Hamdan’s Light Sentence
Salim Hamdan, the former driver and bodyguard for Osama bin Laden convicted by a U.S. military tribunal Wednesday, could be released from prison before President Bush leaves office. The U.S. military jury sentenced the Yemeni prisoner Thursday to just 5 1/2 years in prison, including five years and a month already served at Guantanamo Bay. U.S. authorities insist they could still ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on August 8, 2008 07:48
Hamdan and Military Tribunals
The most outrageous headline I've seen in quite some time, at least from a legitimate media outlet, is the one that accompanies this morning's NYT editorial on yesterday's verdict in the Hamdan case: "Guilty as Ordered." Now that was a real nail-biter. The court designed by the White House and its Congressional enablers to guarantee convictions of high-profile detainees in Guantánamo ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on August 7, 2008 10:52
Ayman al-Zawahiri Killed in Predator Strike?
Al Qaeda number 2 Ayman al-Zawahiri was severely wounded in a US predator strike earlier this week, CBS is reporting. Ayman al-Zawahiri - the second most powerful leader in al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden's No. 2 - may be critically wounded and possibly dead, CBS News chief foreign affairs correspondent Lara Logan reports exclusively. CBS News has obtained a copy of ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on August 2, 2008 06:17
Back to Batman Foreign Policy
Two things to follow up on my post on The Dark Knight and foreign/security policy. First, in thinking more about the movie, I will say that there are two scenes/actions by Batman that could be seen to mirror part of the GWoT debate (and I will be vague so as not to spoil anything). There is an interrogation scene and ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on July 28, 2008 15:30
Comic Book Foreign Policy (or the Batman Theory of Foreign Policy)
Readers may be familiar with the Green Lantern Theory of Geopolitics (short version: the US can do whatever it wants if it just has even willpower). Now, it appears we can add another member of the Justice League to our understanding of foreign policy. On Friday, author Andrew Klavan had a piece in the WSJ comparing Batman ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on July 27, 2008 17:47
McCain: Obama Wants to Lose War
John McCain trotted out a new sound byte yesterday: This is a clear choice that the American people have. I had the courage and the judgment to say I would rather lose a political campaign than lose a war. It seems to me that Obama would rather lose a war in order to win a political campaign. Here's the video, which provides ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on July 23, 2008 07:49
Biden: ‘Bad Guys’ Live in Afghanistan
Dean Barnett wins my Head Scratcher of the Day award for this: If we had a “Most Offensive Quote of the Day” every day, Joe Biden would probably come to own the prize. But even by the senator’s lofty standards of chronic obtuseness, he outdid himself this afternoon: “If John (McCain) wants to know where the bad guys live, come back ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on July 16, 2008 07:51
New Yorker Obama Terrorist Cover
The liberal blogs are in a tizzy about the cover of the July 21 New Yorker, an illustration by Barry Blitt which shows the Obamas in terrorist outfits, doing a fist bump with a big portrait of Osama bin Laden over their mantle with an American flag burning in the fireplace: Given that this is the liberal New Yorker and that ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on July 14, 2008 07:18
Supreme Court: Gitmo Detainees Have Habeus Rights
Terrorist suspects detained at Guantánamo Bay (and presumably, anyplace else under American jurisdiction) have the right to file habeus corpus petitions in U.S. civilian courts the Supreme Court ruled today in a 5-4 decision. Further, Congress could not pass a law waiving these protections absent rebellion or invasion. Justices Rule Terror Suspects Can Appeal in Civilian Courts (David Stout, NYT) “The ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on June 12, 2008 12:32
Al Qaeda Getting Stronger
Al Qaeda is getting stronger, mostly in Pakistan, a new State Department report states. Al-Qaida has rebuilt some of its pre-Sept. 11 capabilities from remote hiding places in Pakistan, leading to a jump in attacks last year in that country and neighboring Afghanistan, the Bush administration said Wednesday. Attacks in Pakistan doubled between 2006 and 2007 and the number of fatalities quadrupled, ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on April 30, 2008 12:14
