Mohamedou Ould Slahi's Gitmo Memoir: A Slow Death
Slate has a remarkable three part excerpt from the memoir of Mouhamedou Ould Slahi, a Mauritanian Gitmo detainee subjected to some of the worst torture. The intro, by Larry Siems, is here. (Some posts on his still-ongoing habeas fight are here,…
Obama: We're Force-Feeding Cleared Detainees Because We Couldn't Try Them in Civilian Courts
At a press conference today, Obama had this to say about hunger strikers at Gitmo.
Q: Mr. President, as you're probably aware, there's a growing hunger strike at Guantanamo Bay, among prisoners there. Is it any surprise, really, that they would…
Exploitation and High Value Interrogation Group
Quick quiz:
What was the first count that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab -- the UndieBomber -- was found guilty of?
Answer: Conspiracy to commit an act of terrorism transcending national boundaries.
The charge was added in a superseding…
Musharraf Banned from Politics for Life As Violence Flairs in Pakistan Ahead of Elections
Although he has been under house arrest since shortly after his return to Pakistan while facing trial on charges of arranging the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, former Pakistani Army Chief and President Pervez Musharraf was given a lifetime…
Tsarnaev: Right to Counsel, Not Miranda, Is the Key
Since Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was taken into custody just over a week ago, the hue and cry in the public and media discussion has centered on "Miranda" rights and to what extent the "public safety exception" thereto should come into play. That discussion…
Hackers Penetrate Freedom; The Ship Has Already Sailed
Reuters has a report I found sort of punny, about how white hat hackers had managed to break into the computer systems of the lead ship of the Navy's Littoral Combat Ship program, the USS Freedom.
A Navy team of computer hacking experts found…
Facebook a Better Spook than Ray Kelly
We have been discussing the FBI's apparent inability to use the multiple images of the Tsarnaev brothers from the Boston Marathon to ID them using facial recognition software.
So I wanted to circle back to two things. First, point to the…
CIA Bags O' Cash Total Tens of Millions of Dollars, But Over $4.5 Billion Left Afghanistan in 2011
Today's New York Times carries a frank exposure of blatant moves by the CIA to curry favor with Hamid Karzai and high ranking members of Afghanistan's government through direct cash payments brazenly dropped off at Karzai's office:
For more…
When a Counter-TerrorismNarcotic Partner Asks for a Divorce
Dana Priest has a fascinating piece ostensibly describing how the administration of Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto has chosen to shift its counter-narcotic approach from the one Felipe Calderón's PAN party had pursued for a decade.…
Did an Intelligence Asset Persuade Abdulrahman al-Awlaki to Search for His Father?
There's an inconclusive -- but nevertheless intriguing -- detail in Jeremy Scahill's Dirty Wars that might explain why Abdulrahman al-Awlaki decided, in September 2011, to go search for his father. After the boy ran away from home, the family…
Has OLC Written Memos Authorizing Illegal Wiretapping Again?
Yesterday, CNet reported that, as part of an expanding cybersecurity effort, DOJ has immunized telecoms for violating wiretap laws.
The secret legal authorization from the Justice Department originally applied to a cybersecurity pilot project…
Feinstein Calls for Review of Her Moratorium on Release of Yemeni Prisoners from Gitmo
Finally sensing that US policy on Yemeni prisoners at Guantanamo is a disaster of epic proportions, and after playing a key role in putting the moratorium on release of Yemeni prisoners into place, Dianne Feinstein on Thursday took the first…
Article I Aghast that Article III Insisted on Separation of Powers
It turns out Obama's DOJ has not discovered new respect for accused rights since holding Manssor Arbabsiar and Faisal Shahzad two weeks without seeing a judge or lawyer after all. Rather, the magistrate who signed the complaint Sunday night…
Even as He Joins Tribute to George W. Bush, Obama Capitulates to WMD Fearmongers
Congratulations to Shrub, who today gets his very own (as Jim calls it) Lie Bury.
How appropriate that even as the President who lied us into war with false WMD claims was speaking, the national security establishment was hyperventilating…
Cox on Rogers: "Like he was J. Edgar Hoover"
Since Carl Levin announced he would retire, I've been hoping to see Justin Amash take on Mike Rogers in a Republican primary. This National Journal article captures the dynamics of that possibility well (though may overestimate how much money…
John Galt Outsources Death to Bangladesh to Save Pennies on Fifty Dollar T-shirt
In a tale of unimaginable sorrow that is made all the worse by the unconscionable greed that brought it about, at least 194 are now known to be dead in the collapse of a building in Bangladesh. But this was not just any building that collapsed,…
Was There Even a BB Gun?
Over the weekend, we heard the story that when Tamerlan Tsarnaev rushed the small group of cops who were trying to arrest him, he was strapped with a suicide vest. In addition, we were told, the brothers had two handguns, an M-4 rifle, and a…
Tamerlan Tsarnaev Placed in Database Perceived as Weak, Even by DHS
As the blame game starts on the Boston Marathon bombing, someone (maybe a blabby Senator?) made it public that the CIA asked to have Tamerlan Tsarnaev added to the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment (TIDE) database last year.
The CIA…
The Intelligence Committee's "Secret" Briefings on the Boston Attack
There are 15 members of the Senate Intelligence Committee. By my count, at least 5 of them revealed some part of what they got briefed on the Boston attack yesterday afternoon to the press.
Saxby Chambliss says an agency may not have shared…
Are We Confusing CIA's Leader-Centered Collection and Debates about Its Paramilitary or Military Focus?
In his written testimony for yesterday's drone hearing, Peter Bergen noted that the CIA keeps failing to warn policy makers of important developments.
Has the increased emphasis at the CIA on targeted killings hampered the agency’s ability…