Author Archive for: emptywheel
About emptywheel
Marcy Wheeler is an independent journalist writing about national security and civil liberties. She writes as emptywheel at her eponymous blog, publishes at outlets including Vice, Motherboard, the Nation, the Atlantic, Al Jazeera, and appears frequently on television and radio. She is the author of Anatomy of Deceit, a primer on the CIA leak investigation, and liveblogged the Scooter Libby trial.
Marcy has a PhD from the University of Michigan, where she researched the “feuilleton,” a short conversational newspaper form that has proven important in times of heightened censorship. Before and after her time in academics, Marcy provided documentation consulting for corporations in the auto, tech, and energy industries. She lives with her spouse in Grand Rapids, MI.
Entries by emptywheel
John Durham’s Torture Tape Documents
/21 Comments/in Torture, Torture Tape/by emptywheelJason Leopold reported on and posted a late update to the ongoing torture tape FOIA exchange. If I read the latest exchange correctly, Special Prosecutor John Durham is at least identifying–and potentially making available through FOIA–a number of recent documents on the torture tape destruction.
Today’s letter does two things. First, it withdraws John Durham’s objection to Judge Hellerstein’s order that:
The government shall produce documents relating to the destruction of the
Levin: Send Those Terrorists to My Backyard
/28 Comments/in Terrorism, Torture/by emptywheelCarl Levin (Senator Levin–congrats for casting your 11,000th vote yesterday!) has come up with a sound suggestion to help close Gitmo: send them to MI.
Most lawmakers view the prospect of moving prisoners from Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to their districts as a negative proposition. But at least one Democratic senator is open to the idea as a potential economic boost to his struggling state.
Scrapple and Pelosi
/52 Comments/in Intelligence, Torture/by emptywheelYes, I’m glad that Arlen “the Scrapple formerly known as Haggis” Specter has come out in support of Nancy Pelosi’s suggestion that CIA misled her in her September 2002 briefing.
“The CIA has a very bad record when it comes to — I was about to say ‘candid’; that’s too mild — to honesty,” Specter, a former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a lunch address to the American Law
April 13, 2002; May 6, 2002, May 20, 2002; May 23, 2002; May 28, 2002; August 4, 2002; August 11, 2002
/64 Comments/in Torture/by emptywheelApril 13, 2002; May 6, 2002, May 20, 2002; May 23, 2002; May 28, 2002…
Those are some of the most important dates from from the log of “all contemporaneous and derivitive records” on Abu Zubaydah’s interrogation from 2002.
Here’s why they’re important.
April 13, 2002: This is the first date, the CIA claims, for which it has any records.
Mark Your Schedules
/65 Comments/in Torture/by emptywheelI’m working on stuff that will post later this PM. But in the meantime, I wanted to draw your attention to two upcoming events.
First, on Friday, May 22, at 10:45 AM ET, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse will be joining us at the front page for a chat. He’ll be here for 45 minutes, and Senators’ schedules are always subject to change, but be sure to think of questions and mark your schedule