Rather than trying to parse various statements made when the petitioner was held in black sites, the government brief concludes as a blanket rule that statements made “while he was in CIA custody” will be excluded. That’s the right answer as a matter of law and policy. (Because the government asks the court not to...
Category: Key Players
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Why We Lost in Afghanistan
Via CounterPunch.org, a veteran Washington military analyst Winslow Wheeler breaks it down. The Afghan government’s war effort was riddled with corruption at every level of the society, but mostly at the top. It was fueled by American plane loads of cash and bottomless economic handouts (with too little oversight too late — very informing but...
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Dan Jones: How ODNI Nominee Avril Haines Whitewashed Torture
Spencer Ackerman of Daily Beast calls it “a proxy war.” The nomination of Avril Haines to serve as director of the Office of National Intelligence (ODNI) has set off a power struggle between the center-left and center-right factions of the Democratic policy world. This is a consequential fight, the ODNI overseees–but does not actually run–17...
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All About Avril Haines, Biden’s Pick for the Top U.S. Intelligence Job
Avril Haines is President-elect Joe Biden’s choice to run the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). if confirmed, she will effectively serve as the chairwoman of the U.S. intelligence community. The ODNI doesn’t control the budgets of the 17 U.S. intelligence agencies, but it does coordinate and set direction. It is not as...
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How One Small U.S. Agency Is Hobbling the President-Elect Biden’s Pandemic Team
Update: as November 12, the Washington Post reports, that ” Emily Murphy, the administrator of the General Services Administration, still hasn’t signed the official letter that would allow the incoming Biden team to formally begin the transition.” The Atlantic reports that more than 100 former U.S. intelligence and national security officials have signed a letter to Murphy...