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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"This problem will not be discussed in public"

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emptywheel
I do intend to return to my planned series on Matt Bai and the Serious People. But for now, David Sanger asks a question that really needs to be asked: what is going to happen to Pakistan's nukes? Before I look at the answer Sanger offers, let me point to this one line in the story. “It’s a very professional military,” said a senior American officialwho is trying to manage the crisis

Richard Mellon Scaife, "With Michael Isikoff"?

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emptywheel
I found this article on Richard Mellon Scaife's newfound admiration for the Clinton's via tristero. It's a remarkable article, in that it frames Scaife's purported admiration for the Clinton's against the background of Scaife's smear factory from the nineties, all told in a pseudo-objective omniscient third person voice. Scaife was no run-of-the-mill Clinton hater.

The Axis of False Intelligence Claims

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emptywheel
Fill in the blanks: [ISIS President David] Albright said yesterday that the tubes acquired by ___________ neededto be cut in half and shaped in order to be used as the outer casingsof centrifuges. If ___________ proves that the tubes were untouched, hesaid, it could "shatter the argument" that they were meant for auranium program. Let's see, WMD expert David Albright describing doubts about claims that a country was using aluminum tubes to build
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No News Is Bad News

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emptywheel
I'm going to be a panelist on a conference in Boston a week from tomorrow (Saturday). The conference is: 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

If Ever You Needed Proof that Pseudonymity Anonymity Hysteria Is Bunk

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emptywheel
DBJ at DKos, relating Karl Rove's speech about "Citizen 2.0" in DC yesterday, makes a good point. When a man who has used the cover of being an anonymous source to leak a CIA operative's identity--not to mention untold other smears--complains that commenters online can be anonymous pseudonymous, it pretty much discredits that complaint once and for all. Then it got surreal.

Mukasey Confirmed

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emptywheel
From which we can take the following lessons:It's unclear that our political system has the fortitude to save itself anymore.If you're running for President, it's dangerous to take a stand against torture--even if, like John McCain, you've been tortured yourself.It takes a real beating--like the one Alberto Gonzales gave Richard (one good reason not to blog before coffee) Mark Pryor when he AGAG appointed Tim Griffin and attempted to "gum to

Compartmentalization, Syrian Airstrike Style

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emptywheel
Apparently, Crazy Pete Hoekstra's been complaining again that the Bushies are keeping secrets from Congress. He co-authored a WSJ editorial several weeks ago to complain that only senior leaders in Congress (including Crazy Pete) knew the truth about the Syrian bombing. In the op-ed, Hoekstra sounded like he had found another casus belli. It has briefed only a handful of very senior members of Congress,leaving the vast majority of foreign relations and
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The Constitutional Right to a Press Pass

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emptywheel
I get asked about press passes a lot--I guess because I once had one. And the more I think about it, the more I'm raring for a constitutional challenge to the way many press passes are assigned in this country. You see, historically, just about the only meaning of Freedom of the Press that would have made sense to our founders was freedom from having the government choose official reporters by licensing

Illegal Spying on Hackers

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emptywheel
I'm going to have plenty to say on Shane Harris' story revealing that the NSA used hackers and foreign cyberhacks as their excuse for illegally accessing customer data prior to 9/11. First, though, I'd like to remind readers of this earlier Shane Harris story (with Tim Naftali)--to my mind the best reporting on this topic outside of the Risen-Lichtblau early scoop. A former telecom executive told us that efforts to obtain call
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Pakistan and the Serious People, One

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emptywheel
I'm going to do a series on Pakistan--and how the blindness of the "serious people" got us into big trouble there. I'm going to use Matt Bai's inaccurate slam on me as a foil to show how the serious people allowed themselves to get distracted from a brewing crisis that carries real consequences.

Falafel Foresight

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emptywheel
On December 19. 2005, just days after Risen and Lichtblau revealed the illegal domestic wiretap program, I wrote the following: I'm proposing it's not an indirect link to Al Qaeda, that the NYT isusing this language to shield the technical details (if these peoplewere really linked to Al Qaeda, the FISA warrant would be a cinch).

Terminate

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emptywheel
Telecom lobbyist John Ashcroft is back on the influence circuit again, trying to admonish us that refusing the telecoms immunity will kill people. Only he usually doesn't refer to telecom immunity as such. Instead, he calls on Congress to "terminate" the lawsuits against the telecom companies. There are many complex and difficult issues associated with thesedebates, but whether to terminate the huge lawsuits that have beenfiled against the nation’s major telecommunications carriers

Where's Duke?

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emptywheel
Seth Hettena notes that one of Mark Geragos' most effective lines in the Brent Wilkes trial was the insinuation that the government backed off calling Duke Cunningham as a witness. During his closing argument to jurors, defense attorney Mark Geragosasked jurors to keep one question in mind. If the governmentprosecutors believed Brent Wilkes had plied Congressman Randy “Duke”Cunningham with more than $600,00 in bribes, why didn’t they put theex-honorable gentleman on the

Did I Say Bear Hunting?

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emptywheel
I haven't seen any bears. I found a few beers, though. Here's a quick hits list of things I may return to on Wednesday, when I resume normal blogging.The Pats beat the Colts ... ugly. Shane Harris reveals that the rationale for asking Qwest to break the law before 9/11 was hackers.

Gone Bear Hunting--Light Posting

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emptywheel
Okay, not bear-hunting. But mr. emptywheel and McCaffrey the MilleniaLab and I are going on a road trip--I'm calling it mr. emptywheel's NFC North driving tour. Where I'm going, the WiFi gods really are jealous gods, so I can't even guarantee I can check in. Though I think I'll find WiFi in time to check in for the Pats-Colts game on Sunday.
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Bush and Schumer

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emptywheel
David Kurtz reports that the Mukasey nomination will come down to the Senate Judiciary Committee vote (and TPM is tracking votes so far). I believe this sets up some really interesting tension between Bush and Chuck Schumer. You see, events thus far have made it very important for Bush to get Mukasey approved.

Whitehouse Sniffing around Bush's Executive Orders

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emptywheel
Remarkably, Sheldon Whitehouse asked Mukasey very few written questions. But I am intrigued by this one. 2. Do you believe that the President may act contrary to a valid executive order? In the event he does, need he amend the executive order or provide any notice that he is acting contrary to the executive order? ANSWER:
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Who Vetted Mukasey?

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emptywheel
Here's an interesting question from Dick Durbin to Mukasey. It addresses whom the Administration felt it needed to give buy-in before nominating Judge Mukasey: 11. According to the Washington Post, before you were confirmed you "spent part of the weekend meeting with leading figures in the conservative world, seeking to allay their concerns about [your] philosophy and suitability for running [the] Justice Department." a.

Diplomatic Renditions?

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emptywheel
Here's a response from Mukasey that frankly stumps me. It comes in response to a Joe Biden question on extraordinary renditions. If the purpose [of renditions] is to gather intelligence, why would the United States trust interrogations carried out by Egyptian or Syrian intelligence agencies--agencies that the United States has long acknowledged and criticized for engaging in torture and abuse? ANSWER:
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