Col. Davis Goes to Washington: A One-Man Battle for Truth-Telling About Afghanistan
When separate classified reports casting doubt on the military's claims of progress in the Afghanistan war were discussed in the New York Times on January 20 and then by BBC (and Times of London) on February 1, my response to both incidents…
In Memoriam: Mary Beth Perdue
The internet is a strange and wonderful thing. Just about everyone and everything in the world is on it, even though it is nothing but data in the form of binary computer code traversing by random electrons. Yet thought is crystalized, and friendships…
MI Politics Gets Interesting: Trevor and Crazy Pete
Just interrupting pre-game to bring two pieces of interesting political news from MI.
First, we might finally have exciting news in my congressional district, where the party has thus far failed to recruit anyone to run against the unpopular…
How Do You Profile J. Edgar Kelly with Almost No Mention of Domestic Spying?
In 1974, the NYT made history with a story that reported,
An extensive investigation by the NYT has established that intelligence files on at least 10000 U.S. citizens were maintained by a special unit of the CIA
In 2005, the NYT again made…
Emptywheel's Gigantic Patriotic Bad Ass Mega Super Bowl Trash Talk Houseparty
It is SuperBowl weekend and the biggest story in Indianapolis is Peyton Manning. Probably not fair to Peyton, Indianapolis or the Giants and Pats, but such is how it seems to be playing out. The melodrama has served as a reminder that the Colts…
FBI Director Mueller Boasts of FBI's Cyber Expertise before Anonymous Hacks Cyber Call
As you may have heard, Anonymous hacked into and released a conference call between the FBI and Scotland Yard discussing their efforts to crack down on the hackers' group.
What makes the hack all the more ironic is its release comes just…
I Always Hated Pink, Anyway
From when I was 6 until I was 16, in two different houses, my bedroom was painted pink. I don't think I ever liked the color, but I learned to loathe it along the way, even if it was just my parents' half-hearted attempt to encourage me to be…
When Was the Last Time a Pope Was Shit-faced Drunk On the Streets of Paris?
The answer to that question is actually early on the morning of April 17, 2010, at least if you read chapter 11 of Michael Hastings' "The Operators" (the chapter is titled "Totally Shit-faced").
Well, it was Stanley McChrystal and his…
Mitt Cozying Up to Foreclosure Mill that Got McCain in Trouble
Back in 2008, John McCain's campaign shacked up with one of MI's two notorious foreclosure mills, Trott & Trott. That housing situation became rather uncomfortable after the Macomb County GOP Chair asserted, in an on-the-record interview,…
The NYPD Profiles Everyone's Favorite Terrorist Group, MEK
As I noted yesterday, the latest installment of Goldman and Apuzzo's exposure of the CIA-on-the-Hudson relies on a 2006 document laying out plans to profile Iranians and Shiites (and Palestinians) in anticipation of heightened US-Iranian conflict.
New…
Your Summer Schedule: Vacation, Beach, Iran War
Man, if Leon Panetta doesn't get into trouble for revealing details of Anwar al-Awlaki's targeting or confirming that Pakistani doctor Shikal Afridi was working for the CIA when he collected DNA from Osama bin Laden's compound, I wonder if he'll…
Target of New Year's Day Firebombing Also Target of NYPD Intelligence Collection
The latest Goldman and Apuzzo report on the CIA-on-the-Hudson provides proof that Ray Kelly and Mike Bloomberg's claims that religious institutions are not profiled are false.
The New York Police Department recommended increasing surveillance…
Government Awards $35 Million Contract to Expand Parwan Prison
The Obama Administration insists that it wants to close Gitmo, but Congress is preventing them from doing so.
They rarely talk about the other big detainee prison--the one with significantly less transparency and due process than exists at…
Anthrax Sent to Pakistan's PM Begs Question of Whether FBI Investigated Presumed Anthrax Sent to US Pak Embassy in 2001
Yesterday's revelation by Pakistan that a package containing anthrax had been sent to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has both shocked Gilani's security staff and provoked memories that anthrax was sent to multiple targets in Pakistan in late…
The Administration's Many Excuses for Hiding Its Targeted Killing Memo
Remember this article? It describes the debate within the Administration over how readily and extensively to acknowledge the US killing of Anwar al-Awlaki. As it describes, the debate was at least preliminarily resolved at a Situation Room meeting…
Ron Wyden Suggests Secret PATRIOT GPS Tracking May Be Illegal Under Jones
As I've suggested in my posts on US v Jones, the Justices seemed opposed to the kind of tracking we believe the government is doing under Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act. Yet of the three opinions ruling the warrantless use of GPS tracking in…
Michael Hayden's Risky and Edgy Schadenfreude
I've long suspected the reason Republicans have pursued Fast and Furious so relentlessly--and more importantly, have tried to implicate Eric Holder in it personally--is to exact revenge on the Attorney General because he deigned to investigate…
The Non-Counterterrorist Drone Loophole: Did Clapper Admit We Targeted Iranian Scientists?
One of the most interesting exchanges in yesterday's Threat Assessment hearing occurred between Ron Wyden and James Clapper--with David Petraeus, whom Wyden calls out, observing silently (the exchange starts at 1:01).
Wyden: Let me wrap up…
Newest Leaked NATO Report Aimed at Preventing Afghanistan Withdrawal?
Fresh on the heels of the "leak" to the New York Times two weeks ago of an already public report on Afghan troops killing US troops, another NATO report casting a bad light on the current war effort in Afghanistan has been leaked. This time…
Dianne Feinstein Calls James Clapper a Polyanna on Afghanistan
The takeaway the stenographers have gotten from yesterday's intelligence threat assessment is that the Scary Iran Plot means Iran wants to target us in this country.
They reported that even as Dianne Feinstein made it clear James Clapper…
