DOD Kicks Out Gitmo Reporters for Reporting Publicly Available Information
Spencer just tweeted:
Pentagon BANS Michelle Shephard, Paul Koring, Steven Edwards & @carolrosenberg from #GTMO for reporting Interrogator #1's name #solidarity
And Al Arabiya's Muna Shikaki tweeted:
Office of Sec of Defense issues statement…
"It’d be easier to launch a Hellfire missile at a non-citizen than a citizen"
The whole point of Joe Lieberman's tea-bagger bait Terrorist Expatriation Act, according to his Republican House co-sponsor Charlie Dent, is to make it easier to launch Hellfire missiles at people. And Lieberman, too, ties his citizenship-stripping…
They Used Threat of Prison Rape to Scare Omar Khadr
As Spencer reports from Gitmo, the first interrogator to question Omar Khadr at Bagram told him a story suggesting that if he lied, he'd be sent to an American prison where he'd be likely to get raped.
“I told him a fictitious story we had…
"Pattern of Life" Drone Strikes
The LAT reports that targeting for most of the drone strikes that have killed more than 500 people in Afghanistan and Pakistan has been based not on information about an individual's ties to terrorism, but rather on "pattern of life" analysis…
Rahm and Axe: Timmeh Has Got His Groove Back
What a ridiculous piece of crap this A1 article by Anne Kornblut is, proclaiming that Eric Holder is having a good week.
It parrots conventional wisdom about what a bad time Eric Holder has had--pointing to turf battles he lost, rather than…
ACLU Better Spooks than the Torturers
Apparently, the ACLU (or rather, private investigators hired by the John Adams Project) are better spooks than the torturers. I say that because John Rizzo has now confirmed what had not been certain before: that when ACLU asked the PIs to figure…
Oil and Water and Leaky Hydraulics Don't Mix?
I wanted to call your attention to this excellent story from the Houston Chronicle describing some of the potential causes of the Deepwater Horizon spill. The short version appears to be that they were switching the drill chamber over from mud…
The Brits Refuse Secret Trials Even as Obama Doubles Down
As bmaz reported last night, the Obama Administration has refused to accept Vaughn Walker's ruling in al-Haramain--in fairly spectacular fashion (and yes, bmaz, Mary, MadDog and others did tell me this was going to happen).
Meanwhile, across…
Government Remains Belligerent in al-Haramain; Will Fight On
The government has responded to Plaintiffs' al-Haramain's proposed judgment. To put it lightly, the DOJ is NOT going to give up and pay.
Halliburton: We Worked to Spec
As oil continues to gush into the Gulf, I've been haunted by the statement Halliburton put out about the Deepwater Horizon spill.
Here's the statement, dated April 30, in its entirety.
Halliburton (NYSE: HAL) confirmed today its continued…
BP Oil Slick The Result Of Republican DOJ And Regulatory Policy
The one constant theme underlying all the elements that could have and/or did lead to the BP Gulf oil spill is the mendacious corporate servitude of the Republican party, their leaders and policies. The arrogance and recklessness of BP and its oily partners gestated wildly under the Bush/Cheney administration and little is changing significantly under Obama.
Erik Prince Proposes Blackwater Become Big Oil's Enforcer
Jeremy Scahill reports on a recording that was liberated from a recent Erik Prince talk in which Prince talks about all the great roles he thinks Blackwater should play in protecting Big Oil. Mind you, he didn't call it Big Oil. But he proposed…
Top Journalist's Husband Argues People Are Too Stupid for Debate
Hopefully, you've already seem Ryan Grim's explosive report on how, in 2004, Alan Greenspan argued the Fed should keep worries about a growing housing bubble secret because the chumps buying the houses were too stupid to engage in a debate about…
John Yoo: Stupid Political Hack AND Craven Addington Disciple
If ever there were a doubt that John Yoo was not just a craven lackey for David Addington, but also a stupid political hack, his op-ed today puts that doubt to rest. After whining about how mean the Senate Judiciary Committee was to Robert Bork…
$75 Million Buys BP Six Years of Lobbying or One Giant Oil Spill
As you've no doubt heard, BP's own liability for the damages the Deepwater Horizon spill will cause may be limited to $75 million (though it will have to pay for cleanup).
The federal government has a large rainy day fund on hand to help mitigate…
Lloyd Blankfein's AAA Bridge He Wants to Sell You
Perhaps the most stunning part of the Goldman Sachs hearing the other day came at the end of the hearing, after most of the press had left for dinner. Carl Levin challenged Lloyd Blankfein on something he had said to staffers. Blankfein claimed…
Dems Not Only Call for National ID, but for Anti-Democratic National ID
As DDay reported, the Reid-Schumer-Menendez draft on Immigration Reform calls for a national ID card (which they call a "biometric" or "fraud proof" social security card). Perhaps in a move to placate civil libertarians, the draft insists the…
Khadr: "You're Trying to Humiliate Me"
If you've been following Spencer and Carol Rosenberg, you know that the news from Omar Khadr's hearing has been dominated by Khadr's two refusals to come to the hearing room, yesterday because he didn't want to wear the blackout goggles they…
Our Unlawful Enemy Combat-Drones and Their Spooky Button-Pushers
If you haven't already read these two posts at Danger Room, you should do so. It reports and elaborates on the discussion at a Congressional hearing yesterday about whether or not our use of drones is legal.
As you recall, State Department…
Do Bloggers Suck or Does TradMed Just Suck More?
Above the Law, reporting on a speech 9th Circuit Court Chief Judge Alex Kozinski gave at Fordham Law, summarized his argument as, "A New Argument in Favor of Cameras in the Courtroom: Bloggers Suck."
Now, for the record, I'm all in favor of…
