MSNBC's New Sources on Bradley Manning's Treatment: Pentagon Officials
Back in January, long-time Pentagon reporter Jim Miklaszewski caused a stir when he published a story with two big scoops. First, that investigators had been unable to tie Bradley Manning to Julian Assange. More importantly, Miklaszewski cited…
Air Force: We're Screwed
The Air Force is using stimulus dollars to rebuild some family housing at Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska. Since they're using stimulus dollars, they have to get a waiver for anything they say they can't source to an American company. Among…
Did BP Have Special Reason to Worry about the Iraq War for Oil?
The Independent reveals what we've always known: the Iraq War was about oil. Or rather, there were significant discussions in Fall 2002--the period when the US and UK were busy lying us into war--about who would get Iraq's oil. (h/t Susie)
The…
PJ Crowley: "Will My Words Be Credible?"
There's something deeply ironic about the beltway's most tawdry purveyor of the Village narrative, Politico ("Win the morning™"), treating former State Department Spokesperson PJ Crowley's investment in a strategic narrative dismissively.…
How to Stage Manage a Show Trial
Michelle Shephard reports on an effort Omar Khadr's military lawyers are making to win clemency for their client. (h/t JL) Much of it focuses on the role psychiatrist Michael Welner, who testified that his interview with Khadr proved he'd never…
Some Context on MI's Emergency Financial Manager Law
On Saturday, I described how the democratically-elected government of Benton Harbor, a poor, segregated MI city about an hour south of me, lost its power to the city's Emergency Financial Manager.
There are two parts of the story that I didn't…
NYT Speculates on Departure of Goldman Sachs' Blankfein, Doesn't Mention Levin's Referral
The NYT has what I assume to be a bizarre form of beat sweetener on Goldman Sachs today. It spends most of 1,300 words speculating on who might replace CEO Lloyd Blankfein if he were to step down, exploring three possible candidates in depth.
But…
US-Based Drones for the Sake of Drones
Apparently, a bunch of people claiming to be interested in jobs inserted an amendment into the FAA bill requiring the FAA to allow for drones in US airspace. (h/t NC)
I became aware of the pro-drone legislation from a February 10, 2011,…
Using New Emergency Financial Manager Law, They Start Dissolving Governments in Michigan
In what is likely to be just the first of several dissolutions of democratically elected city governments and school boards in Michigan, the Emergency Financial Manager of Benton Harbor, Joseph Harris, just took away all authority from the city's…
The United States of Monsanto
Last night, I was on BlogTalkRadio with former Ambassador to Nigeria John Campbell talking about WikiLeaks, secrecy, and democracy. As a way to illustrate how the secrecy of diplomatic cables hides a great deal of undemocratic ideas, I raised…
Former Army Intelligence Analyst: "Army security is like a Band-Aid on a sunken chest wound"
Evan Knappenberger, a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War who served in roughly the same position Bradley Manning did (but several years earlier), was interviewed by his college newspaper about my latest obsession, DOD's network security.…
WikiLeaks Reveals that China Already Knows What WikiLeaks Reveals
I've been bitching and bitching and bitching and bitching about DOD's refusal to fix the gaping holes in its network security even while it cries that Bradley Manning allegedly downloaded a bunch of cables using those gaping holes. As I point…
Have the Spooks Finally Admitted to Congress They've Been "Exploiting" Gitmo Detainees as Spies?
Something funny happened yesterday.
The House Armed Services Committee had a hearing on Gitmo Detainee Transfer Policy. According to Carol Rosenberg's tweeting, up to two hours of the hearing was conducted in closed session before the hearing…
The Weakness Of The Barry Bonds Obstruction Verdict
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bmazYesterday the Barry Bonds trial ended with a single conviction for obstruction of justice and a mistrial declared due to a hung jury on the other three remaining counts. There were originally five counts in the indictment, but count four was…
DOJ Points to David Passaro's Trial as Proof We Investigate Torture, But It Actually Proves John Yoo Should Be Tried
Update: Meanwhile, the Spanish judge threw out the case.
A SPANISH judge overnight dismissed a complaint filed against former top US officials over alleged torture at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. Judge Eloy Velasco decided to throw out…
Response to GE Hoax Reveals How Badly Press Understands Multinational Capitalism
The AP wrote a story on the hoax GE Press Release reprinted in its entirely below; after GE informed them it was a hoax, they withdrew the story.
But of the reports on the hoax, few seem to get it.
Business Insider notes it "OBVIOUSLY…
A New Form of MI "Terrorist": The Friendly Fire One
There was a weird period last spring, as all the fearmongering in the country focused on the underwear bomber sitting in a jail just nineteen miles from me, after the autopsy of an African American imam in Detroit raised new questions about…
One Good Reason the WaPo Should NOT Get Kudos for Its "Top Secret" Series
The WaPo has an article out that's causing quite a stir. It bemoans the fact that the CIA has lost much of its top managers since 9/11.
More than 90 of the agency’s upper-level managers have left for the private sector in the past 10 years,…
Helicopter Ben Invented Tax Evasion Vehicles for the Real Housewives of Wall Street
Matt Taibbi is out with his take on the Fed's bailout lending revealed last month. He focuses on how two rich housewives with no apparent business experience got almost a quarter of a billion dollars in the TALF program.
In August 2009, John…
PJ Crowley's Acting Replacement Can't Differentiate Us from China on Human Rights and Transparency
Josh Gerstein provides the entirety of an exchange between former State Department spokesperson PJ Crowley's acting replacement, Mark Toner, AP reporter Matthew Lee, and Reuters reporter Arshad Mohammed. At issue is how State can still claim…