Bush administration

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Yoo Fights Back on Torture
 Yoo Fights Back on Torture 
Jul 27, 2009 7:13 AM CDT

Yoo Fights Back on Torture

(Newser) - The embattled Bush administration lawyer who drafted memos justifying waterboarding and warrantless wiretaps is fighting back as his role comes under greater scrutiny, the Washington Post reports. John Yoo, now a University of California law professor, has been giving speeches around the country defending the tactics and his view that...

US Brands Refugees 'Terrorists', Denies Asylum

All armed groups considered "terrorists"

(Newser) - Refugees hoping to stay in America are SOL if they backed armed movements back home—even if they fought dictators or have since worked for the United States, McClatchy reports. Following a Patriot Act provision, officials have denied more than 7,000 requests for green cards, refugee status, and asylum...

Bush Considered Deploying Military for US Terror Arrests

(Newser) - President Bush seriously considered deploying the military to arrest terror suspects in a Buffalo suburb in 2002, former Bush administration officials tell the New York Times. Dick Cheney was in favor of the almost unprecedented deployment of troops on American soil, the officials say, while Condoleezza Rice and others were...

Bloated Baghdad Embassy Needs 'Rightsizing': State

(Newser) - An internal State Department assessment has deemed the recently completed US embassy in Baghdad grievously overstaffed, McClatchy Newspapers report. “There is a clear consensus from the top to the bottom of the embassy,” State’s inspector general writes. “The time has come for a significant rightsizing.”...

Bush Press Flak Fleischer Now Coaches Jocks

Longtime fan Fleischer brings media know-how to NFL, MLB

(Newser) - President Bush’s onetime press secretary has embraced another passion: sports, the Washington Post reports. Helping athletes from the NFL, Major League Baseball, and elsewhere deal with the media blitz was an easy transition, Ari Fleischer says: “The only two institutions in our society that have their events covered...

'Strategic Patience' Will Neuter Al Qaeda
 'Strategic Patience' 
 Will Neuter Al Qaeda 
ANALYSIS
Jul 17, 2009 2:52 PM CDT

'Strategic Patience' Will Neuter Al Qaeda

(Newser) - Al Qaeda is weak militarily and “has been rejected by a great majority of Muslims,” Steve Coll writes in the New Yorker, but the terrorist organization and its affiliates can still create a “shock” like today's bombings in Jakarta. Despite the group's apparent inability to pull off...

Yoo: Wiretaps Were Legal and Necessary
Yoo: Wiretaps Were Legal and Necessary
OPINION
Jul 16, 2009 7:24 AM CDT

Yoo: Wiretaps Were Legal and Necessary

President had right to violate 'obsolete' FISA, Bush lawyer writes

(Newser) - Last week the inspectors general of the Justice Department, CIA, and other agencies suggested the Bush administration violated the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, singling out lawyer John Yoo for memos justifying warrantless wiretapping. Yoo defends himself today in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, writing that FISA was "an obsolete...

CIA Assassin Squads: Who Is It OK to Kill?
CIA Assassin Squads:
Who Is It OK to Kill?
OPINION
Jul 15, 2009 9:38 AM CDT

CIA Assassin Squads: Who Is It OK to Kill?

Cheney's secret killers likely to wind up on wrong side of history

(Newser) - It’s hard to imagine many Americans would object to their country assassinating Osama bin Laden, and Walter Shapiro of Politics Daily is no different. So why are he, and others, so queasy about the CIA hit squads that, we learned Monday, have been hunting terrorist leaders since 9/11? Because...

CIA Sought to Launch Paramilitary Assassin Units

(Newser) - The CIA program kept secret from lawmakers and canceled by Leon Panetta last month sought to establish paramilitary units to take out al-Qaeda leaders, former intelligence officials tell the Los Angeles Times. The officials say that while the program was never made operational, CIA chiefs continued to work on plans...

Liz Cheney: I May Seek Office
 Liz Cheney: 
 I May Seek Office 
Jul 13, 2009 12:53 PM CDT

Liz Cheney: I May Seek Office

(Newser) - DIck Cheney's daughter Liz is considering a run for public office. “It's something I very well may do,” the lawyer and Bush-era State Department deputy secretary tells the Washington Times. Cheney says she's particularly worried about Congressional Democrats' attempts to hang charges of CIA meddling on her father....

Kristol: Hey, Liberals, Your Bubble Is Bursting

(Newser) - With the 2006 and 2008 election victories, liberals have been cheering the end of the “ghastly interlude of conservative dominance ushered in by Ronald Reagan,” William Kristol writes in the Weekly Standard. Not so fast. “Only six months into the new administration, even a talented hot air...

Wiretap Program Had 'Limited' Value: Fed Report

(Newser) - The Bush administration's warrantless wiretap program wasn't such a great anti-terror tool after all, says a new federal report. The wiretaps—on the international communication of Americans—"generally played a limited role" in counterterrorism efforts, despite the assertions of President Bush, Dick Cheney, and other top officials that they...

Wiretapping Memos Drafted in 'Inappropriate' Secrecy: Report

Only 3 Justice officials knew of program

(Newser) - The legal justification for the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program was handled with unprecedented secrecy that sidestepped usual Justice Department procedure, the Washington Post reports. Only three Justice officials—John Ashcroft, John Yoo, and staff attorney James Baker—were made aware of the program and participated in drafting memos...

US Quashed Inquiry Into 2001 Afghan Mass Murder

(Newser) - The Bush administration stonewalled human rights organizations and branches of the US government that sought an investigation into the alleged mass murder of Taliban prisoners in Afghanistan in 2001, the New York Times reports. As many as 1,500 people may have died in the incident, under the command of...

Krugman to Obama: I Told You So
Krugman
to Obama:
I Told You So
OPINION
Jul 10, 2009 10:23 AM CDT

Krugman to Obama: I Told You So

Bush-style hedging on possible 2nd stimulus isn't helping anyone

(Newser) - A second economic stimulus package looks increasingly necessary, and President Obama may get "caught in a political-economic trap" if he doesn't act soon, warns Paul Krugman in the New York Times. The Fed is out of the picture, and the White House has to deal with legislators convinced that...

Calling Obama Socialist 'Won't Stick:' Jeb Bush

(Newser) - Jeb Bush has a pretty dim view of President Obama, but he wouldn’t go so far as to call him names. When Tucker Carlson asks the former Florida governor if Obama is “a socialist” in an interview for Esquire, Bush demurs. “I don't know,” he responds....

Docs: We'll Quit If Obama Lifts Bush Abortion Rules

Analysts: older regs let health workers avoid certain procedures

(Newser) - Some doctors who oppose abortion say they’ll quit their jobs if President Obama repeals Bush regulations that allow health care professionals to refuse to perform operations that are in opposition with their beliefs, NPR reports. A Christian Medical Association report found that “90% of those surveyed said they...

Evidence Tying Cheney to Plame Leak Grows

Obama DoJ renews Bush-era objections to releasing details

(Newser) - The Obama Justice Department is continuing its efforts to maintain the Bush administration's secrecy over Dick Cheney's role in the Valerie Plame CIA leak scandal, the Washington Post reports. A filing this week, intended to bolster the current administration’s case for keeping secret details of the then-VP’s 2004...

EPA Bucks Bush Policy, Lets Calif. Set Own CO2 Standard

(Newser) - The Environmental Protection Agency today granted California the right to set its own strict emissions standards, an about-face from Bush-era policies, Reuters reports. In a sly rebuke to the previous administration, the EPA said the move rested on a “traditional legal interpretation of the Clean Air Act.” California...

Obama Plans Indefinite Terror Detentions

Executive order echoes Bush approach, signals Gitmo impasse

(Newser) - In a move that echoes the Bush administration’s approach to terror suspects, the Obama White House has drafted an executive order that would allow for their indefinite detention, the Washington Post reports. The move is said to be motivated by growing concerns that President Obama won’t be able...

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