Was the October 23, 2001 OLC Opinion the Basis for the Illegal Wiretap Program?
This post considers whether the October 23, 2001 OLC opinion abolishing the 4th amendment was part of the Administration's justification for the illegal wiretap program.
The Joint Inquiry and Mukasey's Call
In a Muksey/McConnell letter to Harry Reid, they refer to something that MIGHT be the phone call that Mukasey mentioned in his weepy speech of a week ago. If it is, then it appears that the facts surrounding the call don't support the argument Mukasey is making about that call.
Another Possibility with Mukasey's 9/11 Story
While we're talking about Mukasey's claim that Bush could have prevent 9/11 and didn't, I want to raise one more possibility. Mukasey's story, remember, is that the US had noted a phone call from an Afghan safe house to somewhere in the US--but the US couldn't track the call because didn't know where the phone call went.
And before 9/11, that's the call that we didn't know about.
Snowball
Not surprisingly, John Conyers wants more details about how the Bush Administration ignored warnings of 9/11 and, after 9/11 happened, then killed the 4th Amendment.
Surely They'll Resort to Pixie Dust on This
Bill Leonard confirms that the classification and declassification surrounding the Yoo Torture Memo is very irregular. Once again, the Administration won't even abide by its own Executive Order on classification and declassification. But never mind--a little pixie dust can fix that!!
Embarrassment-Free Show Trials
The government is determined to prevent any embarrassing information from coming out at the Gitmo show trials. Too bad they have to be utter hypocrites to do so.
Chertoff Keeps Waiving Laws
Michael Chertoff sure likes waiving laws, doesn't he? We know about his waiver of Chiquita's support for right wing terrorists. We learned today about his intent to set aside environmental laws so he can build his wall on the border. And now, Marty Lederman suggests Chertoff gave John Yoo the go-ahead to exempt the military from laws prohibiting torture.
"You can play that game when it doesn't matter."
Here's a look at the proposed response to the credit crisis in the Senate; it'll give you a sense of what Republicans think they can, and can't, afford.
The "John Yoo, Let's Pretend We're Lawyers" Game
Play along at home! Because lawyering about torture is such a fun game!
Pentagon "Closing" CIFA
The Pentagon is "closing" (which probably means "burying under a different name") CIFA, it's contractor-friendly domestic spying program. In a remarkable coincidence, it just had to turn over to ACLU a bunch of documents showing that CIFA had abused the National Security Letters program. What a remarkable coincidence.
Acting Counsels and Torture
Daniel Dell'Orto, in his first weeks as Acting General Counsel of DOD, just exposed how John Yoo, in the first day after Jay Bybee head of OLC, authorized torture in the military.
Jane Harman v. Jello Jay: Compare and Contrast
Jane Harman explained her response to the warrantless wiretap program over at TPMCafe. I'm interested in it not so much to determine whether Eric Licthblau or she is right about whether she "switched her view" on the program (I think Harman is actually too sensitive to the charge; as she tells it, she did drastically change her view, but not because of the publicity of Lichtblau's reporting, but because of the
It Turns Out There Was No Wolf
Siobhan Gorman reports that the White House now admits that its fear-mongering no longer works.
The DNI Is Well-Meaning. Really. Except with Those He Claims Want No IC.
The DNI wants to make nice with Democrats. But that doesn't stop him from making baseless accusations against them.
Cell Phone Remittances
Western Union, Radio Shack, and Trumpt Mobile are teaming up to facilitate using cell phones to transfer remittances.
The Taliban and the Towers
Barnett Rubin explains why the Taliban has been blowing up cell phone towers in Afghanistan. It's a good old-fashioned protection racket.
The Thaw that Started Five Months Ago
The press is agog that Hillary and Richard Mellon Scaife made nice last week. But that peace-making follows five months after an earlier one between Bill Clinton and Richard Mellon Scaife. I'm not sure what that means, as far as Scaife's motives (I presume the Clintons would just like his support, or, barring that, would like him to avoid funding a bunch of wingnut bloodhounds to sniff their panties and boxers). But it does suggest the thaw is much more than a one-off thing.
The Rhetoric of More of the Same
The summary of Paulson's proposed changes to our banking system is a remarkable document. It uses a bunch of rhetorical moves to deny the current crisis, all so it can propose loosening regulation, rather than tightening it.
Not Even John Yoo Approved of the Illegal Wiretap Program
I do hope that Eric Lichtblau's book gets enough coverage this week to further stall Jello Jay's attempts to ram through telecom immunity. The excerpt in the NYT today reveals that when the illegal wiretap program started in 2001, it had no specific legal authorization--not even from the compliant John Yoo!
Robert S.
Networks or Newspapers; Dewey or Lippmann?
Eric Alterman provides a valuable service by explaining the historical dialectic between Walter Lippmann and John Dewey. But he doesn't really seem to understand Dewey as you might apply it to the dynamic between traditional journalism and blogging.
