Hornberger’s Blog, April 2009 by Jacob G. Hornberger April 1, 2009 Thursday, April 30, 2009 The Ninth Circuit v. the CIA by Jacob G. Hornberger The omnipotent power claimed by the CIA was dealt a major blow Tuesday by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in the case of Binyam Mohamed et al v. Jeppesen Dataplan, Inc. The five plaintiffs are victims of the CIA’s kidnapping, rendition, and torture program. All five were kidnapped overseas by CIA agents, transferred to brutal but CIA-friendly foreign regimes, and tortured. They filed suit against the provider of the airplane that did the transporting—Jeppesen Dataplan, Inc. Before Jeppesen even filed an answer to the lawsuit, the U.S. government intervened and requested an immediate dismissal of the case on the ground that to permit it to go forward would result in the disclosure of “state secrets” that were vital to “national security.” The district court granted the government’s motion to dismiss. The plaintiffs appealed. The court of appeals reversed the ruling of the district court and remanded the case with ...
Playing Nice With Our Communist Loan Officers by Jacob G. Hornberger February 25, 2009 Did you ever think you’d see the day when a U.S. Secretary of State would be pleading with a communist regime to continue lending money to the U.S. government? Well, that’s what Hillary Clinton has been doing this week in China. She’s been making the case to the Chinese communists that they would be smart to continue financing the U.S. government’s out-of-control spending. Clinton obsequiously said to her commie hosts, “I certainly do think that the Chinese government and central bank are making a smart decision by continuing to invest in Treasury bonds. It's a safe investment. The United States has a well-deserved financial reputation.” Human rights groups are agog that their liberal icon would remain silent about the Chinese regime’s longtime brutal infringement of human rights. Hey, what do they expect? Is it ever considered smart for someone deeply in debt to go and start insulting ...
Hornberger’s Blog, February 2009 by Jacob G. Hornberger February 1, 2009 Friday, February 27, 2009 Legalize Drugs Instead of Banning Guns by Jacob G. Hornberger In an editorial this morning sarcastically entitled “The Drug Cartel’s Right to Bear Arms,” the New York Times is climbing aboard the drug-war/gun-control bandwagon. Here’s how the reasoning goes: The Mexican drug-war cartels are killing people with assault rifles. The weapons are purchased in gun shops in the United States and illegally smuggled into Mexico. Therefore, if we just enact a ban on assault weapons, the violence in Mexico will disappear. The bandwagon was set into motion by the U.S. Justice Department, which recently pronounced that the Mexican drug cartels are “a threat to national security.” Attorney General Eric Holder immediately jumped on board with his call for a new assault-weapons ban. Threat to national security? Now, where have we heard that before? You guessed it: The Terrorists! You know, those scary people that the U.S. government is waging war against for the rest of everyone’s lives. You know ...
Prosecuting Bush by Jacob G. Hornberger January 13, 2009 Barack Obama is implying that he isn’t likely to pursue criminal investigations and prosecutions of President Bush, Vice-President Cheney, and other high U.S. officials for purported violations of criminal laws as part of their “war on terrorism.” Presumably, that includes federal crimes against torture, wiretaps, kidnapping, and even murder. Apparently Obama’s rationale is that ...
Hornberger’s Blog, January 2009 by Jacob G. Hornberger January 1, 2009 Friday, January 30, 2009 Jail for Businessmen, a Pass for Torturers by Jacob G. Hornberger Francesco Insolia must soon report to a federal penitentiary to begin serving a one-year sentence. His crime? Hiring illegal aliens from Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras in his leather-goods company in New Bedford, Massachusetts. He has also been ordered to pay $1 million to the federal government. Meanwhile, ...
Enemy Combatants and Freedom of Speech by Jacob G. Hornberger December 10, 2008 Some Americans favor the federal government’s post-9/11 assumption of power to arrest Americans and treat them as “enemy combatants” in the “war on terrorism.” It doesn’t matter to them that the Pentagon now has the power to round up Americans, keep them in prison camps indefinitely, torture them, and deny them all the rights ...
Hornberger’s Blog, December 2008 by Jacob G. Hornberger December 1, 2008 Wednesday, December 31, 2008 Stop Foreign Aid to Israel (and Everywhere Else) by Jacob G. Hornberger I can already hear the pro-empire, pro-intervention crowd making their announcement after a terrorist attack in the United States by a victim of the Israeli bombing in Gaza: “The attack had nothing to do with anger and hatred arising from the unconditional financial and military aid ...
The al-Marri Case Affects Us All by Jacob G. Hornberger November 25, 2008 Today the U.S. Supreme Court decides whether to consider what is quite possibly the most important legal case in our lifetime. While the case involves a foreign citizen, Ali al-Marri, its outcome affects the freedom of every single American, especially those who wish to maintain the freedom to criticize the policies of the federal government in the future, especially ...
Hornberger’s Blog, November 2008 by Jacob G. Hornberger November 1, 2008 Wednesday, November 26, 2008 Guns and Ammo Deter Tyranny by Jacob G. Hornberger You may have noticed the many articles detailing the big run-up in the sale of guns and ammunition since the November elections. Apparently gun owners are concerned that President-elect Obama and the Democratic-controlled Congress will enact bans on semi-automatic weapons and ammo. Of course, that begs the question: ...
Interventionist Hypocrisy by Jacob G. Hornberger August 15, 2008 Referring to Russia’s incursion into Georgia, President Bush says that invading a sovereign country that poses no threat is “unacceptable in the 21st century.” John McCain echoes that sentiment with, “In the 21st century, nations don’t invade other nations.” What planet do Bush and McCain live on? Have they never heard of Iraq? That’s a ...
Neo-Con Hypocrisy on Georgia and Iraq by Jacob G. Hornberger August 13, 2008 Amidst the death and destruction in Georgia, the neo-conservative reaction here in the United States is a sight to behold. Aggression, the neo-cons are screaming. The Russians are waging an unprovoked war of aggression, they’re exclaiming. This is unacceptable, they’re declaring. Something must be done, they’re saying. Oh? Where were all those terms when the U.S. ...
Hornberger’s Blog, August 2008 by Jacob G. Hornberger August 1, 2008 Friday, August 29, 2008 The Protection Provided by Gold by Jacob G. Hornberger A case before the Six Circuit federal Court of Appeals in Cincinnati demonstrates how our American ancestors relied on gold to protect themselves from U.S. officials. The case involves a long-term lease entered into in 1912 requiring the tenant to pay the agreed-upon rent in gold coins. ...
