No, Pakistan Was the Last Big Test. And We Failed It.
"Serious Person" Michael O'Hanlon and escalation surge architect Fred Kagan end their op-ed with the following words.
There was a time when volatility in places like Pakistan was mostly ahumanitarian worry; today it is as much a threat to our basic securityas Soviet tanks once were. We must be militarily and diplomaticallyprepared to keep ourselves safe in such a world.
Paulose Resigns
I think it's great that Rachel Paulose has resigned (h/t JF)
Rachel Paulose, the embattled U.S. attorney for Minnesota, will beleaving the post to take a position at the Justice Department inWashington, according to a Bush administration official and acongressional aide.
According to a news release sent by thedepartment of justice, Paulose has accepted a position as Counselor tothe Assistant Attorney General for Legal Policy at the Department ofJustice in Washington, D.C.
Kafka Would Be Proud
The BoGlo reports what we already know--many of the people at Gitmo who have been determined to not be a threat in status review hearings remain in Gitmo. And, at the same time, some people who have been released to their home country have not undergone review hearings.
About a quarter of detainees who were cleared to leave GuantanamoBay prison after hearings in 2005 and 2006 remain in custody, raisingquestions among inmates
Fran Townsend Resigns
News via TP. Actually, you should click through and read the AP report, which is stark in its brevity (at least as of 8:49 today). I think they had to use a soft return to get the announcement long enough to take up two lines.
Which suggests it's not clear WTF to think of this.
What Are Newspapers Best For?
As you no doubt know, I appeared on a panel in Boston called "No News Is Bad News" over the weekend. It was a fascinating conference, with journalistic heroes like John Carroll and Anthony Shadid. Just as exciting, I got to meet phred, Selise, BlueStateRedHead, and others. And my own personal favorite--from my panel, at least--came when someone asked me what I would have done to prevent the Lewinsky scandal (and
Oil Bucks
I'm a determined skeptic about broadcast "accidents." But for the life of me, I can't understand the precise goal of allowing a discussion about not discussing the falling dollar at the OPEC summit to be caught on tape. Here's the Financial Times' version of events--which depicts it as disagreement about the underlying issue.
Immunity May Be Dead Anyway
As you've no doubt heard, yesterday Pat Leahy pulled some superb parliamentary maneuvers to ensure that the SJC version of the FISA amendment came out of committee without immunity for telecoms. He basically just severed the part which permits the wiretapping from the part that gives immunity. Voila!
Unfortunately, it still seems likely that Harry Reid will let the SSCI bill--the one we don't like--come to the floor of the Senate.
Shall, Part Two?
Back in June, I pointed out that, in case of disputes over the EO guiding classification, the head of the Information Security Oversight Office can ask the Attorney General to rule on the dispute.
This morning, when I read the famous Executive Order that Cheney claims to have exempted himself from, I noticed a key paragraph:
The Attorney General, upon request by the head of an agency or the Director of the Information
Boston: No News Is Bad News
Just a reminder that I'm headed for Boston for what promises to be an interesting conference. Here's the description:
No News Is Bad News
A freeand independent press is essential for democracy. The press has aresponsibility to inform citizens about both the policies and theactions of the government and about credible challenges to thosepolicies and actions, to report on conditions that may require new ordifferent government initiatives, and to raise timely questions
More on the FBI's Own Falafel
There's a bit of a squabble over how important Nada Nadim Prouty, the FBI/CIA agent who got unauthorized access to Hezbollah information at the CIA, was to the agency. Via Laura, NBC reports that she was very important.
Current and former intelligence officials tellNBC News that Nada Nadim Prouty had a much bigger role than officialsat the FBI and CIA first acknowledged.
Firewall, The Sequel
Along with deleting emails and trolling for sex partners in public places, another favorite activity of Bush era Republicans is establishing legal defense funds. And AGAG will not be left out of the fun.
Supporters of former attorney general Alberto R. Gonzales have created a trust fund to help pay for his legal expenses, which are mounting in the face of an ongoing Justice Department investigation into whether Gonzales committed perjury or
Should Executives that Suborn Perjury Get Special Favors?
In my opinion, the key lines from Judith Regan's suit against the News Corp are these:
The complaint charges that one unnamed senior News Corp. executive"counseled Regan to lie and withhold information from investigators"about her acknowledged affair with former New York City PoliceCommissioner Bernard Kerik. Another unnamed News Corp. executive "advised Regan not to produceclearly relevant documents in connection with a governmentalinvestigation of Kerik,'' according to the complaint.
Regan basically accuses two of
What Is It with GOPers and Their Email?, Episode 516,345
It seems the only thing Republicans do more consistently than troll for extra-marital sex in public places is delete their emails. Via CREW, ABC News is reporting that Congressman Feeney is spending a chunk of money in an attempt--apparently--to reconstruct some lost emails.
Since April, Rep. Tom Feeney, R-Fla., has paid over $90,000 to aWashington, D.C.
Further Evidence They Threw AGAG Under the Bus
Amanda notes something rather interesting. While John Ashcroft and Dick Thornburgh attended today's ritual swearing in ceremony for Michael Mukasey, Gonzales did not.
This morning, Michael Mukasey was officially sworn in as the 81stAttorney General of the United States. At the beginning of his remarks,President Bush thanked officials for joining him, including formerAttorneys General John Ashcroft and Dick Thornburgh.
They're Not Telling
The White House and DOJ gave a very curious "no comment" to Scott Shane for his article on the reopened investigation into the illegal wiretap program.
Tony Fratto, a White House spokesman, and Brian Roehrkasse, a JusticeDepartment spokesman, declined to say whether Mr. Mukasey had pressedMr. Bush on the clearances for the department’s Office of ProfessionalResponsibility.
This is really curious--and suggests to me that we (and the Democrats quoted in the article) are
They're Monitoring Falafels but Not Their Own Agencies
Via Noah Shachtman, I see that a woman with potential ties to Hezbollah got a job in both FBI and CIA.
How good are the FBI and CIA's background checks? Each agency requiresits own separate investigation and polygraph before people are signedup to sensitive jobs. Each agency missed an absolute whopper...
A 37-year-old woman who previously worked as an FBI agent and a CIA analyst, pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges
4 Days on the Job and Already Mukasey Has Lapped Gonzales
I guess this offers at least a trickle of hope that those that made up reasons to torture and wiretap and ignore the Constitution might be held to account?
The Justice Department has reopened a long-dormant inquiry into thegovernment's warrantless wiretapping program, a major policy shift onlydays into the tenure of new Attorney General Michael Mukasey.
The investigation by the department's Office of ProfessionalResponsibility was shut down after the previous attorney general,Alberto Gonzales,
AGAG's Clique Didn't Even Know Tribal Crimes Were Part of the Job
Today's installment in the Denver Post's series on justice on tribal lands is absolutely devastating to the Bush DOJ, starting with the anecdote from Paul Charlton describing a "high-level DOJ official" who had no clue that tribal justice was part of the US government's obligation.
Talking with superiors about a gruesomedouble murder on the Navajo reservation, Charlton was stoppedmidsentence and asked by a high-level Justice Department official whyhe was involved in a
The FISA Amendment Will Legalize Data Mining, Part One
I've been puzzling over something since the temporary FISA amendment passed in August. The Administration has claimed they needed on easy fix: to allow NSA to wiretap electronic communication that starts and finishes on foreign soil, whether or not that communication passes through the US between sender and recipient. Yet both times when Congress sets about providing that easy fix to FISA, the Administration demands much more.