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.
This is my general review of the interim report on the USA Purge. If you haven’t already done so, make sure you read the post on the Iglesias cover-up, which I believe to be the most important aspect of the report.
The report on the findings to date in the USA purge lists the following crimes and violations that may have been committed in the course of the USA firings:Obstruction of justice,
Amid the excitement of contempt charges and more lies from Gonzales and Mueller’s exposure of those lies, the House Judiciary Committee released a report detailing what the USA Purge investigation has found to date. I’ll do a more comprehensive review of what’s in it and what’s not. The most incendiary thing in there (although it’s not presented as such, yet) is the implication that DOJ conducted a seemingly coordinated cover-up of
This is the second post in a series. In the prior post, I showed that, when Libby asked David Addington about paperwork relating to a CIA employee’s spouse traveling for the CIA, he was interested in identifying all backup documents to Wilson’s 2002 trip and/or the paperwork associated with Wilson’s 1999 trip to Niger relating to AQ Khan.
I guess it’s my day to be underwhelmed.
I find it really hard to get excited over SJC issuing Rove a subpoena today. That’s partly for tactical reasons. Until we get the Sergeant at Arms to arrest Harriet and hold her in contempt, after all, it doesn’t make sense to subpoena Rove because we don’t have the tactically proven tools to enforce such a subpoena.
But it’s also a question of focus.
As Christy has reported, Senators Schumer, DiFi, Feingold, and Whitehouse have called on Paul Clement to appoint a Special Counsel. I’m underwhelmed with the idea, for several reasons. First, Clement is clerkship spawn of Laurence Silberman and Antonin Scalia, both of whom have well-earned reputations for putting their partisan loyalties (and duck hunting hobbies) above their commitment to independent justice.
I find the list of briefings on the domestic wiretap program as instructive for what it tells us about the program itself (and Bush’s dealings with Congress) as it is as proof that Gonzales is full of shit. In no particular order or structure, here are some thoughts:
Citizens and Voters Need Not Know
This document was declassified on May 17, 2006, before the midterm elections.
I gotta say, this post yesterday from Josh Marshall,
As regular readers of this site know, I’ve always been against themovement to impeach President Bush. I take this position not because hehasn’t done plenty to merit it. My reasons are practical. Minor reasonsare that it’s late in the president’s term and that I think impeachmentitself is toxic to our political system — though it can be less toxicthan the high officials thrown
This is going to be a two part post. In this post, I’m going to show a key discrepancy between Libby’s testimony about the questions he asked Addington on July 8, and Addington’s. Addington’s testimony suggests that (contrary to Libby’s claims), Libby was looking for general details about the paperwork behind Wilson’s trip, which would have exposed Valerie’s role at the CIA, potentially her status, as well as prior trips Joe
It looks like we’re approaching the point where some hack stands up and explains that the claim that any disagreements were not about the domestic wiretap program is no longer operative.
Documents indicate eight congressional leaderswere briefed about the Bush administration’s terrorist surveillanceprogram on the eve of its expiration in 2004, contradicting swornSenate testimony this week by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
[snip]A Gonzales spokesman maintained Wednesday that the attorney general stands by his
Well, that was quick work. Yesterday I suggested that the Gang of Eight who purportedly attended the March 10, 2004 meeting at which Alberto Gonzales claims to have developed consensus that they should ignore James Comey’s concerns and continue to tap American citizens anyway might have some enlightenment to offer about what went on at the meeting.