Sister Sara, RIP
As bmaz noted, we have learned that long time commenter and my blogmate at Next Hurrah, "Sister Sara," passed away last year. If you're familiar with her comments and posts, you'll remember that she was incredibly knowledgeable with long experience…
Jack Blum's Client Goes to Wikileaks
A man about to go on trial in Switzerland for breaking that country's secrecy laws has promised to give details of 2,000 individuals and corporations who are hiding their money in offshore accounts to Wikileaks tomorrow.
The offshore bank account…
Divisional Playoff Trash Talk
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bmazThe most exciting weekend of the pro football calendar, divisional playoff weekend is here!
Or Maybe Your Profit Levels and Bonuses Are Simply Obscene?
Jamie Dimon says they're going to have to chase 5% of their customers away in response to limits Dodd-Frank put on the usurious rates banks charge merchants for each debit card transaction.
Federal limits on debit card processing fees will…
Air National Guard Will Deploy Drones to Spy on Black Bears in Adirondack Park
As part of what they bill as a "military training program," the Air Force National Guard will deploy a bunch of MQ-9 Reaper drones over the Adirondacks park in Northern NY. (h/t Tim Shorrock)
The Air Force Air National Guard will fly remotely…
American Democracy, Tunisia, and Wikileaks
Update: BBC and al-Jazeera report that Ben Ali has left the country and security forces have arrested family members at the airport.
The simultaneous (and related) unfolding of the uprising in Tunisia and the latest Wikileaks events reveals…
Hiding our Cyberwar from Congress
The AP noticed something troubling in Michael Vickers' response to the Senate Armed Services Committee questions on his nomination to be Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence: the government did not include descriptions of its cyberwar…
WikiLeaks Media Files: Are They Definitely Fox?
As a number of people are reporting, Julian Assange told John Pilger Wednesday that WikiLeaks has files on some media companies. Thanks to a PDF link made available by The Nation (see 12:05 update), here's the exact quote from the New Statesman…
A New Judge For the Giffords Case and An Early Problem For Him
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bmazA new judge, from outside of Arizona, has been appointed to handle the Federal Criminal case against Jared Loughner, and he will have a substantial issue of jurisdiction on his hands when he first takes the bench on it.
David Kris Resigns from DOJ
The U.S. Department of Justice just announced that Assistant Attorney General David Kris just resigned, effective March 4.
“David Kris led the National Security Division (NSD) with great distinction through a period when the department confronted…
Wikileaks Redactions: It's Not Just the Chinese that Bribe for Oil
Given the past history of how newspapers have redacted (or not) Wikileaks dumps, I was very interested in an article that reveals what the Guardian (or one of its media partners) redacted in a cable on Kazakh corruption. The Guardian summarizes…
Third Way "Solution" to Foreclosure Fraud? Limits on Rule of Law
The Third Way has just released a response to the US Bank v. Ibanez decision that purports to offer a solution to the foreclosure problem.
I'm sure others will point out other problems with this document: its embrace of the "strategic default"…
Colombia Refuses to "Look Forward"
In Colombia, apparently, you get arrested when you oversee illegal domestic wiretapping.
Colombia's Prosecutor General ordered the arrest of Jorge Noguera, a former director of Colombia's state intelligence agency DAS, for the his alleged…
Redefining Security
Joe Biden finally endorsed yesterday what the imperialists in DC have long been backing: an open-ended presence in Afghanistan.
“It is not our intention to govern or to nation-build,” Mr Biden said. “As President Karzai often points…
Could the UndieBomber Have Destroyed the Plane?
There are two new minor details in the UndieBomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's, case. He was scheduled for a pre-trial hearing tomorrow, but his lawyer, Anthony Chambers, just submitted a waiver of Abdulmutallab's presence at the hearing, and…
Why Did Bradley Manning Allegedly Leak WikiLeaks Two Things before He Verified Assange's Identity?
To return to the work I was doing yesterday, there's something odd about the timeline of Bradley Manning's alleged leaks to WikiLeaks: he appears to give WikiLeaks at least two things--the Rejkjavik 13 cable and the Collateral Murder video--before…
State Department Secrecy: What a Bunch of Crap!
Since the issue of State Department secrecy -- breached by the WikiLeaks cable dump -- has been a topic of discussion, I thought it worthwhile to point to this National Security Archive post describing a particular FOIA appeal.
Eleven years…
Is the Government Alleging Bradley Manning Loaded Encryption Software onto DOD Computers?
I've been revisiting the timeline revealed in Bradley Manning's charging document. Here's a short version of what that shows:
November 1, 2009: Earliest date for which government subpoenas Wikileaks related twitter accounts
November 19,…
"Our" Terrorist Goes on Trial
Today, Luis Posada Carrilles goes on trial. Posada is, of course, the Cuban-American who was a CIA asset for at least the Bay of Pigs era and almost certainly for years after. Among other things, he orchestrated the bombing of a Cuban plane…
Our (We) Working Class Pundits
Digby has a righteous rant about a discussion between Wolf Blitzer, Mary Matalin, and Paul Begala in which they revealed their utter divorce from the reality lived by most Americans as they discuss whether the $172,000 Robert Gibbs made as Press…