How Can We Say John Brennan "Kept Us Safe"?
I was struck when I read this line in Dexter Filkin's article on John Brennan and drones:
None of the above is intended as an attack on Brennan, who has spent the past four years as President Obama’s counterterrorism advisor. He has a hard…
Iran Claims to Decode Imagery From Captured RQ-170 But Image Quality Sucks
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOrEADlkZfU[/youtube]
In the ongoing saga of whether or not Iran hacked our RQ-170 Sentinel drone to down it in December of 2011, Marcy has asked many questions. More recently, Iran announced last…
Five Questions for John Brennan
I'm sure I could grill John Brennan for hours. But after a lot of thought, here are the five questions I believe most important that should be asked of him Today.
1) Do you plan to continue lying to Americans?
You have made a number of…
John Brennan, Unplugged
As a special service to emptywheel readers, I am going to provide an abridged version of John Brennan's answers to Additional Prehearing Questions in advance of his confirmation hearing on Thursday.
Q1 Bullet 3: 7 CIA officers died in Khost…
Breaking: Most Journalists Mis-Report Release of OLC Memos
President Obama has finally -- after 2 years and 14 requests -- agreed to let the intelligence committees see the Office of Legal Counsel Memos that authorize the lethal targeting of US citizens.
Kudos to Ron Wyden for having the tenacity…
The Administration's Drafty Secrecy Claims
As I've noted a couple of times, both Jason Leopold and Scott Shane FOIAed the white paper someone strategically leaked to Mike Isikoff this week.
Leopold requested the white paper in August, shortly after Pat Leahy discussed it in a hearing.…
Crystal River Crack: The Moral Hazard of Private Utility Companies
About fourteen months ago, I wrote about the Florida Containment Dome Crackers who had the bright idea that they could save $15 million while refurbishing the steam generators at the Crystal River nuclear power plant in 2009. They wound up cracking…
Dianne Feinstein's Limited Hang-Out
Shorter Dianne Feinstein: "Well, the magical release of that white paper sure eliminates any need to release the Office of Legal Council memos that depict far worse legal theories, even to the grunt members of my committee who have are legally…
Riyadh Station Chief Operated Drone War from and for His Old Stomping Grounds
While the existence of a Saudi drone base has been reported before, the WaPo confirms tonight that the drone strike that took out Anwar al-Awlaki was launched, in part, from the base that no one has before liked to report on.
The only strike…
Secretary of State John Kerry, Our Newest "General" Leading Cambodia 2.0
Congratulations to John Kerry, who now has the job he has always wanted.
I do hope some enterprising journalist asks him about this, a key legal justification for the forever wherever war he is now a critical leader of.
The department…
White Paper Cites John Brennan Speech Defending Import of Transparency, FOIA, Declassified OLC Memos
I've been out addressing an imminent toner cartridge emergency and taping Al Jazeera English (it'll be on tonight at 7:30). So I haven't yet done my timeline of the varying authorizations to kill Anwar al-Awlaki.
But I wanted to look at one…
The Timing of the White Paper
I'm going to do a longer timeline on targeted killing authorizations, but first I wanted to address a more narrow issue: When did DOJ give the (as received) undated white paper released by NBC to Congress?
Michael Isikoff says Congress got…
Florida Republicans Just Can't Stop Tilting Playing Field in Their Favor
Even while the Florida legislature struggles to undo the damage from the blatantly partisan changes in Florida's voting law enacted shortly after Rick Scott's 2010 election as governor, new evidence is emerging on improper and illegal collusion…
This Isn't the Memo You're Looking For
As important as it is to see the white paper DOJ gave Congress to explain its purported legal rationale, it is just as important to make clear what this white paper is not.
First, is it not the actual legal memos used to authorize the killing…
DOJ Tells Judges to Go Fuck Themselves
I wonder how Article III is going to feel about this claim, in DOJ's white paper on targeted killing?
Finally, the Department notes that under the circumstances described in this paper, there exists no appropriate judicial forum to evaluate…
Im-mi-nent: (Adj, DOJ) 20 Months
Michael Isikoff has obtained and posted the white paper DOJ gave to the Senate Intelligence and Judiciary Committees to stave off giving them the OLC memos that actually authorized Anwar al-Awlaki's killing. I noted its mention in an SJC markup…
Will Senators Filibuster Chuck Hagel's Nomination to Get the Targeted Killing Memo?
Eleven Senators just sent President Obama a letter asking nicely, for at least the 12th time, the targeted killing memo. They remind him of his promise of transparency and oversight.
In your speech at the National Archives in May 2009, you…
Mr. Moral Rectitude's Sleazy Payment
According to Defense News, John Brennan was paid roughly $2,090 a day while working for The Analysis Corporation in 2008. He was paid roughly $8,496 for each of the 20 days he worked in 2009 before he became Obama's counterterrorism czar.
A…
When All You Have Is a CyberHammer, You Have to Expect to Go to War against Nails
There are two things about this NYT article describing Obama's new cyberwar policy that deserve note.
A secret legal review on the use of America’s growing arsenal of cyberweapons has concluded that President Obama has the broad power to…
John McCain, Space Monkeys and Model Planes
What is it about Iran that brings out the most inhumane and racist side of John McCain? As if his "Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran" in 2007 while he was running for president wasn't sick enough, he has topped himself today. After Iranian President…