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.
Remember when I pointed out that the real story of those civil liberties violations that Gonzales didn’t admit to was the role of the Intelligence Oversight Board? Well, I was right:
An independent oversight board created to identify intelligence abuses after the CIAscandals of the 1970s did not send any reports to the attorney generalof legal violations during the first 5 1/2 years of the Bushadministration’s counterterrorism effort, the Justice Department has
We all know that Harriet was a no-show for her date with HJC on Thursday. We all know that Harriet refused to testify based on some new opinions issued by DOJ. But I’ve seen almost no discussion that explores why BushCo decided to take such an inflammatory approach with Harriet’s testimony.
It seems there are two likely answers to that question–or rather, questions that need to be answered:Why did Bush choose to
I did a post last year, not long after Dick Cheney shot an old man in the face, tracing the ties between the Armstrong family and Republican corruption. I showed how Anne Armstrong has been present at all the big-name Republican scandals going back to Watergate.Anne Armstrong Event
Associated Republican Scandal
1971-1973
RNC Co-Chair
Watergate
1973-1974
Cabinet-level Counselor to Nixon and Ford
Watergate
1976-1977
Ambassador to the UK
I’m just now catching up on the Sara Taylor non-testimony (the webcast is still available here). And I find her to be interestingly sharp–in that she backs off of some points that the Republicans would like to put in her mouth.
There’s an exchange with Arlen Specter, for example, in which he prods her to say that Tim Griffin was very qualified to replace Bud Cummins (this happens just before and
We’ve got to start calling these refusals to testify what they are–because they surely aren’t executive privilege. With Sara Taylor’s plea to avoid testifying because she admires–and apparently took a vow to–Bush it’s not executive privilege because she didn’t speak to him about the USA firings. But we might call her refusal to testify the “I love me my Prezident privilege”–because that’s about as serious as the legal discussion behind it
Back when Dow Jones and the AP renewed their bid to unseal the materials relating to Judy’s and Cooper’s subpoenas, they asserted–apparently based on self-serving public comments by Novak, Rove, and Armitage and on Victoria Toensing’s self-declared omniscience in all things Plame–that Fitzgerald’s pursuit of the journalists’ testimony was unnecessary.
Recently, the public learned that the Special Counsel’s pursuit of those reporters was entirely unnecessary for him to determine who had leaked
I wanted to elaborate on the Armitage post I did earlier, showing that (contrary to the wails of the Libby Lobby), Fitzgerald did not pursue Libby while ignoring the Novak leak. In addition to the inconsistencies in Armitage’s Novak story, in fall 2004, there remained inconsistencies in the Rove Novak story and–I would submit–the Libby Novak story.
If the hapless Democratic Congress ever gets around to an investigation through which they can ask Reggie to turn over the CIA Leak case grand jury materials.
But for now, I’d say he’s still cranky, wouldn’t you?In commuting the defendant’sthirty-month term of incarceration, the President stated that thesentence imposed by this Court was “excessive†and that two years ofsupervised release and a $250,000 alone are a “harsh punishment†for anindividual convicted
Let’s pretend, for a second that all the other reasons why the cries of “runaway prosecutor” from the Libby Lobby don’t exist. Set aside the fact that the FBI and then Fitzgerald were investigating all leaks of Valerie Wilson’s identity, not just those to Robert Novak. Set aside the fact that the 1X2X6 story (as well as the clear evidence of at least three leaks by October 12, 2003) didn’t have
The NYT reports that Sara Taylor will come before the SJC today and testify about some things.
Sara Taylor, the former White House political director, has agreed toanswer some questions as a “willing and cooperative private citizen,â€during testimony about the United States attorney firings last yearwhen she appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee later today.
But, as a former presidential adviser, she will also honor thepresident’s invocation of executive privilege to keep quiet