Torture

D.C. Federal Judge Orders Bush Administration to Produce Evidence About Bagram Prisoners

After hearing arguments on whether prisoners held indefinitely without charge at the U.S.-controlled prison at the Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan have the right to challenge their detention in American courts, Judge John D. Bates of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia late Wednesday ordered the government to provide certain basic information [...]

Feinstein on Panetta

Beef officially squashed. Here’s what Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said about CIA director-(quasi-)designate Leon Panetta to reporters outside the Senate floor this afternoon:
“I’ve known Leon for 20 years. He is smart, he is credible, and he is truthful. And I believe he will surround himself with very qualified intelligence professionals in the top positions, and [...]

Amazing What A Phone Call Can Accomplish

Personally, I hate using the phone and look forward to the day when text-based communications replace phone calls as a matter of course. But last night aspiring CIA director Leon Panetta called Sen. Dianne Feinstein — she called him back, so there was a bit of phone tag — and secured the support of the [...]

CQ: CIA Operations Folks Dissatisfied With Panetta

My CIA sources on Monday were surprised but not so dismayed by the news that Leon Panetta is President-elect Barack Obama’s choice to head the agency. Jeff Stein’s CIA sources yesterday? Much more dismayed.
Writing in his CQ column, Jeff talks to veterans of the CIA’s operations directorate — the people who recruit spies, gather information, [...]

Steve Kappes to Stay as CIA’s No. 2?

Via Josh Marshall, Mark Mazzetti reports for The New York Times that Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s (D-Calif.) choice for CIA director, Steve Kappes, might remain deputy director as part of a plan to mollify the new chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee ahead of confirmation hearings for President-elect Barack Obama’s reported pick to head the agency, [...]

Do We Really Have To Call Steve Kappes A Torturer?

First Read reported that Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s (D-Calif.) choice for CIA director is current deputy director Steve Kappes. Kappes, unlike Leon Panetta, is a consummate intelligence professional. He played a key role in the nuclear disarmament of Libya, speaks Persian and Russian, and was purged by Porter Goss in 2004 for insufficient political loyalty to [...]

Obama’s pick for OLC: ‘Just Say No’ To The President

Most of the discussion of President-elect Barack Obama’s appointments announced Monday focused on whether Leon Panetta does or doesn’t have the experience to run the CIA. However, it’s worth noting that Dawn Johnsen, Obama’s pick for the once-obscure post of head of the Office of Legal Counsel in the Department of Justice – made famous [...]

Rush Holt Is Pro-Panetta

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) might be hating on Leon Panetta, but Rep. Rush Holt, the progressive New Jersey congressman who chairs the House Select Intelligence Oversight Panel, just put out this statement welcoming Panetta’s impending nomination to head the CIA:

Civil Libertarians Pretty Pleased With Dawn Johnsen at OLC

As Daphne blogged earlier today, Dawn Johnsen of Indiana University Law School is going to helm the Justice Dept.’s Office of Legal Counsel, a crucial position for the balance between civil liberties and national security. (Under the Bush administration, it became the go-to office for rubber-stamping the legality of torture, indefinite detention and warrantless surveillance.) [...]

Email Reveals Bush Personally Authorized Detainee Abuse

Jason Leopold at The Public Record writes about an email that turned up in the ACLU’s Freedom of Information Act lawsuit revealing that, contrary to Bush administration claims in the past, an executive order signed by President Bush specifically authorized hooding, sleep deprivation, the use of attack dogs, loud music and other “aggressive” techniques to [...]