Obama DOJ Claims Journalists Are Like Drug Users
HuffPo has a good write-up of Friday's Fourth Circuit hearing on whether James Risen is entitled to a reporter's privilege in the Jeff Sterling case. It describes Judge Robert Gregory challenging DOJ appellate lawyer Robert Parker's claims that…
SCOTUS Grants Clapper Cert, Stalls on Detainee Cases
SCOTUS has just listed orders from last week's conference, where they had been discussing the handful of Gitmo cases that had petitions for cert pending. It has relisted the detainee cases, which suggests they may need a week or more to sort…
Join a Military Exercise and Win a Drone!
William Arkin catalogs the 19 countries participating in the "largest US exercise in the Middle East" this month.
U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) now says that the exercise is “the largest annual exercise in the Central Command area of operations,”…
Iran Putting Out Hopeful Signals Ahead of Amano Meeting in Tehran, Resumption of P5+1 Talks Wednesday
Although today's meeting with IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano in Tehran is still in process as of this writing, Iran has put out very hopeful signals ahead of both this meeting and the resumption on Wednesday of the P5+1 talks in Baghdad.…
I Was Wrong About The Chen Affair
I am in the unenviable position of having to say I was wrong and am sorry. This is in relation to the issue of US diplomacy vis a vis China as relates to Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng. In case anybody has forgotten, I wrote a rather harsh…
How Does John Brennan Still Have Clearance?
Remember when I gave John Brennan credit for rather uncharacteristically keeping secrets about the UndieBomber case?
While the ABC story cites US officials, among others, it also cites an “international intelligence official” as well as…
Administration Again Attempts to Keep News of Its Drone Damages Out of the Country
[youtube]sgkvYmelMFQ[/youtube]
Nieman Watchdog asked Scott Shane recently why he had granted Administration officials anonymity so they could insinuate that those who report on civilian drone deaths were terrorist sympathizers. Shane defended…
Rorhrabacher's Attempt to Defund Pakistan Falls 335-84
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2p9H77tj8c[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAKdZvetng0[/youtube]
Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) worked himself into quite a bit of anger yesterday defending his amendment…
McClatchy Confirms One Shooter at Alkozai
McClatchy has gone back to do more reporting on the Panjwai massacre that happened in March. (h/t Agonist) It provides a gruesome account of what happened at Alkozai. But also provides more details on the attack and the investigation.
McClatchy's…
If Domestic Drones Are All Civil, Then Why Are They in the Defense Authorization, Too?
I'm working my way up to a post on the cognitive dissonance the government's treatment of Hedges v. Obama seems to have created over at Lawfare. But first I want to note something odd about this Ben Wittes post, calling Conor Friedersdorf's…
"Remember, an FBI agent [like Ali Soufan] always keeps his notes." Why Won't Obama Admin Release Them?
As Ali Soufan has been making the rounds rebutting Jose Rodriguez' self-serving lies, he has said something, repeatedly, that hasn't gotten a lot of attention.
Soufan has notes that prove Rodriguez is lying.
He actually first mentioned…
The Problem with Equating Travel Routes and Terrorism: 34 Dead Civilians
A few weeks back, Seton Hall published a report showing that since the DC Circuit reversed the habeas petition of Mohammed al-Adahi, "the practice of careful judicial fact-finding was replaced by judicial deference to the government's allegations.…
Despite Progress on Iran-IAEA Talks, US Envoy Emphasizes War Plans
Both Bloomberg and the AP's George Jahn reported yesterday that the second session of talks in Vienna between the IAEA and Iran produced progress and that additional talks are now scheduled for May 21 in Vienna. But don't look for news of this…
Judge Forrest's Invitation to Congress: Pass the Smith-Amash Amendment
As I noted yesterday, Judge Katherine Forrest stopped the government from enforcing Section 1021 of last year's NDAA, because it is having a chilling effect on the First Amendment protected activities of plaintiff's including Chris Hedges.
There's…
Judge Enjoins NDAA Section 1021 because Government Implies Speech May Equal Terrorism
The Court then asked: Give me an example. Tell me what it means to substantially support associated forces.
Government: I’m not in a position to give specific examples.
Court: Give me one.
Government: I’m not in a position to give…
Obama's Yemen EO Still Lets Our Spooks Pay the Targets of the EO
As I noted earlier, Obama just signed an Executive Order ostensibly targeting the US assets of those who undermine Yemen's stability, potentially including US citizens who do so. I've been comparing this EO to one of the analogous ones pointed…
The Jeremy Scahill Yemen Executive Order
For the record, I don't think the Obama Administration would be so brazen as to freeze Jeremy Scahill's assets because he reported critically on Obama's Yemen policy. But the Executive Order they're rolling out today is reportedly written so…
The Brits Move Forward with Secret Court Plan--Because, We Claim, They Can't Keep Secrets
There's one more tangential detail to the UndieBomb plot that deserves mention.
The involvement of a Saudi-handled infiltrator in the plot was revealed by May 8. The Brits knew then that it was not just the Saudis and CIA whose operation…
C Street Takes Care of The Family's Sex Problems, Again
Roll Call reports that former Representative [redacted] son, [redacted], got hired as Tom Coburn's District Staff Assistant. That, in spite of the younger [redacted] conviction on misdemeanor charges of criminal solicitation and sexual harassment.
Sen.…
Is It Okay to Admit the US Is Behind the Drone Strikes Now?
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism noted something interesting in its coverage of the latest drone strikes in Yemen. The government is admitting to drone strikes, and thus presumably to our role in them.
Two to three suspected ‘al Qaeda…
