As expected, ex-Senator Norm Coleman (R-MN) filed an appeal today to the Minnesota Supreme Court. In a few weeks it will have been six months since the election.

Meanwhile, donations continue to pour in to counter Coleman's obstinacy at normdollar.com.

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April 20, 2009 News Corp

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David Shuster talks to Jeff Stein about his article at CQ Politics. Sources: Wiretap Recorded Rep. Harman Promising to Intervene for AIPAC. From the article:

Rep. Jane Harman , the California Democrat with a longtime involvement in intelligence issues, was overheard on an NSA wiretap telling a suspected Israeli agent that she would lobby the Justice Department reduce espionage-related charges against two officials of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, the most powerful pro-Israel organization in Washington.

Harman was recorded saying she would "waddle into" the AIPAC case "if you think it'll make a difference," according to two former senior national security officials familiar with the NSA transcript.

In exchange for Harman's help, the sources said, the suspected Israeli agent pledged to help lobby Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif., then-House minority leader, to appoint Harman chair of the Intelligence Committee after the 2006 elections, which the Democrats were heavily favored to win.

Seemingly wary of what she had just agreed to, according to an official who read the NSA transcript, Harman hung up after saying, "This conversation doesn't exist."

Harman declined to discuss the wiretap allegations, instead issuing an angry denial through a spokesman.

"These claims are an outrageous and recycled canard, and have no basis in fact," Harman said in a prepared statement. "I never engaged in any such activity. Those who are peddling these false accusations should be ashamed of themselves."

It's true that allegations of pro-Israel lobbyists trying to help Harman get the chairmanship of the intelligence panel by lobbying and raising money for Pelosi aren't new.

They were widely reported in 2006, along with allegations that the FBI launched an investigation of Harman that was eventually dropped for a "lack of evidence."

What is new is that Harman is said to have been picked up on a court-approved NSA tap directed at alleged Israel covert action operations in Washington.

And that, contrary to reports that the Harman investigation was dropped for "lack of evidence," it was Alberto R. Gonzales, President Bush's top counsel and then attorney general, who intervened to stop the Harman probe.

Why? Because, according to three top former national security officials, Gonzales wanted Harman to be able to help defend the administration's warrantless wiretapping program, which was about break in The New York Times and engulf the White House.

I'm sure we'll be hearing a lot more about this as more of the facts of the case come to light. Think Progress has Rep. Harman's response:

Harman responds to CQ: Report 'recycles three year-old descredited reporting.'

April 20, 2009 CNN

Heather:

David Sirota hits Republican strategist Cheri Jacobus for her Bush kept us safe from a terrorist attack talking points. I almost fell out my chair when I heard her say this in response:

Jacobus: We have president -- our last president who went out as an unpopular president, but when he was taking very strong measures against the terrorists, he was the most popular president in history. He kept us safe for nine years. And when I -- for many years it was since 9/11. And now we have a very popular president whose popular personally going in and sort of riding that wave of optimism.

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While discussing the recently released torture memos, Michael Smerconish tries to dismiss the torture as rare and isolated incidents and gets his talking points shot down from both Chris Matthews and Joe Conason. Matthews tries to explain the relationship him between those two prisons to him and argues that the underlings at those prisons did not come up with those policies on their own. He's right of course, but if he really wanted to drive that point home he should have asked Smerconish if he'd read Janis Karpinski's book. From part of her interview on Democracy Now explaining how Abu Ghraib was "Gitmo-ized":

AMY GOODMAN: Our guest is the former Commanding General of Abu Ghraib. Her name is Janis Karpinski. She was a Brigadier General. She has been demoted to Colonel. She is the only one of the Generals who has been demoted at this point. And she has written a book about her experience. It’s called One Woman’s Army: The Commanding General of Abu Ghraib Tells Her Story. We’re talking about General Miller, General Geoffrey Miller, coming from Guantanamo to Iraq, to the Abu Ghraib prison, the biggest of the prison facilities. You were in charge of it and all of the prison facilities in Iraq.

COL. JANIS KARPINSKI: Correct.

AMY GOODMAN: And he said he was there to “Gitmo-ize” Abu Ghraib. We have heard the stories out of Guantanamo. We now certainly know what happened at—some of what has happened at Abu Ghraib, in Cell Blocks 1A and 1B, only because soldiers themselves took photographs, not clear what has been happening throughout Iraq.

COL. JANIS KARPINSKI: Correct.

AMY GOODMAN: Is there any reason to believe this hasn’t happened in the other facilities that you oversaw?

COL. JANIS KARPINSKI: Well, there were only—interrogation operations were only taking place—at prisons under my control, interrogations were only being conducted at Abu Ghraib, and they were only being conducted in interrogation facilities built specifically for interrogations at Abu Ghraib. There was what they called “Interrogation Facility Wood” and “Interrogation Facility Steel.” The pictures, although they were—when they were released, it was widely reported that this was during interrogation operations. In fact, it was not during interrogation operations. These pictures were being staged and set up at the direction of contract interrogators, civilian contract interrogators, for the use in future interrogations.

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Brit Hume and Bill Kristol were in usual form on Fox News Sunday crying about the release of the torture memos by the Obama administration. Without blinking an eye Bill Kristol dismisses the methods used in the interrogations.

Wallace: As you read the memos and you learn what we did and how top Justice Department officials justified it, are you struck by how brutal we were or how careful we were?

Kristol: How careful. I mean has any other country at war gotten memos from the Justice Department? Extremely carefully of recent I would say. Especially the Steve Bradbury 2005 memos before going ahead and trying to deal with the rather small number of terrorists who had been involved in murdering thousands of Americans and were very much intending to do more of that..I think..you read those memos, you think that's what everyone's so upset about.

Kristol goes on to rant about the memos being released and decry the potential investigations that can come from it. I'd like to know how anyone could read the things that were in those memos and have that kind of response?

Brit Hume thinks that this is just old news now since the Obama administration has decided to stop torturing prisoners and can't understand what possible benefit can come from the specifics being released to the terrorists. Brit I hate to tell you this but I think the gist of what was in those memos has been out in the public domain for some time now for those terrorists to read.

All of these talking heads today had a couple of themes with their arguments. One that if torturing prisoners "worked" and we got some vital information from them, then it's just fine to violate the law and it justifies this brutality. The other is the we need to look forward argument and that there's no need to dwell on what happened because the Obama administration says using these methods has stopped. Would they ever apply that same argument to defend some drug dealer on the street that killed someone or to any street crime that occurs in the United States for that matter? Somehow I doubt it.

I wonder just how "careful" Kristol would think anyone was being if he was waterboarded an average of over six times a day for a month? And if it didn't work the first five or ten times even, what are you going to get from anyone from waterboarding them that many times other than some sadistic pleasure from knowing you're punishing the person being waterboarded? I wonder how "careful" he would think they were if it was his child being tortured in front of him because someone thought he was a terrorist? I wonder how "careful" he would think they were if it was his head getting knocked in?

We have laws on the books that don't allow policemen to beat confessions out of people in the United States for a reason. Why these clowns can't manage to bring the same reasoning to this debate is beyond me.

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From Fox News Sunday April 19, 2009. After being shown a group of highly edited clips of President Obama talking about, as Chris Wallace puts it, "apologizing" for previous Presidents, he asks if reaching out to other countries is constructive or just "pandering".

Graham: Well I tell you the fruits of this effort will determine how successful that it is. It doesn't set well with me but he is now my President. The key is can he rally the world to stop the Iranians from producing nuclear weapons? Can he rally the world to do something about the North Korean missile program that is moving forward? Can he rally the world to impose sanctions on North Korea after they kick out the weapons inspectors?

If talking poorly about the past and the United States can do that..uh..good. I don't believe it will. We're looking now for action, not just rhetoric, not political rhetoric. He has a chance and an opportunity and a requirement to do something about Iran and North Korea by getting the world involved, China and Russia particularly. We'll see if he's able to do, to perform that task. That is his job now.

How'd that "action" work out from your buddy G.W. Bush, Senator? Just what type of "action" are you talking about now? We don't need any more cowboy diplomacy from our President. Senator McCaskill points out that the U.S. has been arrogant and she's right. Heaven forbid it offends poor Lindsey Graham's sensibilities. Although he really didn't look like his heart was in it today. Usually he's so animated he looks like he's ready to jump out of his chair. Maybe repeating all those talking points day in and day out is finally starting to wear on him.

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[YouTube]

This is one of those stories where an individual's predicament has a direct effect on international relations, and at a time which could not be worse for Iran. Perhaps sensing the ramifications, Iran's President Ahmadinejad just released a statement calling for a full defense of Saberi. Hard-line clerics in Iran would like nothing more than to stall restoring a semblance of normal relations with the U.S. And since it is they, not the token leader Ahmadinejad who runs the show there it's hard to say where this will all end. There are also elections in June to consider when their current president could easily be replaced.

(Associated Press) Iran convicted an American journalist of spying for the United States and sentenced her to eight years in prison, her lawyer said Saturday, complicating the Obama administration's efforts to break a 30-year-old diplomatic deadlock with Tehran.

The White House said President Barack Obama was "deeply disappointed" by the conviction, while the journalist's father told a radio station his daughter was tricked into making incriminating statements by officials who told her they would free her if she did.

It was the first time Iran has found an American journalist guilty of espionage _ a crime that can carry the death penalty.

Roxana Saberi, a 31-year-old dual American-Iranian citizen, was arrested in late January and initially accused of working without press credentials. But earlier this month, an Iranian judge leveled a far more serious allegation, charging her with spying for the United States.

The Fargo, North Dakota native had been living in Iran for six years and had worked as a freelance reporter for several news organizations including National Public Radio and the British Broadcasting Corp.

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Chris Matthews asks Rep. John Culberson to respond to Tom DeLay's whining about Texas being a donor state and points out that the states which are the biggest donor states are mainly blue states and the ones which receive the most are primarily red states. Of course Culberson has to try to change the subject and talk about not wanting our children taxed instead of answering the question. You sure didn't see any Republicans coming on the television worried about our children's future while Bush was breaking the bank. Matthews gives it another shot and then... what else could he possibly retreat to? Culberson pulls out the France/socialism boogeyman card.

Matthews: Do you think Texas has a special complaint against the union because you believe that you're a donor state. That's what Tom DeLay said last night. A special complaint. It turns out that a lot of the liberal states which you guys would call Democrat states up in the Northeast, states like New Jersey, are the ones that spend the most money in taxes. Now maybe they should be complainers like Texas but, they're not complaining. Why are you guys complaining? Why are the pitchforks so out in the rural states?

Culberson: Because Texas is, because we see Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama and this Congress trying to turn America into France. And Texas is not going to become France. We don't want to be a socialist, European nation. We treasure our freedom. We treasure local government. We treasure the right to let Texans run Texas.

Yeah, heaven forbid the US could become anything like that scary, scary France. The horror of possibly having nationalized health care, shorter work weeks and stronger unions. I don't know how we'd survive it. Matthews makes Culberson look as foolish as he is with his Texas loves America more than anyone nonsense that follows. They love it so much they want to leave it.

Culberson: ..the core point here is Texans have a special feeling in our hearts about what it means to be an American. And to be an American means the government should leave me alone and get off my back and get out of my way and get out of my wallet...(crosstalk)

Matthews: Who has that special feeling?

Culberson: More than anyone else I think Texans have a special feeling in their heart about what it means to be an American and the core values that made Americans...(crosstalk)

Matthews: You know how absurd that is Congressman. You say that you guys are more emotional about your Americanism and yet you've got a Governor talking about splitting from America. You know how absurd that sounds.

Culberson: He's not serious about it. Governor Perry...

Matthews: Why'd he..he did it all week this week. (crosstalk) You say you love the country but you're threatening to leave it.

Yes completely absurd and hypocritical but I'm sure they won't let that stop them from continuing with the absurdity. Never does. I want to hear that same tough talk out of these idiots the next time they have a hurricane and need some help from the Federal government.

April 17, 2009 CNN

Transcript from CNN:

BLITZER: Waiting to hear from the president of the United States. We'll go there as soon as he starts speaking. He's expected to respond to Raul Castro. The latest overture is going back and forth between the U.S. and Cuban governments. Stand by for that.

Images of hooded detainees we've seen this before but secret memos just released are giving America and the world a whole new look at some interrogation tactics okayed by the Bush administration. Techniques some consider torture and now there's new fallout from the decision to make the documents public. We asked CNN's Brian Todd to take a closer look at these unfolding developments. Brian?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, the images presented in these memos are still reverberating. For example, the sanction of waterboarding where Bush administration lawyers outline how to pour water on a suspect's face to create the sensation of drowning, rules which according to the memos released were often broken by using larger volumes of water than allowed. Sleep deprivation where a suspect is shackled standing up sometimes for almost 11 days straight, all designed to get information from terror suspects. But now the release of these memos is turning into one of President Obama's most scrutinized moves.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TODD (voice-over): Much of the push back comes from those who served on President Bush's security team, who say his successor is tying his own hands in the future fight against terror. Former CIA director Michael Hayden and former attorney general Michael Mukasey write in the "Wall Street Journal", "The release of the opinions on interrogations will invite the kind of institutional timidity and fear of recrimination that weakened intelligence gathering in the past. And that we came to sorely regret on September 11." They and former homeland security adviser Fran Townsend, a CNN analyst, also argue that methods like cramped confinement for a limited time used against al Qaeda suspect Abu Zubaydah worked in locating the 9/11 mastermind.

FRANCES TOWNSEND, FORMER BUSH HOMELAND SECURITY ADVISER: The use and technique led to the ultimate capture of Khalid Sheikh Muhammad. So there is an argument to be made that in limited circumstances these techniques can be effective in preventing terrorist attacks.

TODD: But techniques that were not as harsh have worked just as well says a former army lawyer who's now a human rights advocate.

BRIG. GE. JAMES P. CULLEN (RET.), HUMAN RIGHTS FIRST: We got the top guy in al Qaeda and Mesopotamia by using techniques that army military intelligence used in accordance with the manual and we got excellent information.

TODD: Another key question moving forward, consequences for those involved in the use of these techniques. The Obama administration says CIA officials won't be prosecuted. But what about Bush administration lawyers who wrote that methods like stress positions and sleep deprivation were legal, like top Justice Department officials Jay Bybee and Steven Bradbury.

DAVID GERGEN, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: We need to know the facts, but we don't need a witch hunt. I don't think that's appropriate for the people who are working in the agency. I also don't think it's something that Barack Obama needs in his presidency right now.

(END OF VIDEOTAPE)

TODD: Still Senator Patrick Leahy and Congressman John Conyers, democrats who head the judiciary committees in congress are both calling for independent commissions outside congress to investigate the drafting of these memos. When we pressed them, aides to Leahy and Conyers would not say whether they would want Jay Bybee and Steven Bradbury specifically called before those commissions. Wolf?

BLITZER: Brian, there's still very much the possibility that officials elsewhere around the world, especially in Spain could not only investigate but charge some of these Bush administration officials.

TODD: That is possible. A Spanish judge just today went against recommendations of prosecutors and kept alive an investigation into whether Jay Bybee, also former attorney general Alberto Gonzales and other Bush administration officials broke international law when writing some of these interrogation guidelines. So those possibilities still technically exist.

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