Entries by emptywheel

Will the US Share Intelligence with Israel’s New Left Wing Intelligence Initiative?

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Ha’aretz reports that Israel’s Military Intelligence set up a group several months ago dedicated to collecting intelligence on non-Israeli leftist organizations that criticize Israel. Military Intelligence is collecting information about left-wing organizations abroad that the army sees as aiming to delegitimize Israel, according to senior Israeli officials and Israel Defense Forces officers. The sources said […]

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Dick, the Miniseries

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Congratulations to Barton Gellman, whose book on Cheney’s abuse of the Constitution, Angler, will serve as the basis for an HBO miniseries. HBO has optioned the book Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency by Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist Barton Gellman for a miniseries to be executive produced by Paula Weinstein. The mini, which will be based on the […]

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Apparently, “Blood Money” Now Includes “Green Cards”

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Last we heard about the families of Raymond Davis’ victims, they were held in custody until they agreed to accept the blood money Pakistan offered on our behalf. Things are looking up for the family members, though. Eighteen of them have been flown to UAE to be resettled. A chartered plane carrying 18 family members […]

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Another Secret OLC Opinion: This One on Information Sharing

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As MadDog and I were discussing on this thread, the May 6, 2004 Jack Goldsmith opinion on the warrantless wiretap program references an OLC opinion that appears not to have been publicly released or, even in the course of FOIA, disclosed. Thus, this Office will typically construe a general statute, even one that is written […]

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Working Thread on Illegal Wiretap Memo

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As I noted in this post, DOJ has released two of the memos used to authorize the illegal wiretap program. I made some brief comments on the November 2, 2001 John Yoo memo here. This will be a working thread on the May 6, 2004 Jack Goldsmith memo. P1: Note in the TOC (and in […]

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Chris Smith Opposes IRS Enforcement on Undeclared $$, But Supports IRS Enforcement on Undeclared Babies

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Chris Smith co-sponsored HR 4, which would overturn the provision of health care reform that required all businesses to issue 1099 forms for goods and services in excess of $600. The whole point of the 1099 provision was designed to crack down on unreported business income. Given Smith’s support for overturning the provision, we have […]

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NSA’s Clusterfuck Financial Management

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I’m reading through the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence’s report on what it did last Congress. Among a number of interesting details, the report describes really really bad accounting at the National Security Agency (NSA). The report describes how the Intelligence Authorization Bill of 2002 required that our big intelligence agencies produce auditable financial statements […]

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