Howie Kurtz's Latest Story: Weymouth Defends Pay2Play Scheme
Katharine Weymouth stands by the principle of bringing the key players on a policy fight together in her living room--for a price. After all, "everyone does it."
Cheney Interview: Pay2PlayPo Losing Its Ability to Report, Too
Jeffery Smith makes the same errors on the CIA Leak case that reporters have been making for years.
Cheney Interview: The New Jon Stewart-Worthy Excuses
I think the DOJ is trying to distract Jon Stewart from laughing at Cheney by making a farcical argument about why his interview materials can't be released.
CIA Wants to Stall All Summer on IG Report
CIA wants to stall all summer before it releases the IG report.
The Contents of the Fitzgerald-Cheney Interview
Mary pointed me to DOJ's latest attempt to prevent CREW from accessing the materials relating to Cheney's interview with Fitzgerald and the FBI. I'll get into what a load of crap the DOJ argument is later. But first, I want to lay out what the FOIA declarations say about the Cheney interview itself.
First, the date.
The Iraq Survey Group Leads Its Witness, Saddam Hussein
After David Kay determined that there were no WMDs in Iraq, Charles Duelfer was brought in to create the appearance of a casus belli by focusing on Iraq's ongoing intent to develop WMDs and on the Oil for Food scandal. Ultimately, Duelfer achieved the former goal with this claim.
Saddam wanted to recreate Iraq’s WMD capability—which was essentially destroyed in 1991—after sanctions were removed and Iraq’s economy stabilized, but probably with a
The WaPo Digs Deeper
Katharine Weymouth says she is disappointed about the pay-to-play conferences. But she doesn't say why she's disappointed about them.
The New(s) Access Brokers: So Much for the "Impartial Center"
The WaPo is selling access to lobbyists. What I want to know is what the policy makers get out of the deal?
The Saddam Interviews
The National Security Archive has posted a bunch of FBI interview reports from Saddam's interrogation. Here's my first take on the reports.
Tortured To Death
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bmazAs Spencer Ackerman informs, the long awaited IG Report will be a little longer awaited, and will not be released today. Could be tomorrow, could be next week; what a shocker. In the meantime, and in keeping with our coordinated push with the ACLU Accountability Project, I would like to draw attention to an article Andy Worthington has out today.
A Sliver of Good News
Obama's DOJ won't let Military Commissions use evidence gotten through torture.
Pride And Petulance
Today is Victory In Iraq Day. For Iraqis. Well, actually, it is the day American troops officially marked their exit from urban areas to be concentrated in centralized bases in the countryside. Not everybody is celebrating.
Froomkin and Rosen on Accountability Journalism
Jay Rosen and Dan Froomkin talk about accountability.
John Rizzo Pre-Empts the OPR Report
As we speak, the CIA--including, by all appearances, John Rizzo--is reviewing the Office of Professional Responsibility's report on OLC's torture memos.
As if on cue, the LAT has a story profiling him.
04-309: Death from Torture
Meet "04-309." He went from being healthy when he was arrested on April 2, 2004 to dying three days later, apparently from torture.
On The Rule Of Law And Crimes Of Torture
Where the law is subject to some other authority and has none of its own, the collapse of the state, in my view, is not far off; but if law is the master of the government and the government is its slave, then the situation is full of promise and men enjoy all the blessings that the gods shower on a state.And thus was stated by Plato the general theory underlying
Bill Leonard on AIPAC Trial
Bill Leonard, the former head of ISOO whose job David Addington tried to Pixie Dust out of existence because Leonard had the audacity to assume Dick Cheney was required to follow the same classification and declassification rules as everyone else in the executive branch, never got a chance to testify in the AIPAC trial.
Dana Milbank's Very Thin Folder
It was a very thin folder.
Criticizing Mr. 25% vs. Criticizing Mr. 65%
Shouldn't a responsible paper be as willing to constructively criticize someone polling at 65% as they are at 25%?
The Backstory of Sanford & Sonnets Is Dribbling Out
Well, I was just carping, in this post and comments thereto, about what a fascinating backstory must be behind the Sanford hothouse potboiler story. Ask, and ye shall receive it appears. The State from Columbia SC has a new article up on just this topic.