Immunity Provision Invites Phone Companies to Cooperate with Illegal Government Programs

here’s the elephant in the room, bigger then a gorilla, much bigger;

the immunity provision legalizes the sale of national security top secrets to our enemies

that’s what it does and I cannot believe this is not brought up, it should be the lead of every progressive blog whent they discuss this bill

The Federal Court judge who is making the decisions about which docs the government has to hand over to Khadr’s defence team (following an SCC decision that his Charter rights had been violated) said yesterday that the treatment Khadr received at Guantanamo to “prepare” him for an interview with Canadian officials was a violation of international human rights.

This decision is all the more significant because Judge Richard Mosley, in a slightly earlier life, was the assistant deputy minister at Justice who drafted the Anti-Terrorism Act, which is sort of like your Patriot Act although maybe not quite so bad.

Mosley said a paragraph in one of the documents, which had been blacked out by the federal government, contains information from a member of the U.S. military regarding “steps taken by Guantanamo authorities to prepare” Khadr for an interview with a Canadian foreign affairs official in March 2004.

“The practice described to the Canadian official in March 2004, was, in my view, a breach of international human rights law respecting the treatment of detainees,” Mosley said.

Canada “became implicated” in violating international human rights when the foreign affairs official learned about Khadr’s treatment but decided to interview him anyway, the judge said.

Mosley referred to a recent report in the U.S. describing harsh interrogation techniques used on Guantanamo detainees that would not have been permissible under American law and that are prohibited by the U.S. military.

Or did she simply roll over like she did on MCA?

Levin managed to hold off the Bush administration on 6th circuit appointments for the entire length of Bush’s two terms.

And then this week, as quick as a wink, 3 judges approved.

What a coincidence.

From ABC News:

DOJ Official Fired in Wake of ABC News Investigation
Official Had Refused to Testify at Congressional Hearing Last Week

A Department of Justice official was fired yesterday after refusing to testify at a Congressional hearing regarding whether or not her office awarded hundreds of millions of dollars in grants based on political favoritism and personal connections.

Michele DeKonty, Chief of Staff for the DOJ’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Administrator, cited the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, and declined to appear at the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing last week…

And finally, don’t forget that today at the House Judiciary Committee, they will have a hearing at 10:00 AM on:

From the Department of Justice to Guantanamo Bay: Administration Lawyers and Administration Interrogation Rules, Part III

Witnesses will be David Addington, Christopher Schroeder and John Yoo.

111: I could not have said it better than Markos on page 2. This will affect the enthusiasm for Obama. On Other Blogs Which Will Remain Nameless Obama supporters are now trying to argue that this is just one issue. This is not “just one issue” in the same way that the Iraq supplemental was one issue. This is a constellation of principles and the very people who were most passionately opposed to Bush will now doubt Obama’s integrity. It doesn’t matter that McCain changed his mind even more transparently than this.