Watch House Government Oversight Committee member Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.) call Senate Democrats’ revelations about Bush administration torture a move to “distract people.” That’s some fine government oversight, Congressman. Watch the video, courtesy of C-SPAN, above.
In the wake of a controversial Rolling Stone report published last month on rape at the University of Virginia, a Senate judiciary subcommittee held a hearing on the role of law enforcement in sexual assault cases on college campuses. The Senate Judiciary Committee’s ranking Republican Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa.) made an opening statement for the GOP contingent, pointing out his co-sponsorship of legislation on the matter. “I don’t understand the sensitivities that universities have about rape on campus,” he said. “It’s high time to make sure a crime…
He told CIA interrogators to throw prisoners against the wall, to waterboard them, to make them defecate themselves, and to put them in boxes with insects. And despite disastrous results, the newly released torture report reveals he was rewarded handsomely for his services. His name is James E. Mitchell, and his partner in all of this was Bruce Jessen. They were the architects of the CIA’s post-9/11 interrogation program—the disturbing details of which are just now being revealed to the public after Tuesday’s release of…
Normally, they hold these kinds of hearings about foreign countries – often those American officials want to invade. But, on Tuesday, members of a senate subcommittee looked into the state of civil and human rights in the US. In his final hearing as Chairman of the Judiciary subcommittee on Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) called on the panel to reform the criminal justice system in the next Congress. Sen. Durbin said the regular killing of “unarmed African Americans, men and…
The release of more information about the Bush administration’s CIA torture program is imminent. White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest announced Monday that an unclassified version of the Senate intelligence committee’s report on the regime will be published on Tuesday. But the educational value of Tuesday’s release depends on redactions. If marker-happy staffers and lawyers have their way, Americans might be left with more questions than answers. It appears that scenario will be likely–the summary is said to contain a mere eight percent of the…
New guidelines aimed at stamping out racial profiling in federal law enforcement contain key exclusions, and stop well short of demands for reform made by lawmakers earlier in the year. The rules released Monday by the Department of Justice prohibit certain federal agents from using “race, ethnicity, gender, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, or gender identity to any degree” while conducting routine or spontaneous law enforcement activities. But a footnote buried on the second page of the directive renders it narrow in scope and legally…
The Senate passed legislation Monday evening that would narrow Freedom of Information Act exemptions. The FOIA Improvement Act, which had been approved unanimously by the Senate Judiciary Committee, had been held up by commerce committee chair Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.). A statement released by the commerce committee noted that Sen. Rockefeller obtained concessions from the bill’s supporters before releasing his hold on it. The language of the proposal was amended to establish “Congressional intent that courts should take into consideration the concerns of agencies when…
Just before the deadline expired last week, the Obama administration renewed its authority to collect in bulk the telephone records of millions of Americans. The Department of Justice and the Director of National Intelligence informed the public on Monday about the reauthorization, which came from the top-secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on December 4th. “Given that legislation has not yet been enacted, and given the importance of maintaining the capabilities of the telephony metadata program, the government has sought a 90-day reauthorization of the existing…
President Obama’s choice to succeed Chuck Hagel as Defense Secretary said he lacked knowledge about Iran the same month he approved of a hawkish report on the country’s nuclear program. Ashton Carter made the remarks in September 2008 while speaking on a panel at the Progressive Policy Institute in Washington. At the time, he was co-director for Harvard University’s Preventative Defense Project, and a member of a Bipartisan Policy Center task force on “US policy toward Iranian Nuclear Development.” “I don’t tend to know much…
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest this week was caught off guard by questions about the military’s ongoing ban on transgender servicemembers, despite having almost two months to prepare for the inquiry. He was similarly unprepared in October when asked the same question. “We can look into this a little further if you like,” Earnest told a reporter from the Washington Blade after he was asked on Friday if openly transgender service is a policy that can be implemented independently of officials in charge at…
The co-chair of President Obama’s policing reforms panel on Friday sought to rein in expectations about the initiative’s potential impact. Philadelphia Police Chief Charles Ramsey pointed out that the task force only has three months, “which isn’t a whole lot of time,” and warned that tangible change might not even result from the report. “The easy part is writing the recommendations,” he said on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal. “The hard part is implementing something.” Ramsey also intoned that the panel was formed, in part, as part of…