Welcome Back to Emptywheel!
You've found our new digs!
Thanks to Chris, Dan, Rayne, Brian, and Jason for helping with this transition--particularly Chris and Dan who helped with a lot of last minute surprises.
The site is not yet fully functional--most notably, we're…
Sterling's Graymail Attempt
As Josh Gerstein reported, back in June, Jeffrey Sterling asked the government for details about which parts of James Risen's account of Merlin are true and which are false. His lawyers argue that Sterling cannot be guilty of disseminating national…
Reggie Walton Unleashes the Rocket's Red Glare
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Well well well. who couldda knowd?? Acute prosecutorial foul play has ended the big Roger Clemens perjury trial at it's gestation. From ESPN:
The judge presiding over Roger Clemens' perjury trial declared a mistrial over inadmissible…
Darrell Issa Steps in It, Inadvertantly Reveals Improper Use of Congressional Funds to Serve AEI
Republicans are big fans of projection. When they're neck-deep in conflicts of interest, they like to hide it by accusing Democrats of such conflicts. When they leak stuff, they accuse Democrats. When they mismanage stuff, they accuse Democrats.
And…
ACLU FOIAs CIA for Documents on Juan Cole
The ACLU has just FOIAed the CIA and Director of National Intelligence for any information on Juan Cole. It asks for,
e-mails, letters, faxes, or other correspondence, memoranda, contemporaneous notes of meetings or phone calls, reports or…
Obama Administration: Don't Cut Construction Funding to Bahrain
In its statement of Administration policy on HR 2055--which funds military construction--the Administration expressed concern that the Senate had cut $100 million funding for two projects in Bahrain.
The Administration is worried, you see,…
On Two Torture Investigations
Across the pond--in the investigation of British complicity with the torture of Binyam Mohamed and others--the Supreme Court has told the government it can't present secret evidence.
The supreme court has outlawed the use of secret evidence…
Our Unilateral Counterterrorism Operations in Somalia
A detainee in what Jeremy Scahill describes as "a secret prison buried in the basement of Somalia’s National Security Agency (NSA) headquarters, where prisoners suspected of being Shabab members or of having links to the group are held"--one…
Emptywheel Leaving Firedoglake
It is with very mixed feelings that I announce emptywheel will be leaving Firedoglake at the end of this week.
About six years ago, I started blogging on the abuse of power. At first it was the CIA Leak case. Then it was torture. And warrantless…
In 1,200 Word Profile on Eric Cantor, WaPo Neglects to Mention His Bet against the US
So the WaPo did a 1200-word profile on Eric Cantor's central role in debt ceiling negotiations. And somehow they never get around to mentioning that Cantor has a bet placed against US Treasuries.
Eric Cantor, the Republican Whip in the House…
Hamid Karzai's Brother Killed by Guard
This is going to make it more difficult for us to declare victory and withdraw from Afghanistan.
Ahmed Wali Karzai, the Kandahar provincial council chief, was killed during a gathering, said provincial governor Tooryalai Wesa. He did not …
How the Government Hid Their Pacha Wazir Mistake by Denying Habeas Corpus
Scott Horton's revelation that the detainee described as "CAPTUS" in Glenn Carle's book, The Interrogator, is an Afghan named Pacha Wazir reveals something else: in spite of the fact that Carle realized the CIA had been mistaken about Wazir's…
No Wonder They Hired Andy Coulson
Amid news that News Corp is playing games with its BSkyB bid (and even that Murdoch might sell News International entirely), the Guardian reports that Gordon Brown, like everyone else in England it seems, was hacked by "journalists across News…
RomneyCare Didn't End Medical Bankruptcies
Surprise surprise. Getting everyone insurance is not enough to eliminate medical bankruptcies. (h/t Susie)
To gauge whether healthcare reform in Massachusetts had eased bankruptcies, the researchers looked at a random sample of Massachusetts…
On the Wisdom of Keeping Up Offensive Pressure
As we hear about how heroic this victory was over the next few days, remember what went into it: first, superior fitness. Thankfully these women did not rest on their reputation for greatness, but instead put in the hours of training to…
Trash: F1 British Grand Prix, Sweater Vest Forfeitures & Foxsuckers
There are a lot of sports deserving of some Trash Talk this weekend, including the one and only British GP from Silverstone, Derek Jeter...Jetah..., getting his 3,000th hit and the gleeful schadenfreude over The. Ohio. State. University. having…
Is "National Security" a Good Excuse to Pursue Policies that Undermine the Nation-State?
Here I was steeling myself for a big rebuttal from Benjamin Wittes to my "Drone War on Westphalia" post on the implications of our use of drones. But all I got was a difference in emphasis.
In his response, Wittes generally agrees that our…
Panetta: Kill 20 Leaders, End the War on Terror
Leon Panetta kicks off his new job as Secretary of Defense with a trip to Afghanistan. On the plane over there this morning, he told reporters that we just need to kill 10 or 20 leaders of al Qaeda and we will "strategically defeat" al Qaeda.…
David Plouffe: ALSO Wrong on Consumer Confidence
Greg Sargent has a post arguing that complaints about David Plouffe's comments about unemployment are being distorted.
It seems Plouffe was actually asked a question about whether and how the unemployment rate would impact the Presidential…
Obama's Plan to Address 9.2% Unemployment: Send More Jobs Overseas
At today's press conference responding to the lousy jobs report, Obama offered a few suggestions for how to create jobs: patent reform, infrastructure investment, confidence fairies and ... "free trade."
But as the Economic Policy Institute…