For almost a decade and a half, the people behind the Bush administration's shameful treatment of terrorism suspects have avoided punishment for their crimes.

But that may be about to change.

The courts have had their say and have ruled that former Bush administration officials can, in fact, be sued for how they conducted the War on Terror.

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals made that pretty much official on Friday when it refused to hear a challenge to its earlier ruling in the case of Turkmen v. Ashcroft.

That case involves hundreds of Arab, Muslim or South Asian men who were detained and then abused by our government in the weeks following 9/11.

Some of them were beaten by security guards and kept in solitary confinement, which the United Nations considers a form of torture.

After they were released, these men sued the people they say authorized their detentions, people like former Attorney General John Ashcroft and former FBI director Robert Mueller.

A district court initially blocked their claims, but in June the Second Circuit Court allowed them, saying that Ashcroft, Mueller, and company could be sued.

The government then made one more last ditch push to protect the Bushies, but that Hail Mary effort failed on Friday when the Second Circuit rejected it.

Everyone else who authorized and participated in the illegal roundup of hundreds of innocent men after 9/11, from high-up government officials on down, is now fair game for a lawsuit.

This is great news.

Read more here.

-Thom

Tonight on The Big Picture on RT TV at 7pm and 10pm... Is The Planet On A Course to Burn Despite Deal? (check your local listings for stations or stream at RT or Free Speech TV, and catch past shows on Youtube)

The Daily Stack 

Hour One: The Paris Climate Deal...is it enough?
- Rachel Cleetus PhD, Union of Concerned Scientists  

Article: "Climate negotiators strike deal to slow global warming" by Pamela Falk.

Article: "Here's Another Thing To Love About Hawaii" by Ari Phillips.

Article: "Welcome Aboard AEP! It's Great To See You (...Side With Clean Energy)" by Samantha Williams.

Article: "Renewable Energy Accounts for 70% of New U.S. Generating Capacity in First Half of 2015" by Ken Bossong.

Article: "Seven facts you need to know about the Arctic methane timebomb " by Nafeez Ahmed.

Article: "India 100 GW Solar Power Timeline Unveiled" by Saurabh Mahapatra.

Article: "James Hansen, father of climate change awareness, calls Paris talks 'a fraud'" by Oliver Milman.

 

Article: "Turner defeats King to become Houston's next mayor" by Rebecca Elliott.

Article: "Anti-National Front voters turn out to deny Le Pen" by Anne-Sylvaine Chassany.

Article: "Appeals Court Stands By Decision to Allow Lawsuit Against High-Level Bush Officials for Post-9/11 Abuses" by Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR).

Article: "US hitting IS harder than ever, says Obama" by BBC.

Article: "Treaty of Versailles" by Wikipedia (28 June 1919, at the end of World War I).

Article: "America's Middle-class Meltdown: Core shrinks to half of US homes" by Sam Fleming and Shawn Donnan.

Article: "US town rejects solar farm amid worries it would "suck up all the energy from the Sun"" by Jacinta Bowler.

Article: "'RT's work has never been more important than now' - Jesse Ventura" by Robert Bridge.

Article: "#RT10 anniversary event on shape-shifting powers in today's world" by RT.

Article: "Solar Farm Rejected Amid Fears It Will 'Suck Up The Sun's Energy" by Lee Moran.

Article: "New York is investigating Exxon Mobil for allegedly misleading the public about climate change" by Chris Mooney.

Article: "Exxon signals successor to CEO Rex Tillerson" by James Osborne.

Quote: "Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity" - Martin Luther King, Jr..

Article: "Ben Carson says no Muslim should ever become US president" by Martin Pengelly.

Article: "The Economy Is Improving, So Washington Has Decided It's Time To Screw You" by Shahien Nasiripour.

Article: "Bernie Sanders Calls Out The Biased Corporate Network News For Blacking Out His Message" by Jason Easley.

Article: "ABC, CBS, And NBC News Made An Intentional Decision To Ignore Bernie Sanders " by Jason Easley.

Site: Bernie 2016   

Book: "The Crash of 2016: The Plot to Destroy America--and What We Can Do to Stop It" by Thom Hartmann.

Book: "The Crash of 2016: The Plot to Destroy America--and What We Can Do to Stop It" by Thom Hartmann.

Video: Full Speech: Donald Trump EXPLOSIVE Rally on USS Yorktown (12-7-15) .

Article: "Sturmabteilung"(brown shirts) by Wikipedia.

Article: "Blackshirts" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Shaun King: Why Rapper Killer Mike's ENDORSEMENT Of Bernie Sanders Matters" by Segami.

Article: "Isis" (Egyptian goddess) by Wikipedia.

 

Talk Media News Segment:
- Victoria Jones 

Article: "Obama Reiterates IS Strategy, Moving With "Great Sense of Urgency"" by Loree Lewis.

Article: "French teacher who claimed Isil attack admits inventing story and stabbing himself, says prosecutor" by Henry Samuel.

Article: "On Sandy Hook anniversary, U.S. activists call for gun restrictions" by Scott Malone.

Article: "Rep. Reid Ribble won't support Trump" by AP.

Article: "Stage set for final GOP debate of 2015" by Eugene Scott.

Article: "US Fed expected to raise interest rates" by Pamela Newenham.

Site: "Goats for the old Goat".

Site: Governor Free Don Siegelman.

Hour Three: How the Founding Fathers Fought For the Rights of Muslims
- Dr. Denise Spellberg, Thomas Jefferson's Qur'an: Islam and the Founding Fathers/University of Texas  

Article: "Our Founding Fathers included Islam" by Denise Spellberg.

Quote: "Neither Pagan nor Mahamedan nor Jew ought to be excluded from the civil rights of the Commonwealth because of his religion." - Thomas Jefferson -quoting John Locke's argument, 1776.

Article: "Constitution of the United States" Article 6 section 3. "... but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States."

Article: "First Amendment to the United States Constitution".

Article: "Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom", 1777/1779.

Quote: "...in proof that they meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mahometan." - Thomas Jefferson.

Article: "Treaty of Tripoli" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Barbary pirates" by Wikipedia.

 

Article: "Marco Rubio Suggests His Supreme Court Would Roll Back Marriage Equality" by Ryan J. Reilly.

Article: "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" by Martin Luther King, Jr.

Article: "US accuses China over aircraft tax breaks" by Shawn Donnan.

Article: "Congress Is About To Gut A Depression-Era Law To Help Wall Street" by Zach Carter.

Article: "Oliver Stone's Untold History of the United States" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Peter Kuznick", American University.

Law: "Glass-Steagall Act", 1933.

Book: The Great American Stickup: How Reagan Republicans and Clinton Democrats Enriched Wall Street While Mugging Main Street by Robert Scheer.

Law: "Commodity Futures Modernization Act", 2000.

Law: Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (1999) (Financial Services Modernization Act Of 1999).

Bill: "H.R. 525: Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2015".

Article: "The Imperial Rule Assistance Association" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Net neutrality" by Wikipedia.

Article: "47 CFR 20.15 - Requirements under Title II of the Communications Act".

Article: "Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement" (TPP) by EFF.

Article: "Education in Russia" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Poll: Clinton beating Trump, Cruz but not Rubio" by Jeremy Diamond.

Article: "Sanders Beats All Top Republican Candidates In Latest Poll" by Janie Velencia.

 

Article: "House Passes Short-Term Spending Bill to Avoid Government Shutdown" by Kristina Peterson.

Article: "Showing How US Can Stand Up to Wall Street, Europe Advances 'Robin Hood Tax'" by Deirdre Fulton.

Article: "RushCard's Attempt To Throw Out Or Delay Investigation Into Mass Outage" by Bryce Covert.

Article: "These Employers Have Decided Student Debt Repayment Is The Next Perk For Millennial Hires" by Casey Quinlan.

Article: "Finland is considering giving every citizen €800 a month" by Adam Boult.

    

Tuesday on The Thom Hartmann Program, 12-3pm ET 

 

We'll have the latest news and information...everything you need to know to win the water cooler wars...

 

And, the best of the rest of the news along with your calls right here on...

 

The Thom Hartmann Program, Occupying The Media 3 hours a day 5 days a week" for "we the people"

 

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