Politico: Still Stumbling Over Obvious Crimes to Cover a He-Said-She-Said Story
Glenn Thrush once again shows more interest in a stupid beltway dispute then the evidence of criminality.
Obama's 100 Days of Auto Bailout
Overall, I'd rank Obama's treatment of the auto bailout with an A-.
Jay Bybee Speaks Quavers
Jay Bybee issues a legalistic statement that attempts to contest stories of his own doubts about the torture memos.
From "Haggis" to "Scrapple"--It's Still Offal
I'm renaming Haggis "Scrapple." Beyond the name change, I doubt much has changed.
9th Circuit Rejects Obama/Bush State Secrets Argument In Mohammed
A three judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Chief Judge Mary Schroeder, William Canby and Michael Hawkins, has firmly rejected the vile cover up attempted against several detainees/former detainees led by Binyam Mohamed. Very good news.
Russ Feingold: Repeated Assertion of State Secrets "Reminiscent of Bush Administration"
Russ Feingold raised two biggest concerns in a press conference on his report card of the Obama Administration's first 100 days. He said Obama's use of State Secrets was "reminiscent of the Bush Administration." And he suggested the intelligence community continues to stonewall the intelligence committees.
Breaking News! CIA's Spooks Lie and Deceive!
The NYT has a great story on how John Kiriakou pitched waterboarding in a minimally damaging way. But why not look at the CIA's current campaigns to do the same?
Did Bybee Say No to Waterboarding on July 24, 2002?
Earlier today, I showed that Jim Haynes personally pushed the SERE people to come up with some materials on waterboarding and other techniques on July 25, 2002, just one day after OLC had given CIA clearance to use some--but not all--of the techniques they had asked for.
I wish I had read this passage from this Charlie Savage story before I wrote that post.
One thing could change that dynamic, however.
Did Condi Really Not Know Defense Was Sleeping with the Spooks on Torture?
There's a weird detail in John Yoo's prepared testimony for last year's House Judiciary Committee hearing on Assholes Who Torture. He claims the National Security Committee (so, presumably John Bellinger or Condi or her boss) ordered OLC not to let on what it was doing to either State or Defense.
In particular, the offices of the CIA general counsel and of the NSC legal advisor asked OLC for an opinion on the
GM Restructuring Plan, Take 20
GM may or may not have killed the electric car (I'm test driving the Volt tomorrow). But it just killed Pontiac.
Torture Timeline and Iraq-Al Qaeda Ties
At the same time as the Bush Administration was devising a plan to torture Abu Zubaydah, the the DIA was raising doubts about the intelligence collected by torturing Ibn Sheikh al-Libi.
Jim Haynes' Request: A[nother] List of Techniques--Including Waterboarding
The request to JPRA for a description of waterboarding appears to have come from DOD General Counsel Jim Haynes directly. And he did it already knowing they needed backup to authorize waterboarding.
About Democratic Complicity: the Early Briefings on Torture
Porter Goss and Crazy Pete Hoekstra want to claim (and some commentators are buying that claim) that Democrats are complicit in torture and that's why Obama isn't supporting a truth commission. But a review of the known briefing shows that they're not as complicit as Republicans.
Who Gave James Mitchell the Al-Qaeda Resistance Manual?
How did a guy with neither Arabic skills nor expertise on al Qaeda get a hold of al Qaeda training manuals as early as December 2001?
NFL Entry Draft Trash Talk
Alright you mopes. There you were buggering up EW's nice threads, demanding to talk football. Can't blame ya there. The Motor City Kitties have a new QB, and a good one I think. And now the NY Jets Jets Jets do too, having traded up with KC in order to go full Sanchez.
The Torture Document Dump Timeline
John Lopresti noted that it might be helpful to have a timeline of all the torture documents released in the last several weeks. And you know I can't resist requests for timelines.
April 6: NYRB posts the Red Cross report on high value detainees
Pelosi: Of Hidden Memos and Covert Ops Hidden in Supplementals
I wanted to point out two more details from the Pelosi press conference the other day when she made her comments about briefings on torture (the complete transcript of this section is below).
First, Pelosi points out that one thing BushCo did was put intelligence-related appropriations through without telling the intelligence committee what they were putting through.
The Bush Administration Did Not Give Legally-Required Prior Notification to Congress
If the torture program began--as Michael Hayden has said--as a covert op, then it would require Bush to have notified Congress of the plan to torture before it happened. That did not happen. In fact, even according to reports from the CIA, it appears the CIA did not have its presidential finding until a year after the torture started.
Porter Goss Escalates Attacks on Pelosi and Harman--But Admits CIA Broke the Law
Porter Goss apparently believes that by attacking Nancy Pelosi publicly, he can get her to back off her support for a torture investigation. But even in his attack, he makes clear that CIA broke the law.
Zelikow, the 9/11 Commission, and Effectiveness
I've been scouring the 9/11 Report to see whether interrogation reports derived from waterboarding provided useful intelligence. It looks like Zelikow will be addressing that issue himself, shortly.