January 9, 2017
By Adam Serwer
Thirty-five years ago, (click here) the U.S. Attorney’s office in the Southern District of Alabama played a crucial role in ensuring that the lynching of 19-year-old Michael Donald by two members of the Ku Klux Klan was investigated and punished.
That gruesome case has become newly relevant with the nomination of Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions to run the Department of Justice. Sessions was the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District when the Donald case was tried....
The nomination process of Senator Sessions is repeatedly protested during Senator Sessions statement. He simply waited until the protesting Americans were removed from the room and then continued his prepared speech. Never once did he recognize the interruption, but, simply quietly waited his turn to speak without interruption. In not recognizing Americans that feel strongly enough about his performance in government to risk arrest to be heard he has ignored their reason to protest. He should have addressed their protest in answering their statements. Those Americans are just as important to be heard as Senator Sessions is to be heard in his statement.
The nomination process of Senator Sessions is repeatedly protested during Senator Sessions statement. He simply waited until the protesting Americans were removed from the room and then continued his prepared speech. Never once did he recognize the interruption, but, simply quietly waited his turn to speak without interruption. In not recognizing Americans that feel strongly enough about his performance in government to risk arrest to be heard he has ignored their reason to protest. He should have addressed their protest in answering their statements. Those Americans are just as important to be heard as Senator Sessions is to be heard in his statement.
- Represent the United States in legal matters.
- Supervise and direct the administration and operation of the offices, boards, divisions, and bureaus that comprise the Department.
- Furnish advice and opinions, formal and informal, on legal matters to the President and the Cabinet and to the heads of the executive departments and agencies of the government, as provided by law.
- Make recommendations to the President concerning appointments to federal judicial positions and to positions within the Department, including U.S. Attorneys and U.S. Marshals.
- Represent or supervise the representation of the United States Government in the Supreme Court of the United States and all other courts, foreign and domestic, in which the United States is a party or has an interest as may be deemed appropriate.
- Perform or supervise the performance of other duties required by statute or Executive Order.
Senator Sessions in his vote regarding water torture shows the leanings of calling USA law interpretative to specific situations. That is not possible in applying laws. Laws are written by the legislature. If the US Army had objections to the laws of the USA governing waterboarding it is up to the leaders of the US Army to make their argument known. There was nothing obstructing the US Army from addressing the legislature to ask for considerations differently. It is not up to Senator Sessions to make decisions that apply to the US Army simply based in politics.
June 22, 2015
By Howard Koplowitz
Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., (click here) said he voted against an amendment last week reaffirming the prohibition on torture against enemy combatants because he doesn't think the FBI or CIA should be bound by the same rules on interrogations as the U.S. Army. The amendment, attached to a Defense Department spending bill, passed the Senate last week by a 78-21 vote.
"I believe the CIA and the FBI should be able to use all lawful procedures to interrogate individuals who are committed to the destruction of America," Sessions said in an interview with AL.com, adding that torture, including waterboarding, is already illegal. "I think the country is on a sound path to curtailing abuses, but we don't need to go so far that an individual who's maybe associated with a group of people who are plotting to blow up Manhattan - that that person can't be interrogated lawfully but not just according to the Army manual."
Sessions was referring to the Army Field Manual on Human Intelligence Collector Operations, which sets the rules for how Army personnel handle prisoners of war. The Alabama senator said the drafters of the manual, which sprang out of the Geneva Conventions following World War II, wrote it without being able to envision modern terrorist threats....
The US Army revised it's Field Manual regarding Human Intelligence Collector Operations in September of 2006. You'll excuse me, but, these regulations were written after the attacks of September 11, 2001 which included the Pentagon and members of the USA military. I think the US Army was dedicated to protecting Americans, well after understanding the deaths of September 11, 2006. The vote occurred June of 2015. Senator Sessions response to the law and his vote was completely based in politics and this picture.
HE LIED about the US Army for his own purposes. There are no reasons to believe he would not use the Office of the Attorney General for his own purposes as well.
FM 2-22.3 (FM 34-52)
HUMAN INTELLIGENCECOLLECTOR OPERATIONS
HEADQUARTERS, DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY
September 2006
DISTRIBUTION RESTRICTION: Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.
NOTE: All previous versions of this manual are obsolete. This document is identical in content
to the version dated 6 September 2006. All previous versions of this manual should be destroyed in accordance with appropriate Army policies and regulations.
Among the most crucial roles (click here) of the United States military in the global War on Terror is the collection of human intelligence from prisoners of war, unlawful combatants, and others. On the heels of controversy over some of the techniques used to extract information—such as waterboarding—the Department of the Army completely revised its interrogation guidelines. The result is this book, the United States Army’s human intelligence collection playbook, which gives instructions on the structure, planning and management of human intelligence operations, the debriefing of soldiers, and the analysis of known relationships and map data. The largest and most newsworthy section of the book details procedures for screening and interrogation, which permits a specific number of interrogation techniques, described in Chapter 8 as “approach techniques.” These techniques, described in great detail, carry such names as Emotional Love, Mutt and Jeff, False Flag, and even Separation. A must-read for today’s military buffs, U.S. Army Human Intelligence Collector Field Manual is also a valuable resource for anyone seeking strategies to employ in the gathering of information.
As a side note, I found this interesting:
Who will replace Senator Jeff Sessions when the Alabama Governor decides on his replacement? (click here)
by anker
This may sound cynical, but Luther Strange could very well be the pick of Governor Bentley BECAUSE, the choice of Strange would get him off the impeachment case and possibly delay the investigation long enough to "run the clock out" on the investigation. Remember, Mike Jones, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, stopped his investigation at the request of Strange.
Bentley gets to serve out his second term scott free as governor and Strange gets a leg up on running for Sessions seat in 2016...how comfy...
Senator Sessions is a Class 2 Senator and was re-elected in 2014. His replacement would be a Senator until January 3, 2021 without being elected initially. His replacement would then be eligible for re-election.
On such a day as the governor may direct, (click here) unless vacancy occurs between 2 and 4 months before the next regularly-scheduled general election, in which case it is held at that election. If vacancy occurs within 60 days of the next regularly-scheduled general election, a special election must be held on the first Tuesday after 60 days have elapsed since the vacancy occurred.
