Marcy Wheeler is an independent journalist writing about national security and civil liberties. She writes as emptywheel at her eponymous blog, publishes at outlets including Vice, Motherboard, the Nation, the Atlantic, Al Jazeera, and appears frequently on television and radio. She is the author of Anatomy of Deceit, a primer on the CIA leak investigation, and liveblogged the Scooter Libby trial.
Marcy has a PhD from the University of Michigan, where she researched the “feuilleton,” a short conversational newspaper form that has proven important in times of heightened censorship. Before and after her time in academics, Marcy provided documentation consulting for corporations in the auto, tech, and energy industries. She lives with her spouse in Grand Rapids, MI.
As I pointed out in this post, the Senate Intelligence Committee used a remarkable argument to justify giving the telecoms immunity in their FISA bill. Basically, it argued the telecoms could neither prove or disprove whether they were entitled to immunity according to existing statutes, because the mean old Bush Administration had invoked State Secrets.
As several folks have pointed out to me, Scottie McC is getting chatty:
The most powerful leader in the world hadcalled upon me to speak on his behalf and help restore credibility helost amid the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. So Istood at the White house briefing room podium in front of the glare ofthe klieg lights for the better part of two weeks and publiclyexonerated two of
I admit–I’m getting sucked into the Geoffrey Fieger case. I will have more to say, but the short version is this:
The government alleges that Fieger and his partner got employees from their law firm to donate to John Edwards in his 2004 election. And then, the government further alleges, they reimbursed those people.
Back in May, a judge dismissed immigration charges against Cuban terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, arguing he had been tricked in the interview that led to his indictment. At the time, it looked like BushCo threw the case, not wanting to convict one of their favored terrorists.
But now, two of his associates have pled guilty to charges of obstruction of justice in connection with his case.
Two associates of Cuban exile Luis
“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.
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.
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
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
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.