Antiwar.com Blog

Michael Froomkin and Billmon both have good posts up about yesterday’s White House and Pentagon document dump. Froomkin concentrates on the order signed by Bush on Feb. 7, 2002, which contains what Froomkin refers to as the ” Royalist theory of Presidential power,” in point 2b: “I accept the legal conclusion of the attorney general and the Department of Justice that I have the authority under the Constitution to suspend Geneva as between the United States and Afghanistan, but I decline to exercise that authority at this time.” Also see this post on the OLC’s repudiation of it’s torture justification memo.

Billmon points out that none of the released documents cover the critical period during which most of the Iraqi torture occurred:

It also appears that neither the White House’s nor the Pentagon’s document dump extend much beyond the spring of 2003. This leaves out the critical period in the fall and winter of last year, when the Iraqi insurgency exploded into a major problem and the administration’s demands for better, more actionable intelligence jumped off the chart. According to Sy Hersh, this is when the Pentagon extended “Copper Green” – the Pentagon’s existing secret program for capturing and interrogating high-ranking Al Qaeda operatives – to Iraq.

Great line from this Seattle Times article.

According to a Washington-based intelligence newsletter Defense and Foreign Affairs, Bosnia’s viceroy “Paddy” Ashdown’s eagerness to support his late friend Alija Izetbegovic resulted in a major blow to anti-terrorism intelligence efforts on the eve of the Athens Olympics. Says DFA:

“Significantly, it was understood to be SFOR leadership which caused the Bosnia-Herzegovina ‘High Representative,’ Paddy Ashdown, to attempt a face-saving move in June 2004 which effectively reversed his decision of April 20, 2004, to arbitrarily remove the Head of the [Serb Republic] Secretariat for Cooperation with the [ICTY], Dejan Miletic.
Mr Miletic had been removed for refusing to sign off on a statement which essentially — at Ashdown’s insistence — accepted responsibility for the so-called ‘Srebrenica Massacre’ of 1995. The Secretariat had provided substantial evidence contradicting Ashdown’s totally unsubstantiated claims about the incident.
SFOR officials subsequently told the Office of the High Representative that this move had dealt a major blow to counter-terrorism intelligence in Bosnia-Herzegovina at a critical time.” Continue reading “Viceroy’s vendetta hurt anti-terror efforts?”

Be sure to check out Gene Callahan’s blog. I’m a little hesitant to promote a blog so narrowly fixated on “philosophy, religion, theology, economics, sociology, history, physics, mathematics, politics, current events, computers, sports, art, culture, programming languages, nightlife, travel, artificial intelligence, ethics, food, and secret sex tips gleaned from my years spent with various Himalayan masters,” but I like Gene, so deal with it.

From (appropriately) WorldNetDaily:

President Bush plans to unveil next month a sweeping mental health initiative that recommends screening for every citizen and promotes the use of expensive antidepressants and antipsychotic drugs favored by supporters of the administration. …

The panel found that “despite their prevalence, mental disorders often go undiagnosed” and recommended comprehensive mental health screening for “consumers of all ages,” including preschool children. …

The commission recommended that the screening be linked with “treatment and supports,” including “state-of-the-art treatments” using “specific medications for specific conditions.” …

Call me crazy, but didn’t I predict all this?

Gene Healy finds this long lost glimpse into the sick mind of Fred Barnes:

In an essay in the Feb. 24 [1997] Weekly Standard, Barnes laments the current “ennui” in Washington and confesses his longings for the glory days of old — you know, the Golden Age commonly known as “the Bush administration.” “The last great moment in Washington was Desert Storm,” Barnes writes, with an almost audible sigh. “It was exciting to follow and write about … Every press conference, I watched. Desert Storm was all I thought about or talked about. My stories concentrated on President Bush’s heroic role in the war. As best I recall, he wasn’t in a funk, not even for a single fleeting moment.”

Via Salon.