Secretary of State Rice Mocks Muslim Cleric Muqtada al-Sadr as a Coward Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice mocked anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr as a coward on Sunday, hours after the radical leader threatened to declare war unless U.S. and Iraqi forces end a military crackdown on his followers. Rice, in the Iraqi capital to tout […]
Sadr threatens open war against U.S., Iraq Renegade cleric Muqtada al Sadr on Saturday issued a "final warning" to the Iraqi government, threatening an open-ended "war until liberation" if U.S. and Iraqi troops don’t stop their offensive against followers of his militant Shiite Muslim movement . Sadr’s threat signals his growing fury with the joint […]
Behind Military Analysts, the Pentagon’s Hidden Hand In the summer of 2005, the Bush administration confronted a fresh wave of criticism over Guantánamo Bay. The detention center had just been branded “the gulag of our times” by Amnesty International, there were new allegations of abuse from United Nations human rights experts and calls were mounting […]
I kind of like having Karl Rove out as a public figure. We knew he was a sort of nasty guy, but it’s kind of nice to see that up close and personal. It’s obvious that he’s smart. He’s a master in the art of revers logic – starting with a conclusion and working backwards […]
I’ll admit that Hillary Clinton’s campaign is getting to me. She sounds mean, and like a Republican. But, I’ll also admit that my own bias is a factor in that reaction. I just wandered the blogs looking for someone who was criticizing the behavior or statements of the candidate they were supporting. I think Obama’s […]
Former ’60s Radical Is Now Considered Mainstream in Chicago In the 1960s, Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn saw themselves as urban guerrillas who just might be able to overthrow the U.S. government and force an end to the Vietnam War. They were members of the Weather Underground, a radical offshoot of the antiwar movement, who […]
Pentagon institute calls Iraq war ‘a major debacle’ with outcome ‘in doubt’ The war in Iraq has become "a major debacle" and the outcome "is in doubt" despite improvements in security from the buildup in U.S. forces, according to a highly critical study published Thursday by the Pentagon’s premier military educational institute. The report released […]
Justice Dept. Probes Torture Memo Legality Investigation Focuses On Agency Lawyers Who May Have Advised Military Leaders That Torture Was Okay The Justice Department is investigating whether agency lawyers improperly advised the military it could use harsh interrogation methods and concluded that President Bush’s wartime authority could not be limited by domestic law or international […]
This is the E.P.A.’s response to a subpoena from the House Global Warming Committee investigating the E.P.A.’s refusal to obey the Supreme Court’s mandate on greenhouse gases. Note the part I’ve highlight in red – "important Executive Branch institutional prerogatives." Now, the Bush Administration is applying their made-up Unitary Executive Theory to the Supreme Court […]
Every post by emptywheel is important, but this one is more important: December 2000: Richard Clarke develops policy paper entitled, "Strategy for Eliminating the Threat from the Jihadist Networks of al Qida: Status and Prospects." It calls for identifying and destroying known Al Qaeda camps and pressuring Pakistan to cooperate in the fight against Al […]