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.
As I understand it, we’re still waiting for “the letter” from DOJ that will tell us what we already know–these people are a bunch of sophists.
While we’re waiting, though, this is the most detailed account of the letter from DNI Mike McConnell (as I understand it, Specter said on Wolf Blitzer that he still expects a letter from DOJ):
I’m madly cleaning the house (trust me, a very rare event chez emptywheel) in some kind of mad guilt for leaving mr. e-dub and McC alone again while I’m in Chicago at YKos. So I thought it a good time for a last post until I get to Chicago tomorrow mid-day (well, you know how promises like that go).
I’m hoping I’ll get to put more faces to names among our readers
Hey, Scottish Haggis!?!?!? What happened to that letter from the White House you promised us?
According to RawStory, it’s still in the mail. Or maybe it’s not coming after all.
The White House has refused to comply with a Republican senator’srequest for information about Alberto Gonzales’s conflicting testimonyon a secret surveillance program by a 12 p.m.
It has been over 50 days since Scott Bloch, the head of the Office of Special Counsel, sent Bush a letter advising that Lurita Doan be disciplined severely for her violations of the Hatch Act. Yet there she is, still in charge of the government’s credit cards as the Administrator of the GSA.
If Doan weren’t a Bush appointee, her fate would be clear–she would have been fired fifty days ago.
What is it with news outlets and the who, what, why, when, where of briefings? The Hill, in its description of Specter’s 18 hour deadline for the Administration, names neither all the people who briefed Specter (it reveals Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell was one of the briefers) nor all the people who got briefed (“other Senators,” Specter says).
Actually, Dick’s comments about Libby are actually pretty interesting, so I thought I’d give them their own post. [My transcription.]
CBS: Have you spoken to your former top aide since his verdict?
Dick: I have.
CBS: Can you tell us anything about that conversation?
Dick: No. I’ve seen him socially on a number of occasions.
CBS:
There’s something particularly nice about this timing. First comes the news that Representative Jay Inslee will submit a resolution to start an impeachment investigation against Alberto Gonzales. My favorite part is that the resolution (unlike recent resolutions for censure) calls for an investigation, which would give us enhanced claim on subpoena power and a megaphone to explain Gonzales’ crimes to the American people.
RESOLUTION
Directing the Committee on the Judiciaryto investigate whether Alberto
Actually, my biggest complaint about this letter, from John Conyers, Jerrold Nadler, and Robert Scott, is that they don’t use the word “Data-Mining.”
We read with interest the disclosures in yesterday’s New York Times and Washington Postthat a 2004 dispute over the NSA’s secret surveillance program whichled to threatened resignations by Department officials involved a“massive electronic database†program.
Oh, this one merits an entire blogger ethics conference. So you’ve got the announcement for a rare public interview of a very important person.
Former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan, who helped shapethe nation’s economic and monetary policy for almost 19 years, talksabout the people he met, the issues he faced and the crises he helpedmanage during five different administrations.
This is just a quick post to register two disagreements with Glenn Greenwald’s post claiming the NYT’s data-mining story is a shiny object. First, Glenn claims that the stories were floated by “anonymous sources seeking to protect Alberto Gonzales” and “anonymous pro-Bush sources.” But then he goes on to point out that the NYT story (unlike the WaPo story) includes a detail–which I pointed out in my post on the story–that