2nd Court of Appeals snarks Bush Administration.

[pecunium]

From a ruling on detainees at Guantanamo:

"The government suggests that several of the assertions in the intelligence documents are reliable because they are made in at least three different documents," wrote Judge Merrick Garland. "We are not persuaded. Lewis Carroll notwithstanding, the fact the government has 'said it thrice' does not make the allegation true. In fact we have no basis for concluding that there are independent sources for the documents' thrice-made assertions."

Link to CNN story

Further in the ruling they hit more of the crux of the matter:

The three-member court, made up of two Republican judges and one Democrat, was particularly pointed in its criticism of the argument that evidence is reliable because it appears on multiple documents.

"The government insists that the statements made in the documents are reliable because the State and Defense Departments would not have put them in intelligence documents were that not the case," the court wrote. "This comes perilously close to suggesting that whatever the government says must be treated as true." Chicago Tribune

We can only hope this sort of policy ends as the poem does:

In the midst of the word he was trying to say,
In the midst of his laughter and glee,
He had softly and suddenly vanished away---
For the Snark *was* a Boojum, you see.

Comments

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

"We're of the opinion the pig must pay
We can't let it live for another day,
it's clear that the rules apply
It's clear that the pig must die"

That's my favorite song from the musical

But their wild exultation was suddenly checked
When the jailer informed them, with tears,
Such a sentence would have not the slightest effect,
As the pig had been dead for some years.

[commodorified.livejournal.com]

The Judge left the Court, looking deeply disgusted:
But the Snark, though a little aghast,
As the lawyer to whom the defense was entrusted,
Went bellowing on to the last.