Would Obama Issue First Veto to Protect Anthrax Whitewash?
Bloomberg is reporting that Office of Management and Budget head Peter Orszag has told the intelligence committees Obama will veto the intelligence authorization because--among other reasons--it calls for re-examining the FBI's conspiracy theory-as-investigation…
Rendering Opinions on Rendering Detainees out of Iraq
This is going to be a really weedy post trying to explore what was going on with just about the only named opinion that Jack Goldsmith wrote at OLC that has gotten focused attention--a March 19, 2004 one cataloging the protected status of different…
Contract Killers as PsyOp Warriors
Several things stuck out for me in the NYT's big story about DOD's PsyOp contractors-as-assassination-flunkies. First, the degree to which DOD allegedly hid its assassination program inside a PsyOp venture. As the story reports, Michael Furlong,…
The Torture Apologists Ratchet Up the Attack
You know how the Moonie Times let go almost all of its "journalists" last year? Well, apparently they haven't let go of their CIA mouthpiece (not a surprise, I guess, since MT has always been one big disinfo campaign), Bill Gertz. And he's out…
A Catalog of the Destroyed Torture Evidence
I just re-read Philippe Sands' Torture Team and, given the news of disappearing emails and documents, this passage struck me anew:
[Mike Dunlavey, who was in charge of Gitmo as they put together the torture plan for Mohammed al-Qahtani] would…
Off-Season Trash: Who Will Be the First Corrupt Leader to be Ousted?
I'm starting a pool: Who will be the first top leader to be ousted for his role in a corruption scandal?
Will it be A, Pope Ratzinger, for sending a pedophile priest for the "gay cure" then back to working with children rather than to prison…
Dan Coats' Hypocritical Lobbying: Floorplans, Not Cars
Eric Kleefield uncovers a heap of hypocrisy in IN Senate candidate Dan Coats' lobbying record, but he misunderstands what it means.
Former Sen. Dan Coats (R-IN) is running for his old Senate seat, apparently on a platform of opposing government…
Were the Torturers Bypassing OLC in July 2004?
Update, March 13, 2015: The Torture Report clarify this. First, CIA had not yet rendered the detainee, who was indeed Janat Gul. At the meeting, CIA did ask for a memo, as well as permission to torture Gul because (we now know) a fabricator…
Judy Miller's Editor Calls on Journalists to Expose False Journalism
Tim F made this point implicitly, but it deserves to be made explicitly. Do you really think Howell Raines, the editor who oversaw Judy Miller's Iraq War propaganda, is really the one to exhort journalists to call out Fox for its false journalism?
One…
Rove: Three More Detainees Waterboarded?
Check out this tidbit MadDog found:
In 2008, CIA head Michael Hayden told Congress it had only been used on three high-profile al-Qaeda detainees, and not for the past five years.
One of those was Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, a key suspect in the…
Under Michael Chertoff, DHS Used David Horowitz Propaganda in Intell Report
Mark Hosenball reports that Dianne Feinstein and other Senate Dems have accused the Department of Homeland Security's spooks of using right wing propaganda to develop finished intelligence reports on Muslims. By looking at this paragraph from…
Whose Non-Disclosure Was Worse: Bybee's or Holder's?
John Kyl has officially announced he intends to waste an oversight hearing on March 23 beating up Eric Holder because he did not disclose an amicus brief opposing unlimited Presidential power.
Kyl told members of the committee that panel Republicans…
The Terrorist Sympathizers Grassley Doesn't Mention: Chiquita
Predictably, Politico piles onto the latest installment of the McCarthyist attacks on DOJ, largely repeating the attack as made by Dana Perino and Bill Burck. The one thing it does add is some discussion of what Eric Holder should have disclosed…
The Next Attack: Holder's Amicus Curiae Brief Against Unlimited Presidential Power
As Jake Tapper reports, the next attack the McCarthyites have planned is on Eric Holder, for once saying in an amicus curiae brief that it's possible following the Constitution will make it harder to detain potential terrorists.
In 2004 Attorney…
Lindsey Graham: For McCarthyism before He Was Against It
Zachary Roth raises a really important point about Lindsey Graham (aka Rahm's Attorney General). Though in recent days Graham has come out against Liz Cheney's McCarthyism, he was one of the Republicans who started this whole witch hunt last…
Mukasey's Muddle
Say what you will about Michael Mukasey, but usually he can craft a fairly logical argument.
That's not, however, true of this muddled op-ed in the WSJ. The op-ed attempts to draw an equivalence between lawyers--but not civil liberties organizations--that…
Pat Fitzgerald Chose Not to Consult with Margolis on Rove Indictment
I recognize that at some point I'm going to have to read Karl Rove's book propaganda. But until I find it lying around somewhere for almost-free right next to at least a six-pack of equally almost-free beer, I'm going to let Main Justice read…
Ronald Rotunda: Yoo Sent Email to Someone Else
Ronald Rotunda, having received a copy of my post suggesting that he was the professor whom Yoo emailed looking for help on common law defenses, has emailed to say he did not correspond with Yoo at all on these issues.
As you'll recall, last…
The Waterboarding Smoking Gun, Again
Since Mark Benjamin has decided to claim--some 300-plus days after I did the first of many posts focusing on the details of waterboarding (to say nothing of posts drational did looking at these descriptions medically)--that, "the agency's "enhanced…
Richard Shelby Held Up
Remember that Richard Shelby hold? Where he was holding the Senate hostage so Airbus could get a tanker refueling contract?
Well, given that Airbus withdrew from the competition yesterday, I thought it appropriate to see what Shelby has to…
