Entries by emptywheel

Afri … um EuroAfriCom

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Scout prime has been tracking something I’ve been watching, too. The new AfriCom military command? Well, the entire continent of Africa has told us, “no, thanks.”

The Pentagon’s plan to create a US military command based in Africahave hit a wall of hostility from governments in the region reluctantto associate themselves with the Bush administration’s “war on terror”and fearful of American intervention.

A US delegation led by RyanHenry, principal deputy under-secretary of defence

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Travel Day

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I’m about to take off for this conference. The conference organizers have assured me there will be wifi, so I’ll likely liveblog the more interesting panels (gosh, it seems so long since I’ve liveblogged Judge Walton; I wonder if I’ll remember how). But otherwise posting may be spotty until Monday. Then again, maybe not.

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$290 Million on Scrapped Surveillance Programs

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The Democrats on the House Homeland Security Committee are trying to force the Administration to implement procedures for protecting the privacy of Americans before it will approve funding that will fund the Administration’s domestic satellite surveillance program. In their letter to the Democrats who oversee this appropriation, they put a price tag on all the surveillance programs the Administration has had to scrap because they didn’t first implement procedures to protect

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Is Larry Craig Sticking Around for Immunity from Subpoena?

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Larry Craig’s not gonna go, he says. At least not yet.

That’s not that big a surprise–he had been threatening to un-resign since early in September. Though his decisions to resign and then un-resign correlate curiously with his receipt of a subpoena in the Brent Wilkes trial.

August 13: Subpoenas issued (to House members)
August 27:

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The Congressional Appropriations Process and How It Works

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The House response to the Brent Wilkes subpoena is now online–it’s 81 pages long. I’ll comment more on the rationale for quashing the subpoenas in an update (I’ve got a talk to go give shortly, but the short version is speech and debate). But some initial details:The subpoena to Ike Skelton has been withdrawnWilkes also subpoenaed:

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Unreliable Sources

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In what might be the best testament to the wisdom of mounting primary challenges, Jane Harman has turned into a bulldog debunking this Administration’s lies to drum up support for expanded surveillance. On Olbermann yesterday, she revealed that the terror threat the Administration used to scare up support for the FISA amendment came from a source deemed to be unreliable.

Well the chatter was up all summer at the level of pre-9/11

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The Price Tag for War

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Does this look like a budget request for a war that is going to end any time soon?

Gates says another $42 billion is needed to cover additional requirements. The extra money includes:$11 billion to field another 7,000 MRAP vehicles in addition to the 8,000 already planned;$9 billion to reconstitute equipment and technology;$6 billion for training and equipment of troops;$1 billion to improve U.S.

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UAW and Health Care

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The UAW is about to become one of the country’s biggest purchasers of health care.

Under the agreement, responsibility for the retiree health plan willshift to a Voluntary Employees’ Beneficiary Association managed by theunion. Details about how the VEBA will be funded have not beendisclosed. But it is expected to involve a one-time payment of as muchas $35 billion by GM, providing the union with money to invest and useto pay for

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Did Duke–or the 13 Congressmen–Make Wilkes Do It?

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Paul Kiel notes the most curious of the three recent filings from the Wilkes/Michael case, in which prosecutors attempt to prevent Wilkes from citing duress as his defense against the bribery charges. I think the target of this filing is not–or not just–Duke Cunningham. Rather, I think prosecutors filed this to stave off Wilkes’ Congressional testimony ploy.

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Who Owns the UN’s Computer Systems?

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Via ThinkProgress, USA Today reports that the cheat sheet for Bush’s speech got placed on the UN website today.

Apparently, a marked-up draft of the president’s speech popped up onthe U.N.’s website as President Bush delivered his remarks this morningbefore the General Assembly, USA TODAY’s David Jackson reports. Thedraft included phonetic spellings of some names and countries, and thecellphone numbers for Bush speechwriters.

Press secretary Dana Perino downplayed the incident, and saidphonetic spellings

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