Jack Kenny
Documents Show CIA Helped Qaddafi Fight Libyan Rebels
Documents discovered in the rebel-occupied capital of Libya offer evidence that the CIA assisted the now-deposed Libyan ruler Muammar el-Qaddafi in apprehending and jailing suspected terrorists. Those suspects include members of the rebel forces the United States and NATO have aided in toppling the Qaddafi regime.
Cradle-to-Grave Regulation Debated at "ObamaCare" Hearing
Supreme Court justices and opposing lawyers grappled with the question of limits on the power of Congress to regulate interstate markets Tuesday in the middle of three days of hearings at the high court over the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the healthcare reform bill passed by Congress and signed by President Obama in 2010. There were even sharp differences over just what market is being regulated under the act, who is in it, and when and how one enters it. At one point Justice Stephen Breyer suggested that everyone enters the federally regulated healthcare market upon entering the world.
FBI Director "Not Certain" if Rationale for Killing U.S. Citizens Abroad Applies in U.S.
When Eric Holder said in a speech last week that the President has the authority to order the killing of U.S. citizens abroad, many wondered if the rationale offered by the Attorney General for targeting Americans for non-judicial killing would also apply within the borders of the United States. Testifying at a congressional hearing, FBI Director Robert Mueller (left) said he did not know and would have to check with others at the U.S. Department of Justice.
Obama Adm. Will Seek "International Permission" for Going to War
Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Martin Dempsey testified at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Wednesday that the Obama administration would seek "international permission" before intervening military in Syria's civil war. Both men left open, however, the question of whether the approval of Congress would be either sought or required. Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) pressed Panetta repeatedly on that question, but failed to get a definitive answer.
Senate Bill to OK Indefinite Detention of U.S. Citizens Without Charge, Trial
In what may be a tale too bizarre to be believed by millions of Americans, the U.S. Senate appears ready to pass a bill that will designate the entire earth, including the United States and its territories, one all-encompassing “battlefield” in the global “war on terror” and authorize the detention of Americans suspected of terrorist ties indefinitely and without trial or even charges being filed that would necessitate a trial.
N.H. House Asserts State's Right to Nullify Federal Laws
If the Republican majority in the House of Representatives in Washington, D.C., wants to shake up the political establishment, lawmakers there might look for inspiration to the Republican majority in the House of Representatives in Concord, New Hampshire. The rebels in New Hampshire did not fire the "shot heard 'round the world" — not yet anyway — despite Michelle Bachmann's Midwestern confusion on that subject. But they have fired a few salvos that may be worth Washington's attention.
O'Donnell's 'Gaffe' on the First Amendment
"There cannot be the slightest doubt that the First Amendment reflects the philosophy that Church and State should be separated," said Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas in the 1952 Zorach v. Clauson decision. Ten years later, Justice Potter Stewart said in his dissent to Engel v. Vitale: "Moreover, I think that the Court's task, in this as in all areas of constitutional adjudication, is not responsibly aided by the uncritical invocation of metaphors like the 'wall of separation,' a phrase nowhere to be found in the Constitution."
McCain-Feingold and Free Speech
Hillary Clinton will not easily be mistaken for Sir Winston Churchill, but our nation’s Secretary of State borrowed a metaphor from old “Winnie” recently when lecturing on the importance of freedom on the Internet. As the former British Prime Minister warned of the communist “iron curtain” descending on Eastern Europe at the beginning of the Cold War, Secretary Clinton has warned of an “information curtain” falling in those nations where governments have used modern technology to suppress and plunder, rather than facilitate, the flow of information among peoples and nations.
"Fast and Furious" Was Plot Against U.S. Gun Rights, NRA Chief Says
The U.S. government's Operation Fast and Furious was a plot to subvert gun rights in America, National Rifle Association president Wayne LaPierre (pictured at left) charged October 14 in an interview with Newsmax.TV.
Ex-FBI Man Knocks CIA Interrogation Practices
Former FBI agent Ali H. Soufan remembers being at the American embassy in Yemen on September 11, 2001 when, a few hours after the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, a CIA official finally produced material, including photographs of two of the hijackers, that the FBI had requested months before.