NSA Director Keith Alexander: The FBI Does the Domestic Collection
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Congressman Hank Johnson asked NSA Director Keith Alexander about James Bamford's Wired article describing the data storage and analysis center in UT. Unfortunately, rather than ask Alexander about these activities--storage…
Chain of Command: Some Violations of Military Discipline Are More Equal Than Others
The other day, Teddy Partridge noted a second instance of someone in the military--the previous one being the Commander-in-Chief--weighing in on Bradley Manning's guilt.
Echoing his commander in chief in issuing statements that provide improper…
Why Does Fat Al Gore Hate Flower Festivals?
This is not really my beat, but after spending the weekend in an unseasonably warm DC and returning to even warmer temperatures here in MI, I felt it deserves a post.
In DC all weekend, people were enjoying the gorgeous cherry blossoms, but…
So Much for the FBI's $100,000 Informant
MoJo, which did a superb report on the FBI's use of informants last year, reports that one of the guys they profiled in that package, Shahed Hussain, got sniffed out by a Pittsburgh area man, Khalifah Al-Akili, whom he was trying to ensnare…
As Fraud History Emerges for Bales, US Pushes FISA Court as Ideal for Afghan Night Raid Approval
The background for Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, the suspect in the mass killing of civilians in Afghanistan last week, became much murkier with the revelation that his career as an investment manager ended in a judgment of $1.4 million against…
The Rationale for NSA's Bottomless Pit of Data: Hackers
In his must-read report on the bottomless data pit containing the NSA is building in Utah, James Bamford described the public explanations NSA Deputy Director Chris Inglis made when he broke ground on the facility.
[NSA deputy director Chris…
David Gregory & NBC Give John McCain Blowjob; Screw Americans
Saturday evening, the New York Times put up an important editorial, The Banks Win Again, on its website regarding the financial crisis, an editorial piece that would be key in their Sunday Morning Edition Opinion Section:
Last week was a…
Start a 8 Year Regional War and Set Iran's Nukes Back 3 Years
The headline and lead of the story everyone's buzzing about reads,
Pentagon Finds Perils for U.S. if Israel Were to Strike Iran
A classified war simulation exercise held this month to assess the American military’s capabilities to respond…
Claiming Over 12 Soldiers Involved in Massacre, Afghan Lawmakers Call for End of SOFA Immunity
For the record, I don't trust the investigation the Afghan legislators did into last week's shooting of 16 civilians in Panjwai any more than I trust DOD's own investigation. But it's their country, and they're proceeding with their results--which…
Drones Killing Fewer Civilians, But Still Killing Diplomacy
In an article describing how our use of drones in Pakistan continues to mobilize public opinion against US involvement, the NYT includes this description of how militants claim to be limiting the efficacy of some drone strikes.
During an interview…
As Bush Did with Judy Miller, Obama Insta-Declassifies for David Ignatius
One more point about the David Ignatius wankfest today.
In his story pitching OBL as a still-ambitious terrorist rather than an out-of-touch idiot, David Ignatius claimed the documents he based his article on had already been declassified.
The…
David Ignatius and Bin Laden's Biden Judgment
Presumably to buck up their campaign theme--"Osama bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive"--the Administration pre-leaked some documents to David Ignatius taken from OBL's compound revealing that OBL hoped to attack President Obama. Ignatius…
The Wiretap Jury on the Iran War
At a moment when the Obama Administration is still aggresively pursuing James Risen's testimony on sources for an Iran story he wrote 7 years ago, on Saturday he published a new story summarizing the uncertainty surround intelligence on Iran…
Spooky AssadLeaks: The Provenance of the Emails
As I wrote in this post, I got interested in the provenance of a set of leaked Bashar al-Assad emails largely because of the way in which two of them were used to suggest, dubiously, Nir Rosen was an Assad agent.
The Guardian and Al Arabiya…
Spooky AssadLeaks: The Nir Rosen Connection
Something curious has happened in the last few days while I've been traveling. The Guardian and Al Arabiya have been publishing leaked emails from Bashar al-Assad and his wife, showing both to be callous assholes but not otherwise producing…
Real Fast & Legitimate Trash Talk!
I feel confident you were all as traumatized as I was by the counterfeit Trash Talk appearing recently on these hallowed threads! Apparently, simply because this blog is named "Emptywheel", people named Emptywheel think they can just stroll…
The Secret PATRIOT FOIA
To cap off Sunshine week, there was a slew of FOIA news today. For now, I'm just going to look at the response the ACLU got on its request for "OLC legal opinions and memoranda concerning or interpreting Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act."
Josh…
The Other Drinking Soldiers
In his post on our clearance for payments to Egypt, Jim noted that the key graph came 13 paragraphs into an 18 paragraph story.
Likewise, the key graph from the NYT story letting a senior American official lay out a narrative blaming the…
For Obama Administration, Human Rights in Egypt Less Important Than Payments to Arms Manufacturers
Obscured somewhat by the latest revelations and speculations on the US soldier who killed 16 Afghan civilians on Sunday, today's New York Times carries an article on page A6 of the print edition informing us that the Obama administration is…
Are Presidents Who Cover Up Crimes Murderous Sociopaths?
Kevin Drum and Adam Serwer are having a MoJo fight over how to respond to the news that Obama intervened to keep journalist Abdulelah Haider Shaye imprisoned. Drum started the debate by asking what I consider a straw man argument: Is President…