Did the White House Review CIA's Records on Congressional Briefings?
A month ago, I wrote a post noting that CIA had never finished its Memos for the Record of several key Congressional briefings. But as I've been reviewing old Vaughn Indices to get a better sense of what we received yesterday, I've seen some…
Abu Zubaydah May Have Been Waterboarded MORE than 83 Times
MadDog and I just realized something that should have been apparent since August. He and I have been looking at the passage of yesterday's document dump that refers to CIA keeping OLC informed of how many times waterboarding was used.
First,…
How Abu Zubaydah's Sleep Deprivation Got Out of Control
The latest CIA document dump also provides more background on how Abu Zubaydah got subjected to extended sleep deprivation long before it was approved. PDF page 113-114 explains:
After consulting with the NSC and DOJ, CTC[redacted] originally…
CIA's Lawyer Did Not Find Alteration of Torture Tapes "Noteworthy"
As I noted in my last thread, the latest ACLU document dump is here. And this is, indeed, the set of documents John Durham was withholding for his investigation.
I've long been interested in the role of the earlier destruction of the torture…
Is John Durham Finally Done?
While we're waiting to get the documents discussed in these NYT and WaPo and WSJ stories, in which (among other things) Dusty Foggo's Deputy records that Porter Goss "laughed and said that actually, it would be he, PG, who would take the heat"…
Eric Holder Addresses the Constitution Project
I happened to get lost, end up in DC, and show up to cover the Constitution Project's annual dinner, particularly Attorney General Eric Holder's keynote (see here for the [!]Breaking [!]News on that front).
Before I get into that, I just wanted…
Steven Kappes Leaves the Agency, Again
Here's one of the more curious details about yesterday's surprise news that Steven Kappes was leaving the CIA.
Best as I can tell, the White House has not yet issued a statement about his retirement (at least not via the White House press list).…
Reading Tea Leaves on Warrantless Wiretapping
Sorry I've been distracted all day. And yes, I will try to comment on the surprise news that Steven Kappes will be leaving the CIA next month later this evening.
But in the meantime, I wanted to look at this exchange between Arlen "Scrapple…
Holder Testifies Before Senate Judiciary Committee
The Committee feed is screwy right now, but cspan.org is carrying it. Pat Leahy will not be there today; he's at a funeral. I don't know if Herb Kohl (who will act as Chair) had an opening statement or not. But Jefferson Beauregard Sessions…
Daniel Levin's Last Minute "Combined" Memo
I've been looking through some old FOIA documents and noticed an interesting email exchange turned over in one of last August's document dumps (PDF 21-22). It's an email chain between a CTC lawyer (whose name we don't know) and John Rizzo and…
"Humane Societies ... Pursue Justice"
One of the most important ways in which humane societies struggle to deter outbreaks of mass violence is by working to pursue justice, so that would-be war criminals might think twice about their actions after seeing that perpetrators of such…
What Happened to that OTHER OPR Report?
Remember the OPR Report? No, not the OPR Report on John Yoo's laughably bad torture memos. I'm talking about the OPR Report on John Yoo's even worse memo(s) authorizing domestic surveillance. The Torture OPR Report notes that it was the domestic…
Meet Deputy Attorney General Robert Gibbs
I guess, in addition to President Rahm Emanuel and Attorney General Lindsey Graham, Deputy Attorney General Robert Gibbs sees the wisdom in putting aside rule of law for political expediency.
Some policy advisers have wondered why the administration's…
Did CIA Misrepresent Interrogation Policy to Court in Passaro Case?
I wrote in my last post on David Passaro that he knew precisely how to defend himself (go here for general background on Passaro and his case). Even before he was indicted, Passaro asked for discovery on CIA's rules of engagement for detainee…
Al-Awlaki Family: Let's Make a Deal
Glenn Greenwald just tweeted this fairly unsurprising article reporting that Anwar al-Awlaki's family would like the US to take him off their kill lists.
His father, Nasser al-Awlaki, a former minister of agriculture and rector at the University…
Has Aafia Siddiqui's Daughter Surfaced?
Aafia Siddiqui has been at the center of one of the many mysteries flowing from the Bush and Obama administrations' conduct of intelligence operations. A Pakistani native and former MIT scientist, background on Siddiqui can be found several…
Daniel Levin Tells Jim Haynes, Again, Not to Torture
We've long known that in February 2005, then-acting head of OLC Daniel Levin contacted DOD General Counsel to remind him that the March 14, 2003 Yoo memo on torture had been withdrawn. But I, for one, had never seen a copy of that letter. It…
Obama Killed The Johnsen Nomination, Not Ben Nelson Nor The GOP
It was not Ben Nelson who killed the nomination of Dawn Johnsen, nor was it Arlen Specter or Senate Republicans. No, the sole reason Dawn Johnsen is not leading the OLC is that Barack Obama and his coterie of advisors did not want Dawn Johnsen leading the OLC.
David Passaro Threatened to Expose the SERE-Torture Tie
As I said in my last post on David Passaro, the only CIA guy to be prosecuted for detainee abuse, Passaro knew (or learned, in anticipation of his indictment) how to defend himself against charges stemming from torture. As I'll show here, he…
The Inevitable Sacking Of The Dawn Johnsen Nomination
There was never any question but that the nomination of Dawn Johnsen to be head of the Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel would be withdrawn. Now we have confirmation of that fact.
