With Bradbury's Appendix M Opinion and 7th Circuit Vance Decision, the Government Can Torture Any of Us
Three years ago, I showed how Steven Bradbury wrote an OLC memo that approved in advance whatever techniques DOD wanted to put into the sometimes classified Appendix M of the Army Field Manual. At the time, DOJ implied to me that this memo was…
The FBI's Evidence Against the Genius Who Framed Elvis
The Washington Post has a long article detailing how the FBI held onto their original suspect in the case of letters laced with ricin sent to various political figures long after they knew that he was innocent and had obtained evidence pointing…
Maybe Dzhokhar's Buddies Just Wanted a Job at HSBC?
A lot of people on Twitter are talking about how dumb-as-shit Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's college buddies, Azamat Tazhayakov, Dias Kadyrbayev, and Robel Phillipos were when they allegedly removed evidence relating to the Boston Marathon bombing and…
Stephen Cambone, Hacker PWN, Used to Head DOD's "Intelligence"
Stephen Cambone was the first ever Under Secretary of Defense for something called "Intelligence."
In that role, he oversaw a domestic spying program that targeted hippies and made GOP cronies rich. And then he went on to profit off that…
Mark Udall to Obama: You Can Force John Brennan to "Excise the Demons"
I have to admit, this letter from Mark Udall urging Obama to support the release of the Senate Intelligence Committee's torture report is close to shrill when describing CIA Director John Brennan's disinterest in declassifying the report.
Meanwhile,…
If 40 Months of Drone Strikes in Yemen Haven't Made Transfers Safe ...
When on January 5, 2010 President Obama announced a halt to all transfers of Yemeni Gitmo detainees, he reiterated his intent to close the prison, even noting that AQAP formed, in part, in response to Gitmo (recall that Said al-Shihri, one of…
Even With Non-Validated Afghan Self-Reporting, SIGAR Finds ANSF Falls Short of 352,000 Goal
A central tenet of DoD dogma regarding withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan rests on Afghan National Security Forces reaching a force size of 352,000 and taking over full responsibility for security in the country as US forces leave at the…
The Saudi Intelligence without a Name
I had been wondering why John Kerry closed his meeting with Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal the day after the Boston Marathon bombing, followed by Chuck Hagel's unscheduled meetings in Saudi Arabia later that week.
The Daily Mail claims…
Mohamedou Ould Slahi's Gitmo Memoir: A Slow Death
Slate has a remarkable three part excerpt from the memoir of Mouhamedou Ould Slahi, a Mauritanian Gitmo detainee subjected to some of the worst torture. The intro, by Larry Siems, is here. (Some posts on his still-ongoing habeas fight are here,…
Obama: We're Force-Feeding Cleared Detainees Because We Couldn't Try Them in Civilian Courts
At a press conference today, Obama had this to say about hunger strikers at Gitmo.
Q: Mr. President, as you're probably aware, there's a growing hunger strike at Guantanamo Bay, among prisoners there. Is it any surprise, really, that they would…
Exploitation and High Value Interrogation Group
Quick quiz:
What was the first count that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab -- the UndieBomber -- was found guilty of?
Answer: Conspiracy to commit an act of terrorism transcending national boundaries.
The charge was added in a superseding…
Musharraf Banned from Politics for Life As Violence Flairs in Pakistan Ahead of Elections
Although he has been under house arrest since shortly after his return to Pakistan while facing trial on charges of arranging the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, former Pakistani Army Chief and President Pervez Musharraf was given a lifetime…
Tsarnaev: Right to Counsel, Not Miranda, Is the Key
Since Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was taken into custody just over a week ago, the hue and cry in the public and media discussion has centered on "Miranda" rights and to what extent the "public safety exception" thereto should come into play. That discussion…
Hackers Penetrate Freedom; The Ship Has Already Sailed
Reuters has a report I found sort of punny, about how white hat hackers had managed to break into the computer systems of the lead ship of the Navy's Littoral Combat Ship program, the USS Freedom.
A Navy team of computer hacking experts found…
Facebook a Better Spook than Ray Kelly
We have been discussing the FBI's apparent inability to use the multiple images of the Tsarnaev brothers from the Boston Marathon to ID them using facial recognition software.
So I wanted to circle back to two things. First, point to the…
CIA Bags O' Cash Total Tens of Millions of Dollars, But Over $4.5 Billion Left Afghanistan in 2011
Today's New York Times carries a frank exposure of blatant moves by the CIA to curry favor with Hamid Karzai and high ranking members of Afghanistan's government through direct cash payments brazenly dropped off at Karzai's office:
For more…
When a Counter-TerrorismNarcotic Partner Asks for a Divorce
Dana Priest has a fascinating piece ostensibly describing how the administration of Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto has chosen to shift its counter-narcotic approach from the one Felipe Calderón's PAN party had pursued for a decade.…
Did an Intelligence Asset Persuade Abdulrahman al-Awlaki to Search for His Father?
There's an inconclusive -- but nevertheless intriguing -- detail in Jeremy Scahill's Dirty Wars that might explain why Abdulrahman al-Awlaki decided, in September 2011, to go search for his father. After the boy ran away from home, the family…
Has OLC Written Memos Authorizing Illegal Wiretapping Again?
Yesterday, CNet reported that, as part of an expanding cybersecurity effort, DOJ has immunized telecoms for violating wiretap laws.
The secret legal authorization from the Justice Department originally applied to a cybersecurity pilot project…
Feinstein Calls for Review of Her Moratorium on Release of Yemeni Prisoners from Gitmo
Finally sensing that US policy on Yemeni prisoners at Guantanamo is a disaster of epic proportions, and after playing a key role in putting the moratorium on release of Yemeni prisoners into place, Dianne Feinstein on Thursday took the first…