Court Decision (NOT Congress Oversight) Declared NSA Warrantless Wiretapping Illegal

Court document: Alharamain versus National Security Administration (From Secrecy News) WARRANTLESS SURVEILLANCE OF CHARITY RULED UNLAWFUL Warrantless surveillance of an Islamic charity in Oregon in 2004 violated the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), a court ruled (pdf) on March 31. In the culmination of a four-year lawsuit, Judge Vaughn Walker of the Northern District of …

Journal: Deja Vu in AF, Wahhabist Balkans….

Deja Vu in Marja Our guiding illusions in Afghanistan ANDREW J. BACEVICH, America Magazine: The National Catholic Weekly, 29 March 2010 In American politics, deficits have suddenly become all the rage. Throughout the presidency of George W. Bush, the federal government hemorrhaged red ink, with no one paying much attention. Upon the election of Barack …

EVENT REPORT: State of the Planet 2010, Columbia Univ, New York City

Panels and keynotes program schedule I was told via email from someone involved in the event that a video will be posted online.I will be posting this over a the Earth Institute blog (especially since it has zero comments for the March 25 event) as a challenge to improve the overall framework of the “State …

Video: Iraq Elections but Without Stability + New Book “The Iraq Papers”

Thanks to Steven Aftergood & Secrecy News for the heads up on the new book The Iraq Papers.  Secrecy News’ email newsletter describes it this way: An extensive compilation of official documents, policy advocacy statements, and assorted commentary on the U.S. decision to go to war in Iraq in 2003 is presented in “The Iraq …

Journal: Big Lie Attacks Many Little Lies–All Lies…

… Karl Rove and the repetition of the big lie. March 14, 2010 OP-ED COLUMNIST The New Rove-Cheney Assault on Reality By FRANK RICH, New York Times THE opening salvo, fired on Fox News during Thanksgiving week, aroused little notice: Dana Perino, the former White House press secretary, declared that “we did not have a terrorist …