Antipodal Point

Tradecraft 101: NEVER, EVER blow your cover...

2006-03-11T22:35:00.000-08:00

Ooops, I guess this is what happens when you recruit from the Heritage Foundation's pool of water-winged interns...

TRIBUNE INVESTIGATION
Internet blows CIA cover
It's easy to track America's covert operatives. All you need to know is how to navigate the Internet.

By John Crewdson
Tribune senior correspondent
Published March 11, 2006, 12:00 PM CST

When the Tribune searched a commercial online data service, the result was a virtual directory of more than 2,600 CIA employees, 50 internal agency telephone numbers and the locations of some two dozen secret CIA facilities around the United States.

.....

Asked how so many personal details of CIA employees had found their way into the public domain, the senior U.S. intelligence official replied that "I don't have a great explanation, quite frankly."

The official noted, however, that the CIA's credo has always been that "individuals are the first person responsible for their cover. If they can't keep their cover, then it's hard for anyone else to keep it. If someone filled out a credit report and put that down, that's just stupid."

One senior U.S. official used a barnyard epithet to describe the agency's traditional system of providing many of its foreign operatives with easily decipherable covers that include little more than a post office box for an address and a non-existent company as an employer.

.....

In addition to stepping up recruiting, Goss has ordered a "top-down" review of the agency's "tradecraft" following the disclosure that several supposedly covert operatives involved in the 2003 abduction of a radical Muslim preacher in Milan had registered at hotels under their true names and committed other amateurish procedural violations that made it relatively easy for the Italian police to identify them and for Italian prosecutors to charge them with kidnapping.

The FSB ought to give these schmucks a seminar or two...

Fecal matter comes into contact with rapidly rotating metal blades!

2006-03-08T12:26:00.000-08:00

Abramoff slips in the shiv...

Vanity Fair is there...

Don't know me, huh?

Wonder why they hate us?

2006-02-27T12:50:00.000-08:00

This is why.

Military interrogators posing as FBI agents at the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, wrapped terrorism suspects in an Israeli flag and forced them to watch homosexual pornography under strobe lights during interrogation sessions that lasted as long as 18 hours, according to one of a batch of FBI memos released Thursday.

Sick, sick, sick...

Who do these fuckers think they are? Whoever they are, they don't represent me...

Navy's top lawyer stood firm against torture...

2006-02-21T09:13:00.000-08:00

Jane Mayer of the New Yorker recounts a legal struggle for the moral integrity of the nation waged by a true patriot vs. the "what's the big deal" Bybee-Yoo torture faction in the days just after 9/11 and how he lost.

Elvis sighting...

2006-02-19T18:41:00.000-08:00

Paul Hipp of HuffPost has a hit.

Definitely a top 10.

Eat your heart out Lynn. Cheney's got a new beau.

Profiles in courage...

2006-02-19T09:38:00.000-08:00

Newsweek pulls back the curtain.

When will we learn?

2006-02-14T09:28:00.000-08:00

Look to the past to provide foreshadowing of the future...

Grillo provides the perspective.

Italy and the US are birds of a feather.

Valerie Plame's work focused specifically on Iran...

2006-02-13T18:47:00.000-08:00

Raw Story exposes.

According to current and former intelligence officials, Plame Wilson, who worked on the clandestine side of the CIA in the Directorate of Operations as a non-official cover (NOC) officer, was part of an operation tracking distribution and acquisition of weapons of mass destruction technology to and from Iran.

Speaking under strict confidentiality, intelligence officials revealed heretofore unreported elements of Plame's work. Their accounts suggest that Plame's outing was more serious than has previously been reported and carries grave implications for U.S. national security and its ability to monitor Iran's burgeoning nuclear program.

Juan Cole explores the ramifications...

So between disrupting the work of Plame Wilson's unit at the CIA and letting the Iranians know about the broken codes, the pro-war party managed to make Iran's actual progress on nuclear research opaque to the US government. It was necessary that it be opaque if there was to be a war. Iran is actually a decade or two away from having a bomb even if everything went well. But US intelligence agencies must be less confident they know what is going on in Iran now than before the Neocons destroyed so much of the effort against Iranian proliferation. It was the US withdrawal of inspectors from Ira[q] in 1998 that created the uncertainties that allowed Bush to invade Iraq. For warmongers, good intelligence on the enemy's capabilities is undesirable if that intelligence would get in the way of launching a war.

Still, it is just speculation.

If the speculation were true, the scale of treason emanating from Rove and Cheney and his staff is scarcely imaginable.

(emphasis mine)

This makes a lot of sense, I hope it's not true.

We don't need no stinkin' game bird stamps...

2006-02-13T16:44:00.000-08:00

As usual, the laws that apply to the little people don't apply to the oligarchs.

Big Dick Cheney runs afowl of Texas gaming law:

NEW YORK In the aftermath of the Saturday shooting, Texas state wildlife officials reported late today that while Vice President Dick Cheney had purchased a valid non-resident hunting license, but did not obtain a required "upland game bird stamp."

(snip)

The first official report on the shooting of a fellow hunter on Saturday by Cheney was issued late today by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. It follows much controversy and speculation stemming from the failure of the vice president or the White House to announce the incident for 18 hours.

The report, posted at the Smoking Gun site, confirmed the time of shooting of Harry Whittington at 5:30 pm on Saturday and that Cheney was wearing a "blaze orange" cap and "coat/vest" and brown trousers and was toting a Perazzi .28 caliber shotgun.

The "Game Law Violated" box was checked, with the violation listed as section "P&W Code 43.652." According to an online rundown on that section, this relates to the lack of the upland bird stamp. The text follows: "Except as provided by Subsection (b), a person may not hunt a
migratory or upland game bird in this state unless the person has acquired a migratory or upland game bird stamp, as applicable, issued to the person by the department."

The report.

What a Dick (Cheney)...

2006-02-12T13:39:00.000-08:00

Dick shoots fellow hunter.
AP has the story...

Dick must have some pent up aggression, maybe it's related to the recent squealing his subordinate is reported to have been doing...

Maybe Ms. Coulter has been whispering in his ear and he forgot who was on the trip.

I 'dunno, curios though.

(hat tip to the Agonist via Atrios)

God damn, this is rich...

2006-02-12T09:37:00.000-08:00

Ken Starr, pontificating moralist and Pepperdine law professor, faked letters of appeal to Gov. Schwarzenegger on behalf of a death row inmate.

The Washington Post has the scoop...

Here is an excerpt:

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 11 -- Lawyers for a death row inmate, including former Whitewater independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr, sent fake letters from jurors asking California's governor to spare the man's life, prosecutors said Friday.

(snip)

"We showed each person the declaration on their behalf, and they all said they didn't say that," Barankin said.

San Joaquin County prosecutor Charles F. Schultz also said the letters sent to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) last week were "untrue" and "pure fiction."

I think a complaint to the California Bar Association is in order.

Can one still teach law if one's suspended from the bar?

Libby is a big fat liar...

2006-02-12T09:04:00.000-08:00

Surprise, surprise, it turns out that Libby was authorized to leak classified intel (the NIE) to reporters in order to bolster the "Iraq is an immediate threat" meme that was being rapidly deflated by those pesky little inconveniences called facts. The NYT follows the trail of crumbs first sussed out by the indefatigable Murry Wass of the National Journal...

Of course, this goes to pattern, and one must wonder what else Libby's unnamed superiors authorized him to leak. Hmmm... I wonder.

Cheese-eating surrender monkeys living higher on the hog than us?...

2006-02-12T08:32:00.000-08:00

Jerome a Paris at the European Tribune has a revealing look at relative wealth distribution, or lack of, in westernized economies. He analyzes a recent article from the Economist. Some surprising (to some) conclusions are apparent. We've been getting the proverbial shaft when it comes to our share of the growth in the global economy over the last 30 yrs. And the French and the Brits haven't.

Jerome's a brilliant economist and an ethical banker, and is rapidly becoming an oft cited writer. I highly recommend reading his thoughts on economic matters.

Here is a graph from the article that illustrates the point.

I love cheese too... I want a bigger piece of the Brie wheel...

test 2 blogger is eating posts, stay tuned...

2006-02-05T15:25:00.001-08:00

test...

2006-02-05T15:25:00.000-08:00

Chris Bowers of MyDD has a poll update...

2006-01-31T11:54:00.000-08:00

It's very interesting, it shows that Murtha's Iraq deployment proposal is very popular, across the board...

Maybe cause it's a good one.

Interestingly, only 3 Reps voted for it when it came up. Those who didn't have shown themselves to be clueless chickenshits.

Abu Gonzales is in trouble...

2006-01-31T09:42:00.000-08:00

From WaPo...

Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.) charged yesterday that Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales misled the Senate during his confirmation hearing a year ago when he appeared to try to avoid answering a question about whether the president could authorize warrantless wiretapping of U.S. citizens.
-------
Gonzales said that it was impossible to answer such a hypothetical question but that it was "not the policy or the agenda of this president" to authorize actions that conflict with existing law. He added that he would hope to alert Congress if the president ever chose to authorize warrantless surveillance, according to a transcript of the hearing.
-------
"It now appears that the Attorney General was not being straight with the Judiciary Committee and he has some explaining to do," Feingold said in a statement yesterday.

Feingold is not a happy camper.

It's a crime to lie under oath.
It's a crime to lie to Congress.
Gonzales is a liar.
Do not pass go...

Internecine conflict limited White House lawbreaking...

2006-01-29T10:06:00.000-08:00

Newsweek's article "Palace Revolt" looks into the DoJ that produced the Yoo-Bybee "torture memos" and other finalists in the annual "Least Likely to be Upheld" contest.

These Justice Department lawyers, backed by their intrepid boss Comey, had stood up to the hard-liners, centered in the office of the vice president, who wanted to give the president virtually unlimited powers in the war on terror. Demanding that the White House stop using what they saw as farfetched rationales for riding rough-shod over the law and the Constitution, Goldsmith and the others fought to bring government spying and interrogation methods within the law. They did so at their peril; ostracized, some were denied promotions, while others left for more comfortable climes in private law firms and academia. Some went so far as to line up private lawyers in 2004, anticipating that the president's eavesdropping program would draw scrutiny from Congress, if not prosecutors. These government attorneys did not always succeed, but their efforts went a long way toward vindicating the principle of a nation of laws and not men.

Comey deserves a medal...

Addington and a small band of like-minded lawyers set about providing that cover, a legal argument that the power of the president in time of war was virtually untrammeled. One of Addington's first jobs had been to draft a presidential order establishing military commissions to try unlawful combatantsterrorists caught on the global battlefield. The normal "interagency process", getting agreement from lawyers at Defense, State, the intelligence agencies and so forth, proved glacial, as usual. So Addington, working with fellow conservative Deputy White House Counsel Timothy Flanigan, came up with a solution: cut virtually everyone else out. Addington is a purist, not a cynic; he does not believe he is in any way ignoring or twisting the law. It is also important to note that Addington was not sailing off on some personal crusade; he had the full backing of the president and vice president, who shared his views.

Addington deserves a jail cell...

So what happens when all of the people with consciences leave the Administration?

Incompetence reigns and chaos ensues... Kinda' like now...

It's on...

2006-01-28T12:37:00.000-08:00

We shall overcome.

Call your Senator, now.

The Young Turks ride...

2006-01-28T10:19:00.000-08:00

Check out live streaming video of the filibuster of the filibuster by the Sirius Radio's "The Young Turks"...

The rare magical filibuster...

2006-01-28T08:59:00.000-08:00

Spines all around, I say, there are plenty for all...

Kerry, Kennedy, Clinton, and now my recalcitrant Senator Diane Feinstein, have all undergone quintuple rachisal re-implantation surgery, the surgeries were complicated by repeated rejections of the donor osseous material by the patients immune systems. The eventual success of the surgeries was due to an experimental new process of immuno-suppression via oral and written telecommunication which, though obviously effective, a few patients likened to shock therapy.

Live discussion at the WaPo blog...

2006-01-25T10:16:00.000-08:00

Jane of Firedoglake is one of the panelists discussing the missing comments issue I mention below......

Gen. Michael V. Hayden, Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence, is a moron, apparently... Or he just likes the taste of his feet.

2006-01-23T18:46:00.000-08:00

The former head of the NSA does not know what the fuck he is talking about.

Daily Kos' mcjoan has the dish.

Here are the excerpts from Hayden's press conference:

QUESTION: Jonathan Landay with Knight Ridder. I'd like to stay on the same issue, and that had to do with the standard by which you use to target your wiretaps. I'm no lawyer, but my understanding is that the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution specifies that you must have probable cause to be able to do a search that does not violate an American's right against unlawful searches and seizures. Do you use --
GEN. HAYDEN: No, actually -- the Fourth Amendment actually protects all of us against unreasonable search and seizure. That's what it says.

QUESTION: But the measure is probable cause, I believe.

GEN. HAYDEN: The amendment says unreasonable search and seizure.

QUESTION: But does it not say probable --

GEN. HAYDEN: No. The amendment says unreasonable search and seizure.. . .

---------------

GEN. HAYDEN . . . Just to be very clear -- and believe me, if there's any amendment to the Constitution that employees of the National Security Agency are familiar with, it's the Fourth. And it is a reasonableness standard in the Fourth Amendment. And so what you've raised to me -- and I'm not a lawyer, and don't want to become one -- what you've raised to me is, in terms of quoting the Fourth Amendment, is an issue of the Constitution. The constitutional standard is "reasonable." And we believe -- I am convinced that we are lawful because what it is we're doing is reasonable."

And here's the fourth amendment:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

I am so steamed about the FISA violations. I can't write about this without wanting to break my keyboard. When I can, I will.

Update: Yglesias has a good analysis too...

The case of the missing Post post?!

2006-01-23T15:05:00.000-08:00

Here is the link to my post that was one of many that disappeared from the Washington Post blog, which have subsequently reappeared. Go figure... The Post claimed that those that had disappeared were "offensive", I emailed them some harsh words -- along with everyone else -- regarding the matter and viola; they are back without any comment from the "editors".

Anyway I link to some of the analysis below...

Russert redux: "What? They all know each other, don't they?

2006-01-23T08:43:00.000-08:00

Tim Russert, on Press the Meat, asks Sen. Obama for a comment on Belafonte's recent condemnation of the Chimperor as the WGT (World's Greatest Terrorist). It's strange to ask that of Sen. Obama in the first place, but when you add to that the fact that Timmeh also asked Gen. Colin Powell the same question -- and no one else, ever -- it starts to look like Timmeh is a big fucking bigot. Though Timmeh doubtless thinks himself free of such bias, the evidence says otherwise. TalkLeft has a good run down on the buzz cross the sphere...

Cell post test...

2006-01-22T12:57:00.000-08:00

Cool, big hassle to type, but still very cool.

Eric Alterman takes Time's Klein to the wood shed... And leaves him there.

2006-01-22T10:13:00.000-08:00

Eric's article in the Nation

The punditocracy's ignore-except-to-attack attitude toward liberals is a far greater impediment to our ability to mount an alternative to the ruinous rule of George W. Bush than the attitudes of Americans themselves, who in poll after poll disagree with the President on almost all significant issues. Washington Post columnist Sebastian Mallaby gleefully announces that "attacking Bushonomics"--the policies of the party that controls the government and has abandoned even the pretense of fiscal responsibility--"is too easy, like shooting a lame duck." He prefers "to focus instead on Democrats' response."

Liberal war opponents were clearly correct about the self-defeating stupidity of Bush's Iraq misadventure, but pundits treat their foresight as a kind of disqualifying handicap. Mallaby's colleague Richard Cohen lauded Joe Biden because he "voted to authorize the president to go to war but has since characterized that vote as 'a mistake,'" which, Cohen notes, "approximately reflects my own position." Woe unto those who were right in the first place. Among media war boosters, George Packer cannot find room in the 467 pages of his celebrated war history, The Assassins' Gate, for the words "I was wrong." Those who recognized the Bush Administration's lethal combination of dishonesty, ideology and incompetence--in plain view at the time--are dismissed by Packer as possessing "second-rate minds."

He sums it up with...

So here, apparently, is the punditocracy argument in a nutshell: Never mind that liberals are constitutionally correct. Never mind that their view is supported by a majority of Americans. And never mind that the Bush Administration has repeatedly lied to the American people on exactly these issues. Never mind, most of all, the truth.

A must read from one of the most astute writers on the political scene.

WaPo's Deborah Howell: Mea culpa? Not really...

2006-01-22T00:19:00.000-08:00

Armando at DKos has the scoop, as does Jane...

Saturnine Canine Blogging...

2006-01-21T17:29:00.000-08:00

Post 'em if you got 'em...

She's mine, se llama Loba...

This is my neighbor's dog, Jack...

Frist post...

2006-01-17T01:40:00.000-08:00

It's almost two, I'm watching the replay of Pelosi's town-hall meeting from 1/14/06 on CSPAN... there will be a lot of that to come... Stay tuned...