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 most shocking phrase in the Senate’s Defense Authorization detainee provisions to me was not the language affirming indefinite detention. That language simply affirms and possibly narrows the status quo. Rather, it was this language purporting to strike a “balance” between military and civilian detention for alleged terrorists by offering the Secretary of Defense the […]
I’ve been saying for some time that America’s hubris about drones will end as soon as one of our antagonists figures out how to hack them. Which is why it’s interesting that Iran has updated its claims to have “shot down” an American drone to suggest they had “brought it down.” (Note, I found this […]
I watched last night’s Huckabee Presidential forum between thrilling plays in the Big 10.2 Championship game. Since each candidate appeared by him or herself, it lacked the entertaining in-fighting of other episodes of this reality show. But it was fascinating because some rising stars in the Republican Party–three far right Attorneys General, OK’s Scott Pruitt, […]
As I’ve said before, I think Carl Levin’s assurances that habeas corpus will prevent the Executive from holding people without cause under his new detainee provisions (and, frankly, under the status quo) is dangerously naive, because it ignores how badly the DC Circuit has gutted habeas. That said, maybe this colloquy between Lindsey Graham and […]
Yesterday, the ACLU released a report on its ongoing FOIA on what FBI offices around the country are doing to collect intelligence on Muslim communities and particular ethnic groups. The report found a number of cases in which the FBI mixed community outreach with investigative actions: A 2009 San Jose FBI memorandum describing FBI participation […]
The big headline that came out of yesterday’s American Bar Association National Security panels is that DOD General Counsel Jeh Johnson and CIA General Counsel Stephen Preston warned that US citizens could be targeted as military targets if the Executive Branch deemed them to be enemies. U.S. citizens are legitimate military targets when they take […]
And now, as a break from all the shitty national news, I wanted to update you on shitty news from my home front. Governor Snyder is about to start the process of appointing an Emergency Financial Manager for Detroit (though note, they’re not just “Financial” Mangers anymore). Detroit Mayor Dave Bing, members of Detroit City […]
Update: The vote on 1126–which would exempt Americans from indefinite detention–was defeated 45-55. Democrats voting for indefinite detention include Begich, Blumenthal, Inouye, Klobuchar, Landrieu, Lieberman, Levin, Manchin, Bad Nelson, Pryor, Reed, Stabenow, Whitehouse. Republicans voting against indefinite detention include Collins, Kirk, Lee, Moran, and Paul. Update 2: The craven compromise vote won 99-1. Kyl was the […]
Treasury, SIGTARP, and the Consumer FInancial Protection Board just formed a task force to fight HAMP fraud. Mind you, they’re not aiming to fight the fraud servicers engage in–that is, using HAMP as a way to get force homeowners to stop paying their mortgages and then using that “default” as a means to tack on […]
As we all wait to see whether Obama will follow through on his veto threat tied to the detainee provisions in the Defense Authorization, I want to make an observation. The Obama Administration has the means–short of a veto–to sustain civilian law primacy even if this bill is passed. But they will not use it. […]