If "Anarchists" Threaten to Blow Up a Little-Used Bridge Over Federal Property, Is It a Plot?
The bridge on 82 in this picture is the bridge a bunch of purported "anarchists" have just been arrested for threatening to blow up.
You'll note the idyllic parklands through which it travels You'll note the presence of two bridges in the…
Confirmed: The Government Is Blowing Up Habeas with an Interrogation Report Involving Pakistan
In addition to declassifying the analogies to the Wizard of Oz Janice Rogers Brown made in her opinion on Adnan Farhan Abd Al Latif's habeas petition, the government also declassified passages from the Latif cert petition.
Newly declassified…
AP's Burns: ISAF Systematically Under-Reporting Green on Blue Attacks
For several months, I've been hammering on the Obama administration and the US military for describing green on blue attacks in Afghanistan, where Afghan military or police personnel attack NATO forces, as "isolated incidents". In choosing the…
The Secret Service Tamps Down at Home, Too
Remember US efforts to silence any potential sources about the Secret Service scandal in Cartagena? Well, they've finally decided they ought to do the same here in the states, too.
Retired agents have been instructed to stop talking to reporters.…
Big Boy Pants and the Presidency
Frankly, I think Jose Rodriguez was being naive when he claimed that having Jay Bybee's signature on a memo authorizing some, but not all, of the torture the torturers had already done by August 1, 2002 constituted full authority for what they…
Feinstein and Levin: Hassan Ghul Revealed Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti's Role, and Then We Tortured Him
Dianne Feinstein and Carl Levin have released a statement that basically says Jose Rodriguez' Big Boy Pants are on fire for the lies he has told about the torture program.
The statement is interesting for two reasons. First, it gets closer…
John Brennan's Outdated Drone Speech
The speech John Brennan gave today--purportedly offering a new level of transparency about our drone strikes--would have been more effective coming from someone else, delivered at a different time.
It would have been better for someone else…
Janice Rogers Brown Sings "Follow the Yellow Brick Road" as She Guts Habeas
The government has released a new version of the DC Circuit opinion in the Latif case. (Via DC Circuit Review h/t scribe)
I suppose it should comfort us that the government no longer considers this passage from Janice Rogers Brown's opinion…
CIA Disrupts Ongoing US, Pakistan Negotiations With Drone Strike Just as Breakthrough Neared
Despite no agreement being announced during Special Envoy Marc Grossman's visit to Pakistan last week, Pakistan Today reports that negotiations between Pakistan and the US had continued, and an agreement on transportation of NATO supplies through…
Jose Rodriguez' Mushroom Cloud of Torture
I suspect it will be a full time job keeping up with all the Jose Rodriguez' lies we'll hear as he sells his book and his excuse for torture. But for the moment, look at this detail:
Jose Rodriguez: We were flooded with intelligence about…
We Drone Strike, Ergo We Are at War
Check out the logic top pundit David Ignatius employs here:
The United States just decided to step up its drone war [in Yemen], which is a sure sign that al-Qaeda poses a significant, continuing threat.
Ignatius has long served as a mouthpiece…
Peter Bergen's Bumper Sticker
Yesterday, just two days after the unofficial start of the General Election, Joe Biden officially rolled out the slogan he had already warned would be his refrain for the entire campaign season:
If you’re looking for a bumper sticker to sum…
America's Power Couple: Samantha Power Fights Atrocities, Cass Sunstein Defends Child Labor
These two things happened in the same week.
On Monday, Obama rolled out his Atrocities Prevention Board. While in reality, this appears an excuse to sanction Israel's enemies, in theory at least, it's an initiative to find alternative tools…
Right on Cue, the Counter-Argument to the Torture Apology Comes Out
Three years ago, I rather sheepishly gave Dianne Feinstein kudos for the seriousness of the Senate Intelligence Committee inquiry into torture. I said then--and I maintain now--that reports of the investigation make it sound like a far more…
Afghan Special Forces Soldier Joins Parade of "Isolated Incidents", Kills US Trainer, Translator
Joint Chiefs Chair General Martin Dempsey visiting the training center for Afghan special forces on Monday of this week. An Afghan special forces member killed his US mentor on Friday. (DoD photo)
As I noted just under two weeks ago, NATO used…
Inadequate Briefing on the Drone Program Shows Congress Hasn't Fixed the Gloves Come Off MON
I need to finish my series (post 1, post 2, post 3, post 4, post 5, post 6) on the Obama Administration's efforts to hide what I've dubbed the "Gloves Come Off" Memorandum of Notification. As I described, the MON purportedly gave CIA authority…
Fighting Middle Eastern Wars with Pegs and Drones
I'm reading Currency Wars right now, which may be one of the reasons I suspect that the decision to launch signature strikes in Yemen was not requested by CIA and JSOC but instead dictated by Saudi Arabia. But I've also recently read the WikiLeaks…
Pakistan's Supreme Court Finds Prime Minister Gilani Guilty of Contempt; Appeal Planned; Opposition Calls for Resignation
In a case that has been simmering for months, Pakistan's Supreme Court today found Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani guilty of contempt of court for failing to carry through with investigation of corruption charges against President Asif Ali…
Obama's Signature
Obama's signature national security policy may well be the embrace of signature strikes. First in Pakistan--until they killed 38 civilians in Shiga, Pakistan, and had to rethink the strategy--and now, according to the WSJ, in Yemen.
The Obama…
The 99% Demand that GE Pay Its Fair Share
I spent the morning in Detroit watching the Joe Louis fist--one of Detroit's iconic symbols--be swallowed up by a crowd of people demanding that GE--which was holding its shareholders meeting in the Renaissance Center nearby--pay its fair…
