Is Mukasey Suggesting We Ignored Information Mohammed al-Qahtani Gave Us?
I've been having difficulty finding the time to get through the entire AEI torture extravaganza that took place yesterday ("Moderated" by John Yoo). But by the time I read this Greg Sargent piece, I had gotten through the point at about…
Hillary Picks Cheney Aide to Replace PJ Crowley
It's bad enough that Obama didn't clear out the Cheney folks burrowed into the permanent bureaucracy. Now the Obama Administration will appoint former Cheney aide Victoria Nuland to replace PJ Crowley as State Department spokesperson.
Victoria…
Apparently the Terrorists Can't Learn How Much Radiation They'll Get from Going through TSA Security
When I first read tweets pointing to this article, reporting that the Administration won't let independent scientists evaluate the radiation exposure from RapeAScan machines, I joked that it was because we can't let terrorists know how dangerous…
Did the Administration's Own Propensity for Leaks Crash the SEAL's Blackhawk?
The AP has an astoundingly detailed description of the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound. It describes the kinds of aircraft used, the minutes spent completing each part of the task, and even explained that the Geronimo name just served to…
Eric Holder Claims Rule of Law Exists in Cyberspace
Just days after asking Congress not to give the intelligence community a hard deadline to put a basic cybersecurity measure into place, the Obama Administration rolled out a cybersecurity strategy yesterday with great fanfare. The event itself…
Obama Administration: Sorry, 2013 Is Too Soon to Fix Gaping Holes in Our Network Security
You've no doubt read the multiple posts in which I responded with growing incredulity at the response of DOD and the Intelligence Community to the gaping holes in their network security.
Basically, a review of DOD networks after Bradley Manning's…
US Bank Plans to Make Up Profit on Swipe Fees by Screwing the Unemployed
The other day I summarized a National Consumer Law Center report showing how some banks--particularly US Bank and JP Morgan--are screwing those who receive unemployment funds on debit cards with exorbitant fees. WSJ did a story on the report,…
Panetta: No Detainee in CIA Custody Revealed Courier's Real Name
Greg Sargent has liberated the letter that Leon Panetta sent to John McCain to explain how torture didn't find Osama bin Laden. Sargent has three paragraphs of the letter (go read them), but here is the operative passage.
Let me further point…
SCOTUS: Govt Can Use State Secrets to Hide Crimes
SCOTUS just declined to take the Jeppesen Dataplan suit.
The high court rejected an appeal by five men who claimed that U.S. operatives—with support from Jeppesen Dataplan Inc., a Boeing unit—abducted them and sent them to other countries…
The Feds Now Complaining about Thin Terrorist Indictments
Tell me if this sounds familiar: You've got a long undercover investigation of a young Muslim man. It ends in the man acting to get what turns out to be an inert bomb. And there seem to be problems with the undercover work in the investigation.
It…
Thomas Drake: The Unclassified Documents the Government Wants to Claim Were Classified
Jane Mayer, who did such crucial work showing how the Bush Administration chose torture in preference to a more effective, legal interrogation approach, now does similar work explaining that a similar choice of an illegal and ineffective approach…
Another US "Diplomat" Arrested (Briefly) in Pakistan
US-Pakistani relations really didn't need this right now. Pakistan arrested--and then released, apparently because the person's claim to have diplomatic status checked out--an American with high tech gear allegedly snooping around a nuke lab.
The…
Mickey Mouse's Night Vision Goggles
Just weeks after the SEALs killed Osama bin Laden, a company best known for profiting wildly off of fantasy stories for children has trademarked Seal Team 6.
The Walt Disney Company has trademarked “Seal Team 6,” which also happens to…
"He is hoping to build an empire in the desert, far from the trial lawyers" to train anti-Iranian soldiers
The NYT has a story on how Erik Prince's latest scam--to hide from the trial lawyers--involves using retired US servicemen to train Colombian mercenaries to "defend" the United Arab Emirates.
Mr. Prince, who resettled here last year after his…
The Confusion about When Hassan Ghul's Torture Started
In this post, I noted that John McCain seemed to be talking about Hassan Ghul when he spoke of a detainee who gave up key information on Osama bin Laden's courier without being tortured.
It’s the other detail I find even more interesting:…
Whitewash Investigation on Detainee Abuse Is Why We Need WikiLeaks
The Nation has a long study on the Army's Detainee Abuse Task Force, which one of its members described as a "whitewash."
Jon Renaud, a retired Army Warrant Officer who headed the task force as the Special Agent in Charge for the first half…
Why Can't DOJ Investigate as Well as the Hapless Senate?
There's a lot to loathe about the current incarnation of the Senate, that elite club of millionaires where legislation goes to either get rewritten to serve corporate interests or killed.
What does that say about DOJ, then, that the Senate…
JSOC Decides It's Ready to Return to Shadows ... Soon
Vice Admiral William McRaven, the Commander of the Joint Special Operations Command--which has been celebrated for the last two weeks for its role in getting Osama bin Laden--told Marc Ambinder (who has long been one of the most informative…
JP Morgan Chase Nickel and Diming the Last Nickels and Dimes from the Unemployed
The National Consumer Law Center just released a report on something that's been a pet peeve of mine for some years: states' increasing reliance on pre-paid cards to distribute unemployment compensation, rather than checks. (h/t Susie) As the…
Michael Mukasey Doubles Down on the Sophism
The most interesting aspect of Michael Mukasey's retort to John McCain's op-ed calling him a liar is not the content--that's the same old trite sophism--but rather the publication details of it.
It appears not under Mukasey's byline, but…
