JPM and ING: Some Trading with the Enemy Is More Equal than Other Trading with the Enemy
ING just signed a $619M settlement with Treasury for sanctions violations, largely with Cuba, but also with Iran, Burma, North Korea, Sudan, and Syria. Aside from the fact that that's the biggest sanctions settlement ever, I'm interested in…
Why Isn't Neil MacBride Investigating the Alleged UndieBomb 2.0 Leak?
I'll have more general comments about today's Senate Judiciary Committee oversight scrum and what it says about leak investigations. But I want to note a very small point Eric Holder made.
When trying to explain to the Republicans why it…
US Negotiators Leave Pakistan, Supreme Court Commission Blames Husain Haqqani for Memo
There are two separate major developments coming out of Pakistan in the last 24 hours. First, US negotiators have left Pakistan without reaching an agreement on reopening NATO supply routes. Both sides appear to be trying to gloss over the obvious…
$356 Million in Drone Failure
I guess we should be grateful the Customs and Border Patrol simply mismanages its fleet of 9--soon to be 10--drones, each costing $18M apiece. (h/t Kevin Gosztola, who tweeted a report of this) After all, the massive drone that went down in…
FISA Amendments Act: "Targeting" and "Querying" and "Searching" Are Different Things
Steven Aftergood suggests there's disagreement among Senate Intelligence Committee members about whether or not the FISA Amendments Act allows the government to get US person content without a warrant.
The dispute was presented but not resolved…
Pakistan Still Searching for Long-Term Imprisonment Site for Afridi
After a "trial" that was strangely held in Bara, in the Khyber Agency of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan, Dr. Shakeel Afridi is now being held in the central jail in Peshawar in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Despite…
SCOTUS Kills Habeas Corpus
SCOTUS has just declined to take all seven of the pending Gitmo habeas corpus petitions, including Latif and Uthman.
This effectively kills habeas corpus.
Consider what SCOTUS just blessed:
Holding a person indefinitely for being in…
StuxNet: Covert Op-Exposing Code In, Covert Op-Exposing Code Out
In this interview between David Sanger and Jake Tapper, Sanger makes a striking claim: that he doesn't know who leaked StuxNet.
I'll tell you a deep secret. Who leaked the fact? Whoever it was who programmed this thing and made a mistake…
Is Administration Admitting It Is Lying about Drones?
I'll have far, far more on the leak investigations tomorrow or Monday. But for the moment I want to lay out certain implications suggested by this Jack Goldsmith post.
Goldsmith asks what the scope of the leak investigation is and cites reports…
Trashing Up the Weekend
Since I'm a non-travelling Wheel this weekend (and since I'm batshit crazy about college baseball) I get the honor of writing the weekend sports trash talk. Lots of sports are on tap this weekend, as the NBA chooses its Eastern Conference sacrificial…
Why The DOJ Can't Prosecute Banksters: Map of Clemens Investigation
At a time when there are still no significant prosecutions of major players, banks and investment shops responsible for the financial fraud that nearly toppled the world economy and is still choking the US economy, we get an explanation why…
Foreclosure Fraud: The Most Dangerous Panel in the World
They've scheduled DDay's Netroots Nation foreclosure fraud panel--with Lynn Szymoniak, Malcom Chu, and Neil Barofsky--in a room with no streaming, and President Obama is holding a press conference to conflict with it. Which suggests this is…
Alarming Rise in Military Suicides: More Than Double Rate in 1999
AP's Robert Burns yesterday delivered sad news on a large rise in the rate of military suicides. Just over a month ago, Burns discovered that the military has been systematically under-reporting "green on blue" attacks in Afghanistan by only…
Traveling Wheels
Hello one and all, and greetings from lovely downtown Providence, Rhode Island. Marcy and I are both here for Netroots Nation; she has been in town since yesterday, and I just arrived this morning. We will both be here through Sunday afternoon.
So…
30 Ways to Shrink Intelligence Oversight
Correction: I misunderstood a few things about this. First, this is the request from DNI, not what the Intelligence Committees have agreed to. And the House--which has taken up this request--did not accept all these requests (including the clearances…
First Quarter Violence Down in Afghanistan: Progress or Harsh Winter?
During his unannounced trip to Kabul today, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta had the unfortunate timing to arrive on the worst day for civilian casualties this year. The Washington Post, however, gave plenty of room for Panetta to cling to…
Gang Warfare to Protect Israel's Secrets
Easily the most overlooked line in David Sanger's story on StuxNet is this one:
Mr. Obama concluded that when it came to stopping Iran, the United States had no other choice.
If Olympic Games failed, he told aides, there would be no time…
UndieBomb 2.0: Defying the Trend
In his story describing the lowered standards for drone strikes the other day, Greg Miller described multiple officials admitting that we're increasing the number of drone strikes in Yemen even though there's no evidence more people are "migrat[ing]"…
The Banksters and the Cartels
Two Colombian economists decided to see who's getting money off the illegal drug trade. And they discovered that American and British banks are getting a big chunk of the profits. (h/t Chris from Americablog) That's because the cartels are laundering…
Will al-Libi Killing Be Used to Justify Drone Strikes on Mourners, First Responders?
Back in early February, a report from Chris Woods and Christina Lamb at The Bureau of Investigative Journalism delivered the shocking news that CIA targeting practices for drone attacks include the intentional targeting of mourners at funerals…
