The Timing of the Ramzi bin al-Shibh Tapes

By: emptywheel Thursday August 19, 2010 7:48 am

I wanted to point out two details of timing on the Ramzi bin al-Shibh tapes: The tapes were made after CIA started getting worried about making interrogation tapes The tapes were disclosed after the CIA started trying to figure out what happened to the Abu Zubaydah tapes The tapes were made after CIA already started [...]

How a Previously Qualified Elizabeth Warren became Unqualified, According to a Previously Progressive Chris Dodd

By: emptywheel Wednesday August 18, 2010 10:29 am

July 27: Chris Dodd says of Elizabeth Warren, “She’s qualified, no question about that” August 9: Katrina vanden Heuvel tweets that several sources have told her Elizabeth Warren would be nominated “next week” August 12: Warren meets with Financial Services Roundtable President Steve Bartlett and then meets with David Axelrod at the White House to [...]

Blago Lesson: It’s Okay to Sell a Senate Seat, So Long as You Don’t Lie about It

By: emptywheel Tuesday August 17, 2010 3:00 pm

All you Californians ought to be getting awfully nervous about Senate-Select Carly Fiorina about now. Because the lesson I take from the Rod Blagojevich verdict–he was found guilty of just one charge of lying to the FBI, while the jury remained deadlocked on 23 other charges–is that it’s okay to sell a Senate seat, so [...]

Were the Ramzi bin al-Shibh Tapes Altered Like the Abu Zubaydah Tapes Were?

By: emptywheel Tuesday August 17, 2010 10:10 am

Given that the AP has filled in some details about the Ramzi bin al-Shibh tapes someone had hidden under a desk at CIA, I wanted to look back at the letter DOJ wrote to Leonie Brinkema in 2007, when the government first admitted it had been sitting on those tapes. AP says the tapes were [...]

CIA Stores Their Torture Tape the Same Place Judy Miller Does!

By: emptywheel Tuesday August 17, 2010 5:54 am

Remember how Judy Miller stored the notes showing that the Vice President’s lackey had leaked Valerie Plame’s identity to her under her desk in a shopping bag? Remember how we mocked that kind of record keeping? Well, the AP reports that the CIA uses the same archival system as Judy: The two videotapes and one [...]

Our Paramilitaries and Their Militia Play Doctor

By: emptywheel Monday August 16, 2010 8:27 am

Jim White has an important observation about the increasing militarization of our aid operations in Afghanistan. When the medical teams come from the very same organization that disappears innocent people in the middle of the night, the US effort in Afghanistan has become completely detached from sanity. The medical team described above is affiliated with [...]

“He didn’t threaten anybody. He opined.”

By: emptywheel Monday August 16, 2010 7:21 am

When Hal Turner was led away to jail for writing that three judges who had upheld the Chicago gun ban (which has since been overturned at SCOTUS) “deserved to be killed”–and provided maps to help his readers find the judges–his son insisted Turner didn’t threaten anybody, he opined. But the third jury that ruled on [...]

The Bully Pulpit with Training Wheels

By: emptywheel Monday August 16, 2010 5:25 am

Folks are still arguing about whether Obama’s statement about the Cordoba House was sufficiently impassioned or whether his subsequent statements backtracked off the original statement. Now, that’s not to say that religion is without controversy. Recently, attention has been focused on the construction of mosques in certain communities -– particularly New York.  Now, we must [...]

MoDo Applauds Gibbs for Making Shit Up

By: emptywheel Sunday August 15, 2010 6:25 am

I know. It almost never pays to read one of MoDo’s columns seriously. But enough good lefties are pointing to this one approvingly, I thought I’d do them the favor of pointing out how typically stupid it is. Let’s start with this lovely four-sentence passage: Not because of his outburst against the “professional left.” He [...]

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