It's Not Just the Emails DOJ Lost, It's the Backup Documentation
We've been talking quite a bit about John Yoo and Patrick Philbin's emails on the torture memos that OLC deleted: with a rebuttal of John Yoo's claims there were no email, a report on the National Archives' attempts to learn what happened, and…
The Mock Burial in the OPR Report
CIA’s torturers asked DOJ to let them use mock burials. But DOJ said no.
PDF page 42 of the OPR Report (searchable copy here) includes a list of the torture techniques that Mitchell and Jessen recommended be used with Abu Zubaydah. Whereas…
OPR Working Thread Part Three
Happy Sunday.
Here are the HJC copies of all these documents:
Memorandum for the Attorney General
OPR Final Report
OPR 1st Draft Report
OPR 2nd Draft Report
Yoo Response to OPR 2nd Draft
Yoo Response to OPR Final Draft
…
Holder: Zazi's plot "one of the most serious terrorist threats to our nation since September 11th, 2001"
And all resolved using civilian law enforcement. From the DOJ press release:
The Justice Department announced that Najibullah Zazi pleaded guilty today in the Eastern District of New York to a three-count superseding information charging him…
Duke Cunningham Rails against Leadership Failures and Scandals
Okay, it's been a busy day. But I thought I'd throw out this little tidbit just to lighten your afternoon.
On page 86 of this FOIA packet, a CIA MFR from a May 6, 2004 briefing on the Abu Ghriab scandal records Duke Cunningham's outrage that…
Goss and Harman's July 13, 2004 Briefing on the IG Report
The Ghost Detainee FOIA (for more background see here, here, and here) also has a Memorandum for the Record from CIA's briefing for Porter Goss and Jane Harman on the CIA's IG Report on July 13, 2004.
The MFR is interesting for the details…
Henry Waxman Agrees w/Me; Toyota Study Is Horrible Whitewash
Last week I promised I would come back and explain why the report Toyota had produced, purportedly claiming that they had shown they don't have a software/electronic problem with their electronic throttle controls, did no such thing.
I never…
Najibullah Zazi: Another Counterterrorism Victory for Civilian Law
The AP is reporting that Najibullah Zazi, who was arrested last September as he was preparing to deploy bombs made out of beauty supply derived TATP, will plead guilty later today.
Which means that less than a year after a person allegedly…
Bybee's Lawyer: Bybee Distracted from Torture Memo because Protecting Cheney's Energy Task Force
I'll have more on Maureen Mahoney's first response on behalf of Jay Bybee to the OPR report later today. But I wanted to draw attention to a footnote she includes to--apparently--explain that Jay Bybee was a very busy man at the time when he…
Pat Roberts' "10 Reasons Right Off" Not to Exercise Oversight Over Torture
Practically the first thing Pat Roberts did after he became Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee was to back down off nascent efforts Bob Graham had made as SSCI Chair to exercise real oversight over the torture program. That's one of…
Michael Hayden Lied to SSCI on April 12, 2007
The latest Ghost Detainee FOIA materials [long pdf] (for a general overview see this post) prove that Michael Hayden lied to the Senate on April 12, 2007.
One of the things included in this packet is a heavily redacted transcript of Hayden's…
Ghost Detainee FOIA Release
In the midst of all the excitement over the OPR release, there's an equally revealing FOIA release in CCR and Amnesty International's Ghost Detainee FOIA. I will do very detailed posts on each of the Memoranda for the Record included in this…
Toyota's "Wins for Toyota-Safety": $100 Million by Avoiding Finding the Acceleration Problem
The Toyota hearings this week--particularly Wednedsay's hearing featuring Akio Toyoda--are looking more and more devastating. The Detroit News reports that the House Oversight Committee has an internal Toyota presentation from last July boasting…
The Inherent Conflict Of Interest With DOJ's OPR And David Margolis
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bmazThe first, and most obvious, issue of conflict with OPR is that it places evaluation and resolution of ethical complaints against DOJ attorneys in the hands of the DOJ. The power to determine whether there is any impropriety is solely within the hands of those supervising and/or ultimately responsible for the impropriety. It is a process ripe with conflict and cronyism that protects DOJ malfeasants at the expense of the public interest and well being.
The Emails the Bush Lawyers Were So Worried About
As I noted yesterday (though I got the details slightly wrong), the OPR report revealed that a number of John Yoo and Patrick Philbin's emails had been deleted (and that Goldsmith's had been deleted but were subsequently recovered).
OLC initially…
OPR Working Thread Two
Happy Saturday.
Memorandum for the Attorney General
OPR Final Report (a searchable copy, courtesy of burnt, is here)
OPR 1st Draft Report (a searchable copy, courtesy of burnt, is here)
OPR 2nd Draft Report
Yoo Response to…
OPR Report Working Thread
A great way to spend a Friday night--reading this with all my friends!
Memorandum for the Attorney General
OPR Final Report
OPR 1st Draft Report
OPR 2nd Draft Report
Yoo Response to OPR 2nd Draft
Yoo Response to OPR…
DOJ Anthrax Report Working Thread
DOJ has posted its Anthrax Report and related documents.
The Justice Department, FBI and U.S. Postal Inspection Service today announced that the investigation into the 2001 anthrax attacks, which killed five individuals and sickened 17 others,…
Unsolved Anthrax Case to be Closed Today
Though DOJ will presumably insist that Ivins did it.
The FBI is expected to issue a final report today on its six-year investigation of the 2001 anthrax letter attacks, according to the attorney representing former Frederick resident Bruce…
Toyota Pays Whitewash Firm to Produce UNBELIEVABLY Bad Whitewash
To get an idea of just how ridiculously bad the Toyota-funded study of its "sticky accelerator" problem is, you need only compare the 6 vehicles the contractor in question purchased to study, with the years and makes of vehicles Toyota has recalled.
Here…