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…
Our Illegal Drone Program
Here's Daniel Klaidman's idea of a rule book that represents restraint.
And then there is “the playbook”—an ambitious attempt to create explicit rules and procedures for when lethal force is justified. The initiative began more than a…
Brennan Approved Signature Strikes in Yemen because of "Personal Appeals"
Daniel Klaidman has what must be intended as a defense of John Brennan. Given that it (once again) fails to mention Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, accepts Brennan's claims to have opposed torture on its face, and makes no mention of Brennan's assault…
After Talking about Restoring Trust in CIA, Panetta Lies about the Young Woman's Drone Death that Led to Khost
"Every drone strike," [Baitullah Mehsud] would say, "brings me three or four new suicide bombers." --Joby Warrick, The Triple Agent
Leon Panetta is doing something of a media swan song this weekend, showing up on the Sunday shows and doing…
The Torture Apologists Ignore the 4,000 Americans They Killed
A bit of a row has started between Jay Rosen and Will Saletan for the latter's attempt to "see how [the torturers] saw what they did" in this post. Frankly, I think Rosen mischaracterizes the problem with Saletan's post. It's not so much that…
Super Bowl 47 Trash Talk: The Harbowling
It is finally Super Bowl weekend and it feels....kind of blah. Maybe it is because two brothers from an apparently nice wholesome family are squaring off after two weeks of nice making between themselves and their teams. I dunno, but there seems…
The International Manhunt for WikiLeaks
One of the things DOJ is protecting from FOIA in Electronic Privacy Information Center's suit is information other governments have shared with the US on the investigation.
According to FBI's David Harvey, this includes classified information…
