Obstruction By Any Other Name

The smell of bipartisanship is in the air. McClatchy (07.20.07):

"This year Senate Republicans are threatening filibusters to block more legislation than ever before, a pattern that's rooted in — and could increase — the pettiness and dysfunction in Congress.

The trend has been evolving for 30 years. The reasons behind it are too complex to pin on one party. But it has been especially pronounced since the Democrats' razor-thin win in last year's election, giving them effectively a 51-49 Senate majority, and the Republicans' exile to the minority.

Senate tied in knots by filibusters

"Seven months into the current two-year term, the Senate has held 42 'cloture' votes aimed at shutting off extended debate — filibusters, or sometimes only the threat of one — and moving to up-or-down votes on contested legislation. Under Senate rules that protect a minority's right to debate, these votes require a 60-vote supermajority in the 100-member Senate."

"Democrats have trouble mustering 60 votes; they've fallen short 22 times so far this year. That's largely why they haven't been able to deliver on their campaign promises."

Speaking of obstruction, remember them good old days, when the shoe was on the other foot?

Poor Roslynn

Everyone down at the office is gonna be teasing her about this forevah. Newsday (06.06.07), via Eschaton:

"When U.S. Attorney Roslynn Mauskopf described the alleged terror plot to blow up Kennedy Airport as 'one of the most chilling plots imaginable,' which might have caused 'unthinkable' devastation, one law enforcement official said he cringed.

The plot, he knew, was never operational. The public had never been at risk. And the notion of blowing up the airport, let alone the borough of Queens, by exploding a fuel tank was in all likelihood a technical impossibility.

Credibility of JFK terror case questioned

"And now, with a portrait emerging of alleged mastermind Russell Defreitas as hapless and episodically homeless, and of co-conspirator Abdel Nur as a drug addict, Mauskopf's initial characterizations seem more questionable -- some go so far as to say hyped.

"'I think her comments were over the top,' said Michael Greenberger, director of the Center for Health and Homeland Security at the University of Maryland."

Just a little maybe.

Quit being such pansy-ass pussies, sez the Mayor. WCBS (06.05.07), via TPM:

"On Monday, [New York City's Mayor Mike Bloomberg] finally weighed in [on the JFK plot to end all plots], but his response was not what some would have expected.

'There are lots of threats to you in the world. There's the threat of a heart attack for genetic reasons. You can't sit there and worry about everything. Get a life,' he said."

Bloomberg On JFK Plot: 'Stop Worrying, Get A Life'

"'You have a much greater danger of being hit by lightning than being struck by a terrorist.'", the Mayor added.

Blowing Up JFK

NYTimes (06.03.07):

"Four men, including a onetime airport cargo handler and a former member of the Parliament of Guyana, were charged yesterday with plotting to blow up fuel tanks, terminal buildings and the web of fuel lines running beneath Kennedy International Airport."

4 Accused of Plot to Blow Up Facilities at Kennedy Airport

Oh my!! Al Qaeda? Islamofascists? Well, not exactly. "Mark J. Mershon, the assistant director in charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation field office in New York, said all four men had 'fundamentalist Islamic beliefs of a violent nature,' although they appeared to be acting on their own and had no known connection to Al Qaeda."

Still, a very, very serious matter, right? Well, not exactly. "(T)he alleged plot was never close to fruition. The FBI had been tracking the alleged plot since 2006, and a member of the group was an FBI informant. In addition, the suspects lacked both the expertise and equipment necessary to turn their aspiration into a reality, authorities said."

How much expertise did these clowns lack? Quite a bit, it would appear. LATimes (06.03.07):

"'The level of catastrophe that may be created is much more limited than most people would expect,' said Rafi Ron, former head of security at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion International Airport. 'The fuel that we are talking about is mostly jet fuel, which, unlike the gasoline most people put into their cars, is not that susceptible to explosion.'"

Alleged plot's damage would have been limited

"'The probability that an explosion would travel through the pipeline and destroy targets along the tarmac is almost nil,' said Ron, now president of New Age Security Solutions in Rockville, Md."

Even so, Roslynn's performance was absolutely brilliant. Played it for all it was worth. LATimes (06.03.07):

"'The devastation that would be caused had this plot succeeded is unthinkable,' said U.S. Atty. Roslynn R. Mauskopf, who represents the Eastern District of New York, at a Saturday afternoon news conference in Manhattan to announce the arrests."

Arrests made in alleged plot against JFK airport

One of the most chilling plots imaginable'."

"'Had the plot been carried out, it could have resulted in unfathomable damage, deaths, and destruction.'"

And the plot's ringleader, one Russell Defreitas? NYTimes (06.03.07):

"One friend of Mr. Defreitas’s expressed shock at word that he had been arrested in a plot to attack Kennedy Airport.

The friend, Trevor Watts, 65, described Mr. Defreitas as not dangerous."

4 Accused of Plot to Blow Up Facilities at Kennedy Airport

"'He’s not that type of person,' Mr. Watts said after learning of Mr. Defreitas’s arrest. 'He’s not smart enough.'"

Ouch.

Code Black In Baghdad

From "Fred" (05.27.07), via Down With Tyranny (link in original):

When we last heard from Fred, the DWT Baghdad correspondent, he gave us a very clear explanation of the various-- and color-coded-- degrees of water problems in the Greed Zone. He gave us all the ramifications, courtesy of Dick Cheney's company Halliburton, between green and red.

He didn't explain 'black.'"

Yep, There's Something Worse Than Code Red

He does now.

This Is What It's Come To

How pathetic. The crux of the government's case is that Padilla allegedly filled out an application to become a terrorist? Oh wait. It was actually a "Mujahideen Data Form". LATimes (05.13.07):

"When federal prosecutors begin to present evidence Monday against terrorism suspect Jose Padilla, their case is expected to rest heavily on a single document: his alleged application to become an Islamic warrior.

The federal indictment says Padilla filled out the mujahedin data form on July 24, 2000, 'in preparation for violent jihad training in Afghanistan.'"

Padilla case has changed a lot in 5 years

The indictment also claims that this rum-dum "and two codefendants sought U.S. recruits and funding for foreign holy wars." Really effective, they were.

"Nowhere in the indictment is there mention of the sensational charges leveled against Padilla when he was arrested at O'Hare International Airport in May 2002. Then-Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft said U.S. agents had thwarted a plot between Padilla, who is a U.S. citizen, and top Al Qaeda figures to detonate a radioactive 'dirty bomb' or blow up apartment buildings in U.S. cities."

Padilla, a US citizen, "had been held at [a military brig in Charleston, S.C.] for 3 1/2 years as an 'enemy combatant' with status more like the detainees at Guantanamo than a U.S. citizen incarcerated for the charges he would eventually face in federal court. Much of the time he was without human contact, daylight, any timepiece or a mirror. He was subjected to 'stress positions' and extremes of heat, noise and light. And interrogations without an attorney present, the government has said, elicited information the Justice Department included in a widely publicized June 2004 report on Padilla's alleged contacts with Al Qaeda."

Ahhhh yes. We had a Constitution here once. Had something called a Bill of Rights in it. What a quaint little document it was!

Ooops

Aviation Week (03.16.07), via DangerRoom:

"Lockheed Martin is back at square one with unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) flight-testing after the December crash of its P-175 Polecat demonstrator, which is only now being disclosed."

"The aircraft went down on Dec. 18, 2006 at the Nevada Test and Training Range, according to U.S. Air Force officials who run the range."

Polecat Crash Sets Back LM UAV efforts

Lockheed's explanation of what happened is priceless. The crash was caused by an "'irreversible unintentional failure in the flight termination ground equipment, which caused the aircraft's automatic fail-safe flight termination mode to activate'."

The translation of this, according to Danger Room, is that someone accidentally pushed the self-destruct button.

This is very good news, according to Lockheed, in that "the flight termination system 'performed exactly as expected'."

FBI Caught Cheating?

"The Holy Land Foundation was closed weeks after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon. The action followed years of efforts by Israel and many pro-Israeli groups in the U.S. to close the foundation on the grounds that it was a fundraising front for Hamas."

"The former Holy Land officials facing trial are charged with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists by sending money, goods and services to Palestinian charities controlled by Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist group since 1995." LATimes (02.25.07):

"When the Bush administration shut down the nation's largest Muslim charity five years ago, officials of the Dallas-based foundation denied allegations it was linked to terrorists and insisted that a number of accusations were fabricated by the government.

Now, attorneys for the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development say the government's own documents provide evidence of that claim."

Evidence against Muslim charity appears fabricated

Because the actual content of the wiretaps is classified, the FBI helpfully provided a summary, the accuracy of which has become somewhat, uhh, suspect. "The summary attributes inflammatory, anti-Semitic comments to Holy Land officials that are not found in a 13-page transcript of the recorded conversation. It recently was turned over to the defense by the government in an exchange of evidence."

As in there is now a substantive basis to believe that the FBI made a bunch of shit up.

"How the summary and transcript could be so different was unclear, though experts in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act arena theorized that its top-secret nature may have led some analysts to believe that the work product would never be publicly disclosed, much less entered into evidence in a trial."

So they never really thought they'd get caught? Great. Just great.