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
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
The CIA’s Comedy of Briefing List Errors
/196 Comments/in Torture/by emptywheelCIA has made errors on at least six different briefings, there are at least two briefings for which some of the attendees contest the CIA’s version, and CIA claims to be unable to provide full details on seven other briefings. No wonder Leon Panetta continues to say that “it is up to Congress to evaluate all the evidence and reach its own conclusions about what happened.” The CIA’s own version of when it briefed and whom is riddled with errors.
David Obey: Yet More Proof the CIA Briefing List Is Totally Wrong
/82 Comments/in Torture/by emptywheelAccording to House Appropriations Chair David Obey, the CIA interrogation list records a Democratic Appropriations staffer attending a September 19, 2006 torture briefing, when all the staffer did was walk John Murtha and Bill Young to the briefing, but was turned away at the briefing.
In light of current controversy about CIA briefing practices, I was surprised to learn that the agency erroneously listed an appropriations staffer as being in a
If the Detainee Dies, Doing Sleep Deprivation Is Wrong
/52 Comments/in Torture/by emptywheelOne of the most shocking quotes from the Senate Armed Services torture report came from Jonathan Fredman, then the Counsel for CounterTerrorism Center at CIA, now working for the Director of National Intelligence, told some interrogators at Gitmo, “It is basically subject to perception. If the detainee dies you’re doing
it wrong.” Fredman is reported to have said that on October 2, 2002.