A New Year
It's been a hectic few weeks for me.
From December 11 to December 19, my life was a blur of boxes and U-Hauls and trips back and forth between People's Republic and DeVos' Dominion. On December 20, Mr. EW and I left our apartment still packed…
Lamo's Two (?!) Laptops
In the original story about Adrian Lamo's involuntary hospitalization, he loses his medication and calls the cops.
Last month Adrian Lamo, a man once hunted by the FBI, did something contrary to his nature. He picked up a payphone outside a…
Pulling Some Threads on Lamo's Inconsistencies
In her post laying out the many inconsistencies in Adrian Lamo's account of turning in Bradley Manning, Jane says:
I only see two possibilities. One, Wired had the chat logs before Lamo made any calls to authorities, and was a party to whatever…
Oops! Bribing Nigeria for Cheney's Freedom Not Legal
A lawyer in Nigeria has reminded the country's anti-corruption watchdog that the recent deal buying Cheney's freedom for $35 million is not legal.
In a letter to Nigeria’s anti-corruption watchdog, Osuagwu Ugochukwu, a prominent lawyer in…
Assange Alerts His Hostages
Remember how I suggested that Obama was establishing a practice of only making deals with people--whether they be Republicans or Democrats--who take hostages?
Well, Julian Assange just made it clear who his hostages are:
Top officials in several…
Four Words You Didn't Want to See Together Again
"Judith" "Miller" "Embedded" "Iraq"
By Judith Miller
It was the suicide vest that clinched it.
John C. Myers, a veteran law enforcement officer embedded in the U.S. Army’s 1st Brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division in Iraq’s Anbar province,…
Floyd Abrams' Abuse of Power
I promise I'm going to catch up on the WikiLeaks stuff in more detail soon, but I wanted to do a quick post pointing out the idiocy of Floyd Abrams' attack on WikiLeaks. The logic of Abrams' op-ed--which argues that WikiLeaks is different from…
Did Brennan and Napolitano Have Advance Warning of the UK Arrests?
Now that I've fetched Mr. EW from his 48 hour trip to Philadelphia from Dublin, my entire family will be in one place for the next day or so, so don't expect much posting from me in that period.
But I did want to point to this detail about…
TSA's Legal Justification for Gate Grope
The Electronic Privacy Information Center has been suing the Department of Homeland Security because it refused to engage in the public rule-making process before it adopted RapeAScan machines as part of the primary screening at airports. DHS…
Fat Trash
Get some food, find the couch and man the remote - it's time for some football!
When Did Adrian Lamo Start Working with Federal Investigators?
The first suspicious moment in the chats between Adrian Lamo and Bradley Manning occurred at 12:54 on May 22--ostensibly the second day of chat communication between them (though Manning had sent Lamo encrypted emails for an unspecified period…
Obama/Bush DOJ Update to OLC Christmas Carol
Through what can only be described as a Christmas miracle, our very own Mary has “discovered” the new version of the OLC Christmas carol, as updated by the Obama/Bush OLC.
Is James Clapper's Ignorance a Bug? Or a Feature?
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper has been getting beat up because he got embarrassed by Diane Sawyer when he admitted he had no clue about a 12-person counterterrorism arrest in the UK earlier the day of the interview.
In an interview…
State Secrets Santa and SCOTUS
2011 is going to be a busy and critical year for state secrets litigation in the Supreme Court, and the Obama Administration will be arguing for an expansion of the doctrine in the Supreme Court when it returns to business in January.
Merry Christmas
I was going to post on boring depressing things. But instead I'm kibbitzing as my cousins play Fable 3. They suggested I post this YouTube instead.
Maybe I'll get around to those boring depressing posts after Santa comes.
In the meantime,…
Gawker Coughs Up a Misleading Hairball On Bradley Manning
Gawker has published a misleading and uninformed article on the detention conditions of Bradley Manning; the truth is that he is presumed innocent and being held pre-trial, not a convicted criminal being punished.
If We're Eliminating Symbols Used for Recruitment, Why Not Drones?
Here's what Obama said in response to a question of whether and why he was going to close Gitmo.
Q But it makes me wonder where you are, sir, at about the two-year mark on Guantanamo, when closing it was one of your initial priorities, sir?
THE…
UN Describes "the Right of Every Person to ... Know What Governments Are Doing on Their Behalf"
The UN's Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights' Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression issued a statement Wednesday laying…
Obama's EO on Indefinite Detention: Wanting Bud McKeon's Cake and Eating It Too
[Update, 12/7/11: I find I'm still linking back to this post, and cringing everytime I see I got McKeon's name, Buck, wrong. Apologies.]
I plan to do some more reading on Obama's proposed Executive Order on Indefinite Detention (not least,…
Today's Lesson from the White House: Take Hostages
As we celebrate President Obama signing into law the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell, I'd like to congratulate the activists who made it happen. This is the progressive high point of Obama's presidency so far, and it came because of the hard…
