"More Respected Around the World"? Really?
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwPEHeRa39k[/youtube]
Political speeches, by nature, push the limits of truth. Because of that, the process of sorting out truths from lies in political speeches has become something of a cottage industry.…
CIA Ousts Another Officer Working on Iran because of Political Shitstorm
Remember how Dick Cheny outed Valerie Plame and in the process hurt our efforts to prevent Iran from getting nukes?
And since then, Iran has just been working away, allegedly, to get nukes?
Well, at a time when much of the national security…
Osama bin Laden: "I am Alpha and Omega"
I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. (Revelation 22:13)
Barack Obama's State of the Union, first 100 words:
Last month, I went to Andrews Air Force Base and welcomed home some of our last troops to serve…
US Resolves to Clean Up Its Illegal Detention at Parwan
While it is good news that the Administration is finally going to do something about the non-Afghan detainees at Bagram, the WaPo sure lets its anonymous Administration sources put the best spin on the move.
It is not, apparently, a response…
Did the Government "Know Who Journalists Are Talking To" in the Kiriakou Investigation?
As I laid out in this post, the complaint in the Jon Kiriakou case shows that the Patrick Fitzgerald-led investigative team could have found Kiriakou as the ultimate source for some Gitmo detainee lawyers' information on two people associated…
Mansoor Ijaz Rejects Security Arrangements, Does Not Go To Pakistan for Testimony
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPebe5kcnMo[/youtube]
Today is the day on which Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz was scheduled to provide testimony before a judicial commission in the Memogate controversy that has heightened…
How Did DOJ Find Jon Kiriakou?
As I've noted, former CIA officer Jon Kiriakou was charged yesterday with leaking classified material--including one covert officer's identity; the alleged leaks involve three different journalists. Since the complaint focuses on Kiriakou it's…
Did John Brennan's Leak Hypocrisy Catch Up to Him?
In his interview with Jason Leopold in May 2010, Jon Kiriakou explained how his book got approved by the CIA Publication Review Board. He describes someone who--given the mention of the transition team and the seniority at CIA--must be John…
Despite Metaphysical Impossibility, US Government Repeatedly Attempts Retroactive Classification
On Friday, I noted that the New York Times had dutifully repeated information from military sources who had provided them with a "classified" report (pdf) on how cultural differences between NATO troops and Afghan troops are resulting in increasingly…
Will the CIA Regret It Started a Witchhunt against Detainee Lawyers?
As I noted, DOJ charged former CIA officer Jon Kiriakou for allegedly leaking information relating to the CIA's torture program (as well as purportedly secret information about GPS tracking that is not secret).
But remember how this investigation…
DOJ Charges Former CIA Officer for Exposing CIA's Torture
It would be too simple to say that Jon Kiriakou was a whistle-blower. His initial leaks to journalists seemed like sanctioned leaks to minimize the effect torture had.
But whatever role he played, DOJ just charged him for leaking information--almost…
SCOTUS Unanimously Declares (Some) GPS Tracking a Search
Good news! The Fourth Amendment is not totally dead yet!
SCOTUS just handed down its decision in US v. Jones, which I wrote about here. And while there are three concurring opinions (the majority authored by Scalia and joined by Roberts,…
The Administration's Half-Striptease of Anwar al-Awlaki's Rotting Corpse
This article, which claims the "Obama administration is planning to reveal publicly the legal reasoning behind its decision to kill" Anwar al-Awlaki, also reveals that Administration debates about whether to do so likened such necessary transparency…
What Do You Call a "Cornhusker Kickback" for California?
Remember the "Cornhusker Kickback"? That was the $45 million in expanded Medicaid funding Ben Nelson demanded from the Obama Administration before he'd support Health Insurance Reform. The special treatment for Nebraska gave the reform effort…
Championship Sunday Trash Talk
Well, here we are at Championship Sunday weekend. It seemed like only yesterday that the NFL season was tearing through a hasty preseason after the lockout, and the Packers were beating the Saints in a season opening Thursday night shootout.…
Exhibits in Latif's SCOTUS Petition Prove Interrogation Summaries Should Not Be Entitled to Presumption of Regularity
In his book, The Black Banners, former FBI Agent Ali Soufan describes multiple occasions when FBI and CIA reporting on a subject did not match. For example, he describes how his reporting and that of a CIA officer, Fred, differed during the…
If the Only News Is Good News and There Is No News ...?
Tara McKelvey, the woman who wrote one of the most detailed stories on drone targeting (which has subsequently gotten John Rizzo into some trouble), has a CJR piece on the problems of reporting on drones. The whole thing is worth reading, but…
Wells Fargo, Freddie, Bank of America, and UBS at DOJ
As a number of people have noted, Reuters has an important story on a potential conflict of interest at DOJ: Covington and Burling, where Eric Holder and Lanny Breuer worked before coming to DOJ in 2009, wrote key memos leading to the creation…
In Rush to Transcribe Military's Concern on Why We Can't Leave Afghanistan, Did NY Times Fact-check "Classified" Report?
Today's New York Times carries a long article under the headline "Afghanistan's Soldiers Step Up Killings of Allied Forces". The story appears to me to be presented from the angle of military higher-ups who don't want to withdraw from Afghanistan…
Obama's Housing Campaign
Let's connect a few data points.
Last Friday, Jame Dimon demanded that all the players (except the actual homeowners) get locked into a room until some leader solved the housing problem he and his buddies created.
On Sunday, the Administration…
