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Oil Bucks

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emptywheel
I'm a determined skeptic about broadcast "accidents." But for the life of me, I can't understand the precise goal of allowing a discussion about not discussing the falling dollar at the OPEC summit to be caught on tape. Here's the Financial Times' version of events--which depicts it as disagreement about the underlying issue.

Immunity May Be Dead Anyway

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emptywheel
As you've no doubt heard, yesterday Pat Leahy pulled some superb parliamentary maneuvers to ensure that the SJC version of the FISA amendment came out of committee without immunity for telecoms. He basically just severed the part which permits the wiretapping from the part that gives immunity. Voila! Unfortunately, it still seems likely that Harry Reid will let the SSCI bill--the one we don't like--come to the floor of the Senate.

Shall, Part Two?

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emptywheel
Back in June, I pointed out that, in case of disputes over the EO guiding classification, the head of the Information Security Oversight Office can ask the Attorney General to rule on the dispute. This morning, when I read the famous Executive Order that Cheney claims to have exempted himself from, I noticed a key paragraph: The Attorney General, upon request by the head of an agency or the Director of the Information
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Boston: No News Is Bad News

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emptywheel
Just a reminder that I'm headed for Boston for what promises to be an interesting conference. Here's the description: No News Is Bad News A freeand independent press is essential for democracy. The press has aresponsibility to inform citizens about both the policies and theactions of the government and about credible challenges to thosepolicies and actions, to report on conditions that may require new ordifferent government initiatives, and to raise timely questions
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More on the FBI's Own Falafel

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emptywheel
There's a bit of a squabble over how important Nada Nadim Prouty, the FBI/CIA agent who got unauthorized access to Hezbollah information at the CIA, was to the agency. Via Laura, NBC reports that she was very important. Current and former intelligence officials tellNBC News that Nada Nadim Prouty had a much bigger role than officialsat the FBI and CIA first acknowledged.

Firewall, The Sequel

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emptywheel
Along with deleting emails and trolling for sex partners in public places, another favorite activity of Bush era Republicans is establishing legal defense funds. And AGAG will not be left out of the fun. Supporters of former attorney general Alberto R. Gonzales have created a trust fund to help pay for his legal expenses, which are mounting in the face of an ongoing Justice Department investigation into whether Gonzales committed perjury or

Should Executives that Suborn Perjury Get Special Favors?

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emptywheel
In my opinion, the key lines from Judith Regan's suit against the News Corp are these: The complaint charges that one unnamed senior News Corp. executive"counseled Regan to lie and withhold information from investigators"about her acknowledged affair with former New York City PoliceCommissioner Bernard Kerik. Another unnamed News Corp. executive "advised Regan not to produceclearly relevant documents in connection with a governmentalinvestigation of Kerik,'' according to the complaint. Regan basically accuses two of

What Is It with GOPers and Their Email?, Episode 516,345

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emptywheel
It seems the only thing Republicans do more consistently than troll for extra-marital sex in public places is delete their emails. Via CREW, ABC News is reporting that Congressman Feeney is spending a chunk of money in an attempt--apparently--to reconstruct some lost emails. Since April, Rep. Tom Feeney, R-Fla., has paid over $90,000 to aWashington, D.C.

Further Evidence They Threw AGAG Under the Bus

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emptywheel
Amanda notes something rather interesting. While John Ashcroft and Dick Thornburgh attended today's ritual swearing in ceremony for Michael Mukasey, Gonzales did not. This morning, Michael Mukasey was officially sworn in as the 81stAttorney General of the United States. At the beginning of his remarks,President Bush thanked officials for joining him, including formerAttorneys General John Ashcroft and Dick Thornburgh.

They're Not Telling

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emptywheel
The White House and DOJ gave a very curious "no comment" to Scott Shane for his article on the reopened investigation into the illegal wiretap program. Tony Fratto, a White House spokesman, and Brian Roehrkasse, a JusticeDepartment spokesman, declined to say whether Mr. Mukasey had pressedMr. Bush on the clearances for the department’s Office of ProfessionalResponsibility. This is really curious--and suggests to me that we (and the Democrats quoted in the article) are

They're Monitoring Falafels but Not Their Own Agencies

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emptywheel
Via Noah Shachtman, I see that a woman with potential ties to Hezbollah got a job in both FBI and CIA. How good are the FBI and CIA's background checks? Each agency requiresits own separate investigation and polygraph before people are signedup to sensitive jobs. Each agency missed an absolute whopper... A 37-year-old woman who previously worked as an FBI agent and a CIA analyst, pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges

4 Days on the Job and Already Mukasey Has Lapped Gonzales

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emptywheel
I guess this offers at least a trickle of hope that those that made up reasons to torture and wiretap and ignore the Constitution might be held to account? The Justice Department has reopened a long-dormant inquiry into thegovernment's warrantless wiretapping program, a major policy shift onlydays into the tenure of new Attorney General Michael Mukasey. The investigation by the department's Office of ProfessionalResponsibility was shut down after the previous attorney general,Alberto Gonzales,

AGAG's Clique Didn't Even Know Tribal Crimes Were Part of the Job

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emptywheel
Today's installment in the Denver Post's series on justice on tribal lands is absolutely devastating to the Bush DOJ, starting with the anecdote from Paul Charlton describing a "high-level DOJ official" who had no clue that tribal justice was part of the US government's obligation. Talking with superiors about a gruesomedouble murder on the Navajo reservation, Charlton was stoppedmidsentence and asked by a high-level Justice Department official whyhe was involved in a

The FISA Amendment Will Legalize Data Mining, Part One

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emptywheel
I've been puzzling over something since the temporary FISA amendment passed in August. The Administration has claimed they needed on easy fix: to allow NSA to wiretap electronic communication that starts and finishes on foreign soil, whether or not that communication passes through the US between sender and recipient. Yet both times when Congress sets about providing that easy fix to FISA, the Administration demands much more.

Dick DeVos Is a Welfare Queen

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emptywheel
I pointed out a few weeks ago that the ginormous King Ranch is a welfare queen recipient of cotton subsidies. Well, wouldn't you know it, billionaire and GOP sugar daddy Dick DeVos is a welfare queen recipient of corn subsidies (perhaps we should call him the "High Fructose Corn Syrup Daddy"). Consider Dick DeVos.

What Is It with GOPers and Their Email?

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emptywheel
CREW and the National Security Archive won the first part of their fight with the White House--getting a court order requiring the White House to preserve their emails and the back-ups (h/t PJ Evans). A federal judge Monday ordered the White House to preserve copies ofall its e-mails, a move that Bush administration lawyers had arguedstrongly against. U.S.

Margaret Chiara and the Ongoing Problem of Justice on Reservations

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emptywheel
Buried in an excellent article on the difficulties Native Americans have getting someone in USA offices to prosecute serious crime is this Margaret Chiara quote: "I've had (assistant U.S. attorneys)look right at me and say, 'I did not sign up for this,"' said MargaretChiara, who until March was the U.S. attorney for western Michigan,with jurisdiction over several reservations.

CIA Contractor Fired for Stating Waterboarding Is Torture

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emptywheel
My post on Armitage forced me to wade through the archives, where I saw this post. On July 13, Christine Axsmith posted this on her blog on the CIA's confidential intranet, Intelink. Waterboarding is torture, and torture is wrong. Not to mention ineffective. Econo-Girl has serious doubts as to whether European lives were saved.

Armitage, a Review

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emptywheel
About 6,204 people have emailed me news of Armitage's mea kinda culpa on Blitzer. The admission of stupidity is really nothing new--Armitage said something similar when he came forward to speak with David Martin last fall. Since a lot of people have asked what memo he learned of Plame's identity from--here it is.
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