The Government Continues To Classify WikiLeaks Cables to Cover Up Their Torture Cover Up
The government has responded to ACLU's FOIA for a bunch of WikiLeaks cables by releasing redacted versions of just 11 of the 23 cables they FOIAed (I've copied, ACLU's inventory of what they got below the fold).
Some of their redactions are…
Baby-Sitting Terrorists Rather Than Tracking Osama Bin Laden
A few comments from Mary got me thinking about how damning today's AP story on our Romanian black site is for the torture apologists' tale that torture--and CIA interrogations more generally--helped find Osama bin Laden.
The AP's story reminds…
Obama: "As the Father of 2 Daughters" I Want the Government to Ignore Science
Barack Obama, who was educated in the country's most esteemed universities, has implied that having daughters has convinced him the government should ignore science.
His anti-science justification came in response to questions about HHS'…
"This Isn't the Assassination Surveillance Drone You're Looking For"
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Before you read this David Sanger/Scott Shane piece reporting that the RQ-170 Sentinel drone that just went down in Iran was, "among other missions, [] looking for tunnels, underground facilities or other places…
Archiving Terrorists in the False-Floored Cells in the Basement
Goldman and Apuzzo are back on the dark sites beat, this time with a description of the dark site in Bucharest, Romania where the CIA stashed Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and others after shutting down the site in Poland.
This prison was built…
The Albatross of Obama's "Rule of Executive Order"
The other day, John Bellinger and Matthew Waxman joined the long list of people voicing opposition to the detention provisions of the Defense Authorization. Yet there's a part of their column that has received little focus, in spite of the fact…
Zardari in Dubai Hospital; Coup Rumors Quelled for Now
Late Tuesday afternoon, Twitter was awash in a flurry of rumors on the status of Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari. One tweet that was repeated over and over stated that Zardari had been sedated, flown to Abu Dhabi, and would leave as…
Two Drone Questions: How Did Iran Get It? What Will the Damage Be?
As I noted in an update to this post, the US has now admitted that the drone Iran claimed to down is, in fact, one of its new-fangled RQ-170 Sentinels. Sources have admitted anonymously that CIA was using the drone for reconnaissance, implicitly…
Pakistan Withdraws Cooperation From Key Border Posts, McCain and Graham Stir Pot
Although it is now a week and a half since the November 26 NATO attack on two border posts that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, it appears that the barrage of official statements and official actions is not yet slowing. Despite a Sunday phone…
Jon Kyl Justifies Military Detention by Claiming CIA-Military Credit for FBI Interrogations
In the entire two week debate over the detainee provisions of the Defense Authorization, the champions of military detention offered almost no rationale for it (a pity, then, that the opponents barely explained why it's such a bad idea), aside…
Florida Containment Dome Crackers: How Saving $15 Million Ended Up Costing $2.5 Billion
Almost single-handedly, reporter Ivan Penn at the Tampa Bay Times (formerly known as the St. Petersburg Times) has been informing the world of the disgusting spectacle taking place only sixty miles southwest of my home at the Crystal River…
Eric Holder, Indefinitely Detained by DOD?
The most shocking phrase in the Senate's Defense Authorization detainee provisions to me was not the language affirming indefinite detention. That language simply affirms and possibly narrows the status quo. Rather, it was this language purporting…
Did Iran Hack Our Drone?
I've been saying for some time that America's hubris about drones will end as soon as one of our antagonists figures out how to hack them.
Which is why it's interesting that Iran has updated its claims to have "shot down" an American drone…
Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt Advocates Extending PATRIOT Act to Domestic Terrorists
I watched last night's Huckabee Presidential forum between thrilling plays in the Big 10.2 Championship game. Since each candidate appeared by him or herself, it lacked the entertaining in-fighting of other episodes of this reality show. But…
The Price of NCAA Trash
I have been having a pretty interesting discussion off blog with Gulf Coast Pirate about the coaching carousel and big money in college football. The long and short is that his team, the Houston Cougars, has a hot young coach, and my team, the…
Lindsey Graham's Independent Review for All Detainees in US Prisons
As I've said before, I think Carl Levin's assurances that habeas corpus will prevent the Executive from holding people without cause under his new detainee provisions (and, frankly, under the status quo) is dangerously naive, because it ignores…
Does the FBI Contend Intelligence Reports on Community Outreach Events Comply with Its Policy?
Yesterday, the ACLU released a report on its ongoing FOIA on what FBI offices around the country are doing to collect intelligence on Muslim communities and particular ethnic groups. The report found a number of cases in which the FBI mixed…
Pakistan's "Temoporary Campsite" at Center of NATO Border Post Attack Controversy
The barrage of claims and counter-claims on what took place early Saturday morning just inside the Pakistani side of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border continues at a rapid pace. On Thursday, the Wall Street Journal published an article in…
Why the Iraq AUMF Still Matters
The big headline that came out of yesterday's American Bar Association National Security panels is that DOD General Counsel Jeh Johnson and CIA General Counsel Stephen Preston warned that US citizens could be targeted as military targets if…
49% of Michigan's African Americans to Lose Their Right to Self-Governance
And now, as a break from all the shitty national news, I wanted to update you on shitty news from my home front.
Governor Snyder is about to start the process of appointing an Emergency Financial Manager for Detroit (though note, they're…