The Prosecutors' Response to Nacchio
The WaPo reports that more documents have been unsealed in the Nacchio case--and they show (Prosecutors claim) that Nacchio's claim to have lost business don't hold up.
Qwest Communicationsbelonged to a business alliance that won a rich national securitycontract in the summer of 2001, undermining claims that authoritiesretaliated against its former chief executive for refusing to supportan unidentified government program earlier that year, prosecutors saidin documents released yesterday.
I'm on two deadlines for
Protect Whistleblowers before Extending Reporter's Privilege
I suggested the other day that there were likely to be some unintended consequences if the reporter's shield bill passes as is. What I didn't say in that post is that there is a better way to encourage the free flow of information--particularly in this era when everyone can fulfill the role of journalist:
Henry Sez: Erik Prince, You Owe the Feds $48 Million
Congressman Waxman gets pretty aggressive in his latest letter to Erik Prince, CEO of Blackwater. He basically accuses Blackwater of evading taxes by treating its employees as independent contractors, rather than employees.
I have received documents which suggest that Blackwater may have engaged in significant tax evasion. According to an IRS ruling in March 2007, Blackwater violated federal tax laws by treating an armed guard as an "independent contractor." The implication of
Gonzales Refuses to Answer Questions
Via C&L, John McKay made some really revealing comments in Spokane on Friday.
The U.S. Inspector General may recommend criminal prosecution ofdeparted Attorney General Alberto Gonzales at the conclusion of aninvestigation, possibly as early as next month, the fired former U.S.attorney for Western Washington told a Spokane audience Friday.
[snip]
McKay said he was summoned to Washington, D.C., in June andquestioned for eight hours about possible reasons for his firing byinvestigators with the Office
What Remains Unsaid
Here's my favorite exchange from Stanford Lawyer's interview of Carol Lam (h/t bmaz):
YOU SERVED UNDER BOTH JOHN ASHCROFT AND ALBERTO GONZALES. HOW DID THAT TRANSITION FROM ASHCROFT TO GONZALES AFFECT YOUR LIFE AND YOUR DUTIES AS A U.S. ATTORNEY?
The structures of the department were in place, so I didn't expect a lot of impact from the change in attorney general under the same administration.
Jello Jay Rockefeller's "Deal"
There are two key details from this article on the "deal" "negotiated" between Jay Rockefeller and Dick Cheney. First, a comment from Dana Perino states that the SSCI had to first accede to telecom immunity before they could see the documents justifying the program.
Dana Perino, the White House press secretary, said Friday that the SenateIntelligence Committee had gained access to the documents only afterits leaders had indicated that they would grant
The Public Pressure on Subpoenas
Yesterday, there were two stories about subpoenas of journalists that suggest something about journalist subpoenas. The first story involves an attempt by some Phoenix big-wigs to cow the alternative New Times into backing off investigations into them.
In a breathtaking abuse of the United States Constitution, Sheriff JoeArpaio, Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas, and their increasinglyunhinged cat's paw, special prosecutor Dennis Wilenchik, used the grandjury to subpoena "all documents related to articles
The Show Trials
I'm not really surprised by the reason the lead prosecutor for Gitmo detainees quit--as reported by the WaPo. The Administration wanted show trials in time for the 2008 election, and they were willing to use classified information to do so.
Politically motivated officials at the Pentagon have pushed for convictions of high-profile detainees ahead of the 2008elections, the former lead prosecutor for terrorism trials at Guantanamo Bay said last night, adding that
Fieger's Judge Gets Curious
I never wanted Jeffrey Fieger to be my governor. But I'm looking forward to the way he fights his campaign finance charges, particularly now that the judge appears to think the investigation into him was politically motivated.
A federal judge in Detroit peppered a prosecutor with questions Tuesdayto find out whether the investigation that resulted in the Augustindictment of Southfield lawyer Geoffrey Fieger on campaign financecharges was politically motivated.
U.S.
FISA Update
Via Laura Rozen--there are several interesting things in this article. First, Bush has given over the family jewels--the legal opinions justifying their illegal domestic wiretapping program. He has given them to SJC, but not to HJC.
Across the Capitol, Senate Intelligence Chairman John D. RockefellerIV, D W.Va., said his staff Tuesday reviewed legal opinions and otherdocuments the panel had sought related to the NSA program.
Trojan First Amendment
In his book, Unequal Protection, Thom Hartman shows how corporations (specifically, railroads) used the 14th Amendment--which ostensibly guaranteed African Americans the same rights other citizens enjoyed--to enshrine the concept of corporate personhood in our legal system.
With the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment, the owners of the what werethen America’s largest and most powerful corporations - the railroads -figured they’d finally found a way to reverse Paine’s logic and no longerhave to
If You're In Western Mass
I'll be giving a talk at my old stomping grounds on Thursday evening, 8PM, in Fayerweather. If you might show up, let me know in the comments--I'd love to touch base with readers.
And until then ... I'm off to solve US auto woes.
And Then There Were Three?
Via DK at TPM, all three big telecoms have told Congress to fuck off they can't confirm or deny whether they've been breaking the law by cooperating with the Administration.
Three telecommunications companies have declined to tell Congresswhether they gave U.S. intelligence agencies access to Americans' phoneand computer records without court orders, citing White Houseobjections and national security.
Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell "formally invokedthe state secrets privilege to prevent AT&T from
Six Months
Six months. That's how long Comcast keeps its records that allow it to track the activity of a Comcast Internet subscriber. At least that's what Comcast's Cable Law Enforcement Manual, which somebody liberated and got into the hands of Secrecy News, says.Because Comcast’s system of allocating IP addresses uses Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), its subscribers are not assigned a single, constant or static IP address.
The Murdoch Media Service Obliges GOP Lies
Gosh, what a remarkable coinkydink. This morning, Roll Call comes out with this story:
Specifically,Republicans are planning to use the kidnapping and subsequent murder ofthree U.S. soldiers in Iraq earlier this year to put a "human face" onthe issue, the House staffer explained. According to this aide, whileDemocrats' arguments about privacy may resonate with some voters,Republicans believe using real-world examples of how a weak FISA hasput U.S.
Ensuring Quality
Like Susie, I think this is a really cool idea.
Paul E. Steiger, who was the top editor of The Wall Street Journalfor 16 years, and a pair of wealthy Californians are assembling a groupof investigative journalists who will give away their work to mediaoutlets.
The nonprofit group, called Pro Publica, will pitcheach project to a newspaper or magazine (and occasionally to othermedia) where the group hopes the work will make
A Brilliant Case Officer
There's an amusing line in Jonathan Landay's article on the Bush Administration's discovery that Vladimir Putin has no soul.
Bush and his aides "grossly misjudged Putin," considering him "agood guy and one of us," said Michael McFaul of Stanford University'sHoover Institution.
The former KGB officer created that illusionpartly by appearing to share Bush's political and religiousconvictions, standard tradecraft employed by intelligence officers torecruit spies, he said.
"Putin .
Lobbyist Logic
I know you have all been worried at my seeming recovery from my obsession with Ed Gillespie. But worry not--the dearth of Gillespie posts was mostly explained by my travel schedule (which gets really bad again this week, then gets better), and not any disinterest in the guy who took over after they fired Bush's brain.
And this, I guess, is the kind of logic you get from the Lobbyist-in-Chief with which
Dick DeVos and KayBee Hutchison Go After Bloggers
That's a way to make you feel good about blogging, huh? To be attacked by both Dick DeVos and KayBee Hutchison?
DeVos is suing 30 anonymous bloggers and YouTube users because he believes they are among a group for former distributors who sued Amway and were put under a gag order by the judge in the suit.
In the lawsuit filed this past week in Ottawa County Circuit Court,Quixtar seeks an injunction and
Did the NSA Ask for Data Mining Before or After 9/11?
I did my big timeline yesterday to try to pin down how much of what we suspect to be the warrantless wiretap program started in early 2001, rather than post-9/11 as Bush has always claimed. As I pointed out in my timeline, it's clear that Nacchio walked into the February 27 meeting expecting to talk about Groundbreaker.