right to go to trial to get 25 years while a codefendant with greater or equal culpability who cooperates with the Government and tells the Government's truth at trial when testifying against that defendant gets five years.

Was Jeffrey Skilling, who faces a possible 185 years, but is likely to get far less, let's say 30 years, five times more culpable than Fastow? No. He was convicted with Fastow's testimony. purchased by the Government with promises of years of freedom.

The whole thing stinks.

A vote on the bill to build a 700 mile fence across 1/3 of the U.S. - Mexico border could come on Friday. That's because Sen. Bill Frist has attached the bill on detainee treatment to the border fence bill.

The Senate is likely to vote first on the detainee portions, and then take up the border bill.

If Democrats agree, the Senate would debate detainee treatment first and a vote on the border fence could happen Friday. Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada said he believed he and Frist could work something out.

Several key Republicans remain opposed to the border bill. The Senate passed a version of it calling for 370 miles of fence, but the House didn't act on it. Instead, the House wants the Senate to pass its bill, H.R.6061.

What a colossal waste of money. Does Congress think it grows on trees? Let's forget about border bills and punitive immigration bills and enact more important legislation. Here is the Democrat's wish list:

In an about-face, President Bush today declared he will declassify the judgments of the NIE.

Once again, there's a leak out of our government, coming right down the stretch in this campaign, you know, to trade confusion in the minds of the American people, in my judgment, is why they leaked it. So I told the DNI to declassify this document. You can read it for yourself. We'll stop all of the speculation, all the politics, about someone saying something about Iraq, you know, somebody trying to confuse the American people about the nature of this enemy. And so John Negroponte, the DNI, is going to declassify the document as quickly as possible, declassify the key judgments for you to read yourself and he'll do so in such a way that he'll be able to protect sources and methods that our intelligence community uses. And then everybody can draw their own conclusions about what the report says. Thank you.

Really? As Glenn Greenwald writes at Salon,

by TChris

Remember when we were told that the war in Iraq would be an in-and-out job, over before we knew it ("It could last six days, six weeks. I doubt six months"), and that post-war reconstruction would be largely funded by the newly liberated country's oil revenues? It hasn't worked out that way.

In the latest sign of pressure on troop strength from violence in Iraq, the Pentagon said Monday that it has extended the combat tour of 4,000 U.S. soldiers, the second time in as many months that an Army brigade has seen its yearlong deployment lengthened.

Many share responsibility for the lies. Yesterday, the spotlight focused on the Secretary of Deceit, Donald Rumsfeld.

"I believe that Secretary Rumsfeld and others in the administration did not tell the American people the truth for fear of losing support for the war in Iraq," retired Army Maj. Gen. John R.S. Batiste told a forum conducted by Senate Democrats.

by TChris

Judith Clark, a Weather Underground member charged with acting as a getaway driver in the 1981 robbery of an armored car that resulted in three deaths, asked to represent herself at her trial. When that request was granted, Clark refused to participate in the trial, sitting in her cell while the prosecution presented its case.

U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin ruled yesterday that Clark is entitled to a new trial. It's one thing for a court to allow a defendant to represent herself, but quite another to allow a trial to go forward when the defendant's interests are completely unrepresented. Defendants are allowed to represent themselves only if they're capable of abiding by court rules, and Clark showed herself unable to follow the primary rule: show up for the trial.

Clark was sentenced in 1983 to 75 years in prison.