Border Post Attack Fallout Continues: No Obama Apology; Pakistan Threatens WOT Role
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BSoEeLgnm0[/youtube]
Pakistan and the US continue to provide widely differing accounts of the NATO attack on two border posts just inside the Pakistan border that killed 24 Pakistani troops early Saturday…
Ayotte's Pro-Torture Amendment Referred to Conference
Update: Adam Serwer informs me that I misunderstood what happened in the colloquy where this was discussed. Ayotte's pro-torture amendment was withdrawn.
I apologize for my error.
As Jeff Kaye laid out here, Kelly Ayotte submitted an amendment…
Efforts to Combat Levin-McCain Don't Do Anything to Prohibit Indefinite Detention of Americans
When he gets defensive, Carl Levin can be tremendously cantankerous (sometimes that's a good thing, but not when he's pushing terrible law like the detainee provisions in the Defense Authorization).
That cantankerous Carl Levin of late started…
Why Didn't DOJ Look More Closely at DTRA's Role in 2001 Anthrax Attacks?
[Note: This post has been updated to correct an error regarding the location of the Project BACUS facility. Erroneous material has not been deleted but has been put into strikethrough font.]
In following up on yesterday's announcement…
Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame and the Paper Trail Preventing Floating Ghost Prisons
Given the defeat of the Udall Amendment, it looks likely the Defense Authorization will include provisions mandating military detention for most accused terrorists (though the Administration has already doubled down on their veto threat).
So…
Give Them a Damn Ticker Tape Parade Already
"Who will be the last senator to not want to end a mistake? Me." - John Kerry
That's the way MightyOCD interpreted John Kerry's vote--along with 66 of his colleagues--not to repeal the Iraq war that is ending whether they like it or not next…
Udall Amendment Fails 37-61
In the battle of two wrong sides, the Democrats lost, with the Udall Amendment failing 37-61. The vote is interesting, first of all, as a read of Obama's ability to sustain a veto. Right now, the militarists do not have a two-thirds majority…
British Embassy in Tehran Stormed by Protesting Students
While gathering materials for yesterday's post on the reports of an explosion near the uranium processing facility near Isfahan in Iran, I almost mentioned this story on the Mehr News website, where we got confirmation that Iran was reducing…
Bachmann Was Almost Right: The ACLU Is in Cahoots with the CIA
As I have puzzled over the civil liberties and human rights communities' stance on the NDAA Detainee Provisions, I've come to the unfortunate conclusion that Michelle Bachmann was not far off when she claimed, "Barack Obama ... has essentially…
Mark Udall's Unsatisfactory Solution to the Detainee Provisions
As I have repeatedly described, I have very mixed feelings about the debate over Detainee Provisions set to pass the Senate tonight or tomorrow. I view it as a fight between advocates of martial law and advocates of relatively unchecked Presidential…
Jed Rakoff to SEC: Do you think I'm a tool?
Judge Jed Rakoff has rejected the SEC's proposed wrist slap of Citibank for selling mortgage-backed securities it knew to be of poor qualify.
Effectively, what he did was join this complaint with SEC's complaint--filed at the same time as…
Explosion Reported Near Iranian Uranium Processing Facility
According to Haaertz, the Iranian Fars News Agency is reporting (although I don't see a story yet at their website or at Mehr News) an explosion in Isfahan, where an Iranian uranium processing facility is located:
A explosion rocked the…
Fallout From NATO Attack on Pakistani Border Posts Continues: Afghanistan At Center of Conflict
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXKtehgB-Cw[/youtube]
While a great deal of the attention on the effects of Saturday's NATO attack on two (or three) Pakistani border posts that killed at least 24 Pakistani soldiers centers on US-Pakistan…
Geithner's Duplicitous Efforts to Reinforce the Oligarchy
Bloomberg's blockbuster story--showing that the Fed was dumping $7.77 trillion into the same banks that Treasury was claiming were solvent to qualify them for TARP--shows a number of different things. It focuses on the $13 billion in profits…
The Lessons of Iran-Contra 2.0
In "honor" of the 25th Anniversary of the press conference admitting to Iran-Contra on Friday, National Security Archive liberated memos an aide to Special Prosecutor Lawrence Walsh, Christian Mixter, wrote assessing the criminal liability of…
Fast Trash
Um, okay, couple of MAJOR problems here. First is the issue of the illegitimate Trash appearing on this blog. and the musical selection for the same? Holy crap, I just do not know how I can work under such conditions. So, it turns out that Detroit…
NATO Helicopter Attack Kills Up to 28 at Pakistani Border Post, Supply Crossings Closed
In September of 2010, the US and Pakistan faced a crisis in relations after the killing of two Pakistani soldiers at a border outpost. Pakistan closed the Torkham supply crossing through the Khyber Pass as a result of the incident. Today,…
The Two Scary Iran Plot Complaints: A Comparison
As I wrote on Wednesday, earlier this month, the government released Manssor Arbabsiar's original complaint in the Scary Iran Plot. As I showed, comparing the original with the amended complaint reveals that the government tried to hide the…
In Thanks for Michigan's Bounty
Two years ago, I made a concerted effort to cook our entire Thanksgiving Dinner, save for spices and olive oil, with products from MI.
I've moved twice since then, but found this year that I almost pulled it off without trying (I didn't use…
Is the Government Hiding Chase's Cooperation in the Scary Iran Plot?
As I noted in this post, earlier this month, the government unsealed the redacted first complaint in the Scary Iran Plot. I will do a post summarizing the differences between the original and amended complaint later (short version: in a number…