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
FISA Update
/34 Comments/in Intelligence, Unitary Executive/by emptywheelApparently, Reid has brokered a Unanimous Consent agreement that everyone, from Feingold and Dodd to Jeff “Mutual Defense” Sessions, have bought off on.
Using cboldt’s rough draft of what we’ve got, here are which amendments remain under consideration and how many votes they need to pass:Four amendments will pass automatically, with the adoption of the Unanimous Consent agreement.
Feingold 3909 as modified
Emptywheel’s Famous Football Trash Talk* Super Bowl XLII Edition
/350 Comments/in Bingo, emptywheel, Football/by emptywheelShow Time Baby! The big one is upon us. Whats up with Tom’s boot? That Giselle is kinda cute. Michael Strahan is a hoot. It is all happening right here in the Valley of the Sun; and currently Valley of the unusually cold. But the sun is shining, the stars are all here and everybody is working to the weekend. Beer thirty is going to start now and go until the fat lady is done singing. Crack open a cool one and start trashing up the joint.
Dick’s Evolving Demands for Immunity
/152 Comments/in Intelligence, Unitary Executive/by emptywheelThanks to Faiz, who watches Rush, so I don’t have to.
Once again, the Administration has trotted out Dick to lobby for immunity for himself telecom immunity. All the things I said last week about the inappropriateness of sending the guy who would most directly benefit from immunity out to lobby for it still hold.
AG Claims Clear Evidence of Legal Liability Does Not Constitute a Basis for Investigation
/95 Comments/in Law, Unitary Executive/by emptywheelAG Mukasey claims that DOJ has never gotten any facts that would warrant an investigation. But that’s not true. We know DOJ received the results of the CIA IG’s report in 2004, showing that the interrogation techniques depicted on the torture tapes constituted cruel and inhuman treatment in violation of the International Convention against Torture.
Did Eric Edelman Lie to the Plame Grand Jury?
/52 Comments/in CIA Leak Case/by emptywheelThis filing I stumbled across in Prettyman courthouse suggests there were big contradictions between Eric Edelman (then Libby’s deputy, and currently the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy)’s testimony, and that of other witnesses in the case. If Edelman is lying, it might corroborate my theory that Dick learned of Plame’s identity from having been shown–via an illicity channel–the emails Valerie wrote relating to Joe’s trip.