Elena Kagan and Maher Arar
Remember how I suggested one of the bright sides of Elena Kagen's nomination to SCOTUS would make Republican heads explode when they realize Hamdan lawyer Neal Katyal may be Acting Solicitor General?
Well, keep your eye out for splattered…
DOD's Latest Black Site
Fresh off of the ICRC's confirmation that DOD has a black site in Bagram, Marc Ambinder has a long piece on it, describing it as run by part of the DIA, the Defense Counterintelligence and Human Intelligence Center, and downplaying, somewhat,…
Eric Holder Visits HJC
You can watch along at CSPAN3 or the Committee Stream. Republican talking point of the day seems to be that Obama's Counterterrorism approach is to have incompetent terrorists.
Nadler wastes no time to pitch his State Secrets bill. Go Nadler!…
Betty Sutton on the Coerced Transocean Statements
As you may have read, Transocean (the company that owns the Deepwater Horizon rig) made everyone rescued from the rig sign statements laying out whether they were involved in the incident, and whether they had gotten hurt.
Lawyers for the oil…
Banned Gitmo Reporters Appeal
McClatchy provides details of the appeal the outlets for four reporters banned from Gitmo for publishing the name of Joshua Claus have made to the Pentagon.
Arguing that a Pentagon order banning four journalists from covering military commissions…
The House Always Wins
Why hasn't there been more discussion about this article?
It is the Wall Street equivalent of a perfect game of baseball — 27 up, 27 down, the final score measured in millions of dollars a day.
Despite the running unease in world markets,…
That Iraq Withdrawal We Elected in 2008?
Not gonna happen.
I have sent the enclosed notice to the Federal Register for publication, continuing the national emergency with respect to the stabilization of Iraq. This notice states that the national emergency with respect to the stabilization…
Lois Capps: Booms Will Only Collect 15% of Spilled Oil
The eye-popping part of this exchange is the news that all the efforts to protect the Gulf Coast are only going to collect a fraction of it from reaching the shore.
But the whole comment is worthwhile, because Capps expresses so well the…
Jon Kiriakou: Libby Knew Plame Was Covert
Jason Leopold has a long article and videotape of an interview with Jon Kiriakou that you should check out in full. I'll discuss their conversation about Abu Zubaydah's torture (and, more interestingly, Kiriakou's knowledge about who Abu Zubaydah…
CEO Mud Wrestling
One of the key moments of yesterday's Environment and Public Works hearing on the BP Disaster came when Tom Udall tried to pin the CEOs down on whether, as reported by WSJ, at BP's direction, Halliburton swapped out the drilling mud for seawater…
A More Revealing BP Hearing?
The House Commerce Committee is holding the third hearing into what went wrong on the BP Deepwater Horizon rig (CSPAN is showing it on CSPAN3). As is typical for a Waxman/Stupak hearing, the Committee has done its homework, advancing the understanding…
The Flaming Hypocrisy Of US Terrorist Designation
Is the US government prone to using their prohibited terrorist designations in some kind of shell game for political expediency?
John Rizzo: DOD Engaged in Cyberwarfare with Limited Oversight
I've done two posts on John Rizzo's recent address to ABA's Standing Committee on Law and National Security. But I wanted to call attention to a few more things he said in his talk.
Slightly more than halfway through his talk, he talks about…
Maria Cantwell Tries to Get BP to Define "Legitimate Claims"
One of the highlights of the first of several Deepwater Horizon hearings in Congress this week came when Maria Cantwell tried to get BP American President Lamar McKay to commit to what BP would pay as "legitimate claims." She asked about:
Long…
Walter Pincus' Chummy Torture Apology
This is the kind of lede you'd expect from a dirty hippie blogger, not from a septuagenarian TradMed journalist.
Who other than the acerbic John A. Rizzo, who served a long tenure as the CIA's acting general counsel, would use his first talk…
Judge Rules Torture Doesn't Violate Due Process
In a ruling that anticipates how the government will ignore torture as it tries alleged detainees in civilian court, Judge Lewis Kaplan rejected Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani's efforts to get his indictment for contributing to the 1998 embassy bombings…
The Questions I Should Have Asked
When you live in flyover country and have the opportunity to appear on cable, it lacks some of the niceties of the big city: no green room, no professional makeup artist, and sometimes you have to drive yourself to the studio through Detroit's…
State Secrets Non-Compromise Compromise Architect to Replace Kagan
The great news just keeps coming.
Remember the "new" state secrets policy DOJ announced last year? It basically amounted to a promise that the Attorney General would review any invocation of state secrets to make sure such an invocation was…
Elena Kagan Will Be The Most Unqualified Justice In History
Elena Kagan is a poor selection to replace Justice John Paul Stevens on the Supreme Court.
Look on the Bright Side!!!
I've thought of some bright sides regarding the news that Elana Kagan is Obama's pick to replace Stevens:
If ever SCOTUS needs money, Elana Kagan is a great fundrasier!
Imagine how it'll make Republican heads explode when they realize Hamdan…