Anarchoblogs

News and views from around the web posted to the Wonderland Wire:

• Proposition 8 Overturned: Gay Marriage Ban Ruled Unconstitutional | AP 4 August 2010
• Allstate Quarterly Profit Slips 63% on Derivatives | BusinessWeek 4 August 2010
• Prudential Profit Jumps Sevenfold on Investments | BusinessWeek 4 August 2010
• Goldman Sachs Sells $788.5 Million of Mortgage Bonds | BusinessWeek 4 August 2010
• Senate to Approve $26 Billion for Schools and States | NY Times 4 August 2010
• Europe exporting electronic waste despite ban | BBC News 4 August 2010
• ‘Those who want war will get war’: Rwanda’s Kagame | AFP 4 August 2010
• Neighboring countries compete for influence in Iraq | LA Times 4 August 2010
• Pakistani police targeted in blast (Video) | Reuters 4 August 2010
• Maoists clash with Indian police | AJ English 4 August 2010
• US stresses aid to Pakistan, eyeing improved image | AP 4 August 2010
• UN: Israel did not cross border | AJ English 4 August 2010
• UPDATED: Scores injured in explosions, Israeli attacks on Gaza | ei 4 August 2010
• U.S. Treasury unveils new action against Iran | McClatchy 4 August 2010
• U.S. still undecided on joining landmines treaty | Reuters 4 August 2010
• BP relooping video of oil leak, expert charges | Raw Story 4 August 2010
• Ecuador signs $3.6bn deal not to exploit oil-rich Amazon reserve | The Guardian 4 August 2010
• Goldman Says High Court Case Bars Basis Capital Suit | BusinessWeek 4 August 2010
• U.S. Says 74 Percent of BP Oil Gone From Gulf Waters | BusinessWeek 4 August 2010
• N.Y. Fed May Require Banks to Buy Back Faulty Loans | BusinessWeek 4 August 2010
• After Afghan War Leaks, Revisions in a Shield Bill | NY Times 4 August 2010
• ‘Static Kill’ Appears to Be Working in Well, BP Says | NY Times 4 August 2010
• Gareth Porter on Antiwar Radio with Scott Horton 4 August 2010
• Eric Margolis and Tom Engelhardt on Antiwar Radio with Scott Horton 4 August 2010
• Pardiss Kebriaei on Antiwar Radio with Scott Horton 4 August 2010
• Dahr Jamail on Antiwar Radio with Scott Horton 4 August 2010
• Copyright Office Rules in Favor of Fair Use and Consumer Freedom – Edward Lee | HuffPo 4 August 2010
• Body Scan Images From Security Checkpoints Were Saved By Feds | HuffPo 4 August 2010
• Michael Hastings, Reporter Whose Rolling Stone Article Felled McChrystal, Denied Afghan Embed | AP 4 August 2010
• ‘Capture or Kill’: Germany Gave Names to Secret Taliban Hit List | SPIEGEL ONLINE 3 August 2010
• Where’s the oil? It’s oozing out of the Louisiana ground | Yahoo! News 3 August 2010
• Video sheds light on Indonesia military actions | AP 3 August 2010
• Desmond Tutu Rebukes Sri Lanka – The Lede Blog | NY Times 3 August 2010
• New Rules Stress G.I.s’ Limits in Afghan Fighting | NY Times 3 August 2010
• Wikileaks Must be Protected and Respected – George Donnelly | Arm your Mind for Liberty 3 August 2010
• U.N. panel removes 45 names from al Qaeda, Taliban blacklist | CNN 3 August 2010
• Pakistan Vies With Islamists to Aid Flood Victims – The Lede Blog | NY Times 3 August 2010
• Jeremy Scahill on Obama’s Iraq Withdrawal That Isn’t (Video) | Little Alex in Wonderland 3 August 2010
• The Myths That Made an Empire – Bruce Fein | The American Conservative 3 August 2010
• Too Lazy To Read The Wikileaks Data? Here It Is, In Easily Digestable Video Format | zero hedge 3 August 2010
• Was there really a “nuclear revolution?” | Stephen M. Walt 3 August 2010
• Obama is a Foreign Policy Failure – Stephen M. Walt | FP Magazine 3 August 2010
• Republicans move to block US citizenship for children of illegal aliens | The Guardian 3 August 2010
• Sri Lanka arrests over 1,500 Tiger suspects: PM | AFP 3 August 2010
• China mines still deadly, as bosses ordered below | AP 3 August 2010
• 39 killed in Iraq attacks as Qaeda plants flag | AFP 3 August 2010
• Assad: We’ll support Lebanon in face of criminal Israeli aggression | Haaretz 3 August 2010
• New Evidence About Prisoners Held in Secret C.I.A. Prisons in Poland and Romania – Andy Worthington | Little Alex in Wonderland 3 August 2010
• Iran, Venezuela to form joint oil firm | Press TV 3 August 2010
• US Congressman calls for Wikileaks whistleblower to be executed – We don’t like whistleblowers in the army | TechEye 3 August 2010
• BREAKING: BP Just Got Hit With A $10 Billion Lawsuit That Has Nothing To Do With The Oil Spill | Business Insider 3 August 2010
• ACLU, CCR seek to have Obama enjoined from killing Awlaki without due process – Glenn Greenwald | Salon.com 3 August 2010
• Simon v. Simon – Charles Davis | false dichotomy 3 August 2010
• NYT: Pervasive surveillance is a serious threat — in China – Glenn Greenwald | Salon.com 3 August 2010
• Obama Drops 2009 Pledge to Withdraw Combat Troops from Iraq – Gareth Porter | IPS 3 August 2010
• Should The U.S. Kidnap WikiLeak’s Founder Julian Assange? – Swampland | TIME.com 3 August 2010
• Whistleblower: BP used dispersants to hide oil – Allison Kilkenny | Unreported 3 August 2010
• US official: Nuclear inspection in Syria possible | AP 3 August 2010
• The War in Afghanistan: Echoes of Vietnam – Noam Chomsky | Little Alex in Wonderland 3 August 2010
• Somali Islamists demand cash and jewelry for holy war | Reuters 3 August 2010
• Rwandan Ntawukulilyayo gets 25 years for genocide crime | BBC News 3 August 2010
• Sudan’s Bashir to visit Libya: state agency | AFP 3 August 2010
• Indian Kashmir protests after deaths | AFP 3 August 2010
• Faith in Obama’s handling of Afghan war at record low: poll | AFP 3 August 2010
• Report: Turkey could host advanced U.S. radar to confront Iran missile threat | Haaretz 3 August 2010
• Israel approves new east Jerusalem apartments | AP 3 August 2010
• Former Saddam official sentenced to death | AFP 3 August 2010
• Poll: Identity, blending in important to Hispanics | AP 3 August 2010
• Iraq’s Garden of Eden: Restoring the Paradise that Saddam Destroyed | SPIEGEL ONLINE 3 August 2010
• Special Report: China bets future on inland cities | Reuters 3 August 2010
• Army lawyer asks Supreme Court to stop Guantánamo trial | MiamiHerald.com 3 August 2010
• BP oil spill – the static kill explained | The Guardian 3 August 2010
• Pakistan’s Zardari says war with Taliban being lost | Reuters 3 August 2010
• BP Agrees on $1.9 Billion Colombia Sale to Ecopetrol, Talisman | BusinessWeek 3 August 2010
• Iran wants fighter jets back from US | Press TV 3 August 2010
• The latest developments in the oil spill | WaPo 3 August 2010
• N. Korea Threatens South Over Drills | NY Times 3 August 2010
• The Dark Side of the Boom: Chinese Fight Property Seizures by the State | SPIEGEL ONLINE 3 August 2010

Filed under: Daily Briefing Tagged: 14th Amendment, ACLU, Aegis System, Af-Pak War, Afghanistan, al-Qaeda, al-Quds, Allison Kilkenny, Allstate, Amazon, American Empire, Andy Worthington, Anwar al-Awlaki, Asif Ali Zardari, assimilation, Baathists, bailout, Bashar Assad, black sites, body scanners, BP, Bradley Manning, Bruce Fein, CCR, Charles Davis, China, Chuck Schumer, CIA, cluster bombs, COIN, Colombia, copyrights, Dahr Jamail, Death Penalty, Desmond Tutu, Dianne Feinstein, dispersants, domestic surveillance, DPRK, e-waste, East Jerusalem, economic sanctions, Ecopetrol, Ecuador oil drilling, Edward Lee, embed journalists, Eric Margolis, extrajudicial assassination, fair use, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Gareth Porter, gay marriage, Gaza, George Donnelly, Germany, Glenn Greenwald, Goldman Sachs, Guantanamo Bay, Gulf oil spill, Hizbollah, human rghts, ICC, IED's, illegal immirgation, immigration, imperialism, India, Iran, Iraq, Iraq War, Iraq withdrawal, IRGC, Islamic State of Iraq, Israel, Jeremy Scahill, JPEL, Julian Assange, Kagame, Kashmir, land grabbing, landmine treaty, Lebanon, Libya, LTTE, Marc Lynch, Marc Thiessen, Michael Hastings, Middle East, Mike Rogers, missile shields, Noam Chomsky, North Korea, nuclear revolution, nuclear weapons, NY Fed, NY Times, Obama, Obama Administration, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, Omar Khadr, OTC derivatives, Pakistan, Pardiss Kebriaei, poverty, Prop 8, Prudential, Rwanda, Rwanda genocide, SCOTUS, SOFA, Somalia, South Korea, Sri Lanka, state capitalism, static kill, Status of Forces Agreement, Stephen Walt, Sudan, Syria, Taliban, Talisman, Tamil Tigers, TARP, Task Force 373, TF 373, Timothy Geithner, Tom Engelhardt, toxic assets, Treasury Department, TSA, Turkey, UN, UN Security Council, Venezuela, Wall Street, Wikileaks

So this week we learned that Vice President Dick Cheney created a CIA hit squad taking orders directly from his office — a little factoid which he happened to keep secret throughout the remainder of the Bush Administration. From Reuters:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The CIA withheld information from the U.S. Congress about a secret counterterrorism program on orders from former Vice President Dick Cheney, a senator said on Sunday as Democrats called for an investigation. … The still-secret program, which The New York Times said never became operational, began after the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001.

The Wall Street Journal said the secret initiative terminated by Panetta was an effort to carry out a 2001 authorization by then Republican President George W. Bush to capture or kill al Qaeda operatives.

—Reuters (2009-07-12): Cheney hid CIA program from Congress: senator

Let’s get some reactions from arch-liberal power-brokers Patrick Leahy and Diane Feinstein:

Feinstein and Democrat Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, insisted no one should go outside the law.

Asked about Cheney’s alleged involvement, Leahy told the CBS program Face the Nation: I’d like to know if it’s true or not. I mean, nobody in this country is above the law … You can’t have somebody say, well, if you’re vice president, you don’t have to obey the law.

Feinstein said Congress should have been told.

This is a big problem, because the law is very clear. And I understand the need of the day, which was when America was in shock after September 11, she said on Fox. But … I think you weaken your case when you go outside of the law.

—Reuters (2009-07-12): Cheney hid CIA program from Congress: senator

Oh, well. It was wrong because it wasn’t The Law.

So, just so we’re clear, if Cheney and Bush had gotten Congress to change the federal laws so that it would be perfectly legal for the Vice President of the United States to create unaccountable secret international death squads that take orders from, and report only to the highest levels of, Executive power, would that have somehow made it alright?

Really?

See also:

• GT 2006-01-05: An Open Question for Constitutionalist Liberals
• GT 2008-09-17: The statist We don’t.
• GT 2007-09-06: Marching orders