Nadler: FBI's Not Done on Amerithrax
I know that Rush Holt has already called for further investigation in the anthrax case, but having a Sub-Committee Chair at HJC make the same call might carry different weight.
Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Chair of the House Judiciary…
OLC Identified 31 Missing Documents During Period Leading Up to Torture Tape Investigation
As I reported on Monday, DOJ lost not only John Yoo and Patrick Philbin's emails from the period when they were writing the Bybee Memos. It also lost at least 10 documents on torture, a number of them that went into the development of the torture…
Bob Lutz Hangs Up On Ed Whitacre's GM
With the quick corporate profit vultures and Wall Street wizards flailing about at GM for immediate returns; Bob Lutz, the last real car guy left in key management, walks away.
German Constitutional Court: Don't Let America Spy on Germans
A number of you have passed me this breaking news from Germany:
Vast amounts of telephone and e-mail data held in Germany must be deleted, the country's highest court has ruled.
The constitutional court overturned a 2008 law requiring communications…
Boxes and Burials in the CIA's Torture Plans
In this post, I'm going to test a hypothesis that OLC may not have included "cramped confinement" in its torture plans until it removed "mock burial." If I'm right, it means after having been told OLC would not approve mock burial, OLC and CIA…
More Obama Administration Civil Liberties Neglect
The NYPD is compiling an enormous and permanent computerized database of these encounters between innocent New Yorkers and the police while President Obama has failed to appoint even one person to his Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board designed to investigate such infringements.
Ibn Sheikh al-Libi's and Abu Zubaydah's Coffins
At Mary's instigation, I went back to look at Ibn Sheikh al-Libi's description of how he was shoved into a coffin-like box in Egypt. (Thanks to burnt for the searchable copy.)
According to al-Libi, the foreign government service [redacted] "stated…
A Momentous Day to Lose Your Documentation
As I explained in this post, at least ten documents that OPR should have had to conduct its investigation into the writing of the torture memos disappeared sometime over the course of the investigation (significantly, CIA had an opportunity…
GM's Turn for a Big Recall
Because so many people like to accuse me of beating up on Toyota:
General Motors has recalled 1.3 million Chevrolet and Pontiac models in North America for power steering failures that are tied to 14 crashes and one injury in the United States,…
The Latest Rahmlinology
I wonder how Greg Craig--ousted from the Administration because he tried to do the right thing on Gitmo--feels about this.
In December 2008, Obama, Emanuel and Republican Sens. John McCain (Ariz.) and Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.) met in Obama's…
Did DOJ "Lose" the Smoking Gun Torture Document?
You know what I find surprisingly absent from the OPR Report?
Any discussion of how--just days after potentially receiving a document making clear that SERE techniques were torture and that torture was not effective--John Yoo still authorized…
Conyers Asks for the White House Side of Yoo and Philbin's Emails
The letter the National Archives wrote to DOJ last week inquiring about John Yoo's missing emails focused on DOJ's violation--as a Federal Agency--of the Federal Records Act.
Now, John Conyers is taking the reverse approach--asking for email…
It's Not Just the Emails DOJ Lost, It's the Backup Documentation
We've been talking quite a bit about John Yoo and Patrick Philbin's emails on the torture memos that OLC deleted: with a rebuttal of John Yoo's claims there were no email, a report on the National Archives' attempts to learn what happened, and…
The Mock Burial in the OPR Report
CIA’s torturers asked DOJ to let them use mock burials. But DOJ said no.
PDF page 42 of the OPR Report (searchable copy here) includes a list of the torture techniques that Mitchell and Jessen recommended be used with Abu Zubaydah. Whereas…
OPR Working Thread Part Three
Happy Sunday.
Here are the HJC copies of all these documents:
Memorandum for the Attorney General
OPR Final Report
OPR 1st Draft Report
OPR 2nd Draft Report
Yoo Response to OPR 2nd Draft
Yoo Response to OPR Final Draft
…
Holder: Zazi's plot "one of the most serious terrorist threats to our nation since September 11th, 2001"
And all resolved using civilian law enforcement. From the DOJ press release:
The Justice Department announced that Najibullah Zazi pleaded guilty today in the Eastern District of New York to a three-count superseding information charging him…
Duke Cunningham Rails against Leadership Failures and Scandals
Okay, it's been a busy day. But I thought I'd throw out this little tidbit just to lighten your afternoon.
On page 86 of this FOIA packet, a CIA MFR from a May 6, 2004 briefing on the Abu Ghriab scandal records Duke Cunningham's outrage that…
Goss and Harman's July 13, 2004 Briefing on the IG Report
The Ghost Detainee FOIA (for more background see here, here, and here) also has a Memorandum for the Record from CIA's briefing for Porter Goss and Jane Harman on the CIA's IG Report on July 13, 2004.
The MFR is interesting for the details…
Henry Waxman Agrees w/Me; Toyota Study Is Horrible Whitewash
Last week I promised I would come back and explain why the report Toyota had produced, purportedly claiming that they had shown they don't have a software/electronic problem with their electronic throttle controls, did no such thing.
I never…
Najibullah Zazi: Another Counterterrorism Victory for Civilian Law
The AP is reporting that Najibullah Zazi, who was arrested last September as he was preparing to deploy bombs made out of beauty supply derived TATP, will plead guilty later today.
Which means that less than a year after a person allegedly…
