11.28.07 Head of Rove Inquiry in Hot Seat Himself

Mr. Bloch had his computer's hard disk completely cleansed using a "seven-level" wipe: a thorough scrubbing that conforms to Defense Department data-security standards. The process makes it nearly impossible for forensics experts to restore the data later. He also directed Geeks on Call to erase laptop computers that had been used by his two top political deputies, who had recently left the agency. Capetbagger

11.28.07 "Blackwater guards pumped on steroids, lawsuit alleges"

11.27.07 Strange new meme: The web helps Al Qaeda and hurts America

How quickly can we shut down this internet thing to keep America safe? TakeBackTheHouse
["Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007", HR 1955]

11.27.07 emptywheel:

What does it say that Time, one of the leading news outlets in this country, refuses to try to determine which side is correct in this debate? What does it say that, with the existing bill as the presumed unquestioned arbiter of the debate, they cannot discern truth? What does it say that they continue to refer to human sources--Republicans and Democrats--rather than the text?

I dunno, but I guarantee you, the next time I attend a conference on journalism and blogging, I will take no prisoners. The Last Hurrah [Joe Klein, Time Magazine, FISA]

There’s one other avenue that I’d like to see Rather’s attorneys pursue, if feasible: Bush’s W-2 records. An anonymous source points out that “[b]y dividing his total wages by his rate of pay at the time [a known quantity], we would finally know how many hours [Bush] worked in the Guard.” Assuming that those hours weren’t falsified, and that W-2s are subpoenable (a quick search suggests they are), this would be a simple, elegant way to prove whether Dubya actually fulfilled his obligations in the Alabama ANG, and therefore whether that aspect of Rather’s story was accurate. They might also come in handy if Rather wants to pursue the scrubbing rumors - there could be intriguing discrepancies between the W-2s and the ANG records. Eli:Firedoglake[Dan Rather, CBS]

Or maybe he's worried -- (Here) [Scott Horton, Dickie Scruggs]

11.25.07 emptywheel critiques "How ‘What It Takes’ Took Me Off Course"

See where I'm going with this? Halperin claims that a guy who presided over tremendous economic growth, some innovative policy solutions (many of which I dislike, but admire for their pragmatism), and real success in foreign policy, had a failed presidency. He claims that a guy whose approval ratings stayed high during a trumped up impeachment "ran into trouble." Halperin clings to the Village's caricature of the Clinton presidency all so he can claim both Clinton and Bush failed. And in the process, he ignores a great deal of hard work and policy wonkiness that, in fact, made Clinton a successful president. Precisely the kind of characteristics you'd want good presidential journalism to cover--a candidate's comfort with the complexity of policy issues that translates into competent governance.
...
With his op-ed, Halperin proves he couldn't identify good governance if it looked him in the face. Sure, he calls for a different kind of campaign journalism. But at the same time, he proves he's not the guy to provide it. (Here)

We believe Bilal's crime was taking photographs the U.S. government did not want its citizens to see. That he was part of a team of AP photographers who had just won a Pulitzer Prize for work in Iraq may have made Bilal even more of a marked man.

In the 19 months since he was picked up, Bilal has not been charged with any crime, although the military has sent out a flurry of ever-changing claims. Every claim we've checked out has proved to be false, overblown or microscopic in significance. Now, suddenly, the military plans to seek a criminal case against Bilal in the Iraqi court system in just days. But the military won't tell us what the charges are, what evidence it will be submitting or even when the hearing will be held. Associated Press President and CEO Tom Curley:WaPo via Andrew Sullivan [Bilal Hussein]

I'd say recent events have taken a turn in Bandar's favor, wouldn't you? How convenient that the newly-installed top law enforcement officer in this country happens to be great buddies with your lawyer.

Somehow, Bandar manages to have all the luck. emptywheel [Bandar Bush bin Sultan, Mukasey]

Reports have begun to circulate that the Administration has put together a group of scholars headed by a right-wing activist judge to craft legislation to introduce a new court of Star Chamber, perhaps to be floated in the coming year. As we see in the public pronouncements of the Bush Administration, accusations leveled at detainees in the war on terror are leveled for political effect, and often to parallel partisan political campaigns. If those accusations are rejected by a court, it therefore undermines confidence in the Administration and the Party. Which is why, in the Bush view of justice, a failure to convict is unacceptable. And which is why the Bush view of justice is no justice at all. Scott Horton:Harper's (Al-Timimi, Omar Khadr)

Ms. Harman's proposal includes an absurd attack on the Internet, criticizing it for providing Americans with "access to broad and constant streams of terrorist-related propaganda," and legalizes an insidious infiltration of targeted organizations. The misnamed "Center of Excellence," which would function after the commission is disbanded in 18 months, gives the semblance of intellectual research to what is otherwise the suppression of dissent.
...
While Ms. Harman denies that her proposal creates "thought police," it defines "homegrown terrorism" as "planned" or "threatened" use of force to coerce the government or the people in the promotion of "political or social objectives." That means that no force need actually have occurred as long as the government charges that the individual or group thought about doing it By Ralph E. Shaffer and R. William Robinson:Baltimoresun.com

... Faced with this threat of harm to his family, Higazy confessed, even though in fact he had no connection to 9/11.

How do we know all of this? Because it was in the court of appeals' opinion, posted by Howard Bashman the day it was issued. Apparently, however, the government had persuaded the court to seal Higazy's allegations of the FBI's threats. And so the court quickly pulled its original opinion, replaced it with a redacted version that omits the described threats ("This opinion has been redacted because portions of the record are under seal."), and asked Bashman to take down from his site the earlier version of the opinion. To his credit, Howard refused, in part because the court failed to provide him with any explanation of why the publication of the opinion is a threat to national security.
...
But let's not lose sight of the more fundamental problem: What was the justification for the court "sealing" Higazy's allegations in the first instance? I am aware of no doctrine in law, or other policy, that permits the FBI or any other law-enforcement or intelligence agency to prevent individuals from describing how they were treated by our government.
...
A similar issue is now being litigated in the context of various recent laws that prohibit phone companies and other corporations from revealing that the government has served them with National Security letters requiring production of customer records. One district court recently declared such a gag order unconstitutional, in a case that bears watching. Marty Lederman:Balkinization (Doe v Gonzales)

The FIDH said it had received a letter from the prosecutors' office ruling that Rumsfeld benefited from a "customary" immunity from prosecution granted to heads of state and government and foreign ministers, even after they left office.

It said in a statement it was "astonished at such a mistaken argument" and said customary immunity from prosecution did not exist under international law. Reuters Federation of Human Rights Leagues (FIDH) and the U.S. Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR)

Scott Cameron:the ip law blog via emptywheel

When asked recently whether Pakistan’s General Musharrif had gone too far in crushing democratic opposition, President Bush said Musharrif had not yet “crossed the line,” even though the military dictator had forcibly replaced the Supreme Court; jailed lawyers, judges, and opposition leaders; banned demonstrations; and shut down any independent media. One wonders whether Mr. Bush has a line that can be crossed as long as the executive claims its actions are in furtherance of fighting “terrorism.” Scarecrow:Firedoglake

11.23.07 The Real Rudy

... These speeches represent the Rudy who once went overboard and declared, “If you come here and you work hard and you happen to be in an undocumented status, you’re one of the people who we want in this city.”
...
At the moment, Giuliani and fellow moderate Mitt Romney are attacking each other for being insufficiently Tancredo-esque. They are not renouncing the policies they championed as city and state officials, but the emphasis as they run for federal office is all in the other direction. In effect, they are competing to drive away Hispanic votes and make the party unelectable in New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, Florida and the nation at large.
...
Someday Rudy Giuliani will look back on this moment and wonder why he didn’t run as himself David Brooks: NYT

Soldiers and Marines whose wounds were discovered after they left Iraq are not added to the official casualty list, says Army Col. Robert Labutta, a neurologist and brain injury consultant for the Pentagon. Gregg Zoroya, USA TODAY

Apparently, this is modern warfare. Private armies hired by nation states and controlled by corporations. For example, one of our checkpoints was staffed entirely by a Guatemalan contingent of armed people not under the flag of Guatemala or the UN, but rather under the flag of their contractor. Yes, presumably they were working for either the US or the Iraqi Defense ministry, but fundamentally they would work for whoever would pay their bills, and their uniforms proudly sported their logo. (Here)

11.22.07 Government Secrecy May Lead to New Trial In Va. Terrorism Case

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit sent the case back to Brinkema last year after Timimi's attorneys raised the wiretapping argument. That led to a flurry of secret litigation. Yesterday, at a rare open hearing in the case, Brinkema said it was "ludicrous" that even prosecutors had not been allowed to see a series of filings that the intelligence community submitted to the judge.
...
"I am sorry to have to say this, but I have lost a great deal of confidence in the representations made to me by folks in the intelligence world, and I'm responding, frankly, to something that happened not in this case, but in the Moussaoui case," the judge said. The existence of videotapes or audiotapes of some enemy combatant witnesses was revealed in an Oct. 25 letter prosecutors sent to Brinkema and the 4th Circuit, which was made public Nov. 9. Jerry Markon:WaPo via TPM

11.22.07 "U.S. Attorneys Scandal: Removal of Canary Sought as Paulose Resigns" Scott Horton:Harper's

11.22.07 Memories of JFK: Robert Stein (Here) and (Here)
and Bill Moyer's on his father and FDR

11.22.07 emptywheel gets it right again: Stop Making Scottie McC Rich!!

Scottie McC's publisher has pulled off quite the coup--taken a detail that was, largely, already known, and used it to cause a stir about a book that will not yet be published for another 6 months. Already, Dodd is calling for an investigation, folks are calling for HJC or Waxman to hold a hearing. What the left has done is read one publishing blurb designed to generate this kind of buzz, and played right into the plan. Congratulations. You're all making Scottie McC rich.

... (Herein a doctoral summary of known facts)

But if anyone is going to do some investigating, they should do so on the premise that Scottie's book is one weak piece of evidence--from among a sea of much stronger evidence--that Cheney, at least, was involved in the leaking of Valerie Wilson's identity and the cover-up of that leak. We're not going to get Bush until we go through Cheney, anyway, and with Cheney, there is already clear evidence of his foreknowledge and involvement, which we don't have with Bush, probably not even if Scottie testifies.

The Electoral College should be done away with, but in the meantime, any reforms should improve the system, not make it worse. If California abandons its winner-take-all rule while red states like Texas do not, it will be hard for a Democratic nominee to assemble an Electoral College majority, even if he or she wins a sizable majority of the popular vote. That appears to be just what the backers of the California idea have in mind.
...
Opponents of the initiative announced yesterday that they are sponsoring their own, rival initiative, which would commit California to a national plan that aims to ensure that the winner of the national popular vote becomes president. That idea makes much more sense. NYT Via Norm

The big scandal (besides the possibility that BushCo is prosecuting Fieger as part of a political prosecution) is that it appears the government may be using tools designed for national security prosecutions in support of a campaign finance investigation--basically, Fieger alleges the government is abusing the tools Congress gave them to investigate terrorism in order to punish Democratic political activities. And he's trying to get the evidence to prove that case. emptywheel

11.20.07 In Gainesville, the former U.S. attorney general draws boos, protest and applause

But Gonzales on Monday said his only regret as attorney general was that he did not have a "better process" in place for "changes in personnel at the U.S. attorney rank."

"The process should have been handled in a different way," he conceded.

He insisted the Justice Department does not condone torture, but he suggested that al-Qaida members who do not adhere to the rules of war are not entitled to the full protections of the Geneva Convention.

Accent, UF's student-run speakers bureau, paid Gonzales $40,000 from student fees. tampabay.com

11.19.07 Paul Krugman:

Can anti-immigrant rhetoric replace old-fashioned racial politics? No, because it mobilizes the same shrinking pool of whites ­ and alienates the growing number of Latino voters.

Now, maybe I’m wrong about all of this. But we should be able to discuss the role of race in American politics honestly. We shouldn’t avert our gaze because we’re unwilling to tarnish Ronald Reagan’s image. NYT

Question: If you thought that a new baby was being produced once every second,
wouldn't you worry about the world filling up?

11.19.07 John Brown: Too Parochial for Empire - The Bush Administration Conquers Washington

For both Cheney and Rumsfeld, it was the imperial capital, not the empire itself that really mattered. There, "war" would mean the loosing of a commander-in-chief presidency unchecked by Congress, courts, anything -- which meant power in the only world that mattered to them. War in the provinces was their ticket to renewed prominence within DC's self-absorbed biosphere, a kind of lost space station far removed from Mother Earth, and a place where they had longstanding, unfinished accounts -- both personal and political -- to settle.
...
In the end, the Bush administration is likely to be remembered not for a failed imperialism, but a failed parochialism, an inability to perceive a world beyond the Washington of Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, beyond George W. Bush's national security "homeland." That may be the President's ultimate legacy. TomDispatch

What you need to know, first and last, is that so-called PTSD is not an illness. It is a normal condition for people who have been through what you have been through. The instinct to kill and war is native to humanity. It is very deeply rooted in me, as it is in you. We have rules and customs to restrain it, so that sometimes we may have peace. What you are experiencing is not an illness, but the awareness of what human nature is like deep down. It is the awareness of what life is like without the walls that protect civilization.

Those who have never been outside those walls don't know: they can't see. The walls form their horizon. You know what lays beyond them, and can't forget it. What we're going to talk about today is how to come home, back inside those walls: how to learn to trust them again.

...The Chicago Tribune, which last month on its front page revisited the story of how, after Mr. Giuliani left office, his mayoral papers were temporarily transferred to a private, tax-exempt foundation run by his supporters and financed with $1.5 million from mostly undisclosed donors. The foundation, which shares the same address as Giuliani Partners, copied and archived the records before sending them back to New York’s municipal archives. Historians told The Tribune there’s no way to verify that the papers were returned to government custody intact. Mayor Bloomberg has since signed a law that will prevent this unprecedented deal from being repeated.

Journalists, like generals, love to refight the last war, so the unavailability of millions of Hillary Clinton’s papers has received all the coverage the Giuliani campaign has been spared. But while the release of those first lady records should indeed be accelerated, it’s hard to imagine many more scandals will turn up after six volumes of “Whitewater,” an impeachment trial and the avalanche of other investigative reportage on the Clintons then and now.

The Giuliani story, by contrast, is relatively virgin territory. And with the filing of a lawsuit by a vengeful eyewitness who was fired from her job, it may just have gained its own reincarnation of Linda Tripp. (More)

11,18.07 Sridhar Pappu: "It's the past all over again. Rudy vs. Hillary (maybe), just like his aborted U.S. Senate race of 2000. Time will tell." WaPo

11.18.07 Karl Rove:

"Create a narrative that explains your life and commitments."
But what if your life and commitments speak for themselves?

Markos Moulitsas :

Democrats should and will use Bush and his destructive policies on the campaign trail as the primary example of what happens when people who hate government are elected to run it. The message will be that Bush isn't a historical anomaly: he's the embodiment of modern conservatism."
KOS!

11.16.07 "Fired Attorneys Build Case Against Gonzales" By Jason Leopold

11.17.07 Senate to stay in session over Thanksgiving, to block recess appointments

11.16.2007 Netroots in Colorado Take Back the House

11.16.2007 emptywheel: Immunity May Be Dead Anyway

That's because the 9th Circuit, in a unanimous decision, threw most of the most Kafkaesque illegal wiretap case out.

A federal appeals court dealt a near-fatal blow Friday to an Islamic charity's lawsuit alleging federal investigators illegally wiretapped it, saying a key piece of evidence the charity planned to use is a protected state secret.

A top secret call log that the Treasury Department accidentally turned over to the now-defunct U.S. arm of the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation's lawyers can't be used as evidence, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled.

[snip]

The charity's lawyers voluntarily turned over the document to FBI agents after it was given to them. A lower court ruled that the lawyers couldn't use the actual document to support their lawsuit but could use their memories of its contents to go forward.

[snip]

"Such an approach countenances a back door around the privilege and would eviscerate the state secret itself," Judge M. Margaret McKeown wrote for the unanimous three-judge panel.

So basically, these guys have proof they were spied on, they've seen it, but the government is requiring that they legally wash their minds of any memory of that proof, so as to preserve State Secrets

"We used to love America. Give me Tom Cruise and a vacation in Florida any day," said Parveen Aslam, 30, who like many Pakistanis has relatives in the United States. "But why isn't the U.S. standing up for Pakistan when we need it most? Is America even listening to us? We are calling them Busharraf now. They are the same man." Emily Wax and Imtiaz Ali:WaPo

A confidential 2003 manual for operating the Guantánamo detention center shows that military officials had a policy of denying detainees access to independent monitors from the International Committee of the Red Cross.
...
The document, a two-inch-thick operations manual, was first posted on Wikileaks, a Web site that encourages posting of leaked materials. Military officials said that the manual appeared genuine but described outdated policies and that all Guantánamo detainees could now see Red Cross monitors. William Glaberson:NYT

The House voted Thursday night to strengthen court oversight of the government's surveillance of terrorist suspects but stopped short of providing legal immunity to telecommunication companies that helped eavesdrop on Americans.

The Democratic bill, approved 227-189, was a rebuke to President Bush, who has promised to veto any legislation that does not shield telecom companies from civil lawsuits. About 40 civil suits have been filed alleging the companies broke wiretapping and privacy lawsuits for monitoring phone calls and e-mails without permission of a secret court created 30 years ago for that purpose.
...
Earlier Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee punted on the question of telecom immunity. Pamela Hess:Huntington Post

Civil liberties groups got a stunningly unexpected win Thursday as the Senate Judiciary panel passed their version of the new government spying bill out of committee without including a provision giving immunity to telecoms being sued for helping the government secretly spy on Americans.
...
The provision - which was part of the version passed by the Senate Intelligence committee in mid-October - was widely expected to make it into the bill, due to the administration's full court press on the issue, the telcos small army of lobbyists and the vocal support of California Democrat Dianne Feintstein. Feinstein's vote was expected to reverse the Dems 10-9 advantage in the committee.

But after a long day of complicated finagling over technical amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and proposed alternatives to total immunity for companies such as AT&T and Verizon, committeee chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) decided to send the bill out of committee without an agreement on immunity.Ryan Singel:Wired Blog Network

Jane Hamsher:

It’s a huge victory, but just the beginning of the fight. If the version of the bill that came out of the Judiciary proceeds to the floor, retroactive telecom immunity (which Bush is demanding) will have to be added back in as an amendment — but it will have a much harder time passing if it stands alone without the cover of measures that sound a bit more legitimate in the interest of national security.

It’s safe to say it probably never would have happened if Chris Dodd hadn’t stepped out in a leadership role — the tremendous outpouring of support he got online from a progressive coalition that included the blogs, Blue America, BlogPac, MoveOn, EFF, ACLU, Color of Change and Working Assets certainly emboldened Pat Leahy to flip the bird to the Intelligence Committee. (Here)

James Risen:

The Senate Intelligence Committee’s bill was the result of a compromise between Senator John D. Rockefeller IV, the West Virginia Democrat who is chairman of the panel, and the White House. Mr. Rockefeller agreed to the immunity measure, and in exchange won the administration’s support for other provisions that would provide greater court oversight of the government’s eavesdropping operations. NYT

Jane Hamsher: As Chairman of the Intelligence Committee Rockefeller made a deal with the White House to put retroactive telecom immunity into the bill, in exchange for seeing a small portion of the documents they were already legally entitled to see. Firedoglake

The White House insistence on immunity for the telecom companies peels away its long-maintained certitude that its spying operations were constitutionally sound, limited to overseas communications and within a president's wartime prerogatives. If that were the case, neither the administration nor the telecom companies would have anything to worry about. San Francisco Chronicle

The Judiciary Committee voted in favor of contempt in July and issued its final report 10 days ago. The full House should vote without further delay. If a majority supports a finding of contempt, as it should, the matter would go to the United States attorney for the District of Columbia. If Mr. Mukasey, the new attorney general, believes in the rule of law, he will see to it that Ms. Miers's and Mr. Bolten's cases are presented to a grand jury for criminal prosecution.

11.15.2007 emptywheel re Judith Regan suit vs News Corp:

If what Regan alleges is true (and she says she has recordings of the conversations), it mocks the very notion of editorial independence. Here's a company that--at a corporate level--is intruding on the editorial independence of one of its properties. Yet Kevin Martin thinks that, in spite of that clear evidence that no one within the News Corp empire has editorial independence, Rupert can be trusted to grant it as he further expands his empire? (Here)

11.15.2007 Progress report: Blackwater Buzz

One of the most serious charges against Krongard is that he impeded an investigation into whether Blackwater USA employees illegally smuggled weapons into Iraq that were then sold on the black market. In a Sept. 18 letter, Waxman revealed that Krongard had ordered his employees to "IMMEDIATELY" stop cooperating with federal investigators. Krongard has denied this allegation, but yesterday's hearing revealed that he has a conflict-of-interest with the contractor: his brother, Alvin "Buzzy" Krongard sits on Blackwater USA's advisory board. At first, Krongard vehemently rebuffed the charge, calling it an "ugly rumor." "It couldn't possibly have affected anything I've done, because I don't believe it," he said. Yet during a break in the proceedings, Krongard called his brother and confirmed that the "ugly rumor" was in fact true, and promised to recuse himself from any Blackwater investigations: MORE