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.
“Serious Person” Michael O’Hanlon and escalation surge architect Fred Kagan end their op-ed with the following words.
There was a time when volatility in places like Pakistan was mostly ahumanitarian worry; today it is as much a threat to our basic securityas Soviet tanks once were. We must be militarily and diplomaticallyprepared to keep ourselves safe in such a world.
I think it’s great that Rachel Paulose has resigned (h/t JF)
Rachel Paulose, the embattled U.S. attorney for Minnesota, will beleaving the post to take a position at the Justice Department inWashington, according to a Bush administration official and acongressional aide.
According to a news release sent by thedepartment of justice, Paulose has accepted a position as Counselor tothe Assistant Attorney General for Legal Policy at the Department ofJustice in Washington, D.C.
The BoGlo reports what we already know–many of the people at Gitmo who have been determined to not be a threat in status review hearings remain in Gitmo. And, at the same time, some people who have been released to their home country have not undergone review hearings.
About a quarter of detainees who were cleared to leave GuantanamoBay prison after hearings in 2005 and 2006 remain in custody, raisingquestions among inmates
As you no doubt know, I appeared on a panel in Boston called “No News Is Bad News” over the weekend. It was a fascinating conference, with journalistic heroes like John Carroll and Anthony Shadid. Just as exciting, I got to meet phred, Selise, BlueStateRedHead, and others. And my own personal favorite–from my panel, at least–came when someone asked me what I would have done to prevent the Lewinsky scandal (and
I’m a determined skeptic about broadcast “accidents.” But for the life of me, I can’t understand the precise goal of allowing a discussion about not discussing the falling dollar at the OPEC summit to be caught on tape. Here’s the Financial Times’ version of events–which depicts it as disagreement about the underlying issue.
As you’ve no doubt heard, yesterday Pat Leahy pulled some superb parliamentary maneuvers to ensure that the SJC version of the FISA amendment came out of committee without immunity for telecoms. He basically just severed the part which permits the wiretapping from the part that gives immunity. Voila!
Unfortunately, it still seems likely that Harry Reid will let the SSCI bill–the one we don’t like–come to the floor of the Senate.
Back in June, I pointed out that, in case of disputes over the EO guiding classification, the head of the Information Security Oversight Office can ask the Attorney General to rule on the dispute.
This morning, when I read the famous Executive Order that Cheney claims to have exempted himself from, I noticed a key paragraph:
The Attorney General, upon request by the head of an agency or the Director of the Information
Just a reminder that I’m headed for Boston for what promises to be an interesting conference. Here’s the description:
No News Is Bad News
A freeand independent press is essential for democracy. The press has aresponsibility to inform citizens about both the policies and theactions of the government and about credible challenges to thosepolicies and actions, to report on conditions that may require new ordifferent government initiatives, and to raise timely questions
There’s a bit of a squabble over how important Nada Nadim Prouty, the FBI/CIA agent who got unauthorized access to Hezbollah information at the CIA, was to the agency. Via Laura, NBC reports that she was very important.
Current and former intelligence officials tellNBC News that Nada Nadim Prouty had a much bigger role than officialsat the FBI and CIA first acknowledged.