The Confusion about When Hassan Ghul's Torture Started
In this post, I noted that John McCain seemed to be talking about Hassan Ghul when he spoke of a detainee who gave up key information on Osama bin Laden's courier without being tortured.
It’s the other detail I find even more interesting:…
Whitewash Investigation on Detainee Abuse Is Why We Need WikiLeaks
The Nation has a long study on the Army's Detainee Abuse Task Force, which one of its members described as a "whitewash."
Jon Renaud, a retired Army Warrant Officer who headed the task force as the Special Agent in Charge for the first half…
Why Can't DOJ Investigate as Well as the Hapless Senate?
There's a lot to loathe about the current incarnation of the Senate, that elite club of millionaires where legislation goes to either get rewritten to serve corporate interests or killed.
What does that say about DOJ, then, that the Senate…
JSOC Decides It's Ready to Return to Shadows ... Soon
Vice Admiral William McRaven, the Commander of the Joint Special Operations Command--which has been celebrated for the last two weeks for its role in getting Osama bin Laden--told Marc Ambinder (who has long been one of the most informative…
JP Morgan Chase Nickel and Diming the Last Nickels and Dimes from the Unemployed
The National Consumer Law Center just released a report on something that's been a pet peeve of mine for some years: states' increasing reliance on pre-paid cards to distribute unemployment compensation, rather than checks. (h/t Susie) As the…
Michael Mukasey Doubles Down on the Sophism
The most interesting aspect of Michael Mukasey's retort to John McCain's op-ed calling him a liar is not the content--that's the same old trite sophism--but rather the publication details of it.
It appears not under Mukasey's byline, but…
Yemen's Head of Al Qaeda Scrambles to Make Anwar al-Awlaki Al Qaeda's #3
It's now a perennial joke. Every time we kill the next Number Three in al Qaeda, we joke about how no one wants to take that guy's place.
Which was my first impression when I read this bit from ProPublica's review of what the intelligence…
Corporate Fairy Tales in Afghanistan
It's a corporate fairy tale: working class boy joins the military, goes into banking, brings the joys of mineral exploitation to exotic locales.
From Congo to Colombia, from Iraq to Sierra Leone, [Ian] Hannam [the JP Morgan banker overseeing…
Two Themes from Obama's Cybersecurity Proposal: Private Auditors and Immunity
Two and a half years after privatized auditors largely signed off on practices that contributed to the collapse of Wall Street, and a year after coziness between government inspectors and the oil industry they regulate allowed a massive oil…
Government Claims Classified Information Procedures Act Also Applies to Unclassified Information
The government's making outrageous secrecy claims again, this time in the Thomas Drake NSA leak case.
As Steven Aftergood first reported, the government is trying to protect unclassified information using the CIPA process, basically making…
9/11 Commission Redux
Spencer had a superb idea:
I don't pretend that anything will produce an end to this new debate over torture. The fact that we're debating torture diminishes our standing as a civilization. But moving beyond it: perhaps, after the actionable…
John McCain: KSM Lied Under Torture, Just Like I Did
John McCain has, on balance, a good op-ed in the WaPo refuting Michael Mukasey's embrace of torture. McCain's larger point is that our approach to the Arab Spring will have a key role in our ability to defeat terrorists, which is a point not…
ComcastSucks Got Suckier So FCC Commish Could Get a Swank New Job
Our entire country's mediascape will no doubt get suckier as Comcast returns to its typical bad behavior after having eaten NBC. We will become less well-informed. We will fall further behind the rest of the world for broadband access. And we…
MI Dems to Benton Harbor: You're on Your Own
Eclectablog, who has been doing solid reporting on the takeover of Benton Harbor by an Emergency Financial Manager, has been wondering why MI's Democratic Party hasn't been more vociferous in supporting Benton Harbor. Today, he reported that…
Killing Democracy with Bad Intelligence
Some of us have been having fun on Twitter discussing the reported power struggle in al Qaeda to replace Osama bin Laden in terms we'd use to discuss an American election. Which made this report--which Frontline linked as part of their Kill/Capture…
The Congressman from NSA Wants Contractor Contributions to Remain Secret
To be fair, Steny Hoyer can't lay sole claim to be the Congressman representing the National Security Agency--the NSA actually gets three Congressmen: Steny, John Sarbanes, and Dutch Ruppersberger.
But I think it fair to note that Steny has,…
Dangerous Counter-Narratives: Our Global Finance Ponzi Scheme and Iranian Cooperation
According to this post, this op-ed in the WSJ got badly edited after it was originally published. The bolded words are just some of what WSJ axed after the fact. (h/t Naked Capitalism)
The official wisdom is that Greece, Ireland and Portugal…
Obama Administration Finally Brags about Jobs Created in Auto Bailout
The Obama Administration was gung ho to brag about the GM IPO last year. But if I'm not mistaken, this is the first time the White House has bragged nationally about jobs created thanks to the auto bailout (Ron Bloom, who got promoted into an…
After Killing the Guy Who Started this War, We Simply Redefine It
Used to be, when you vanquished your enemy, you declared victory and went home.
Not this time. Just a week after the death of Osama bin Laden--who declared war on the US in 1996--Buck McKeon has renewed his effort to rewrite the 2001 Authorization…
Mountain Pure "Purified" Drinking Water Recalled for Mold
As Mark Bittman said when he tweeted this press releasem, "If bottled water is getting recalled we're all in a lot of trouble."
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - May 4, 2011 - Officials at the Arkansas Department of Health (ADH) announced today that…