Mark Brewer and Steve Pestka: Taking the "Democratic" Out of the Democratic Party
As MLive reports, the state Chair of MI's Democratic Party, Mark Brewer, has asked the Democratic primary candidates in my congressional district to take the democracy out of the primary.
He doesn't call it that, mind you. His DoubleSpeak…
SCOTUS Cert Grant In Clapper Takes Key 9th Circuit Cases Hostage
Marcy noted briefly Monday morning, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in Clapper v. Amnesty International:
SCOTUS did, however, grant cert to Clapper v. Amnesty, which I wrote about here and here. On its face, Clapper is just about the FISA…
The First Torture Cover-Up Was Covered Up By The First Torture Cover-Up Lawyer
Document Exploitation blog has read Jose Rodriguez' book so I don't have to!
Seriously, I will eventually get around to reading Rodriguez' book, when I can get it cheaper than toilet paper. But until then, I'm glad a document wonk has done…
What the White House "Official Announcement" of UndieBomb 2.0 Would Have Looked Like
As I've been tracing, there's a pissing contest going on between the AP and John Brennan over the roll-out of the UndieBomb 2.0 "plot" earlier this month.
When the AP first broke the story on UndieBomb 2.0, it explained that it had held the…
UndieBomb 2.0 Led to John Brennan's Personal Signature Strike Drone Shop
The AP story reporting on John Brennan centralizing control of drone targeting in his own grubby paws keeps evolving. Compare the first two paragraphs of what I believe to be the second version (the first was really a leak from DOD sources describing…
Amano: Agreement With Iran Reached, "Will Be Signed Quite Soon"
It appears that the hopeful signals being sent out by Iran yesterday ahead of the visit by IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano have been followed through. Speaking to reporters after his return to Vienna this morning, Amano announced that Iran…
More Failed Targeting Based on Travel Patterns
The other day I noted what happened when the US or its allies applied the standard it is using in the Latif case: targeting people based on claims the route they traveled makes them a terrorist. In Turkey, 34 Kurds were killed because they were…
Riyadh's Station Chief, John Brennan, Takes JSOC's Drone Keys Away
I think I've actually found a story in which John Brennan features but was probably not the original leaker: this one, describing how Brennan is centralizing all drone targeting decisions in the White House.
The Pentagon is likely to be sidelined…
2nd Circuit: President Can Declare Proof that President Authorized Torture Secret
As I showed in a series of posts several weeks ago, the Obama Administration appealed Judge Alvin Hellerstein's order to release a reference to--or at least a summary of it--the President's September 17, 2001 "Gloves Come Off" Memorandum of…
GOP Targets John Brennan and Leon Panetta with Leak Witchhunts
Meanwhile, speaking of leak investigations, the GOP has gone leak investigation happy.
First, Peter King wrote Robert Mueller formally requesting an investigation into the leak about the UndieBomber. He appears to have cleaned up his single-minded…
Obama DOJ Claims Journalists Are Like Drug Users
HuffPo has a good write-up of Friday's Fourth Circuit hearing on whether James Risen is entitled to a reporter's privilege in the Jeff Sterling case. It describes Judge Robert Gregory challenging DOJ appellate lawyer Robert Parker's claims that…
SCOTUS Grants Clapper Cert, Stalls on Detainee Cases
SCOTUS has just listed orders from last week's conference, where they had been discussing the handful of Gitmo cases that had petitions for cert pending. It has relisted the detainee cases, which suggests they may need a week or more to sort…
Join a Military Exercise and Win a Drone!
William Arkin catalogs the 19 countries participating in the "largest US exercise in the Middle East" this month.
U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) now says that the exercise is “the largest annual exercise in the Central Command area of operations,”…
Iran Putting Out Hopeful Signals Ahead of Amano Meeting in Tehran, Resumption of P5+1 Talks Wednesday
Although today's meeting with IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano in Tehran is still in process as of this writing, Iran has put out very hopeful signals ahead of both this meeting and the resumption on Wednesday of the P5+1 talks in Baghdad.…
I Was Wrong About The Chen Affair
I am in the unenviable position of having to say I was wrong and am sorry. This is in relation to the issue of US diplomacy vis a vis China as relates to Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng. In case anybody has forgotten, I wrote a rather harsh…
How Does John Brennan Still Have Clearance?
Remember when I gave John Brennan credit for rather uncharacteristically keeping secrets about the UndieBomber case?
While the ABC story cites US officials, among others, it also cites an “international intelligence official” as well as…
Administration Again Attempts to Keep News of Its Drone Damages Out of the Country
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Nieman Watchdog asked Scott Shane recently why he had granted Administration officials anonymity so they could insinuate that those who report on civilian drone deaths were terrorist sympathizers. Shane defended…
Rorhrabacher's Attempt to Defund Pakistan Falls 335-84
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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAKdZvetng0[/youtube]
Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) worked himself into quite a bit of anger yesterday defending his amendment…
McClatchy Confirms One Shooter at Alkozai
McClatchy has gone back to do more reporting on the Panjwai massacre that happened in March. (h/t Agonist) It provides a gruesome account of what happened at Alkozai. But also provides more details on the attack and the investigation.
McClatchy's…
If Domestic Drones Are All Civil, Then Why Are They in the Defense Authorization, Too?
I'm working my way up to a post on the cognitive dissonance the government's treatment of Hedges v. Obama seems to have created over at Lawfare. But first I want to note something odd about this Ben Wittes post, calling Conor Friedersdorf's…