Isikoff to Congress: Make Sure You Ask for the Negroponte Memo
For all his faults, Michael Isikoff certainly allows people to reliably launder leaks through him. And today's leak offers a clear message to Congress to go after the memo recording a meeting between John Negroponte and Porter Goss, where Negroponte told Goss not to destroy the torture tapes.
Did Nacchio Lie, or Just Misunderstand?
Is the government telling different stories about whether Nacchio was asked by the NSA for access to its circuits? Or just that he expected to get other business and lost the business after he refused to tap Americans?
Someone Doesn't Want the Telecoms to Get Immunity
Because they're leaking--and leaking big--to James Risen, Eric Lichtblau (and Scott Shane) again. Almost two years to the day since their first big scoop.
Holiday Travel
In preparation for a thus-far mythical trip to Philly, I recruited someone to post for me on my driving days. It was a pretty easy decision, really. When I meet TNH/emptywheel people in person, they tend to rave about bmaz. So I thought I'd give him the keys to the front page while I'm gone.
Not Three Branches, Not Two Branches, Just One Branch of Government
Just eight years ago, I remember our country having three independent branches of government. Apparently, the Mukasey DOJ has decided that three branch thing is quaint. In addition to sending Congress snotty letters telling them to back off the torture tape destruction, they've sent a similar letter to at least one judge.
Oversight or Politics?
Michael Mukasey has engaged in a remarkable bit of sophistry with his refusal to clue Congress in on the joint DOJ/CIA IG investigation into the destruction of the torture tapes. He explains his decision as an attempt to avoid "any perception that our law enforcement decisions are subject to political influence."
Of course, the "political influence" Mukasey was asked to address during his nomination hearings was the kind exerted when a Senator or a Congresswoman called the Attorney General privately to demand that a USA either accelerate the prosecution of a political figure or be fired. In this matter, Mukasey has been asked to respond to what is an almost unparalleled degree of bipartisan support for an open inquiry into a matter that just stinks, already, of a cover-up. Leahy and Specter (and Reyes and Hoekstra and Durbin and Biden and more) called for a procedure that had oversight built in.
And Mukasey said no.
The Venezuela Bust
It's bad enough that the United States, a country that has provided election funds for its favored candidates in other countries for over fifty years (including, notably, Argentina and Venezuela), is now criminalizing the purported $800,000 donation from Hugo Chávez to Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in Argentina. It's bad enough that it stinks of yet another silly anti-Chávez campaign.
But the criminal complaint just doesn't make any sense.
Put Your Own--I Mean, Your Very Own--House in Order First
Yet another old-school journalist calls on the Toobz to clean up its acts and adopt the "ethics" of old journalism that have already failed our society. But I'm most amused by the humorous error in his own op-ed calling for accuracy and fairness. Apparently, Professor Helzinki believes that journalists are leading the fight to debunk the "Obama in the madrassa rumor," rather than propagate it themselves.
"Aspirational Terrorism" Won't Send You to Jail, But It'll Lead the News
Perhaps it's time the government tried to pursue real terrorists rather than create them among pathetic
Really Bad Gitmo Propaganda
I'm not really surprised that the Gitmo command is disseminating propaganda about the prison. But I just wish those that engage in propaganda for the government not be so pathetically bad at it.
When All EOs Are Pixie Dust, It Means Dick Can Declassify Anything He Wants
The discovery that Bush can turn his own Executive Orders into Pixie Dust provides an explanation for one of the lingering mysteries of the Plame outing: the EO governing declassification authority doesn't explicitly give the Vice President the authority to declassify information that he has not, himself, classified. But because the President always intended the Vice President to be treated as the President is in that Executive Order, it means Cheney has that authority contrary to the plan text meaning of the EO.
Bam!!! CIA Scores Direct Hit on the Unitary Executive!
At least that's what I take from this quote:
In the e-mail version of the Politico Playbook this morning, Mike Allen quotes “a senior administration official” lamenting that “they should have burned the NIE and kept the tapes.” The official was referring to the administration’s debacles with the intelligence community since the new NIE on Iran was released and the CIA revealed that it had destroyed videotaped interrogations.
Intelligence Oversight and Partisanship
David Ignatius complains that partisanship has ruined our intelligence oversight. Well, perhaps he should blame Cheney, who turned the Senate Intelligence Committee into his own personal plaything to hide the Administration's complicity in the bad intelligence leading to war.
All Your Data Belong to George
Guess what? ODNI has told Congress it doesn't want minimization procedures to be codified in statute because it would make it too hard to change those procedures. That, plus a continued emphasis on Executive Orders that George Bush can turn into pixie dust, suggests they really don't want to be held responsible for protecting US persons' privacy when conducting wiretaps.
Nacchio's Hearing--before the Judges Who Gave Him Bail--Set for Next Week
I said yesterday that the lawsuits against the telecoms were the only means left for us to find out how the government spied on Americans. I forgot about Joseph Nacchio, whose appeal will be heard by the same folks who decided his appeal addressed a "substantial issue."
Phone Slip
One thing about the EFF document dump is immediately apparent. There is one trace--a phone slip--of any conversations between ODNI personnel and the phone companies.
Did the D.O. Lawyer Even Know about Brinkema's Request?
Among the details in Isikoff and Hosenball's piece on the decision to destroy the torture tapes is a representation of DO's lawyer who advised the tapes could be destroyed which makes it sound like he had no clue there was an active inquiry for the tapes.
We're Not Getting the FISA Opinions ... Which Leaves Just the Lawsuits
Judge Bates, the same judge who rejected the Wilsons lawsuit against Dick and Libby and Karl and Dick, basically issued the same opinion he did in the Wilsons' suit: It's a great idea, but, no, not going to let it happen. All the more reason to figure against immunity for the telecoms.
Bush Turned His EO on Classified Information into Pixie Dust, Too
Sheldon Whitehouse revealed that Bush has turned his Executive Order governing surveillance of Americans overseas into Pixie Dust. But that's not the only EO Bush has done that with; he also turned his EO governing the treatment of classified information into Pixie Dust. In fact, he didn't bother to tell the guy whose job it is to enforce that EO that it was Pixie Dust until four years after the fact!
When All Executive Orders Turn to Pixie Dust
Marty Lederman tells us not to worry about the legality of the OLC opinions Senator Whitehouse revealed last Friday. But he tells us we may need to worry about the constitutional bad faith that Whitehouse's revelations imply. This post begins a discussion about what happens when all the President's Executive Orders turn to Pixie Dust.
