If youre a political junkie, youve got to love a presidential candidate who lights the fire Newt Gingrich has lit. Or at least you have to love the fire. Impeach judges? Subpoena them? Arrest them?
Zany, zany, zany Newt. Or is that correct, correct, correct Newt?
The case can be made that judges can be impeached for rendering unconstitutional opinions. But it probably cant be made persuasively in an op-ed piece. I wont try. But Ill take on the other two.
They can be subpoenaed, and, because they can be subpoenaed, they can be arrested if they refuse to comply. Yes, I know that former Attorney General Michael Mukasey said, The only basis by which Congress can subpoena people is to consider legislation. And, yes, I know that Andrew McCarthy, in a National Review Online article headlined There Is No Power and No Reason to Subpoena Federal Judges, claimed this action would violate separation-of-powers principles.
Let me try to take this out of the realm of opinion, into the realm of fact.
First, the only fair reading of Mr. Gingrichs comments is that he advocates subpoenaing judges as part of an impeachment investigation. If so, this surely can be done.
As background, Hinds Precedents - the historical go-to guide, cited 20 times by the Congressional Research Service in Impeachment: An Overview of Constitutional Provisions, Procedure, and Practice, its publication prepared just last year in the midst of the investigation of Judge G. Thomas Porteous - cites many examples of Congress issuing subpoenas, summonses and, yes, arrest warrants after someone has been impeached, but before the trial begins.
[Dawn] Exactly six years after the brutal liquidation of Benazir Bhutto ... 11th Prime Minister of Pakistain in two non-consecutive terms from 1988 until 1990 and 1993 until 1996. She was the daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, founder of the Pakistain People's Party, who was murdered at the instigation of General Ayub Khan. She was murdered in her turn by person or persons unknown while campaigning in late 2007. Suspects include, to note just a few, Baitullah Mehsud, General Pervez Musharraf, the ISI, al-Qaeda in Pakistain, and her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, who shows remarkably little curiosity about who done her in... , a letter of Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), country's top intelligence outfit, has revealed that the Orcs and similar vermin groups related to al Qaeda have had their plan to assassinate Benazir Bhutto six days earlier then 27th of December 2007 the day when Miss Bhutto was assassinated, copy of the letter available to Dawn.com disclosed this here on Monday.
The five lines short letter with the subject of , " al Qaeda Threat," is addressed to Kamal Shah, the then Secretary of Interior Ministry by Brigadier Abdul Basit Rana.
The letter reads as, "It has reliably been reported that a few beturbanned goon groups related to al Qaeda have made some plan to assassinate Mrs.Benzir Bhutto and her adviser Mr Rehman Malik Pak politician, current Interior Minister under the Gilani administration. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. He later joined the Pak Peoples Party and was chief security officer to Bhutto. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Näwaz Shärif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men. on 21 December 2007.The exact plan of execution not known."
The letter is delivered to the Secretary Interior on December 10th, 2007, almost seventeen days before the liquidation of Benazir Bhutto.
The copy of the letter shows that Kamal Shah immediately wrote a short note on the letter saying, "this is a threat with specific date, we should sensitize them," Kamal Shah has further directed Brigadier (retired) Javed Iqbal Cheema, the then Director General of Ministry's National Crisis Management Cell (NCMC) directing him to speak.
The third note which is not readable properly mentions as, "I have informed MrMalik by fax,' by some Joint Secretary or Brigadier (retired) Javed Iqbal Cheema.
In this letter the specific Intelligence was provided by Brigadier Abdul Basit Rana of ISI, who according to this correspondent is yet not appeared before any investigation committee including the Federal Investigation Agency's (FIA) Joint Investigation Team (JIT) headed by a grade 20 police officer Khalid Qureshi and the UN Commission on Benazir Bhutto.
"Since this was a top secret information provided by the agency and agencies do not give the access to the origin of the information so neither Brigadier Abdul Basit Rana was interviewed by UN Commission nor by anyone else," confirmed Ch Azhar advocate, the prosecutor of the Benazir Bhutto murder case in Rawalpindi's Anti Terrorist Court.
It has already come on the public record that the then Security Adviser of Benazir Bhutto, Mr Rehman Malik soon after receiving the "threat information" from Brigadier (retired) Javed Iqbal Cheema, had written a three page detailed letter to Secretary Interior Syed Kamal Shah on 12th December 2007. In the said letter he had requested for enhancement of Benazir Bhutto's security.
An expert, while speaking on the condition of anonymity, say that the examination of Brigadier Abdul Basit Rana and further analysis of the information provided by him can further unfold the missing links of on going investigation of Benazir Bhutto murder case.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/27/2011 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] PAKISTAN'S strategic sensitivities are growing on its western borders. Pakistain has set up more than 700 security check posts along the Pak-Afghan border, as 'low-intensity warfare' has increasingly gained more importance in the national security doctrine despite efforts to ward off such scenarios.
The May 2 US operation to track down the late Osama bin Laden ... who is no more... and the Nov 26 NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... air strikes on two Pak military check posts in Mohmand ... Named for the Mohmand clan of the Sarban Pahstuns, a truculent, quarrelsome lot. In Pakistain, the Mohmands infest their eponymous Agency, metastasizing as far as the plains of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar, Charsadda, and Mardan. Mohmands are also scattered throughout Pakistan in urban areas including Karachi, Lahore, and Quetta. In Afghanistan they are mainly found in Nangarhar and Kunar... Agency, which caused the death of 24 Pak soldiers, the subsequent suspension of supplies to NATO forces in Afghanistan through Pakistain and the vacating of the Shamsi airbase by the US further increased these concerns, which need to be adjusted in the strategic doctrine.
Changes in the strategic doctrine cannot come about overnight and have to factor in how the situation would evolve after the exit of NATO troops from Afghanistan. Pakistain did not have any major armed conflict along the Afghan border and had not deployed regular army units there until after 9/11.
Pakistain deployed its regular forces at the border for the first time to stop infiltration of Al Qaeda and Taliban remnants when US-led coalition forces invaded Afghanistan to oust the Taliban regime from power. Afghanistan has also stationed troops along the border where small-scale armed festivities with Pak forces have become the norm.
According to data compiled by the Pak Institute for Peace Studies, from 2007 to 2010, NATO forces and the Afghan National Army violated Pakistain's borders at least 194 times. The violations included missile and rocket attacks on Pak check posts by Afghan forces, festivities between security forces and air and land incursions into Pakistain. In 2011, as many as 67 such incidents were reported in which 57 Pak soldiers were killed.
A new and worrying development for Pakistain on its western borders has been cross-border attacks by Afghanistan-based Islamic fascistion Pak security forces' posts. At least 30 such strikes have been reported across Pakistain's border with Afghanistan at Chitral, Upper and Lower Dir and Bajaur and Kurram in Fata, leading to the killing of 250 Pak security personnel and civilians. These Islamic fascistiare part of Taliban factions, who decamped to Afghanistan's border provinces, mainly Kunar, and their attacks have contributed to escalation in bilateral tensions.
The third issue of concern is Afghanistan's internal stability and the Afghan army's continued lack of capacity. According to analysts, US and NATO efforts to develop the security forces in Afghanistan have focused on numbers rather than quality. Also, the loyalty and credibility of Afghan cops remain highly questionable. Analysts argue that the Afghan National Army is far from ready to assume operational command and tackle security responsibilities on its own.
A major concern for Pakistain is the likely scenario of growing instability in Afghanistan after the NATO troops pull out. That can create trouble on the Pak side of the border as many political elements in Pakistain's Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... province are tied to power brokers on both sides. The nature of relations between Afghanistan and Pakistain may trigger border tensions from time to time.
The fourth major reason for growing strategic sensitivities is the concentration of jihad boy forces along both sides of the border, which may continue to play the role of irritant not only in bilateral ties but also in relation to the international community. India's role in Afghanistan is also an issue central to the changing thinking on matters of strategic interest to Pakistain.
The major casualty in this strategic transformation has been the Afghan-Pakistain Transit Trade Agreement considered an important pact for expanding economic ties between the two countries and also with the Central Asian region. International gas pipeline and electricity transmission projects such as Tapi and Casa-1000 have still not materialised because of security concerns, mainly the decade-long insurgency in Afghanistan.
In this perspective, some attempts have been made by the two countries and by the US to improve the situation. Although most of these attempts were aimed at normalising bilateral relations through developing cooperation in the security and economy sectors, the border security issue has remained at the core of these efforts. In April 2011, Pakistain's Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani ... Pakistain's erstwhile current prime minister, whose occasional feats of mental gymnastics can be awe-inspiring ... , army chief Gen Ashfaq Kayani ... four star general, current Chief of Army Staff of the Mighty Pak Army. Kayani is the former Director General of ISI... and ISI director general Lt Gen Shuja Pasha visited Kabul in a bid to establish an 'Afghan-led and Afghan-owned joint peace commission' and made efforts for negotiations with the Taliban.
The process continued relatively smoothly until the liquidation of ex-Afghan president and head of the High Peace Council Burhanuddin Rabbani ... the gentlemanly murdered legitimate president of Afghanistan... in September 2011. Despite a cooperation mechanism in the form of the Pakistain-Afghanistan-US tripartite commission established in 2003, which also comprises a border security sub-committee, and provisions and blueprints for sharing intelligence under the military intelligence-sharing working group, blame for cross-border incursions and attacks has been hurled from both sides of the border.
A meeting of the tripartite commission's military border working group was convened in Peshawar on July 6 this year on Pakistain's request. The committee suggested the establishment of a single point of contact with all Afghan national security forces through a hotline contact between the Pakistain Army and Afghan National Army, regular border flag meetings between local commanders and interaction/jirgas between the maliks of villages on either side of the border. But all these attempts have failed to find a workable mechanism, which has emboldened the Islamic fascistito roam freely across the border and launch attacks on both sides of the border. This is a very delicate situation for Pakistain as any adjustment in its security doctrine would not only be related to the geo-political interests of the country but also to a change in the military structure which the Pakistain economy would barely be able to sustain. Another important aspect of any possible shift would be the sensitivities on Pakistain's eastern borders with India. The threat perception on the eastern border would be crucial to adjustments in the national security doctrine.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/27/2011 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Dawn] Exactly six years after the brutal 
Mohmand
