Trash Talk: Raffa v. Fed
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bmazThe event of the season is upon us! Yep, the men's final at the French Open. This is just a quick post for the heck of it because, well, I have been a life long tennis fan (and even played some competitively as a junior); and, out of the blue,…
Chiquita's Alleged Victims Can Sue for Torture, But Not Terrorism
As fatster noted, Judge Kenneth Marra has allowed the suit against Chiquita for its support of Colombian terrorists to go forward. But the ruling is fascinating, because it holds that the plaintiffs can sue for Chiquita's involvement in torture,…
Diplomats Concede Drones Might Destabilize Nuclear Armed Pakistan
WSJ reveals that some folks within the Obama Administration have finally started to weigh the possibility that our drone strikes in Pakistan do more harm than good. Unfortunately, in the fight over whether the US should rein drone strikes in,…
Teaching Our Polish Partners in Torture: State Secrets
I had been predicting for weeks before Obama went to Poland that the Poles would move to quash their investigation into the black site at which KSM and others were tortured.
And sure enough, that appears to be what happened.
The first…
"Terrorists are cowards. Torturers are, too."
Former Gitmo prosecutor Morris Davis makes, in really powerful fashion, a point I've been contemplating: how does Hillary Clinton get off criticizing the torture of Syrian teenager Hamza Ali al-Khateeb or Pakistani journalist Syed Saleem Shahzad…
Next They'll Put Gitmo Transfer Prohibitions on USDA Funding
A number of people have commented on the Obama Administration's statement of opposition to a ban on Department of Homeland Security funding for Gitmo detainee transfers. Here's Benjamin Wittes:
The administration just issued a Statement of…
How's that Plan Going, Mr. President?
I was going to write about this story--about a confrontation between Henry Waxman and Barack Obama over the latter's ineffective negotiating strategy--yesterday.
The president has heard the complaint before. Democrats have accused Obama repeatedly…
The Government Asked to Use Silent Witness Rule in Thomas Drake Case
This document, Judge Richard Bennett's rulings on the admissibility of a number of documents presented in CIPA hearings, is interesting for several reasons, some of which I may return to. But I wanted to highlight that the government is trying…
Why Didn't We Ask China to Find Scooter Libby's Missing Plame Leak E-Mails?
WSJ has an article reporting on the purportedly Chinese-launched GMail hacks that targeted top White House officials.
The article is interesting not because it claims the Chinese want to hack top officials. Who do you think they'd be most…
Executive Nominations, Judicial Emergencies and Change in WH Counsel's Office
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bmazThere are hundreds of top posts in the government, including nearly a hundred federal judicial positions, vacant and the Obama Administration's record on making nominations and getting confirmations is lacking.
Why Is Michael Hayden's Desperation on Illegal Interrogation More Urgent than on Illegal Wiretapping?
Even though he admits yet again that torture didn't get Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Abu Furaj al-Libi to reveal the name of Osama bin Laden's courier, Michael Hayden has launched yet another round of sophism to defend the case that torture led…
Can't We Call this "Counter-Terrorism Preparedness"?
Jared Bernstein (whose blog I still recommend) has responded to his 2-day PEPCO power outage by posting the crummy infrastructure report card the US got in 2009:
Check out the 2009 Report Card from the American Society of Civil Engineers:Aviation…
Chiquita: The Guns and Drugs and Union Killing CNN Didn't Mention
CNN has a report today on some of the many lawsuits victims of right and left wing violence have taken against Chiquita.
Family members of thousands of Colombians who were killed or who disappeared are suing Chiquita Brands International,…
As with Voting, in Marketing, Real People Don't Count Anymore
For some time, it has become increasingly clear that our politicians can pursue policies that benefit just their rich donors--austerity, killing Medicare, bailing out banksters at the expense of homeowners--while ignoring their purported constituents.
So…
The Cyberwar Campaign against Jihadi Literature and WikiLeaks
Ellen Nakashima has a piece following up on the WSJ story previewing DOD's cyberwar (which I posted on here). Before you read it, though, I wanted to suggest another reason we may be seeing this policy early (in addition to the hacking of all…
In Thomas Drake Case, Protected Doesn't Mean Protected
Earlier today, we learned that (thanks to Antonin Scalia) the word "suspicion" no longer means what it used to mean.
Now we learn that "protected" doesn't mean what it used to mean.
As Josh Gerstein reports, the judge in the Thomas Drake…
US Charges KSM, 9/11 Plotters, Again
DOD has announced that prosecutors have recommended charges against KSM and the other alleged 9/11 plotters.
The Department of Defense announced today the office of military commissions prosecutors have sworn charges against five individuals…
Scalia Invents a New Meaning for "Suspicion" while Letting Ashcroft Off the Hook
SCOTUS has just ruled unanimously that John Ashcroft can't be sued by Abdullah al-Kidd for using a material witness warrant to incarcerate him. The 8 justices (Elena Kagan recused herself) all agree there was no law explicitly prohibiting this…
Retaliating against State-Sponsored Cyber War
On the first news day after the holiday weekend reporting on Lockheed Martin, WSJ reports that the US is moving towards making cyberattacks an act of war.
The Pentagon has concluded that computer sabotage coming from another country can constitute…
About the Lockheed Martin Hack
As first started leaking last week, Lockheed Martin seems to have been hacked.
Last weekend was bad for a very large U. S. defense contractor that uses SecureID tokens from RSA to provide two-factor authentication for remote VPN access to…