TPMMuckraker | Talking Points Memo

The Daily Muck

By Will Thomas - June 1, 2007, 10:25AM

The Senate Intelligence Committee included in its bill authorizing intelligence activities written comments that recommend closing the CIA’s program of secret overseas prisons because of the damage they do to the American image. (Salon)

Valerie Plame continues to pursue justice for her outing from the CIA by members of the Bush administration. This time, Plame and her publisher are suing the CIA for allegedly delaying the publication of her new book. Former CIA officers must have all writings approved by the agency before publishing. (Associated Press)

Remember when we showed you pictures of the new U.S. Embassy being built in Iraq? Apparently, you weren’t supposed to see those. (Think Progress, Associated Press)

Bush unveiled his new climate plan yesterday, but some members of the international community are unimpressed. Says Stavros Dimas, the EU Environment Commissioner, “President Bush basically restates the U.S. classic line on climate change” arguing further that “the U.S. approach has proven to be ineffective in reducing emissions." Meanwhile, Bush’s chief NASA administrator made comments this week that undermined Bush’s position that his administration has always been worried about climate change. (Reuters, Washington Post)

Sen. John Kyl (R-AZ) has now acknowledged that he put a secret hold on the Open Government Act, which is meant to improve transparency in government and augment the Freedom of Information Act. Kyl maintains the bill would force the Justice Department to reveal sensitive information. We’re not worried; no one in Main Justice writes anything down anyway. (Associated Press)

A Saudi detainee who committed suicide in his Guantanamo Bay cell on Wednesday never met with a lawyer and was never charged with a crime during his five years of imprisonment, according to a legal defense group. He also was trained by U.S. forces before joining the Taliban in Afghanistan. (Washington Post)

Dick Cheney has kept secret his visitor logs by declaring them Presidential Records, but members of CREW maintain that the information should be released under the Freedom of Information Act. (Associated Press)

A military hearing next Monday is set to debate the limits of free speech for members of uniform. Three inactive reservists wore their uniforms to antiwar protests and allegedly made “disrespectful” and “disloyal” statements. At least one faces an “other than honorable” discharge from the Marine Corps. (Washington Post)

174 Comments

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Re: The new Baghdad Embassy

Best line of the day heard here at work.

They should just call it Fort Bush and give the security detail to F-Troop.

Posted by Jeff
June 1, 2007 11:30 AM | Reply | Permalink

Re. the Senate Intel Comm and the CIA secret prisons- you did not mention that one Democrat on the committee voted against refusal to fund these activities, thus apparently defeating the provision that would have cut the funding. Check FDL.

Posted by aterrificjob
June 1, 2007 11:55 AM | Reply | Permalink

senate intelligence committee. there is clearly something wrong with that combination of words. they are concerned about image. not criminality, image. do they eat babies and dogs for their power lunch?

Posted by oldtree
June 1, 2007 1:43 PM | Reply | Permalink

Griffin announced his expected departure yesterday.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/06/01/attorney.resignation/index.html

Posted by Tom D.
June 1, 2007 3:32 PM | Reply | Permalink

Just thought I'd pass along the news that a writer at the TPM Cafe got mentioned in a New Age newspaper op-ed dated 6/2/07 (link below). New Age is a leading newspaper in Dhaka, Bangldesh.

The op-ed piece is about Curt Weldon who has been busy in Bangladesh recently for those who thought Weldon retired from meddling in foreign affairs.

Weldon was representing the "Global Alliance for Homeland Security" when he visited Dhaka in March. The Alliance, first registered at the end of September 2006, is run out of an apartment in Woodside, Queens in NYC.

Posted by Mrs Panstreppon
June 1, 2007 3:54 PM | Reply | Permalink

Foul! The CNN story about Griffin linked above contains an egregious error:

"He also has served a year on active duty as an Army prosecutor in Iraq."

Griffin served five months in Iraq, tops. According to Griffin's own resume, he was only in Mosul, Iraq from May 2006 to September 2006.

I posted a lot of information about Griffin's military service at the TPM Cafe (link below) and one of my questions is whether Griffin fudged the dates of his Iraq service. If Griffin used his military email address exclusively when he was in Iraq, he wasn't in Iraq in May or September.

Where did CNN get the bogus information about Griffin's Iraq military service? Fred Thompson or Mark Corallo or maybe Griffin himself?

Posted by Mrs Panstreppon
June 1, 2007 4:12 PM | Reply | Permalink

Can't get Ken Bohn at CNN read? Griffin's DOJ bio puts him in Iraq from May 2006 to August 2006:

http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/are/usa.html

(Link below)

Posted by Mrs P
June 1, 2007 4:21 PM | Reply | Permalink

A couple of Rove stories this week; the first is the Time article deals with Rove manipulating the prosecution of ex-ALA gov Don Siegelman:

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1627427,00.html?xid=site-cnn-partner

The other is the story of the 500 Rove emails that Greg Palast found; I sent this to you and Raw Story earlier in the week, but neither of you picked it up. Does that mean it's not credible? Somebody please post a response to this!
http://www.gregpalast.com/the-goods-on-goodling-and-the-keys-to-the-kingdom/#more-1739

Posted by SPENCER ADAMS
June 1, 2007 4:27 PM | Reply | Permalink

You might want to take a look at the recent diaries on Daily Kos about Palast and his e-mails. He was lightly questioned in one diary and he wrote a pretty intense reply. IMO, it's a distraction and Palast is being, at best, weird about it. Anyway, you can start with Palast's posts on Kos and work backwards from there. Have fun.

Posted by anon
June 1, 2007 5:11 PM | Reply | Permalink

Posted by anonymous
June 1, 2007 5:12 PM | Reply | Permalink

what's up, no muck today?

Posted by this guy
June 1, 2007 5:33 PM | Reply | Permalink

this guy

One of Mrs Panstreppon's entries at TPMCafe recieved international notice. Look up-thread

Posted by Steve5117
June 1, 2007 5:42 PM | Reply | Permalink

Now that you've mentioned it, Steve, yes, one of my TPM Cafe entries about Curt Weldon instigated the op-ed piece in Bangladesh's New Age newspaper (link below).

Posted by Mrs Panstreppon
June 1, 2007 6:05 PM | Reply | Permalink

Mrs Panstreppon

Perhaps you could become rich and famous doing research for international customers who would like to know about Americans and their companies or organizations who whan to "help" them.

Have you introduced yourself to the people in Bangladesh yet?

Posted by Steve5117
June 1, 2007 6:17 PM | Reply | Permalink

steve - i just meant that i was disappointed that there was only one brief piece besides the two daily columns. i want my muck!!

Posted by this guy
June 1, 2007 6:21 PM | Reply | Permalink

this guy

How about Fred Thompsons 2nd wife? I've seen a couple of pictures of her and she looks like she could have been a lot of fun to be with when she worked for the law firm that represented the tobbaco lobby?

Anybody got any much on her?

And speaking of Fred. He married his first wife when he was 17. I recently read that "Fred worked his way through college", but I'll bet the first wife worked more, in addition to having kids.

Posted by Steve5117
June 1, 2007 6:39 PM | Reply | Permalink

What is this non-sense, "recommending" -- Congress doesn't "recommend" but either does or does not DO. Something. Let' see some g-d, da-ned shut down of the funding: "recommend closing the CIA’s program of secret overseas prisons"

What about the _domestic_ secret prisons? Congress only talked about the "overseas" prisons.

What about the _undersea_ prisons on submarines? Yes, there are allegations that the abuse has occurred on NAVAL ships, so stop laughing.

End all abuse; stop acting like the USSR, and dare to be Americans as it once was: Inspiration. This is utterly pathethic. As if the US has embraced the worst, and raced the world to the bottom. America's Roman Empire of barbarity. No surpirse why the Iraqi insurgency is enboldened.

Posted by Anonymous
June 1, 2007 7:24 PM | Reply | Permalink

The torture is sickening. A Huffington Post Article about a vet's suicide mentioned another vet who committed suicide because he was on a plane where a prisoner was being tortured and he could stop them and was haunted by it.

I had not read of torture in submarines but almost 2 years ago read that torture was taking place on Naval ships.

I think Kay Griggs was telling the truth.

Posted by Irina
June 2, 2007 4:44 AM | Reply | Permalink

Put the specifics aside: "What is going to ensure, regardless who Controls Congress or the government, that the rule of law is asserted."

Time to put somet thinking in what will ensure there are investigations, and justice on all people, even if a majority party thinks they're above the law. Need to have a method that will work, regardless "one party control of government".

I'm not satisfied with "the voeters will figure it out" as -- despite the voters figuring it out, the Congress refuses to enforce the law: With impeachment off the table, prosecution of a sitting President is BACK ON THE TABLE. In fact, it never left. Govt will only work -- regardless a theory on "govt isn't supposed to work" -- if it is made to work, not let spiral, as it has done, into this uncheckable criminal enterprise.

Posted by Anonymous
June 2, 2007 4:28 PM | Reply | Permalink

Like a house-of-cards...
IT'S...

Posted by Herb
June 2, 2007 8:45 PM | Reply | Permalink

Do the US's discussions with the Iranians involve a real estate agent? Maybe the Iranian Foreign Minister is asking them to put a hot tub in his future embassy guest room.

The whole thing is a ridiculous waste of tax dollars. 9 times out of 10 when a bureaucrat cries national security, it's just to cover up their theft or to conceal how absolutely incompetent they are.

Posted by Jack
June 3, 2007 8:12 AM | Reply | Permalink

I know why Cheney doesn't want the visitor logs released.

Well, where else do you think Osama bin Laden has been hiding out all these years?

No, no, not in a cave along the Pakistani/Afghani border, but in a spare room at the Naval Observatory...probably in the basement?

Of course, bin Laden had to sign in like every visitor does, rules are rules, so his name is on the register, probably from sometime back in 2002.

Remember in 2002 when Bush changed his tune about getting Osama bin Laden "dead or alive," and instead indicated he no longer cared where bin Laden was?

Some might say that he wanted attention shifted from bin Laden to his insane obsessiion to start a war with Iraq, but I say Bush and Cheney let bin Laden escape at Tora Bora and later shut down the U.S. intelligence's "bin Laden unit" because they already knew where bin Laden was secretly sequestered...at Cheney's vice presidential residence, the Naval Observatory.

Hey, just connecting the dots. Hee, hee, hee.

Posted by The Oracle
June 3, 2007 7:48 PM | Reply | Permalink

The Oracle

I think they have him on work-release: I'm sure I've seen Osama working at a convience store in Ellicott City and one in Rockville.

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