Entries by emptywheel

Obama’s New State Secrets Policy Is Reaffirmation Of Bush’s Policy

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Back in mid June, testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the Obama Administration’s long promised new policy on state secrets use would be revealed “within days”. Over three months later, and on the eve of oral argument in the most critical case, and most dangerous to the government unfettered use of state secrets, the Administration has conveniently leaked word that its new policy will be released.

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CIA’s Latest Vaughn Declarations, Working Thread

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The CIA has released some new Vaughn Declaration documents in the ACLU’s torture FOIA. These documents relate to its communication with the OLC;David Barron declarationWendy Hilton declarationVaughn Index

I’m keeping half an ear on HJC’s PATRIOT Act hearing at the moment, then will need to head to the CGI event. So I won’t be able to look at them until later.

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Torture Is Counterproductive To Interrogation Results!

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As Fatster noted, there is a new report out from Pamela Hess of the AP relating the conclusions of a paper, published in the scientific journal Trends in Cognitive Science: Science and Society, by Irish professor and researcher Shane O’Mara, on the deleterious effects of the procedures employed by the Bush Administration torture program:The CIA’s harsh interrogation program likely damaged the brain and memory functions of terrorist suspects, diminishing their physical

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Travel Week

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I’m off to the big city this week. As I previously noted, on Wednesday I will do a Nation event with Dan Rather and Jane Mayer.

The Nation presents a conversation on the future of news, featuring legendary newscaster Dan Rather, investigative reporter and best-selling author Jane Mayer, pioneering blogger Marcy Wheeler, and longtime editor and publisher–now publisher emeritus–of The Nation, Victor Navasky.

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Trash Talk – Spooks And Jukes Edition

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Hi there Wheelies and Lugnuts, we have reached the end of another weekend. So now the fun starts! Marcy and I kind of have a lot of the same interests, that is how I came to be here. Today she wrote about the Ambinder Atlantic article on top spooks caterwauling about the lame ass to start with Holder “preliminary review” on the beyond the criminal guidelines, set out by even

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