Did DOJ Intervene in Yemen's Efforts to Try the Guy We Said They Wouldn't Try?

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emptywheel
In my last post, I asked whether State's effort to lure Anwar al-Awlaki into the Embassy in Sanaa was an effort to check the box on DOJ's targeting rules asserting that the US could not capture Awlaki. Did not come to Embassy in response to…
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Is This What the Government Considers Inability to Capture Awlaki?

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emptywheel
I'm going to have two posts on the Anwar al-Awlaki documents liberated by Judicial Watch. On March 24, 2011, State sent the Embassy in Sanaa a cable (see pages 63-64) asking them to courier Awlaki a letter at a Sanaa address telling him there's…
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Pinheads Dance on Nuclear Accusations Against Iran

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Jim White
I noted on Tuesday that Fredrik Dahl of Reuters dutifully transcribed accusations from anonymous "Western diplomats" to report that satellite images (which David Albright finally published yesterday--I'm so happy we get to see those dirt…
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US Climate Inaction: Blame Dick Cheney

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emptywheel
In one of my earliest blog posts ever--one I've lost somewhere--I grappled with why the Bush Administration would choose their Iraq adventure in the face of Peak Oil and climate change. Why, at the time the US enjoyed its greatest relative…
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Peshawar Jail Retaliates Against Afridi for Fox News Interview, Afridi Goes on Hunger Strike

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Jim White
The day before the fateful attack in Benghazi that killed four Americans and gave the Republicans Mitt's desired "Jimmy Carter moment", Fox News published an interview purported to be with Dr. Shakil Afridi, who helped the CIA in its quest to…
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Clue: It Was the Drugs in the Solitary Confinement

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emptywheel
Charlie Savage confirms what Jason Leopold had suggested earlier: Adnan Latif died from too much psychiatric drugs. A Yemeni detainee who was found dead in September at the military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, died from an overdose of…
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Good Thing John Brennan Didn't Have to Follow His "Rule Book" When He Killed Adnan al-Qadhi

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emptywheel
The other day, I suggested that the "rule book" John Brennan reportedly rushed to finish in case Mitt won but apparently backed off since may have been an effort to refute Michael Hayden's criticisms of Obama's counterterrorism strategy. Hayden…
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Right to Work Coming to Michigan

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emptywheel
In all likelihood, Michigan will be a right to work state by this time next week. There have been rumors of such a development for about a week ... and near certainty the GOP-dominated legislature would pass laws gutting unions (particularly…
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Are Escaped Zoo Animals Autonomous?

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emptywheel
Back when David Sanger revealed new details of how StuxNet broke free of Natanz, he used the metaphor of an escaped zoo animal actively unlocking its cage. In the summer of 2010, shortly after a new variant of the worm had been sent into Natanz,…
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AQ Khan Organizes Political Party: What Could Go Wrong?

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Jim White
Perhaps proving that the recent attempts to prepare JEB! Bush for another political run was not the only movement in the world intended to rehabilitate a name with a nuclear level of toxicity, Pakistan's "Father of the Bomb", AQ Khan, has registered…
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What If the Insider Threat Memo Is about David Petraeus?

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emptywheel
In a holiday document dump, President Obama transmitted Minimum Standards for Insider Threat Detection Programs. As mere citizens, we don't get to see those standards. We only get to see the memo accompanying them, which leaves us guessing what--if…
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Where Are the Dirt Photos? We Must Have Dirt Photos!

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Jim White
As I have noted many times, there is a prescribed, choreographed sequence for getting reports of "cleanup" activities at Iran's Parchin site into the US news media. First, "diplomats" release information (arising from intelligence agencies or…
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The Evidence Explaining Latif's Death? "Now Badly Decomposed"

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emptywheel
On October 4, I asked with disgust whether the government planned to hold Adnan Latif's body until after the election. Latif died on September 8–26 days ago, or 44% the period until the election. if the sole explanation for the delay is that…
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Is the Drone "Rule Book" an Effort to Force Kill-Not-Capture?

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emptywheel
After reading the response to Scott Shane's article on the drone rule book, I wanted to add a few thoughts. First, much of the treatment of the article treated the description of the rule book itself as news. It's not. Greg Miller discussed…
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White House Attempts Again To Do In Secret What Requires Transparency, Law

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emptywheel
For the last year, the Administration has been grasping at ways to give its drone program the semblance of legal and moral justification. It started a year ago with a debate in the Situation Room over how to provide transparency on the drone…
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Bangladeshi Garment Fire: Downstream Effect of a WalMart Economy?

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bmaz
One of the things hot on the nets yesterday was Peter Suderman's pushback against the anti-WalMart action that has been progressing over the last week, culminating in organized protests at numerous stores across the country on Black Friday.…
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Trash Talk: Fourth Best Team In the Country Visits The Trojans

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bmaz
Okay, that's right, I said it. Notre Dame is the fourth best team in the country. Behind Alabama, Oregon and Ohio State. Quite frankly, I think Texas A&M and Johnny Football could take the Irish. But, they won't get the chance. The Irish…
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Petraeus' Rules for Living, Amended Edition

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emptywheel
The first two General David Petraeus Rules for Living--at least as captured by his former mistress--are 1. Lead by example from the front of the formation. Take your performance personally—if you are proud to be average, so too will be your…
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The Greatest Live Rock and Roll Albums Ever

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bmaz
Rolling Stone has a readers poll on the greatest live rock and roll albums of all time. The article is here. The list is as follows: 1) The Who "Live At Leeds" 2) Allman Brothers "Live at the Filmore East" 3) Peter Frampton "Frampton…
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While You Were Munching

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Rayne
You’ve given thanks for today’s grub, and now you’re dopey from the soporific effects of holiday gluttony. You’ve scraped the plates into the garbage disposal and kvetched about fitting all the leftovers in the fridge, or moaned…
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