Blogger Marcy Wheeler discusses the NY Times puff piece article on President Obama’s secret kill list; the government’s fuzzy math in calculating civilian casualties from drone strikes; assassinating the bakers who may or may not sell bread to the Taliban; journalists (a.k.a. “terrorist sympathizers”) who dare gather information on drone strike casualties; more evidence that counterterrorism advisor John Brennan is a liar; how the US helped create the AQAP threat in Yemen; why the...

Blogger Marcy Wheeler discusses the laws governing assassination-by-drone; re-using “signature strikes” in Yemen, after large numbers of Pakistani civilian casualties prompted the US to briefly abandon the tactic; why Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s “insurgent math” applies to Yemen as well as Afghanistan; and why the government is throwing the book at whistleblower Bradley Manning.

Blogger Marcy Wheeler discusses possible evidence that Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales didn’t commit the Afghan massacre by himself; the surprising WSJ article that sympathetically tells the massacre story from an Afghan’s perspective; James Risen and the NY Times’ honest accounting of Iran’s nonexistent nuclear weapons program; how the Obama administration is re-doing “total information awareness” and getting away with it; and how the National Counterterroism Center (NCTC) – the same agency that...

Blogger Marcy Wheeler discusses the DC Circuit court’s rejection of Guantanamo prisoner Adnan Farhan Abd Al Latif‘s successful habeas corpus petition; the DOD’s 2006 determination that Latif should be released; the DC court’s assertion that government intelligence must be presumed valid, essentially gutting habeas rights and openly defying the SCOTUS Boumediene decision; the DOJ’s prosecution of former CIA officer John Kiriakou, building on Obama’s record setting witch-hunt of government...

Blogger Marcy Wheeler discusses the conviction of US citizen Tarek Mehanna on material support of terrorism charges, in part for posting “jihadist” videos online; the SCOTUS ruling (Holder v. HLP) that defines “material support” so broadly a lawyer could be arrested for representing alleged terrorist organizations (except those favored by the government, like MEK); whether provisions in the NDAA authorize the indefinite detention of Americans or not; the legal precedents set by the Yaser...

Blogger Marcy Wheeler discusses the McCain-Levin and Udall amendments to the Defense Authorization Act; how the Supreme Court allowed American citizens to be labeled “enemy combatants” and subject to indefinite detention by the Hamdi decision in 2004; why a more restrictive – or revoked – Iraq War AUMF (as proposed by Rand Paul) would more effectively protect citizens than the Udall amendment; why “enhanced interrogation” may be making a (legalized) comeback; and the Obama administration’s...

Blogger Marcy Wheeler discusses her blog post about the “other guy” killed with Anwar al-Awlaki, “How Can Samir Khan Be ‘Collateral Damage’ If OLC Memo Restricted Civilian Death;” how assassinations justified by secret intelligence are replacing criminal trials based on disclosed evidence; why Obama’s reluctance to take credit for Awlaki’s assassination – after bragging about killing Osama bin Laden – could mean he’s worried about being prosecuted; and the secret legal interpretation of the...

Blogger Marcy Wheeler discusses how Obama’s approved assassination of Anwar al-Awlaki makes him no better than Dick Cheney (even according to Cheney); the selective prosecution of classified information leakers (pro-government is a-ok); the Obama administration’s refusal to release internal legal memo’s that justify assassinations of US citizens, much less any actual evidence against Awlaki; why a federal terrorism trial nearly always results in conviction; and why Obama himself may be filling...

Blogger Marcy Wheeler discusses her article “FBI Conducts Threat Assessment on Antiwar.Com Journalists for Linking to Publicly Available Document;” the convoluted chain of events that led the FBI to investigate Antiwar.com; how the file ended up in a FOIA request for the “Israeli Movers” sidebar to the 9/11 attacks; the few barriers to intrusive government investigation into the lives and businesses of private US citizens, thanks in part to the PATRIOT Act; and why the FBI viewed Justin...

Marcy Wheeler, blogging as “emptywheel” at firedoglake.com, discusses the trial of former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling for allegedly spilling the beans on Operation “Merlin,” a foolhardy attempt to pass bogus nuclear weapons plans to Iran; the return of federal prosecutor William Welch, who managed to botch both the Ted Stevens and Thomas Drake trials; and the government’s pursuit of NY Times journalist James Risen for his investigative work on warrantless wiretapping and the Bush...

Marcy Wheeler, blogging as “emptywheel” at firedoglake.com, discusses the unraveling of the federal government’s case against Thomas Drake, the NSA whistleblower charged with espionage but then let off with a misdemeanor charge, the substance of Drake’s whistleblowing about wasteful and privacy-destroying outsourcing of wiretapping, why it’s now safer to leak on the record, using your name, than doing in anonymously and Obama’s attempt to reinvent the Espionage Act for broad use, esp. on those...