SCOTUS Reviews the "Military Age Male" Standard on Thursday
One of the most consistent statements of outrage I've seen from people just coming to the horrors of the drone program is the military aged male criterion: the Administration's assumption that all military age males killed in a drone strike…
Prop 8 Appeal Takes A Step Forward; But Not The Big One It Should Have
Those of us watching and covering the Proposition 8 case, formally known as Perry v. Brown, got a cryptic notification from the court yesterday afternoon. The notice read:
This is to inform you that a filing is expected on Tuesday, June…
BREAKING! EXCLUSIVE! NYT's Ambiguous Reporting Leads to Logical Conclusions
I guess John Brennan has figured out that the effort to roll out the Steely Decider campaign has backfired.
How else to explain the almost unheard of tactic from the NYT of accusing those who drew very logical conclusions from its own article…
When Did the "Signature Strikes" Start in Yemen?
Last week, I argued that the focus on the drone vetting process--the "Kill List"--is a shiny object, distracting us from signature strikes targeted at patterns, not people, in Yemen. Today, I'm going to push that further and suggest the focus…
Armed US Diplomats Detained at Peshawar Toll Booth: What Was Mission?
The Raymond Davis incident in Lahore, Pakistan raised the issue of people moving within Pakistan under US diplomatic cover while heavily armed. Davis, who in fact worked for the CIA, had a number of weapons in his possession (see here for…
Zimmerman Bond Revocation & Why Bond Will Likely Be Reinstated
George Zimmerman's bond was revoked last Friday, June 1, 2012. It created a cacophony of cable and network news, and resulting politicized claims and analysis on both sides of the aisle over the blogosphere. All to be expected; it is what they,…
Glomar and CIA's Propagandistic Campaign of Sanctioned Leaks
The ACLU submits briefs.
In response to Plaintiffs’ January 2010 request under the Freedom of Information Act, the CIA asserted that its use (or non-use) of drones to carry out targeted killings was a “classified fact.” The assertion…
For All the Targeting "Transparency" We Still Don't Know How al-Majala Was Targeted
I realized something as I read this Gregory Johnsen post. For all the so-called transparency on targeting we've gotten since the AP first revealed John Brennan was seizing control of the targeting process, we still don't know what went wrong…
Only Banks Might Want to Review How Criminal Banks Are
The other day, I noted how--days after his department reported that suspected bankster crimes are growing quickly and terrorist financing crimes are going down--Treasury Department fired FinCEN head, Jim Freis. Given some of the reporting describing…
Near Daily Drone Attacks Continue in Pakistan
John Brennan must feel that Pakistan's morale has only improved marginally, because what was an average of almost one drone strike a day has now fallen to about a half drone strike a day. Three successive days of strikes (with a total death…
UndieBomb 2.0's Handler
In honor of the Queen's Jubliee, the Times of London's paywall is down today (with free registration). So now's a good time to read the paper's good coverage on Yemen from Iona Craig and others (see her description of one of the civilians injured…
At What Point Will the Administration Admit "American interests" Equal "What the Saudis Want"?
There are a couple of stories this weekend on our undeclared war in Yemen that deserve some close focus.
As I pointed out in the wake of the NYT and Daily Beast stories on drone targeting, the Administration had been successfully distracting…
What You Learn at Yale
For the record, I have far less problem with Stan McChrystal teaching a course on leadership at Yale than John Yoo teaching law at Berkeley or Doug Feith teaching anything anywhere.
But I am rather amused by the effort on the part of the…
Your Obligatory Fran Fragos Townsend Leak
Remember how the detail that UndieBomb 2.0 involved a Saudi infiltrator got out? John Brennan had a private teleconference with Richard Clarke and Fran Fragos Townsend and implied as much, which led to Clarke reporting it (and not long after,…
Zombie Trash
Because it has been confirmed that the Zombie Apocalypse is upon us, the task of taking out this weekend's trash has been pushed onto me as the least senior (and most expendable) of the Emptywheel blogging team. Well, maybe it's not just the…
Robert Bales Allegedly Started Doing Steroids January 1, Accused of Assault on Afghan in February
As I reported here, DOD released a new charge sheet for Robert Bales. I'm going to start by laying out the chronology it portrays, then talk about the identities of the victims at the end. Here's his original charge sheet for comparison.
The…
16+1=17; 17-1=16
One of Robert Bales' lawyers, Emma Scanlan, seemed to expect the government to drop one of the murder chargers against her client, and the press seems to assume that DOD simply overcounted bodies when they first charged Bales.
Bales attorney…
Remember When WE Accused IRAN of Hacking?
I meant to mention this in my earlier post about David Sanger's StuxNet story, and this passage by Matthew Waxman reminded me.
As I’ve argued elsewhere, it’s likely that in many cyber-attack scenarios, both sides – the attacker and the…
Obama's "Zoo Animal" Broke Free and "Crossed the Rubicon"
At the bottom of it all has been the Bomb. For the first time in our history, the President was given sole and unconstrained authority over all possible uses of the Bomb.
[snip]
Every executive encroachment or abuse was liable to justification…
Transcribing Obama Administration Iran Spin, Sanger Advances False "Breakout" Capability
Marcy will be along later to discuss the shiny thong thing aspect of David Sanger's New York Times article where he was awarded today's transcription prize by the Obama administration and allowed to "break" the story in which the US for the…
