Judge: Padilla Can't Sue for Torture because Justification for His Torture Was Based on Torture
Here's the main thrust of Judge Richard Mark Gergel's decision to dismiss Jose Padilla's Bivens suit against Donald Rumsfeld and other high level Bush officials who denied him his Constitutional rights.
The Court finds that "special factors"…
Lindsey Graham Calls Raymond Davis an "Agent"
AFP has a report (notably picked up by Pakistan's Dawn) on the Senate's hand-wringing over whether we should tie aid to Pakistan to the release of Raymond Davis, the "consulate employee" who shot two alleged Pakistani spies. Here's what Lindsey…
Political Giving and Willingness to Cave to Law Enforcement
When Jason Leopold linked to a WSJ report titled, "Obama breaks bread with Silicon Valley execs," I quipped, "otherwise known as, Obama breaks bread w/our partners in domestic surveillance." After all, some of the companies represented--Google,…
Hunton & Williams Left Fingerprints at SEIU
Hunton & Williams, the law firm that solicited HBGary and two other security firms to spy on Chamber of Commerce opponents, has remained silent so far about its efforts.
But it hasn't covered its tracks. The SEIU reports that people from…
Stuxnet: The Curious Incident of the Second Certificate
"Is there any point to which you would wish to draw my attention?"
"To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time."
"The dog did nothing in the night-time."
"That was the curious incident," remarked Sherlock Holmes.
Arthur Conan…
Confirmed: Our Government Has Criminalized Beauty Products
A year and a half ago, I warned that if you bought certain beauty supplies--hydrogen peroxide and acetone--you might be a terrorism suspect.
I’m going to make a wildarsed guess and suggest that the Federal Government is doing a nationwide…
Themis Applies JSOC Techniques to Citizens "Extorting" from Corporate Clients
It was Berico Technologies' Deputy Director who sent out these documents adopting a military targeting approach for responding to citizens engaging in free speech.
California Supreme Court To Hear Perry Prop 8 Question
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bmazThe breaking news out of the California Supreme Court is that they WILL entertain a full merits consideration of the question certified to them by the 9th Circuit in the Perry v. Schwarzenegger.
Curveball: I Lied to Get Rid of Saddam
Almost eight years after he helped start a war, the Iraqi behind the US claim that Iraq had mobile weapons labs admitted in an interview with the Guardian that he lied. (h/t Hissypit)
Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi, codenamed Curveball by German…
Chet Uber Contacted HBGary before He Publicized His Role in Turning in Bradley Manning
A reader found a very interesting email among the HBGary emails: Chet Uber emailed--after having tried to call--HBGary CEO Greg Hoglund on June 23, 2010.
> Sir,
>
>
>
> I would like to speak to Mr. Hoglund. My name is Chet…
Our DOJ Refuses to Send Officials to Jail - Scott Bloch Edition
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bmazThe Obama Administration and Holder Justice Department were not willing to make misrepresentations and disingenuous arguments to cravenly insure that Executive Branch officials, including Scott Bloch, lying to Congress do not serve so much as a day in jail.
Judge: Government Can Shield Its Conversations about Engaging in Torture
Josh Gerstein reports that a Federal Judge has rejected ACLU's effort to get the government to remove more of the redactions in the OPR Report on the torture memos. Judge Rosemary Collyer basically argued that the President's need to get candid…
The Shirley Sherrod Complaint Against Andrew Breitbart
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bmazShirley Sherrod is quite a woman, and now she has followed through on her promise and filed a lawsuit against Andrew Breitbart. Ms. Sherrod has come to the dance locked and loaded and with a very compelling story. Andrew Breitbart better strap in, it could be a bumpy ride.
The HBGary Scandal: Using Counterterrorism Tactics on Citizen Activism
As I described on the Mike Malloy show on Friday and as Brad Friedman discusses in his post on being targeted by the Chamber of Commerce, the essence of the Chamber of Commerce/Bank of America/HBGary scandal is the use of intelligence techniques…
Senior Officials Wave Their SIGINT Around
You've probably already read this story detailing how Hosni Mubarak used his 18 day delay in resigning to rob the Egyptian people. While the whole thing is worth a read, I wanted to point out how a senior Western intelligence official makes…
The CIA IG Report on Renditions
There are a couple of details I want to return to in this AP story on what has happened to those responsible for CIA's biggest fuck-ups and crimes.
One is this discussion of the CIA Inspector General's report on "erroneous" renditions.
While…
A Lovely Day at the Beach
Every year, for the first few Sundays after the Super Bowl, McCaffrey the MilleniaLab starts sulking at about 3:00 because for some reason we won't turn on our weekly football game. (Last year we actually resorted to watching basketball the…
FBI Still Inventing New Ways to Surveil People with No Oversight
Marisa Taylor has an important update on the OLC exigent letter opinion. Last year, DOJ's now-retired Inspector General Glenn Fine released a report revealing how the FBI had used exigent letters to get call data information from telecoms with…
From the ChamberPot: Number Two
The Chamber of Commerce has tried to craft another non-denial denial that they engaged a bunch of private spooks to spy on people like Brad Friedman.
But it's still a non-denial denial.
Once again, they emphasize that they didn't pay HBGary.
The…
Egyptian Trash Talk
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bmazTime to get the lead out and get America's youth into an American Tahrir Square because the United States needs a revolution as much as anywhere in the world right now. Time for some real hope and change instead of the disingenuous drivel we were conned with in 2008.