No Straight Talk, Only Posturing Between US, Iran on Strait of Hormuz
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8yG5G2Kwt0[/youtube]
Iran's threats to close the Strait of Hormuz are getting a lot of play in the press the past few days. As the ten days of naval war games for Iran that began on Saturday have continued,…
NYDN: Census Now Mapping Your Back Hallways
A bunch of leaders in NYC's Muslim community have declined Mayor Mike Bloomberg's invitation to an interfaith breakfast because of the racial profiling done by the NYPD's intelligence division.
The move is interesting for the press it has…
"Oddly Passive" in the World of Drone Killing
The WaPo has an important piece on the use of drones. One thing bmaz noted about it on Twitter, for example, is that CIA had Anwar al-Awlaki under such multi-drone surveillance before they killed him, it is not credible that they killed Samir…
Update On The Signing Of The NDAA
Many people have been wondering what happened regarding the signing of the 2012 NDAA containing the critical, and much criticized, detention provisions. The House of Representatives passed the conference report of the bill on December 14th,…
With US Attention on Memogate Fallout and Taliban, Khan's Tsunami Gathers Strength
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iidC31wuEpE[/youtube]
As reported late yesterday by the New York Times, the US is finally acknowledging that it faces a diminished role in Pakistan. However, restoring even a diminished level of relations…
Merry Christmas!
It's that quiet part of Christmas morning where just McCaffrey the MilleniaLab and I are up. I'm drinking coffee preparing myself to take McC out into the "Al Gore is fat" springlike day, and tie up last minute loose ends for the day ahead.…
On the Manning Art. 32, Court Secrecy & Nat. Sec. Cases
I somehow stumbled into an article for The Nation by Rainey Reitman entitled Access Blocked to Bradley Manning’s Hearing. To make a long story short, in a Twitter exchange today with Ms. Reitman and Kevin Gosztola of Firedoglake (who has done…
Emptywheel's Christmas Eve Mega Football Trash Talk
[Okay, for the most sacred honor and ritual, yes the meet and greet of Halas' Bears and Lambeau's Packers on the hallowed Tundra, I have cavalierly re-upped Trash Talk to the top of the totem pole pecking order until the conclusion of the sacred…
CIA: No Big Deal That We Trained NYPD to Conduct Domestic Spying
The CIA announced in September it was going to review a narrow aspect of the way CIA officers set up NYPD's domestic spying agency in the wake of 9/11. As I pointed out then, the investigation was scoped to ignore key parts of the NYPD's program.
The…
The Holiday Friday Document Dump Signing Statement
The Administration has, as expected, buried its signing statement for the Defense Authorization in a holiday Friday document dump.
Correction: As DDay corrects me, this is not yet the NDAA signing statement, which is still coming.
I'm…
Drone Pilots to Control Four Planes at Once: What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FK4nh5I0jpE[/youtube]
So soon on the heels of this week's disclosure that seventeen percent of US drone pilots show signs of clinical distress and the debacle of the RQ-170 Sentinel drone being recovered…
A Note About OWS and Pre-Trial Diversion in Los Angeles
I have seen a lot of garment rending on Twitter and in discussion forums I participate in about the Los Angeles Times report that a pre-trial diversion option is being offered to some Occupy Wall Street-Los Angeles protesters:
Many Occupy…
Early Christmas Trash: Running With The Devils
Well, you might not know it, but there is a HUGE bowl game tonight! Yes, it is the Grandaddy The All Except All The Others, the Maaco Las Vegas Bowl. From, of all places, Las Vegas! And in this fascinating game, my team, the Arizona State Sun…
Iranian Navy Plans Wargames for Saturday: Will the Filipino Monkey Show Up?
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRbYKKM5cAE[/youtube]
In January of 2008, at a time very similar to now (just under a year out from Presidential elections and with anti-Iran propaganda at a fever pitch in the US media), the Bush administration…
The Material Support of Hillary Clinton and Tarek Mehanna
18 USC 2339(A) and 18 USC 2339(B) proscribe the material support of terrorism and designated foreign terrorist organizations. In short, it is the "material support" law:
the term “material support or resources” means any property, tangible…
Obama Apologists Ignoring the Rotting Corpse of Anwar al-Awlaki
It's been amusing to see how Obama apologists have taken Lawfare's very helpful explainer on the NDAA's detainee provisions to pretend that their president isn't signing a bill that he believes authorizes the indefinite detention of American…
In Ferreting Out Science's Secrets, There Is No Room for Censorship
On Tuesday afternoon, the Washington Post announced that the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) has officially asked two scientific journals to censor portions of manuscripts that are pending for publication:
The federal…
Fuck You To Jamie Dimon & His Plaintive Wail For The 1%
Pardon me for the Taibbi like insolence, but this is just fucking amazing. While most Americans are struggling to stay alive, employed, and their families fed and in their homes, much less celebrate a decent Christmas, the 1% Masters Of The…
Drone War Secrecy and Kill or Capture
As we stand on the doorstep of President Obama signing into law the new NDAA and its dreaded controversial provisions, there are two new articles out of interest this morning. The first is an incredibly useful, and pretty thorough, synopsis…
The Next Round of Looting
Here are three data points that will make you cranky.
First, the New Bottom Line has taken the bonus pool data the big banks have released from the first three quarters of this year to estimate what they'll be for the year. They are:
Next,…
