Rupert Murdoch: I went through Mr. Brown's back door many times

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emptywheel
I'm livetweeting the Murdoch hearings--follow along @emptywheel. The highlights thus far are: MP Watson kept refusing to let James Murdoch answer questions for his father. At one point, Watson said, "Your father is responsible for corporate…

Government Inches Closer to Admitting It Hasn't Solved Anthrax Attack

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emptywheel
As a number of you have noted, ProPublica is out with a story on yet more evidence why Bruce Ivins was probably not the anthrax killer. Here's the deposition they cite in their story; his former colleague Patricia Worsham described how USAMRIID…

Elizabeth Warren: I'm Saving All the Rocks in My Pocket for the Republicans

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emptywheel
I just got off a conference call with Elizabeth Warren. And while she said her plans extend no further than taking her grandkids to LegoLand, it's pretty clear she's going to be spending her time beating up on Republicans. Rather than respond…

Links, July 18, 2011

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emptywheel
Btw, DDay tells me I stole this idea from him. So I'm going to admit it fair and square that I did, indeed, take this idea partly from him. Surveillance The whistleblower who first tied Andy Coulson to the HackGate scandal, Sean Houre,…

Why Push Elizabeth Warren to Join America's Most Ineffective Body?

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emptywheel
The news reports in the lead-up to this weekend's announcement that Obama was ending the career of yet another prescient female bank regulator, this time even before it started, prepped the progressive community to champion an Elizabeth Warren…
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WSJ: Don't Be Mean to Us Like Fitz Was to Judy

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emptywheel
Most sane people are outraged by the WSJ's hacktalicious editorial calling for calm on the hack scandal. As well they should: the editorial discredits WSJ as a paper. But I was particularly interested in this bit. In braying for politicians…

Trash Talk: There Will Be Football

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emptywheel
The big news of the morning may be the latest maneuvers of the Murdoch scandal. But we've also got real sports news. It looks like the assholes running American football will beat the assholes running America to crafting a deal. The key…
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Rebekah Brooks Arrested

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emptywheel
The Guardian is reporting that Rebekah Brooks, Rupert Murdoch's henchwoman in the UK, has been arrested in the phone hacking scandal. The Metropolitan police said a 43-year-old woman was arrested at noon Sunday, by appointment at a London police…
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Why Assign the Met's Counterterrorism Squad to Investigate Murdoch?

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emptywheel
The NYT has a long article exploring why Scotland Yard allowed bags and bags of evidence showing News of the World's widespread hacking to sit unopened for four years. One reason, it explains, is because Scotland Yard's counterterrorism…
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Rand Paul's Timely Questions

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emptywheel
Charlie Savage has a report describing how Rand Paul's hold the reconfirmation of Robert Mueller threatens to push the process beyond the time when Mueller's ten year appointment date. [A] necessary first step — enacting legislation that…

Links, July 15, 2011

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emptywheel
In an effort to keep track of breaking stories without necessarily doing a post on all of them, I'm going to start doing a post of links every day. I'll explain more on what I'm trying to achieve with this next week. And I expect most days the…

Welcome Back to Emptywheel!

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emptywheel
You've found our new digs! Thanks to Chris, Dan, Rayne, Brian, and Jason for helping with this transition--particularly Chris and Dan who helped with a lot of last minute surprises. The site is not yet fully functional--most notably, we're…

Sterling's Graymail Attempt

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emptywheel
As Josh Gerstein reported, back in June, Jeffrey Sterling asked the government for details about which parts of James Risen's account of Merlin are true and which are false. His lawyers argue that Sterling cannot be guilty of disseminating national…
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Reggie Walton Unleashes the Rocket's Red Glare

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bmaz
. Well well well. who couldda knowd?? Acute prosecutorial foul play has ended the big Roger Clemens perjury trial at it's gestation. From ESPN: The judge presiding over Roger Clemens' perjury trial declared a mistrial over inadmissible…

Darrell Issa Steps in It, Inadvertantly Reveals Improper Use of Congressional Funds to Serve AEI

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emptywheel
Republicans are big fans of projection. When they're neck-deep in conflicts of interest, they like to hide it by accusing Democrats of such conflicts. When they leak stuff, they accuse Democrats. When they mismanage stuff, they accuse Democrats. And…
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ACLU FOIAs CIA for Documents on Juan Cole

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emptywheel
The ACLU has just FOIAed the CIA and Director of National Intelligence for any information on Juan Cole. It asks for, e-mails, letters, faxes, or other correspondence, memoranda, contemporaneous notes of meetings or phone calls, reports or…

Obama Administration: Don't Cut Construction Funding to Bahrain

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emptywheel
In its statement of Administration policy on HR 2055--which funds military construction--the Administration expressed concern that the Senate had cut $100 million funding for two projects in Bahrain. The Administration is worried, you see,…

On Two Torture Investigations

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emptywheel
Across the pond--in the investigation of British complicity with the torture of Binyam Mohamed and others--the Supreme Court has told the government it can't present secret evidence. The supreme court has outlawed the use of secret evidence…

Our Unilateral Counterterrorism Operations in Somalia

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emptywheel
A detainee in what Jeremy Scahill describes as "a secret prison buried in the basement of Somalia’s National Security Agency (NSA) headquarters, where prisoners suspected of being Shabab members or of having links to the group are held"--one…

Emptywheel Leaving Firedoglake

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emptywheel
It is with very mixed feelings that I announce emptywheel will be leaving Firedoglake at the end of this week. About six years ago, I started blogging on the abuse of power. At first it was the CIA Leak case. Then it was torture. And warrantless…
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