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.
The NYT has a really weird story out today which tries to explain why news outlets don’t publish “open secrets” about public figures.
Old-fashioned as it seems, there are still tacit rules about when anopen secret can remain in its own netherworld, without consequence tothe politician who keeps it. But now that any whisper can become aglobal shout in an instant, how much longer can those rules apply?
You’ll recall that the AIPAC defendants called Condi and Stephen Hadley to testify about how they routinely leak classified information. Well, the government claims that these two, at least, don’t have to testify.
Secretaryof State Condoleezza Rice and other senior intelligence officialsshould not be forced to testify about whether they discussed classifiedinformation with pro-Israel lobbyists, federal prosecutors argued in aclosed-door court hearing Friday.
Two former American IsraelPublic Affairs Committee lobbyists facing espionage
I couldn’t help but think of Dick when I read this story on Bush’s legacy. First, because there’s this story of Bush’s show of hands vote on whether Rummy should be ousted.
Mr. Draper said Mr. Bush took issue with him for unearthing details ofa meeting in April 2006 at which he took a show-of-hands vote on thefuture of Defense Secretary Donald H.
Reading Rove on his last day in the WH:
President Bush will be viewed as a far-sighted leader who confronted the key test of the 21st century by manipulating the scientific proof of that key test–global warming–so his donors could continue to profit off the dying petroleum age while they still had a chance.
Hewill be judged as a man of moral clarity who put America on wartimefooting in the dangerous struggle against
I’m trying to pull together as many of the details in the new transcripts about how Tommy Kontogiannis has cooperated (I was going to spell it “kooperate”) with the government. The information is actually conflicting–Tommy K wants to portray himself as a good American who was just seeking out powerful Congressman to give intelligence to.
This WSJ article–which relies on Debra Wong Yang and George Cardona as sources–suggests that the Jerry Lewis investigation has been stalled because of staffing shortages in the USA Office.
Overall, funding for the offices has grown well below the rate ofinflation. As a result, “fewer cases were getting charged and biggerinvestigations were taking longer because there weren’t enoughprosecutors to do them,” says Debra Yang, who stepped down in October2006 as the U.S.
The WaPo provides more details on an investigation I’m rather interested in:
Fine’s office has also separately expanded a probe into whether seniorGonzales aides improperly considered partisan affiliations whenreviewing applicants for nonpolitical career positions. As part of thatinquiry, Fine sent hundreds of questionnaires in the past week to former Justice Department job applicants.
I noted the other day that Pat Leahy had sent a letter to Brad Schlozman asking for his overdue homework. What I didn’t note in the post–but did in comments elsewhere–was the carbon copy line:
cc: The Honorable Alberto Gonzales
The Honorable Glen Fine
In comments where I mentioned this, I suggested this reflected a belief on Leahy’s part that the Inspector General was a co-participant in his
I made the point this morning that the whole premise of No Child Left Behind is that, by determining whether every school–and every child–was passing or failing, you could require improvements on the schools.
Well, not surprisingly, Bush is unwilling to undergo the same kind of tough scrutiny that the six year olds in our nation’s schools undergo:
Stung by the bleakfindings of a congressional audit of progress in Iraq, the Pentagon hasasked
There are two, related developments in San Diego (hat tip to ChrisC for her updates) in the Wilkes/Michael/Kontogiannis side of the Wilkes trial. First, the government has responded to John Michael’s attempt to throw out his indictment because of a weird connection between Tommy Kontogiannis and one of the prosecutors, Phillip Halpern.