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.
You may have heard that WikiLeaks is suing Visa and MasterCard for refusing to process donations to it. That’s not actually the case. Forbes has gotten a copy of the complaint, and as it lays out, an Icelandic company called DataCell is suing, and it’s suing in Europe, not the US. DataCell is basically a […]
As I suggested yesterday, the investigation into Gul Rahman’s death means there’s a chance–teeny, presumably, but a chance nevertheless–that the investigation might move beyond the formerly-low level people implicated in the death (remember, both the guy who headed the Salt Pit and the station chief have gone onto bigger and better things at the CIA, […]
After the Osama bin Laden killing, Michael Mukasey rather shamelessly took the lead in claiming torture had some role in finding OBL. I thought then that the sheer volume of the torture apologists’ wails suggested that John Durham’s torture investigation might actually move forward in some way. But I was particularly struck by Mukasey’s prominence. […]
In his announcement that John Durham is investigating the deaths by torture of two CIA detainee, Eric Holder suggested that John Durham reviewed information that had not been reviewed by the prosecutors who had earlier declined to prosecute the cases. That review included both information and matters that had never previously been examined by the […]
Apparently, Timmeh Geithner has told Obama that he may leave after a budget deal, citing family considerations. I’d be singing “ding dong the wicked witch” if I didn’t know that his replacement will almost certainly be even worse. But while we wait on his departure, I thought I’d offer the following two betting pools: 1) […]
Eric Holder just released an announcement revealing that John Durham has recommended criminal investigation of two detainees tortured to death. But cases of the remaining 99 detainees whose treatment Durham investigated will be dismissed. On January 2, 2008, Attorney General Michael Mukasey appointed Assistant United States Attorney John Durham of the District of Connecticut to […]
Yesterday, Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa announced a human rights inquiry into crackdowns on protestors. Human rights violations would not be tolerated, he claimed. King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa announced the move in a speech at an extraordinary Cabinet meeting Wednesday, saying such violations would not be tolerated, BNA reported. [snip] The king said […]
DDay and Masaccio and Yves Smith have already covered Bank of America’s offer to pay 2 to 3 cents on the dollar to make good on its securitization misrepresentations. But I wanted to point out one issue of timing. In her coverage of it, Yves notes the following: So with all these considerations arguing for […]
The lawyer representing the innocent victims of drone strikes in Pakistan just got denied a visa to speak at Columbia Law. (h/t curiouser_georg) I am a Pakistani lawyer who is suing the CIA for killing innocent civilians through drone strikes in my home country. This month, the US state department prevented me from travelling to […]
Remember that swipe fee measure that passed the Senate twice? It lowered the amount credit card companies can charge merchants to $.12 a transaction. It was a stunning victory that retailers (which admittedly includes WalMart but also includes your locally owned business struggling to stay in business) won that battle twice. Well, lucky for the […]