March 31, 2008

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Every day, even more scandals for the Bush administration. We blogged about the disgusting and criminal treatment of German citizen Murat Kurnaz yesterday. Keep in mind that the government extracted a "confession" that he knew Mohammed Atta from the completely innocent Kurnaz after five days of torturing him when you read about the terrorism trials of the six detainees at Gitmo. We also blogged about the departure amid ethics investigations and the biggest housing crisis in decades of HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson. Joe Gandelman says that so many of the Bush administration cronies have left to allegedly "spend time with their families" that the Republicans might as well try to sell it as proof the GOP is all about family values, though I don't know how many would buy that now.

Finally, because, as Shakespeare said, the truth will out, we turn to statements made by Attorney General Michael Mukasey at the Commonwealth Club here in San Francisco last week. In his speech where he tried to make the case for passing the FISA bill with telecom immunity, he made a statement that should bring one pause (that is, if you're not a blindly partisan hack who is afraid of your own shadow):

Before 9/11, Mr. Mukasey said, "We knew that there had been a call from someplace that was known to be a safe house in Afghanistan and we knew that it came to the United States. We didn't know precisely where it went. We've got" – here the Attorney General paused with emotion – "we've got 3,000 people who went to work that day, and didn't come home, to show for that."

Attorney General say what? As Keith Olberman puts it:

The government knew about some phone call from a safe house in Afghanistan into the US about 9/11, before 9/11, and even though it had the same FISA courts and the same right to act against international targets in 2001 as it does now, you didn’t do anything about it? Well, this would seem to leave only two options. Either the Attorney General just admitted that the government for which he works is guilty of malfeasant complicity in the 9/11 attacks or he’s lying. I’m betting on lying. If not, somebody in Congress better put that man under oath right quick.

You could send him to Gitmo, I suppose.

Paging John Conyers and Henry Waxman. Oversight on the line.

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