The case against DSK, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, is disintegrating at the seams. It never seemed to be quite the closed case it was portrayed as, and now we are left to ask what lies beneath the messy and complicated incident.

In his announcement that John Durham is investigating the deaths by torture of two CIA detainee, Eric Holder suggested that John Durham reviewed information that had not been reviewed by the prosecutors who had earlier declined to prosecute the cases. That review included both information and matters that had never previously been examined by the [...]

Apparently, Timmeh Geithner has told Obama that he may leave after a budget deal, citing family considerations. I’d be singing “ding dong the wicked witch” if I didn’t know that his replacement will almost certainly be even worse. But while we wait on his departure, I thought I’d offer the following two betting pools: 1) [...]

Eric Holder just released an announcement revealing that John Durham has recommended criminal investigation of two detainees tortured to death. But cases of the remaining 99 detainees whose treatment Durham investigated will be dismissed. On January 2, 2008, Attorney General Michael Mukasey appointed Assistant United States Attorney John Durham of the District of Connecticut to [...]

Yesterday, Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa announced a human rights inquiry into crackdowns on protestors. Human rights violations would not be tolerated, he claimed. King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa announced the move in a speech at an extraordinary Cabinet meeting Wednesday, saying such violations would not be tolerated, BNA reported. [snip] The king said [...]

DDay and Masaccio and Yves Smith have already covered Bank of America’s offer to pay 2 to 3 cents on the dollar to make good on its securitization misrepresentations. But I wanted to point out one issue of timing. In her coverage of it, Yves notes the following: So with all these considerations arguing for [...]

The lawyer representing the innocent victims of drone strikes in Pakistan just got denied a visa to speak at Columbia Law. (h/t curiouser_georg) I am a Pakistani lawyer who is suing the CIA for killing innocent civilians through drone strikes in my home country. This month, the US state department prevented me from travelling to [...]

Remember that swipe fee measure that passed the Senate twice? It lowered the amount credit card companies can charge merchants to $.12 a transaction. It was a stunning victory that retailers (which admittedly includes WalMart but also includes your locally owned business struggling to stay in business) won that battle twice. Well, lucky for the [...]

I wasn’t entirely fair when I quipped on Twitter that, if Obama asserts that “as a general proposition, companies need to have the freedom to relocate,” then shouldn’t people, too, be able to flout laws–like mortgage contract laws or immigration laws–to assert their “freedom to relocate.” Obama does say that Boeing has to follow the [...]

In Nicholas Shaxson’s book, Treasure Islands, he traces out a network of offshore locations, like Cayman Islands, where corporations and crooks hide their cash. But he also noted that the incorporation laws in various US states allows those same corporations and crooks to hide money right inside the United States. Reuters has a superb article [...]