BattlelandVeterans
The top story in the Washington Post today alleges that a major factor in the White House debate about the size of upcoming troop withdrawals from Afghanistan will be the financial cost. In fact, the Post piece says it will be the “most influential number” in that discussion. Here is the basic thrust:
The U.S. military is on track to
…
BattlelandTerrorism
Two Senate Democrats on Friday told TIME that a secret Justice Department opinion grants the FBI broad authority to seize information on innocent U.S. citizens, that it would shock Americans if it became public, and it that might violate the Constitution. “Innocent Americans are being swept up in this,” said Colorado’s Sen. Mark …
BattlelandTerrorism
Democratic Sens. Ron Wyden of Oregon and Mark Udall of Colorado failed Thursday in their effort to force the Obama administration to produce internal Justice Department interpretations of what the government is allowed to do under the Patriot Act. Congress reauthorized the law on Thursday but did not include an amendment sponsored by the …
BattlelandIntelligence
“Americans would be alarmed if they knew how this law is being carried out.” That was Oregon Democrat Sen. Ron Wyden on the Senate floor yesterday pushing — unsuccessfully — for Congress to scale back some domestic snooping provisions in the Patriot Act.
Wyden suggested that the government was abusing Section 215 of the law, which …
BattlelandTerrorism
The Washington Post is reporting that Pakistan will allow a CIA team access to Osama bin Laden’s former compound in Abbottabad for a thorough search. The team of commandos that raided the bin Laden’s home was in and out in about 40 minutes, snatching computer parts, thumb drives, and paper records. This longer search would allow the …
BattlelandNational Security
Serbian police have arrested former Bosnian general Ratko Mladic, the accused war criminal allegedly responsible for the execution of at least 7,000 Muslim prisoners over a six-day period in 1995. News reports say he was living under an assumed name in Vojvodina, the Serbian province north of Belgrade.
The White House released a …
BattlelandCIA
The government’s motion filed May 23 to compel New York Times reporter James Risen to reveal his sources in federal court contains the following sentence: “Put simply, there is no basis to conclude that the criminal proceeding is being conducted in anything but good faith, that the reporter is being harassed in order to disrupt his …
BattlelandNational Security
Late last year I wrote a piece about an effort spearheaded by George Clooney to spin a bunch of commercial satellites over Sudan. The idea was to take detailed pictures of the border area between the North and South in case civil war broke out as the country split in two, as it is set to do in July. The idea was that the spotlight might …
BattlelandNational Security
President Obama’s Justice Department really has it out for the New York Times’ James Risen.
The Justice Department May 23 subpoenaed Risen – a second time – to testify about his alleged involvement in disclosing an apparently botched 11-year-old CIA program designed to disrupt Iran’s nuclear ambitions. The department wants …
BattlelandVeterans
On Nov. 8 Activision will release the video game “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.” The company calls the video game series “the best-selling first-person action series of all-time.”
I’m not a video game enthusiast. I do, however, interview a lot of soldiers. They all play Call of Duty. They are fanatic about it. View the trailer and …
BattlelandLibya
“It is certainly not the policy of the coalition, of this administration, to decapitate, if you will, or to effect regime change in Libya by force.” That was White House spokesman Jay Carney early in the war against Libya.
Early Tuesday night coalition aircraft struck 15 targets inside Tripoli. Most of the ordnance was aimed at …
BattlelandPentagon
It would be an understatement to say that many members of the press were surprised when the National Magazine Award for Reporting this year went to a piece Scott Horton did about deaths at the Guantanamo prison for Harper’s Magazine. That award is arguably the magazine industry’s equivalent of the Pulitzer (traditionally a newspaper …
BattlelandNational Security
The latest bombings and shootings in Baghdad on Sunday left at least 17 Iraqis dead. Two U.S. soldiers also died in this spasm of violence, the first soldiers to be killed in combat in Iraq this month. Assassinations are now on the rise in Iraq, according to new data.
News clips seem to suggest a recent uptick in sectarian violence in …
