John Bogdan: The Face of the Guantanamo Crackdown
In yesterday's pre-dawn hours, the guard force at Guantanamo entered the Camp 6 communal area and removed the prisoners to individual cells. Here is Carol Rosenberg's description of the operation (emphasis added):
U.S. forces raided Guantánamo’s…
America's Human Rights Abusers: John Yoo, David Addington, and Bout's Prosecution Team
In retaliation for the Magnitsky sanctions -- in which the US placed sanctions on those deemed to have had a role in retaliating against Sergei Magnitsky's whistleblowing -- Russia just issued a list of 18 Americans who will be prohibited from…
Ten Human Rights Groups Unified in Opposition to Drone and/or Targeted Killing Court
A group of 10 human rights groups have written President Obama a letter calling for him to fulfill his State of the Union promise of more openness about drone and/or targeted killing.
The letter calls for obvious sorts of transparency (including…
Scott Shane Defends the Commander-in-Chief's Language
NYT's excellent new ombud, Margaret Sullivan, returns to a perennial ombud issue, how the Grey Lady refers to Executive Branch actions and abuses. She includes a long quote from Scott Shane that reveals a great deal about his reporting, and…
ICRC President Visits Obama, Brennan, Hagel Regarding "International Humanitarian Law"
Peter Maurer, President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, yesterday completed four days of meetings with US officials in Washington. According to the blog site for the ICRC, Maurer met with President Barack Obama, senior members…
I Hate to Say I Told You So, John Brennan Covering Up Torture Report Edition
Man, have the Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee -- particularly Dianne Feinstein and Jay Rockefeller -- been pawned. One of their key issues during John Brennan's confirmation was the declassification of the 6,000 page torture report.
Based…
After Continued Blow-Off, House Judiciary Requests Awlaki AND Signature Strike Memos
The other day, when I reported that the Senate Judiciary Committee would get to glimpse the Office of Legal Counsel memos authorizing the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki, I noted that the House Judiciary Committee was not included in that reporting.
Also…
John Brennan Says All the Bad Reports about CIA Are Inaccurate
Kudos to Jan Schakowsky, who used today's hearing on global threats to ask John Brennan some of the questions he so rarely gets asked.
She started by asking him generally about drones and his previous public comments about them. He responded…
Afghanistan Confirms Eleven Children Killed in April 6 NATO Air Strike
Khaama Press reports today that a group of investigators appointed by the Afghan government has confirmed that eleven children were killed on Saturday in a NATO air strike in Kunar Province. Although several press reports indicate that NATO…
HuffPost Live on Drone Strikes
Yesterday, Jonathan Landay, Gregory McNeal, Steve Bucci, and I joined Alyona Minkovski to talk about Landay's latest reporting on drone strikes, which I wrote about here.
Why is it that I'm the one who makes a career out of cataloging the…
Bureau of Prisons Can't Decide Whether There Is, Or Is Not, a First Amendment
Apparently, when the Bureau of Prisons released environmental activist Daniel McGowan back to his halfway house last week (after having first detained him for writing a post at HuffPo), they made him sign something saying he wouldn't do anything…
If the IRS Obtains E-Mails without a Warrant, Then Will People Freak Out?
The ACLU recently FOIAed the IRS to find out whether its investigative branch gets warrants before rifling through people's stored email. While the FOIA didn't answer the question definitively (IRS lawyers have clearly discussed it), it appears…
CIA's Drone Lies and Congressional Oversight
Remember when House Intelligence Chair Mike Rogers said that public reports of civilian drone casualties are wildly wrong?
"I think that you would be shocked and stunned how wrong those public reports are about civilian casualties," Rogers…
H7N9 Continues Slow Spread, Animal Reservoir Still Uncertain
A steady, but slow and at least for now, not accelerating, spread of the new H7N9 bird flu virus continues. Although infection of poultry in markets in Shanghai has been confirmed and thousands of birds culled, ongoing work on the virus has…
The Extra Drone Dead: Covert Actions or Side Payments?
As I noted earlier, McClatchy has seen a slew of documents that -- while obviously false on the topic of civilian casualties, at a minimum -- show that hundreds of the people we're killing are not legitimate targets under the AUMF.
The U.S.…
OLC's Overseers Will Get to See Their Handiwork
The Hill reports that the Senate Judiciary Committee will get to read the Office of Legal Counsel memos authorizing the targeting of Anwar al-Awlaki tomorrow.
Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) told The Hill that he and other members…
Which Came First, Unilateral Strikes or Signature Strikes?
I realized something as I was writing this post on Mark Mazzetti's latest installment from his book. Signature strikes -- those strikes targeted at patterns rather than identified terrorists -- purportedly preceded our unilateral use of drone…
Ray Davis as a Stand-In for the War between CIA, ISI, and State
In another installment of his book, Mark Mazzetti describes the Ray Davis episode as the signature (pun intended) event that turned Pakistan against the US. Certainly the Davis episode provides a nice hook for a description of the way the US-Pakistani…
Navy Releases Cartoon of New Laser Weapon After Non-Productive P5+1 Talks
Yesterday saw several developments in response to the P5+1 talks with Iran ending over the weekend with no new date announced for the next round of talks. AP launched into a discussion of Congress enacting even more sanctions against Iran,…
Washington Post Tries to Ram Petraeus Down Our Throats Again
No. In the name of God, Thor, Zeuss, Cthulhu and the Flying Spaghetti Monster, no. There are few people who personify the vapid, amoral fetid swamp of Washington politics and defense policy more than David Petraeus. Taking a huge part of the…