Famine in Somalia Ought to Lead Us to Rethink War on Terror
In the US, most of the news on Somalia in recent days has focused on the war on terror. First, there was the arrest of alleged al-Shabaab figure Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame. Then there was Jeremy Scahill's important piece on the CIA's black site…
Patrick Leahy in Big Rush to Reconfirm the Guy Who Won't Solve Leahy's Attempted Murder
By now, it should be clear that, contrary to their claims, the FBI has not solved the anthrax killings. Sure, Bruce Ivins can't be ruled out as having been involved. But the FBI has offered no plausible explanation for the following:
How…
DOJ: These Aren't the BioPort Spores You're Looking For
DOJ just submitted a filing asserting that a number of claims they made in filings last week were erroneous.They're claiming that:
1) Their statement of facts supporting their claim asserting that no anthrax disappeared from USAMRIID…
The Inevitable Collapse of Legitimacy Under Secret Law: WikiLeaks Hacks
DOJ indicted 16 alleged hackers today, 14 of whom were purportedly involved in hacking PayPal after it refused to accept payments for WikiLeaks.
According to the San Jose indictment, in late November 2010, WikiLeaks released a large amount…
Links, 7/19/11
Our American Empire
Yesterday, I noted that Bob Baer predicts an Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear facilities this fall. Today, Reuters reports that Iran is adding more sophisticated centrifuges to its nuclear development program, presumably…
Rupert Murdoch: I went through Mr. Brown's back door many times
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
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
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
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?
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…
WSJ: Don't Be Mean to Us Like Fitz Was to Judy
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
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…
Rebekah Brooks Arrested
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…
Why Assign the Met's Counterterrorism Squad to Investigate Murdoch?
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…
Rand Paul's Timely Questions
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
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!
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
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…
Reggie Walton Unleashes the Rocket's Red Glare
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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
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…
