As US-Iran Threat Exchange Continues, Pakistan Detains Three Iranian Border Guards
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaqllTmpcKc[/youtube]
Iran and the US continued to exchange threats over the long holiday weekend. On Saturday night, Barack Obama signed the NDAA, which put into place the ability to enact strong sanctions…
Is It Any Surprise NYPD Would Investigate Anti-Muslim Terrorism as a "Bias Crime"?
A number of people have observed the NYT's description of 4 arson attacks apparently targeting Muslim sites (though one was actually Hindu) as "bias crimes."
A wave of arson attacks spread across eastern Queens on Sunday night, and the police…
Do Iowans Care More about Family and Christmas than GOP Primary Reality Show?
Today is the day of the year when a bunch of Big 10.2 teams get thumped in bowl games. As such, it is a key part of the holiday season for college football fans, including those who live in the Midwest.
Tomorrow is the day of the Presidential…
Seasons End New Year's Trash
Happy New Year folks! As we celebrate the start of the new year of 2012, we also today reach the end of the NFL regular season, and there are some big games on tap. So let's get down to the nitty gritty. Also, ring in the new year with a little…
The Worst Part of the Signing Statement: Section 1024
As I explained here, Obama's signing statement on the defense authorization was about what I expected. He included squishy language so as to pretend he doesn't fully support indefinite detention. And he basically promised to ignore much of the…
Start Out the New Year with Indefinite Detention
Happy New Year! No way to start the New Year out right than new detainee provisions formalizing indefinite detention.
Here is the part of Obama's signing statement for the Defense Authorization that pertains to the most onerous parts of the…
Predicting a New Paradigm
In my seven plus years of blogging, I've never done year-end reviews or predictions and I don't intend to start now.
But I do want to point to two pieces taking stock of this moment in history--the AJE piece on the decline of the American…
We Request to Inform You that You Inform Us We Killed Another Drone Target
I want to follow-up on Jim's latest drone post--and go back to Greg Miller's article on drones--to look at the the approval process. A lot of readers of Miller's article noted this passage, revealing that JSOC continues to avoid the kind of…
More Collateral Damage From Mad Rush to Rely on Drones
Marcy already covered the very important Greg Miller Washington Post article on drones and the way the Obama administration is growing ever more reliant on their use. I would like to focus on more of the collateral damage from drone use…
In Egypt, Our Military Surrogates Crack Down on Our Civil Society Surrogates
Egypt's Supreme Council of the Armed Forces raided 17 civil society and human rights groups yesterday, in some cases holding staffers at the NGO offices as the raid proceeded. The raid has the odd effect of pitting the Generals we've mentored…
In Jewel Decision, Article III Uses Article I to Rebut Article II
The 9th Circuit just released its decisions in two warrantless wiretap suits: Jewel, which claimed that the dragnet collection of communications from the Folsom Street AT&T facility violated FISA, Electronic Communication Privacy Act, and…
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…
