The Superintendent of Financial Services Draws the Curtain Back on the Get Out of Jail Free Industry
As Yves and I suspected, NY Superintendent of Financial Services Benjamin Lawsky was breaking the unwritten rules that regulators should help banks avoid any consequences for violating sanctions and other violations when he released details…
NGOs to Congress: Don't Hide Our Secret Government
I noted last week that the Senate Intelligence Committee had acceded to Director of National Intelligence James Clapper's request that it repeal the requirement that his office produce a yearly report on the number of people with security clearances.
On…
Blackwater's Slap on the Wrist for Gun Smuggling and Arms Trafficking
Viewed from one perspective the facts that Blackwater has admitted to amount to running guns--precisely the crime that Fast and Furious attempted to combat. Viewed from another perspective, Blackwater's actions amount to the same kind of thing…
9th Circuit: No Way to Punish the Government If They Illegally Collect (But Don't Use) Your Telecommunications
As Josh Gerstein just reported, the 9th Circuit has thrown out a decision against the government in the al-Haramain wiretapping suit. While they don't comment on Judge Vaughn Walker's judgement that al-Haramain had standing and had proven they…
Why Is the Superintendent of Financial Services Policing our Iran Sanctions?
NY's Superintendent of Financial Services, Benjamin Lawsky, yesterday dropped the hammer on the UK's Standard Chartered Bank, accusing it of doctoring financial documents to facilitate the laundering of Iranian money through its US banks.
Like…
If Mitt Had Had His Way, San Diego Would Have Had to Lay Off Another Teacher So He Could Send More $$ Overseas
Had Mitt Romney gotten his way when he asked to have his La Jolla home tax assessment lowered in the wake of the financial crash, San Diego County would have lost enough money to hire a teacher, at a time when the district has been laying off…
This Time, We Were Warned
I noted after the Aurora shooting that trying to make sense of senseless violence gives us a way to avoid confronting what Michael Moore described as our culture's violent nature.
But this time around, the documented ties between the killer,…
It's Not Just Whether Nidal Hasan's Emails Stuck Out, It's Whether Abdulmutallab's Did
I've been meaning to return to the Webster report on Nidal Hasan's conversations with Anwar al-Awlaki. This conversation between Gunpowder & Lead and Intelwire about how alarming those emails were will be a start provides a good place to…
When One Mormon Gossips about Another Mormon Not Paying His Taxes
For the record, I think Mitt has multiple reasons to hide his tax returns. I think it's largely about what his returns would say about his business practices, it's partly about his tax shelters, and, one way or another, it's about his relative…
Peter King Rejoins the Leak Witch Hunt
Yesterday I suggested that it was quite possible that the story that Obama signed a Finding authorizing support for Syrian may have come from Congressional, not Executive Branch, sources.
First, this story is based on the leak of a covert Finding–precisely…
In MI This Year It's All about the Referenda
MI's Supreme Court just ruled that, in spite of the purportedly improper font size used on petitions, the referendum to overturn MI's Emergency Manager law will be on November's ballot. This may be a tough vote: obviously if we can get rid of…
Tony Bologna, John Pike, and Stop and Frisk: A Bad Couple of Days for Abusive Cops
In a move that might make cops think twice before they go nuts on kettled protestors, NYC has decided not to defend Anthony Bologna, the officer filmed spraying defenseless protestors with pepper spray in NY.
New York City has distanced itself…
Washington Post Contradicts ISAF Narrative on Afghan Troop Capabilities
If you visit ISAF's website this morning, you are greeted with the yet another dose of ISAF's propaganda campaign aimed at building an image of the capability of Afghan forces that is far beyond reality. Today's headliner from ISAF is proudly…
I Guess Steve King Would Cede the All-Around Gymnastics Gold to Russia's Victoria Komova?
At around mid-day, IA Congressman Steve King said the following:
"The argument that diversity is our strength has really never been backed up by logic," King told The Huffington Post. "It's unity is where our strength is. Our Founding Fathers…
Nuke Site Breached Just Days After SSCI Moved to Eliminate Reporting on Nuke Site Security
I have been dawdling about writing this post, in which I explain that two of the reporting requirements the Senate Intelligence Committee rather stupidly, IMO, moved to eliminate last week pertain to the security of our nuclear labs.
Back…
"Dear John Brennan: You're Being Investigated"
A number of people have pointed to Scott Shane's story on the leak witch hunt for the details it gives on the increasing concern about leak witch hunts among journalists and national security experts.
But this paragraph includes the most…
Lost Among the Findings in Syria
The Neocons have been pressuring Obama to do something in Syria. So it's thoroughly unsurprising that we're officially learning what we've known for months: the CIA has been involved in Syria. According to Mark Hosenball the Finding Obama signed…
Dianne Feinstein Agrees with Obama: Public Can't Know Targeted Killing Legal Justification
At the end of a useful Steve Coll piece on the Constitutional danger of the Administration's unilateral decisions to kill American citizens, he argues that Congress has the ability to force the Administration to release the process by which…
Did Pakistan Provide Intelligence Against Haqqani Network?
As I mentioned on Tuesday, the head of Pakistan's spy agency is in the US for meetings with the CIA and other US intelligence interests. Those meetings started yesterday and appear to be slated to go through tomorrow. I had predicted that if…
If FBI Believes NYPD Spying Violates Americans' Rights, Why Not Stop It?
It has long been clear that the AP series on the NYPD's spying on NYC's Muslims relied, in part, on FBI sources who believed the program to be problematic. Now a new edition of Ronald Kessler's book on the voices that belief explicitly.
“What…
