SECRECY & THE SECURITY STATE - page 4

The feud between President Trump and Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) has the potential to fuel a Constitutional power struggle. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee chair presided over a hearing on Tuesday to explore the President’s legal authority to launch nuclear weapons. Corker said he wanted to explore “the realities of our system.” Democrats thanked Corker for holding the hearing. A number of them noted concerns about President Trump’s tempestuous behavior. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) invoked worries about Trump’s mental stability, for example. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.)…

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President Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Homeland Security distanced herself from comments made by Trump–in the aftermath of far-right militant violence last summer. Kirstjen Nielsen said that she “disavows any form of violence, whether that be antisemitic, white supremist [sic], any kind of radicalization,” when asked on Wednesday at her confirmation hearing. Nielsen had been asked by Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) if she condemned white nationalism, white supremacy, antisemitism, and Islamophobia. Each time, the nominee responded “yes,” without missing a beat. In August,…

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President Trump seized on Tuesday’s truck attack in New York City to propose sweeping immigration reforms, and floated the idea of putting new inmates in Guantanamo Bay. Ahead of a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Trump spoke briefly to reporters about the assault in lower Manhattan, which left 8 people dead and injured more than a dozen. The President described the suspect in custody, Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov, as an “animal,” and hit out at the program Saipov reportedly used in 2010 to come to the US, from Uzbekistan. Trump stated…

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As the most prominent official overseeing the War in Afghanistan, John Sopko has made some enemies among hawks on Capitol Hill. At a House Oversight Committee panel on Wednesday, Sopko had a warning for them. “The first day I’m out of this job–because it’s not by job to talk policy–I’m happy to publicly tell you what I really think about our mission in Afghanistan,” he said. The Special Inspector General of Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) was responding to a question from Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.). A…

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The Senate will soon consider an appellate court nominee who once praised electric shock punishment as a law professor. Stephanos Bibas–picked by President Trump to preside over the Third Circuit–wrote a paper in 2009, claiming that mild electrocution would be an acceptable alternative to imprisonment. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is planning on holding a confirmation vote on Bibas later this week. Bibas is among four federal appellate circuit judges set to be considered in the next few days by the upper chamber. Sen.…

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A federal judge ruled that President Trump’s executive order barring military service by openly transgender individuals likely violates the constitution. The order came down on Monday from a District Court in Washington. Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly blocked implementation of the President’s directive, which was first issued via a series of tweets in July. Plaintiffs against the administration included transgender individuals currently serving in the military who argued their career, family, and in some cases, medical care were put in jeopardy by the ban. They had argued…

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Someone who served as a foreign policy adviser to Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign has pleaded guilty to deceiving investigators probing alleged Russian interference in last year’s election. George Papadopoulos admitted to having made “material false statements and material omissions” during a January interview with FBI agents. The confession, which was revealed on Monday, was the first guilty plea to come out of special prosecutor Bob Mueller’s probe into allegations of Russian meddling and Trump campaign collusion. Papadopoulous’ plea also came on the same day…

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Botched condolences from President Trump to a Gold Star widow prompted White House Chief of Staff John Kelly on Thursday to give reporters a play-by-play of the administration’s outreach to grieving military families. Left out of Kelly’s account, however, was the cause of that grieving: an explanation for why a dozen US Army Green Berets were in Niger, when an ambush left four of them dead. “The fact of the matter is,” Kelly told the press, “young men and women that were our uniforms are deployed around…

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US-backed forces’ caused more than a thousand fatal casualties while expelling the Islamic State (ISIS) from Raqqa, according to monitoring groups. Since operations started in June–on the Syrian capital of the self-proclaimed caliphate–at least 1,352 civilians were killed by coalition air-strikes, according to the London-based non-profit Airwars.org. Citing research from the Syrian Network for Human Rights, the group also said that ISIS militants were responsible for 311 civilian deaths, while US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces were deemed responsible for 191 civilian fatalities. “ISIS put civilians in…

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The Attorney General rebuffed several Senators’ questions on Wednesday, relying on a contrived theory of executive privilege to remain silent on issues ranging from the firing of James Comey to the pardoning of disgraced Sheriff Joe Arpaio. The hearing also revealed that the Senate Judiciary Committee is growing increasingly impatient with the DOJ’s lack of responsiveness to inquiries. Even before he fielded questions, Attorney General Jeff Sessions informed the committee that he would not be revealing the details of any conversations he may have had…

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President Trump’s first nominee to serve on the second most powerful federal court refused to unequivocally describe waterboarding as “torture.” Gregory Katsas–picked to fill a vacancy on the DC Circuit Court of Appeals–told Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) on Tuesday that the coercive technique was “likely torture, in many circumstances.” “I hesitate to answer the question in the abstract not knowing the circumstances or the nature of the program,” Katsas told Durbin at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. He noted that waterboarding “has…

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