Scary Iran Plot: Making an International Case before Passing the Ham Sandwich Test
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War…
Put Down The Ducky Trash
Is another fine Saturday with a host of great college football games on tap. It's hard to get anything past the king of sports, ESPN, and they have chosen Autzen Stadium, home of the Oregon Ducks, as the site of their ESPN Gameday. Now there…
What Is the Source of Gholam Shakuri's Urgency?
I'm working on a big post that raises more questions about the government's interpretation of the Scary Iran Plot.
But for the moment I want to raise an issue that might provide a nugget of plausibility for the larger story. And that's Gholam…
Yemen Tries to Claim US Drone Strikes as Yemeni Air Force Strikes
As MadDog alerted us this morning, there were multiple strikes against alleged terrorist targets in southern Yemen Friday night. What stands out to me in scanning the various media reports about these attacks is that even though it is crystal…
Government Remains Mum about When It First Charged Arbabsiar and For What
Yesterday, I pointed out some oddities of the docket for Manssor Arbabsiar, the accused plotter in the Iran assassination plot. Most notably, the docket for this crime starts with the amended complaint. That indicated there was an original complaint.…
The Four Month Warning of a Not-Yet Ripe Plot
I suspect Ha'aretz and Reuters think they're helping build credibility for the Scary Iran Plot by reporting that the Saudis warned the Argentines of the plot four months ago.
Saudi officials advised Argentina four months ago of an alleged Iran-backed…
MOTU Rules: Material Support for Terror Edition
AmericaBlog's Chris is right. We should not look at yesterday's sentencing of Raj Rajaratnam as the first act of justice against the banksters who killed our economy.
As I've said many times before, if Rajaratnam is guilty, fine, find him…
Bloomberg Averts Zuccotti Park Showdown as Occupy Wall Street Goes Global
At the end of the day yesterday, the burning question was whether New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg would send the New York Police Department into Zuccotti Park this morning to clear it of protesters under cover of a request from the owners…
Ignatius: CIA Is Involved with the Iran Plot, So It Must Be True!
In the face of near universal ridicule over the Iran plot, the Administration is now trying to shore up the case that this plot is "real." Many many media outlets are repeating one US official promising multiple sources corroborated the plot…
Gaps in the Iran Plot Docket to Go Along with the Gaps in the Story
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Retired Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Shaffer has some questions about the Iran plot, based partly on what his friend at DOJ said about the lack of record on the purported asassination plot at DOJ.
I did talk…
The Narratology of the Russian Scientist We're Allowed to Memorialize but Not Quote
I was meaning to write a post on this filing in the Jeffrey Sterling case, largely to point out the government is trying to prevent Sterling from arguing that everyone--particularly John Brennan--leaks.
The Court should bar the defendant from…
Project BACUS Facility at Dugway Has Both Fermentation and Weaponization Capabilities
CNN informs us this morning that a report card issued by the bipartisan WMD Terrorism Research Center, headed by former Senators Bob Graham and Jim Talent, has issued failing grades to the US in its Bio-Response Report Card (pdf). The…
The Iran "Plot": Hillary Tries to Involve the UN
Hillary Clinton has invoked a UN treaty protecting diplomats and country leaders in her effort to turn the absurd Iranian plot into an international incident.
If they were involved in a plot to kill Saudi Ambassador Adel al-Jubeir, that would…
How a Used Car Salesman's Alleged Kidnapping Plot Turned into an International Incident
Let me correct something the press has almost universally gotten wrong about the Manssor Arbabsiar plot. He was not originally sent to assassinate the Saudi Ambassador to the US in a spectacular bombing plot. According to the complaint, after…
FBI Accused Ivins of Hiding Material While FBI Hid Data From Public, Ivins' Attorney
A huge portion of the FBI's circumstantial case against Bruce Ivins in the Amerithrax investigation of the 2001 anthrax attacks relies on the scientific analysis carried out to provide a genetic fingerprint of the anthrax spores in Ivins' RMR-1029…
The UndieBomber's 15 Minutes of Fame
Here's the entirety of the speech Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab gave after he plead guilty to the Christmas Day bombing.
10:32 a.m.
Abdulmutallab read from a statement saying he was guilty under U.S. law, but not under Islamic law, for the crimes…
Lisa Monaco Would Like to Thank the Academy
One nice touch of today's press conference rolling out the latest FBI-created plot (aside from comedy lines like "they had no regard for the rule of law" and "we will not let other countries use our soil as their battleground") is that the fairly…
The Iranian Plot: Bank Transfers of Mass Destruction
I'm sorry, but I'm having a really difficult time taking this latest terrorist plot seriously. Not just because the story is so neat, tying together all the enemies--the drug cartles and Iran--we're currently supposed to hate, but because it…
The Uber-Plot: Iran, Mexican Drug Cartels, Koch Brothers, and Republicans
This plot has it all: an informant posing as a member of a Mexican drug cartel, Iranians targeting Saudis in DC's streets, and even its own "Operation" name already.
FBI and DEA agents have disrupted a plot to commit a "significant terrorist…
Is the US Outsourcing Torture, Again?
As you may recall, one of the most explosive revelations from the Iraq War Logs released by WikiLeaks pertains to US forces ignoring Iraqi torture of other Iraqis.
The biggest headline from Friday’s Wikileaks dump (everywhere but the NYT,…