The attacks on Edward Snowden have increased today. CNN’s Jeff Toobin who previously denounced Snowden as a “clown” has added that he is a “a grandiose narcissist who deserves to be in prison”. In the meantime, Senator Dianne Feinstein and House Speaker John Boehner have denounced Snowden as a “traitor.” Other media organizations have barred their reporters from referring to him as a “whistleblower” in what has become a deluge of negative stereotyping of Snowden -even before we know the whole story. Indeed, the attacks began with folks like Toobin almost immediately after he came forward.
Category: Criminal law
Below is my column in this week’s U.S. News & World Report, which is part of a debate over the question: Should Americans Be Worried About the National Security Agency’s Data Collection? On the other side was former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Professor John Yoo who answered the question in a predictable no. I suppose my answer was equally predictable.
Continue reading “Dr. Obamalove or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love a Police State”
There is an extraordinary case of prosecutorial abuse out of Ohio where former Assistant County Prosecutor Aaron Brockler, 35, is mystified why he has been fired. Let’s see if you can spot the reason. Brockler was given a murder case in which he was told that the accused had two girlfriends as alibi witnesses. Brockler then proceeded to pose as a woman on Facebook and engage the women in chats about the accused. He told the women that he was the former girlfriend of the accused and had an child by him. After enraging the women, he then spoke to them in his real capacity as a prosecutor and they refused to serve as alibi witnesses at the trial. Brockler is astonished that he would be fired for such dishonesty and insists that he was wrongfully terminated.
Edward Snowden, 29, is now a hunted man. The media this morning has moved from the shock over the massive surveillance of citizens to attacking Snowden as a leaker. Indeed, this morning, CNN’s Senior Legal Analyst Jeff Toobin denounced Snowden as a “clown” and someone who should be denounced. Toobin and I have been disagreeing a great deal lately. While I respect Jeff Toobin, I was surprised last week when he defended aspects of the investigation of journalists and later the massive surveillance programs. However, I was taken aback by the attack on Snowden. There certainly is a basis for criminal investigation — a point no one denies. He will have to answer for any violation of his clearance agreement and national security laws. However, it is the tenor and shift of the comments this morning that so surprised me. Rather than continue the debate of the loss of privacy, political and media figures are focusing on Snowden rather than the programs. You can disagree with his methods just as you can disagree with Julian Assange. However, there is an obvious effort to (like Assange) make him look unbalanced and dangerous. The story appears more complex. This is a man who gave up a $200,000 a year job and his likely freedom to reveal something that he felt the public should know about in the interest of privacy. You can disagree with his method, but few of his critics would even consider such a sacrifice for principle. Yet, the coverage this morning is largely on how to catch him and punish him. Over the weekend, the White House said it would find the person responsible and punish him. Snowden then self-disclosed his identity.
Continue reading “Leaders Call for Snowden’s Prosecution As CNN’s Toobin Calls Him A “Clown””
Below is today’s column in USA Today (the print version is a bit shorter). The column looks at the effort of President Barack Obama and his congressional allies to get citizens to give up privacy as they did protections of the free press, due process, and international legal principles on earlier scandals. It is truly the final measure of devotion demanded in what has become a virtual cult of personality.
Respectfully Submitted by Lawrence E. Rafferty (rafflaw)-Guest Blogger
You may recall an article that I wrote back in January discussing the Steubenville, Ohio rape case. It was a case where members of the town’s high school football team were charged with repeatedly raping and sexually assaulting an unconscious young girl and it also exposed the community support these alleged rapists had. In that case a local unit of the Hacktivist group, Anonymous, published tweets and pictures of the alleged rapists. One of the citations or links that I provided in the article has since been taken down and now the local Anonymous activist had his home raided by a FBI SWAT team and may be charged with hacking into the high school website and could face a potential 10 year sentence for the alleged crimes! You may ask what are the sentences that the now convicted rapists are facing? Since they were minors at the time of the alleged serial rape, they are facing 2 year sentences. Continue reading “What Is a Worse Crime, Rape or Publishing Evidence of the Rape?”
Submitted by Charlton Stanley (Otteray Scribe) guest blogger
This has not gotten much national press….yet. I had been hearing of these events through the aviation grapevine, but did not know for sure it was actually happening until the story of Gabriel Silverstein broke on the AOPA (Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association) news web page. Mr. Silverstein is a New Jersey businessperson who was returning from a business trip to California with his husband. He had filed a flight plan, and landed his Cirrus SR22, a small private aircraft, in Oklahoma for a fuel stop. At that time, he was subjected to a ramp check. By Federal Air Regulations, a ramp check is supposed to be done only by an FAA official. On a standard ramp check, the pilot has to produce documents showing the airplane is airworthy, is registered, and has the paperwork on board as required under Part 91 of the Federal Air Regulations. The pilot must show his or her pilot’s license and medical certificate. The Oklahoma ramp check was brief, and he went on his way. He had to stop for fuel again in Iowa City. Upon arrival, he went into the FBO (Fixed Base Operator) office to pay for his gas, take a break and file a new flight plan. When he returned to his plane, he found it surrounded by officers, being searched without his permission, and with no explanation. The officers said “Probable Cause” was the K-9 dog had “hit” on the baggage compartment. The officers ordered him to be quiet, and if he asked any more questions, he would spend the rest of the day in the back of a police cruiser in handcuffs.
CPB captions this as being at their Air and Marine Operations Center
One officer handed Mr. Silverstein a business card identifying him as being with the Department of Customs and Border Protection. Mr. Silverstein says the brown uniforms and shoulder patches he saw that day were identical to the one worn by the officer on the right in this stock CPB photo. On their web page, the CPB identifies this location as being at their Air and Marine Operations Center. I think we can safely assume this is not the main operations room, but only part of the operation.
Geography was not my favorite subject in school, but last time I looked, both Oklahoma and Iowa are a long way from any international border.
More Border Patrol and Homeland Security goodness over the jump, including a video interview with Mr. Silverstein.
Submitted by Mike Spindell, Guest Blogger
There is a new bill passed by the New York State Senate that relates to many of the blogs and discussions we have had here through the years. This bill would make it a felony to “annoy” a police officer acting in the course of his duties. While I can understand that directly interfering with a police officer in the middle of his duties should not be done, we have seen through the years that the police broadly interpret what is “interference” to include what is obviously a person exercising their First Amendment rights, such as responding negatively to a police officers actions or videotaping them. I find this law another distressing example of how far we are going in the direction of a police state, since as we have seen in our many blogs and discussions here it will be abused time and again. I will have several links at the bottom to illustrate some of the issues dealing with purported “police interference on the Jonathan Turley Blog alone. Continue reading “Don’t “Annoy” Your Local Police Or Else”
Attorney General Eric Holder recently told intelligence community lawyers that he wants them to continue the Administration’s crackdown on leakers and media sources despite calls for his termination and the controversy on the attack on the free press. The message is clear: there will be no quarter given those who disclose classified information. Well not everyone. This week it was revealed that former CIA Director Leon Panetta disclosed classified information to “Zero Dark Thirty” filmmaker Mark Boal. According to an inspector general report, the disclosure of the name of the Navy SEAL unit that carried out the Osama bin Laden raid and the unit’s ground commander at a 2011 ceremony. Some of the information was marked as “top secret.”
For those who believe that Attorney General Eric Holder is in any way repentant for the crackdown on journalists and whistleblowers, think again. If you recall, while Obama sacked the head of the IRS for its scandal, he only sent Holder to a confab with the media. After Holder insisted on the meeting being off the record, principled media organizations refused to attend. Holder proceeded to propose meaningless changes that actually would allow the very same investigation of reporters. Now, Holder has given a speech and his people made sure to leak it to the media. Holder told top lawyers in the Administration to continue their scorched earth campaign against leakers. This Administration has surpassed even Nixon in its pursuit of people who speak to the media and Holder wanted people to know that it will continue unabated.
There is an interesting tort case out of Miami where a New Jersey woman, Anna Burgese, is suing W Hotel (owned by Starwood) after a beat down by prostitutes outside of the hotel. Burgese says that the hotel is widely known as catering to a large prostitution business and failed to protect guests. Police believe that the prostitutes assumed that Burgese was a “working girl” intruding on their territory.
Continue reading “New Jersey Woman Sues W Hotel After Beat Down By Prostitutes In Miami”
In a blow to civil liberties, the Supreme Court yesterday voted 5-4 to allow police to collect DNA from suspects arrested in serious crime cases. The decision by Justice Anthony Kennedy opens the door for the collection and retention of a massive DNA databank by the states and federal government. The decision produced a strange lineup with Justice Antonin Scalia writing a dissent (with Ginsburg, Sotomayor, and Kagan) and normally liberal Justice Stephen Breyer joining Kennedy, Thomas, Alito, and Roberts. It is a disastrous case for Breyer to lose his bearings. His switch denied the creation of a bright line rule protecting privacy and forestalling such a databank.
There are some obvious answers about the cause of the epidemic of rapes in India. There is the religious and culture treatment of woman in traditional areas. There is hostility of police to rape victims. However, the municipal council in Mumbai sees the cause elsewhere . . . lingerie mannequins. The council voted overwhelmingly to ban the ceramic vixens to prevent rape in the city.
Continue reading “India Leaders Face Rape Crisis . . . By Banning Lingerie Mannequins”
The crackdown on free speech continued this week under President Mohammed Morsi (left) with a conviction of Ahmed Douma for insulting the leader. It is only one of a variety of cases against Egyptian journalists, bloggers, and others charged criminally for their criticism of Morsi and the imposition of authoritarian measures and Islamic laws in the country.
Continue reading “Egyptian Activist Convicted Of Insulting President Mohammed Morsi”
We have yet another story of a rape victim subjected to a demand for an honor killing in a traditional Muslim area. Kainat Soomro was gang-raped by four men at the age of 13. According to their religious and cultural traditions, her village classed her as a “Kari” or “black virgin” and ordered her killed. The family was attacked by the four men and other villagers and one of the sons was murdered after they refused to carry out the “honor” killing.