Human Rights Groups to Obama: Don't Let John Brennan Cover Up the Torture He Condoned
Eight human rights organizations just sent a letter to President Obama urging him to appoint a high level White House official to coordinate the Senate Intelligence Committee torture report out of the White House. Like the letter Mark Udall…
Dunford Once Again Shows Complete Lack of Budget Awareness
When we last heard from General Joseph (We Are Winning in Afghanistan, We Really Are!) Dunford, he was showing total incompetence in terms of budget awareness in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel had…
Brennan Cedes to Feinstein on Torture Tape Destroyer But "Defiant" on Torture Report
The WaPo reports that the woman who helped Jose Rodriguez destroy the torture tapes will not -- as had been floated -- officially lead the Clandestine Services.
A female CIA officer who was the first woman to lead the agency’s clandestine…
Former Bush Special Counsel Scott Bloch Bullies Journalists and Threatens 1st Amend Speech Before Criminal Sentencing
When this blog last substantively left the continuing saga of Bush/Cheney Special Counsel Scott Bloch, it was with these words:
So, between August 2, 2011 and December 21, 2012, a period of nearly a year and a half's time, the DOJ has done…
The Folks Who Brought You Military Detention in the NDAA Are Rewriting the AUMF
Yesterday, the Senate Armed Services Committee announced a hearing to revisit the 2001 Authorization to Use Military Force. In addition to a bunch of DOD figures (but not the recently departed Jeh Johnson, the DOD-connected person who said the…
G-Men Want Mike Rogers to Lead FBI
In what is presumably an attempt to forestall a Lisa Monaco nomination, the FBI Agents Association just endorsed Mike Rogers to be their next boss.
The FBI Agents Association is expected to announce its endorsement of Rep. Mike Rogers (Mich.),…
How Do You Abet Terrorism While Working a 70 Hour Work Week?
A number of people pointed out in the days after the Boston Marathon attack that the family members of James Holmes were not only not harassed in the days after he killed 12 people in a movie theater in Aurora. The press ultimately obeyed their…
Sad Victory for Pakistan's Taliban: Child Diagnosed With Polio in Region Where Vaccinations Were Denied
While much attention is appropriately focused on the horrific and brutal attacks by Pakistan's Taliban on secular political parties as the country approaches elections in its first-ever transition from one civilian government to another, we…
The Blame Game Begins: Who Will Be Held Responsible for Creating the Afghan "Vertically Integrated Criminal" Government?
Last Sunday, the Beltway professed to be shocked -- shocked!! -- that the CIA has been bribing Hamid Karzai for years.
Moreover, there is little evidence that the payments bought the influence the C.I.A. sought. Instead, some American officials…
The Find Every Terrorist at Any Cost Industry
As a thought experiment, replace the word "terrorist" in this paragraph with "soldier" or "military."
All terrorists fundamentally see themselves as altruists: incontestably believing that they are serving a “good” cause designed to achieve…
Shorter FBI: You're a Threat to "Community" If You Want to Kill the Same Guy US Government Wants to Kill
There's a lot that's stark raving insane about the FBI's latest entrapment scheme, involving 18 year old Abdalla Ahmad Tounisi, who had planned to go fight jihad in Syria.
But my favorite is the argument FBI makes about the threat to the…
The Transnational Crime Organizations the Presidents Didn't Mention
Yesterday's joint press conference with President Obama and Mexico's President Enrique Peña Nieto was an opportunity for the two leaders to lay out their take on the new limits imposed by Peña Nieto on counter-narcotics partnership.
Peña…
With Bradbury's Appendix M Opinion and 7th Circuit Vance Decision, the Government Can Torture Any of Us
Three years ago, I showed how Steven Bradbury wrote an OLC memo that approved in advance whatever techniques DOD wanted to put into the sometimes classified Appendix M of the Army Field Manual. At the time, DOJ implied to me that this memo was…
The FBI's Evidence Against the Genius Who Framed Elvis
The Washington Post has a long article detailing how the FBI held onto their original suspect in the case of letters laced with ricin sent to various political figures long after they knew that he was innocent and had obtained evidence pointing…
Maybe Dzhokhar's Buddies Just Wanted a Job at HSBC?
A lot of people on Twitter are talking about how dumb-as-shit Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's college buddies, Azamat Tazhayakov, Dias Kadyrbayev, and Robel Phillipos were when they allegedly removed evidence relating to the Boston Marathon bombing and…
Stephen Cambone, Hacker PWN, Used to Head DOD's "Intelligence"
Stephen Cambone was the first ever Under Secretary of Defense for something called "Intelligence."
In that role, he oversaw a domestic spying program that targeted hippies and made GOP cronies rich. And then he went on to profit off that…
Mark Udall to Obama: You Can Force John Brennan to "Excise the Demons"
I have to admit, this letter from Mark Udall urging Obama to support the release of the Senate Intelligence Committee's torture report is close to shrill when describing CIA Director John Brennan's disinterest in declassifying the report.
Meanwhile,…
If 40 Months of Drone Strikes in Yemen Haven't Made Transfers Safe ...
When on January 5, 2010 President Obama announced a halt to all transfers of Yemeni Gitmo detainees, he reiterated his intent to close the prison, even noting that AQAP formed, in part, in response to Gitmo (recall that Said al-Shihri, one of…
Even With Non-Validated Afghan Self-Reporting, SIGAR Finds ANSF Falls Short of 352,000 Goal
A central tenet of DoD dogma regarding withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan rests on Afghan National Security Forces reaching a force size of 352,000 and taking over full responsibility for security in the country as US forces leave at the…
The Saudi Intelligence without a Name
I had been wondering why John Kerry closed his meeting with Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal the day after the Boston Marathon bombing, followed by Chuck Hagel's unscheduled meetings in Saudi Arabia later that week.
The Daily Mail claims…