Stressing Teh Kitty
The bank stress test results are in! Wonderful news, the economy is totally groovy man! Well, except not. For what are being hailed as great results, there are some disturbing numbers. Said stress tests of the 19 largest U.S. banks show they will need a total of $74.6 billion to withstand a deeper recession.
Interrogation and Response--the Democratic Way
Okay, I lied. I'm going to throw up a quick post.
I wanted to direct your attention to Scott Horton's interview of the Stanford students who challenged Condi Rice on her role in torture. In particular, I wanted to point to the comments of Sammy Abusrur--whose friends are now calling him "Frost"--about Condi's role over all as National Security Advisor and Secretary of State.
I am not a political scientist, nor an international
Big Auto Musical Chairs
Okay, I didn't see this one coming. General Motors is staring imminent bankruptcy dead in the eye and now they want to negotiate purchase of a substantial interest in Fiat. This is getting weird.
The Value Of The Hometeam
Sports are a fickle thing, they bring out the best and the worst of people. Professional sports franchises often come, in a way, to define their cities. But what is their intrinsic value? What does it mean when they leave? The City of Phoenix may be about to find out.
The OPR Report: Why No Sanctions for Bradbury?
The WaPo reports that OPR has recommended John Yoo and Jay Bybee be sanctioned--but not Steven Bradbury. Is that because he was still in charge of OLC when OPR allowed OLC to review the report?
Dougie Feith's Little Shop of Tortures?
I just happened to find Dougie Feith's responses to Questions for the Record the Senate Intelligence Committee asked him in 2003. They wanted to know how hos little intelligence shop at DOD--the Policy Counter Terrorism Evaluation Group (PCTEG)--bridged the line between intelligence and policy.
He said his little intelligence shop helped formulate policy on:
The New Journalism
Sometimes tectonic shifts are underfoot and society fails to recognize the acts and effects. Such is the case with journalism and its daily outlets, newspapers and television. Newspapers are dying left and right, but it is not just their financial viability that is in freefall, it is their content. The new journalists, like Marcy Wheeler, are filling the void.
More on the Field Trip to Gitmo
Just wanted to point to two tiny details about the "field trip" of the War Council (Addington, Yoo, Haynes, Gonzales, and Rizzo, plus friends) to Gitmo on September 25, 2002.
Conyers (et al) to Archivist: How Successful Were They at Destroying Evidence?
As John Conyers has suggested, if the Bush Administration destroyed Philip Zelikow's dissent to Bradbury's torture memo, it's a violation of the Presidential Records Act, in addition to--potentially--evidence of criminal intent.
If It Sounds Too Good for the Goss, It's Worth a Second Gander
Something stinks about Porter Goss' claim to have stood against torture in December 2005: Robert Grenier, head of Counterterrorism, was fired a month later for being insufficiently pro-torture.
If Condi Says "Nixon" Directly Rather than Through Anonymous Sources, Does the NYT Hear?
If Condi had said, "By definition, if it was authorized by the President, it did not violate our obligations in the Convention Against Torture," to the NYT via anonymous sources, THEN would they consider it news?
Rice and Goss Turn on Cheney
People close to Condi Rice and Porter Goss appear to be significant sources for a NYT article adding new data points to the torture narrative. They're self-serving. But if Condi and Goss want to turn on Cheney, I'll take it.
Did Mitchell and Jessen Have the Three OTHER Torture Tapes? Or the Egyptians?
The letter DOJ sent a letter to Leonie Brinkema to explain why it had neglected to admit there were torture tapes it didn't disclose to her during the Moussaoui trial. The whole letter makes a lot more sense if James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen had had the tapes.
Torture Tapes and Briefings
Michael Isikoff suggests that John Durham may be focusing on the Moussaoui requests for testimony from Abu Zubaydah and others. That may put CIA knowledge and intent to destroy the tapes much earlier.
Zelikow's Dissent and Rockefeller's Question
Yesterday, I showed how Steven Bradbury's May 30 Memo was a failed response to Congress' insistence that the Administration consider whether its torture program complied with the 8th Amendment. Well, that's precisely what Philip Zelikow's dissent was about.
Addington's Multiple Choice Torture Memos
When asked about his role in the Bybee One memo at the HJC hearing last year, Addington repeatedly made it clear he was answering the question ONLY as it pertained to Bybee One. I would bet the answers would be far different if he were asked about Bybee Two.
The Next Anti-Union Myth: Obama Gave Them Chrysler
The finance press is started a new meme--that Obama gave the union Chrysler and hurt some poor little hedge funds in the process.
Exclusive!! Pro-Torture Spooks Continue to Play Journalists for Chumps!!
It's the Moonie Times' Eli Lake and Bill Gertz's turn to do the pro-torture spooks' bidding again. Pity they misrepresent a letter Silvestre Reyes writes, let Hoekstra continue to lie about briefings, and show no awareness of the appropriations process.
Bradbury's Bellybutton
Here's the quality of Bradbury's legal work. He argues we can waterboard people because, under torture, they confess to things that prove they're very important and scary people so we can then point to them to argue it's okay to waterboard.
Judge Bybee, Can You Say Panic?
Judge Bybee doesn't seem to know what to do to respond to Pat Leahy's invitation to come chat.
