Entries by emptywheel

Were the Torturers Bypassing OLC in July 2004?

Update, March 13, 2015: The Torture Report clarify this. First, CIA had not yet rendered the detainee, who was indeed Janat Gul. At the meeting, CIA did ask for a memo, as well as permission to torture Gul because (we now know) a fabricator had claimed he was involved in an election season plot. We’ve […]

Rove: Three More Detainees Waterboarded?

Check out this tidbit MadDog found: In 2008, CIA head Michael Hayden told Congress it had only been used on three high-profile al-Qaeda detainees, and not for the past five years. One of those was Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, a key suspect in the 9/11 attacks. Mr Rove said US soldiers were subjected to waterboarding as […]

Under Michael Chertoff, DHS Used David Horowitz Propaganda in Intell Report

Mark Hosenball reports that Dianne Feinstein and other Senate Dems have accused the Department of Homeland Security’s spooks of using right wing propaganda to develop finished intelligence reports on Muslims. By looking at this paragraph from last year’s intelligence authorization… The Committee has raised a number of concerns with reports issued by the Department of […]

Whose Non-Disclosure Was Worse: Bybee’s or Holder’s?

John Kyl has officially announced he intends to waste an oversight hearing on March 23 beating up Eric Holder because he did not disclose an amicus brief opposing unlimited Presidential power. Kyl told members of the committee that panel Republicans will question the Attorney General about his 2004 amicus brief that recommended the Supreme Court […]

Mukasey’s Muddle

Say what you will about Michael Mukasey, but usually he can craft a fairly logical argument. That’s not, however, true of this muddled op-ed in the WSJ. The op-ed attempts to draw an equivalence between lawyers–but not civil liberties organizations–that have represented Gitmo detainees and Yoo and Bybee (and, by association, though he doesn’t admit […]

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