Did FBI First Request James Risen's Phone Records Using the CAU Program?
In Josh Gerstein's report on DOJ's collection of James Risen's phone and business records, he quotes University of Minnesota law professor Jane Kirtley saying that the government doesn't give reporters notice when it collects telephone or business…
George W Bush Won't Share Stage with Someone Who Has Harmed US Interests
Mark Knoller tweets:
A spokesman says former Pres George W Bush cancelled a speaking appearance tomorrow to avoid sharing stage with Wikileaks' Julian Assange.
Bush/43 was invited to address the YPO Global Leadership Summit in Denver tomorrow,…
Spain Will Investigate Gitmo Torture
The High Court in Spain has decided that it can proceed with its investigation of the torture that Lahcen Ikassrien alleges he suffered at Gitmo.
A Spanish court Friday agreed to investigate a complaint by a Moroccan who said he was tortured…
The John Walsh-Liz Warren-Investors & Homeowners Cage Fight
I noted the other day that the Administration was floating a ridiculously small $20 billion Get out of Jail Free plan to excuse the banksters fort their foreclosure fraud. Apparently, the banksters think that $20 billion is just a "crazy figure"…
The Business Records and Classified (?) Emails of James Risen
Jeffrey Sterling's lawyers are throwing a number of interesting theories against the wall. In a filing demanding a bill of particulars (and presumably ultimately supporting a greymail defense),they demand to know which "defense information"…
When Militaries Conspire to Ignore the Will of the People
The story of the day is from Michael Hastings, fresh off winning a Polk Award for his reporting on the insubordination of key members of Stanley McChrystal's staff. In today's story, he describes how Lieutenant General William Caldwell ordered…
Vikram Pandit's Material Mistatements
It appears that Vikram Pandit's failure to disclose material problems with Citibank's valuation of its shitpile is another of the crimes we're supposed to look forward and ignore. Jonathan Weil looks at how one of the documents disclosed in…
FBI Gets Its Lone Wolf, Just in Time for PATRIOT Debate
This morning, the FBI arrested 20-year old Saudi citizen Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari on one charge of attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction. According to the FBI, Aldawsari had allegedly purchased all the ingredients to make an IED using…
Thousands of Spooky Americans Doing Who-Knows-What in Pakistan?
As I have followed the Raymond Davis saga, this passage from an early Jeremy Scahill story on the CIA/JSOC/Blackwater programs operating in Pakistan, has haunted me.
The Blackwater operatives also assist in gathering intelligence and help…
HAMP II: The $20 Billion Get Out of Jail Free Card
A day after the Case-Shiller Index confirmed that the housing market is in a double dip, the Powers that Be (a subsidiary of the Masters of the Universe, currently CEOed by one Barack Obama) have floated their proposal for a mortgage fraud settlement.
The…
The New Obama Policy On Constitutionality Of DOMA & Boies/Olson Reaction
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bmazThe Obama Administration this morning made an abrupt and seismic shift in its legal policy and position on DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act). It is a change that will have far reaching and important ramifications, and already has in the Perry v. Schwarzenegger Prop 8 case.
Obama DOJ Stops Defending Defense of Marriage Act
Finally, some good news from DOJ: Eric Holder has just announced the government will stop defending DOMA.
In the two years since this Administration took office, the Department of Justice has defended Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act…
A Tale of Three WikiLeak Stories
The NYT has gotten a lot of press for this story, detailing that Qaddafi's son, Mutassim al-Qadhafi, paid $1 million to have Mariah Carey to sing four songs at his New Year's Day party in St. Barts, and, the following year, another $1 million…
Rummy Lawyers Up ... To Defend Ordering Death Threats?
Josh Gerstein reports that the government has withdrawn from defending Donald Rumsfeld and others in the Jose Padilla suit Judge Richard Mark Gergel dismissed the other day. (h/t MD)
The Justice Department under President Barack Obama has quietly…
It's Not the Pakistanis from Whom Papers Were Withholding Davis' CIA Affiliation
Glenn and I both complained after the US media admitted yesterday it had been sitting on the very obvious news that Raymond Davis was a spook. But I got a number of questions from people who seem to miss the point. Why did I argue for years…
Whistleblowers Concerned that DOJ Refuses to Jail Scott Bloch, Too
Last week, bmaz (with my kibbitzing) noted how outrageous is it that the federal government is fighting to prevent a government employee who destroyed an entire hard drive of evidence from spending even one day in jail.
But given the record…
Who Was--and Was Not--in on Rummy's "Plan"
Gawker has liberated Iraq some of Rummy's papers on Iraq and Afghanistan. (h/t Rosalind) And while I hope to return to the series on John Walker Lindh (79ff) and the memo, cc'ed to the public affairs people, in which Rummy ordered Jim Haynes…
$9 Million Per Sort-Of-Kind-Of Important Drone Strike
Amidst all the discussion of why the US froze drone strikes after Raymond Davis got picked up, Greg Miller published another important story on drone strikes.
Among other things, the story reveals that we've spent $118 million in the last…
Raymond Davis: Diplomatic Immunity v. US Impunity
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MaryWhat happens with the Raymond Davis case, in the end, will likely not have very much to do with the Vienna Conventions. For that matter, we likely will never have enough of the unadulterated facts to know what should happen under the Vienna…
Raymond Davis' Work "with" the CIA
After the Guardian confirmed for the Anglo-American world what the rest of the world had already concluded--that Raymond Davis is some kind of spook--the government gave the American outlets that have been sitting on this knowledge the go-ahead…