The Whole Delivery

While the site hasn't been active today, here is what has transpired in the major headlines today. I'm not one to follow polls vigorously, but some of them you just can't ignore. This Gallup poll of registered voters (the one that is much more accurate than the antiquated "likely voter" model) is not very good news for the Democratic Party and voter enthusiasm . The ACLU has a powerful vote on the lawsuit to stop Obama's assassination plan: Where in the hell is Jerry Brown ? This guy is more invisible than Adam Smith's hand. 75% of US cases at Guantanamo Bay on suspected terrorists have been defeated . "What a surprise" when someone gets a fair trial down there....what a surprise. They all want their Nevada man, including Joey Lie, to stay at the head of the House of Lords . Certainly not one of Rick Sanchez's finer moments . Goodness gracious, what was he thinking there? And if they get some power again, guess what they are...

Photo from The Red Cross It is one of those things that's just a wee bit embarrassing for all Americans to know about. The terrific Carol Rosenburg with the Very embarrassing story of how the United States continuing to prefer dubious actions instead of admit its wrong doing. Alleged ex-teen terrorist Omar Khadr on Monday denounced his coming war-crimes trial as a sham, saying he'd been offered a secret plea deal for release after five years. Instead, he said, he would act as his own attorney at trial and offer no defense. ``I'm representing myself and I'm boycotting,'' said Khadr, 23, who has grown from an adolescent captured nearly dead in Afghanistan into manhood in U.S. military custody. He was wearing the white prison camp uniform of a compliant captive and spoke clearly and articulately throughout a one-hour morning session. Captured at 15 in Afghanistan, faces a maximum of life in prison for alleging throwing the bomb that killed Sergeant Christopher ...

Photo from AP's Andres Leighton Because when you are the President of the United States and you know people are innocent, yet you decide to torture them, that is the only sufficient reward : George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld covered up that hundreds of innocent men were sent to the Guantánamo Bay prison camp because they feared that releasing them would harm the push for war in Iraq and the broader War on Terror, according to a new document obtained by The Times. The accusations were made by Lawrence Wilkerson, a top aide to Colin Powell, the former Republican Secretary of State, in a signed declaration to support a lawsuit filed by a Guantánamo detainee. It is the first time that such allegations have been made by a senior member of the Bush Administration. Colonel Wilkerson, who was General Powell’s chief of staff when he ran the State Department, was most critical of Mr Cheney and Mr Rumsfeld. He claimed that the former Vice-President and Defence Secretary kn...

One of America's best journalists who still doesn't get the recognition that he deserves basically held back no punches in highlighting how the Obama Administration has somehow left the Department of Justice in a state of politicization. In an article written today at the Huffington Post, the industrious Dan Froomkin reminded us of the departure of the man tipped to make the closing of Guantanamo Bay be a smooth process. And further reminded us about how his replacement is not the steadfast voice required to steer the Administration to the right direction it advocated for during the campaign. Greg Craig, as Obama's top lawyer, was the point man on a number of hot-button issues, the fieriest being how to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay. Craig argued for holding fast to the principles that Obama outlined before he became president, regardless of the immediate political consequences -- an idealistic approach that, in a White House filled with increasingly pusillanimous p...

In his speech today addressing the situation and system in regards to the Christmas day bombing, President Obama reenforced the message that despite not sending certain Gitmo prisoners to Yemen at the moment, that Guantanamo Bay will still be closed. In fact, Obama further added that Gitmo has added to Al Qeada's recruitment development (as well as tarnish our worlds issue), which is certainly the case. The lame that is Mark Whitaker at MSNBC made a comment saying that it "probably wasn't necessary for Obama to talk about Gitmo closing." That's his watered down opinion, but it was necessary for him to talk about it. Reinforcing the narrative that Gitmo needs to be closed no matter the event is very pertinent to do. And anyone saying it wasn't needed is clearly missing the point.

Administrations of the future (and even this one if it happens) have every right now it seems to torture if protection for tortuous acts continue: The Court’s denial of review of Rasul, et al., v. Myers, et al. (09-227) leaves intact a federal appeals court ruling that former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and ten military officers are legally immune to claims of torture and religious bias against inmates who were at Guantanamo but have since been released. T he Obama Administration had urged the Court not to hear the case, saying that, whatever claims the four ex-detainees were now making, they had no legal basis for those challenges at the time they were at the U.S. military prison in Cuba — that is, between January 2002 and March 2004. The D.C. Circuit Court had ruled in favor of immunity, and in doing so avoided a repeat of its earlier decision — vacated by the Supreme Court — that Guantanamo prisoners had no constitutional rights. The Justices had ordered reconsideration of ...

Photo from OLIVIER DOULIERY/ OLIVIER DOULIERY/ABACA PRESS/MCT Glenn Greenwald, as usual, tells the whole truth about the Justice Departments decision to send Guantanomo Bay detainees to court in New York. Though it is commendable that our legal system under the Obama Administration is making the decision to let trials happen (something that certainly wouldn't have happen under the previous one), this crucial fact is getting overlooked by most : The problem is that this decision does not stand alone. Instead, it is accompanied by this: Holder will also announce that a major suspect in the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, will face justice before a military commission, as will a handful of other detainees to be identified at the same announcement, the official said. It was not immediately clear where commission-bound detainees like al-Nashiri might be sent, but a military brig in South Carolina has been high on the list of considered sites. So what we have here ...

Via Marcy Wheeler, take a look at this deep ACLU video about men wrongly brought to Guantanomo Bay and finally released . And here is the key quotes here if you can hear this: Moazzam Begg: My experience of America prior to this was everything that I had seen in the films… the concept of the good guys, the concept of people trying to do the right thing…and, that was shattered. Omar Deghayes: I want the people themselves, humans, the people in America, good people which I met many of, to realize how in their names those ugly people have done to others. But you probably won't be seeing this on any of the cable news networks tonight though.

Photo from TPM front page Continuing in some of Bush's policies with this move The Obama administration, fearing a battle with Congress that could stall plans to close the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, is drafting an executive order that would reassert presidential authority to incarcerate terrorism suspects indefinitely, according to three senior government officials with knowledge of White House deliberations. Such an order would embrace claims by former president George W. Bush that certain people can be detained without trial for long periods under the laws of war. Obama advisers are concerned that bypassing Congress could place the president on weaker footing before the courts and anger key supporters, the officials said. After months of internal debate over how to close the facility in Cuba, White House officials are increasingly worried that reaching quick agreement with Congress on a new detention system may be impossible. Several officials said there is concern in the Whi...

Photo from BBC Very cool on their part Italy has agreed to take three detainees from the US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, US President Barack Obama has said. He announced the agreement after talks on Monday with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi at the White House. Italy is the latest European country to take the Gitmo prisoners in the last few weeks, and more could possibly fellow Besides Italy, several EU member states have voiced willingness to accept ex-Guantanamo detainees, including France, the Irish Republic, Portugal and Spain. The UK has already taken in 14 former inmates. Several have also been accepted by Belgium, France, Sweden and Albania, which is not in the EU. 220 prisoners remain. The number can't diminish fast enough. Until tomorrow, may it bring a better you, and a better me:

Only the irrational and crazy can criticize another captivating display of stagecraft and statesmanship today from Barack Obama in Cairo. The highlights for most people today in this speech loaded with many of them was the embracing of Islam culture, but more so for me was two other areas: 1) His continued drive for a two state solution, a position that has of course angered the childish radicals favoring Netanyahu and the Likud party. 2)And his reuse of the word "torture" in regards to condemning the last Administration's illegal practices. Point number one is simple, and Greg Sargent reported on one U.S. Jewish Congressman who is very happy with the direction that Obama is going in . In an interview with me, Dem Rep Robert Wexler, a leading voice in Congress on Israeli-Arab affairs, made a fascinating point, arguing that one of the most important lines in Obama’s Cairo speech was this one: “America will align our policies with those who pursue peace, and we will say in...

From Rennan Linsley of Associated Press Like a storm that has ravished a house or a bunch of children who have spilled food all over themselves, the Cheney Administration has left an unmitigated mess for the rest of the country. Especially the Obama Administration. And it has lead to the current justice department having to make a controversial decisions that may not run completely with the rule of law. One of those decisions is this story in which the the Chinese Ulighurs are being held still at Guantanamo Bay and denied their entrance in the United States. It is indeed a dicey issue, with China potentially angry if the U.S. lets these Ulighurs, who they consider terrorists, free in America. But these men have been deemed not a threat to America, yet this country detained them. So technically, we should take them. These Ulighurs have been offered up to go to other countries that want them, but there have been no takers. (The closest to accepting them was Germany, but as this poster...

Photo from Brennan Linsley of Associated Press On the verge of fulfilling an important promise . The Obama administration will launch a review of the classified files of the approximately 250 detainees at Guantanamo Bay immediately after taking office, as part of an intensive effort to close the U.S. prison in Cuba, according to people who advised the campaign on detainee issues. There is still work to be done however: Although as a candidate Obama publicly expressed his desire to close the detention facility, his transition team stressed this week that the president-elect has not assembled his national security and legal team and that no decisions have been made "about where and how to try the detainees," Denis McDonough, an Obama foreign policy adviser, said in a statement issued Monday. Nevertheless, the ACLU and many others are happy about this: The Agenda's Pending Schedule will be in the comments section, as usual.