Free Republic

Assembling defense team will be among the initial challengesFederal court set to confront issue of self-representation By Peter Finn Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, November 15, 2009 In a military commission at Guantanamo Bay, Khalid Sheik Mohammed kicked his military attorney off the defense team, forced a civilian lawyer to sit at the back of the courtroom and reluctantly accepted the presence of another advisory civilian counsel to help him defend himself. **SNIP** That is, of course, if Mohammed doesn't attempt to plead guilty to capital charges so he can be executed -- his stated desire in a quest for...

AP sources: Cheney told CIA not to discuss program By PAMELA HESS – 23 minutes ago WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Vice President Dick Cheney directed the CIA eight years ago not to inform Congress about a nascent counterterrorism program that CIA Director Leon Panetta terminated in June, officials with direct knowledge of the matter said Saturday. Subsequent CIA directors did not inform Congress because the intelligence-gathering effort had not developed to the point that they believed merited a congressional briefing, said a former intelligence official and another government official familiar with Panetta's June 24 briefing to the House and Senate...

WASHINGTON—A federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia has indicted James Wilbur Fondren Jr., on one count of conspiracy to communicate classified information to an agent of a foreign government and act as an illegal foreign agent; four counts of unlawfully communicating classified information to an agent of a foreign government; and three counts of making false statements to the FBI. If convicted on all charges, Fondren would face a maximum of 60 years in prison. David Kris, Assistant Attorney General for National Security; Dana Boente, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; and Joseph Persichini, Jr.,...

A recent U.S. military policy decision now explicitly states that observations by hush-hush government spacecraft of incoming bolides and fireballs are classified secret and are not to be released, SPACE.com has learned. The satellites' main objectives include detecting nuclear bomb tests, and their characterizations of asteroids and lesser meteoroids as they crash through the atmosphere has been a byproduct data bonanza for scientists. The upshot: Space rocks that explode in the atmosphere are now classified. "It's baffling to us why this would suddenly change," said one scientist familiar with the work. "It's unfortunate because there was this great synergy...a very...

Note: The following text is a quote: THE BRIEFING ROOM THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary _______________________________________________ For Immediate Release May 27, 2009 MEMORANDUM FOR THE HEADS OF EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES SUBJECT: Classified Information and Controlled Unclassified Information As outlined in my January 21, 2009, memoranda to the heads of executive departments and agencies on Transparency and Open Government and on the Freedom of Information Act, my Administration is committed to operating with an unprecedented level of openness. While the Government must be able to prevent the public disclosure of information where such disclosure would compromise the...

Tired of Ebay and Craigslist snubbing you? Has your local paper refused to list guns in their classifieds section? Afraid of overreaching legislation designed to strip away your ability to purchase firearms from other law abiding individuals? Local suppliers unable to meet demand? Visit the Arms List They boast, " ARMSLIST, is a free local classified site for listing hand guns, pistols, rifles, shotguns, ammunition, archery, and hunting equipment. We created this site to allow people to find buyers and seller in their local community and not have to pay fees to list their stuff. We wanted the site to...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department on Monday released a long-secret legal document from 2001 in which the Bush administration claimed the military could search and seize terror suspects in the United States without warrants. The legal memo was written about a month after the Sept. 11 terror attacks. It says constitutional protections against unlawful search and seizure would not apply to terror suspects in the U.S., as long as the president or another high official authorized the action. >snip The memo was one of nine released Monday by the Obama administration.

December 30, 2008 Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2008/December/08-nsd-1154.html Former Army Employee Pleads Guilty to Acting as Israeli Agent MANHATTAN — Lev L. Dassin, the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that Ben-Ami Kadish pleaded guilty earlier today to a one-count information charging him with participating in a conspiracy to act as an unregistered agent of the Government of Israel. In summary, according to statements at Kadish’s guilty plea before U.S. Magistrate Judge Theodore H. Katz, the Information and other documents filed Manhattan federal court: Kadish is a former employee of the...

Click here ---> http://88.80.13.160/wiki/US_Boomerang_weapon_system_users_manualNo, I'm sorry, help me out here, please... How do they get away with this crap? Am I missing something? Sheesh!

WASHINGTON - A new classified intelligence assessment on Iraq says there has been significant progress in security since the last assessment was delivered in August, a senior military official said. In most ways the new National Intelligence Estimate hews closely to the one delivered nine months ago. That document spoke of security gains since the increase in troop levels began in January 2007, the continued high rate of violence and uneven progress on the part of Iraqi security forces. "It does not differ significantly from August's NIE," a congressional official said in describing the document. The officials spoke on condition...

Still in Control Pervez Musharraf was calm, confident and—despite a flurry of rumors—not about to announce his resignation. Instead, the Pakistani president's "concession" to his troubled nation was an announcement that he would allow Britain's Scotland Yard to help local law enforcement agencies with their investigation into last week's assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. Speaking in a nationally televised address two hours after Pakistan's election commission announced the postponement of the ballot to Feb. 18, six weeks later than had been scheduled, Musharraf was notably deferential in his remarks about Bhutto, often invoking her "martyrdom" and extolling...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A large U.S. spy satellite has lost power and propulsion and could hit the Earth in late February or March, government officials said Saturday. The satellite, which no longer be controlled, could contain hazardous materials, and it is unknown where on the planet it might come down, they said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the information is classified as secret.

Keith Weissman and Steven Rosen Are PhDs and Middle East Experts Who Did Some Lobbying. They Thought They Were Doing What Washington Insiders Always Do. Thomas O’Donnell didn’t reveal his job when he phoned Keith Weissman in 2004 and got the policy analyst’s wife. He says he didn’t want to scare her. When Weissman returned the call and found out O’Donnell was an FBI agent, his first reaction was to attempt a joke: “What did I do?” “I’m sure you didn’t do anything,” O’Donnell told him. He wanted to meet that day, for five or ten minutes, and get Weissman’s...

A psychiatrist who serves in the IDF reserves is suspected of offering classified information to foreign intelligence officials, including those from Iran, police announced Friday morning. 45-year-old David Shamir, ranked as major in the army, was indicted on severe charges of attempted espionage, contacts with a foreign agent and perverting the course of justice. He was arrested by the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) in cooperation with the Israel Police's Serious and International Crimes Unit on November 14, police said. According to the prosecution, during his IDF reserve duty, the psychiatrist was exposed to classified material including emergency plans of...

November 18, 2007 U.S. Secretly Aids Pakistan in Guarding Nuclear Arms By DAVID E. SANGER and WILLIAM J. BROAD WASHINGTON, Nov. 17 — Over the past six years, the Bush administration has spent almost $100 million so far on a highly classified program to help Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan’s president, secure his country’s nuclear weapons, according to current and former senior administration officials. But with the future of that country’s leadership in doubt, debate is intensifying about whether Washington has done enough to help protect the warheads and laboratories, and whether Pakistan’s reluctance to reveal critical details about its arsenal...

Did the 9/11 Commission receive all the documents it requested? Davis Releases Berger Report January 9, 2007 By David Marin (202)225-5074 Washington, D.C. – Oversight and Government Reform Committee Ranking Member Tom Davis (R-VA) released the following statement today on a committee report that sheds important new light on Sandy Berger’s theft of classified documents from the National Archives. The report makes it clear that the full extent of Mr. Berger’s document removal can never be known, and consequently the Department of Justice could not assure the 9/11 Commission that it received all responsive documents to which Mr. Berger had...

Sandy Bungler's Burglary Exposed or...Why Character Matters “My staff’s investigation reveals that President Clinton’s former National Security Advisor Sandy Berger compromised national security much more than originally disclosed,” Davis said. “It is now also clear that Mr. Berger was willing to go to extraordinary lengths to compromise national security, apparently for his own convenience. “The 9/11 Commission relied on incomplete and misleading information regarding its access to documents Mr. Berger reviewed. No one ever told the Commission that Mr. Berger had access to original documents that he could have taken without detection. “We now know that Mr. Berger left stolen...

Quick quiz.  If a Republican leader had gone into the National Archives and stolen classified material, material which detailed the actions of a Republican administration after a terrorist attack,  do you think the left would be calling for a investigation and a Special Counsel to be appointed? You bet your ass they would be.  Impeachment would be thrown around even more then it is now.  Think about this for one minute.  In the Plame case we had a desk jockey at the CIA outed after her husband lied to everyone and their mother about Iraq wanting to buy uranium from...

The New York Sun's Josh Gerstein is trying to find out what the Bush administration is and isn't doing to stop the drip-drip-dripping of the information faucet. He has gone to court and won a newsworthy ruling. Via the NYSun (hat tip - Betsy Newmark): A New York Sun reporter won an unusual victory in federal court in San Francisco last week, when a federal judge ordered the Department of Justice and other government agencies to respond to the reporter's request for a variety of documents that could show what efforts the Bush administration has made to investigate leaks to...

WASHINGTON - Classified information will be key evidence in the CIA leak trial and Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald went too far in his proposal to limit its release, a federal judge ruled Monday. Former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby is charged with lying to investigators in the case and wants to present classified material at his trial in January to show jurors that he had a lot on his mind and couldn't remember details about the leak. U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton said Libby has a right to use some classified material at trial in January. Walton...

The former Los Alamos National Laboratory subcontractor at the center of a federal security breach investigation faced three hours of questioning from FBI agents on Wednesday, according to her lawyer. Attorney Stephen Aarons said that Jessica Quintana, 22, is being open with investigators and is hoping to avoid jail time for apparently mishandling classified documents. The FBI is investigating how hundreds of those LANL documents— in both paper and electronic form— ended up in Quintana's mobile home. She has not been charged with a crime. Aarons has said that Quintana, who worked as an archivist at the lab, took the...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Justice Department has opened an investigation into leaks to the media about the National Security Agency's classified domestic surveillance program. The program authorizes the NSA to eavesdrop on Americans without first seeking permission from a court for a search warrant. It has caused a political uproar with both Democrats and Republicans questioning whether President Bush went beyond his powers under the U.S. Constitution in authorizing it. The New York Times was the first to report the story on December 16th and then officials confirmed its existence to CNN and other organizations. "The Justice Department has opened...

As media scoops go, those based on "classified" information seem to have a special cachet. But ...we wonder if anyone would bother to read this stuff if it didn't have the word "secret" slapped on it. That's our reaction to Sunday's New York Times report claiming that a 2006 national intelligence estimate, or NIE, concludes that "the Iraq war has made the overall terrorism problem worse..." This is supposedly because the war has provoked radical Islamists to hate America even more than they already did before they hijacked airplanes and flew them into buildings. If this is the kind of...

by Mark Finkelstein July 17, 2006 - 21:58 Will the left wing please make up its mind as to the danger posed by conservative talk-show fans? As documented by MRC, in the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing, liberals like Bryant Gumbel pointed the finger at conservative talk radio: "Right-wing talk show hosts like Rush Limbaugh . . . and others take to the air every day with basically the same format: detail a problem, blame the government or a group, and invite invective from like-minded people. Never do most of the radio hosts encourage outright violence, but the extent...

College students accustomed to hearing news on the Iraq War from professors and protesters who have never actually been there might find the documents retrieved by the U.S. forces there to be of interest. Thomas Joscelyn, a terrorism researcher, told the audience that “It shouldn’t really be a surprise to us,” about Saddam’s relationship with Islamic terrorist groups, including Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden. Michael Tanji the former Chief of the Document and Media Exploitation Division at the Defense Intelligence Agency said that “the sheer size of this problem is something people really don’t appreciate.” When it comes to...

By FRANK MIELE Loyalty is generally considered a virtue. Disloyalty is generally considered a vice. But one must sometimes choose between conflicting loyalties, and one’s choices on such occasions go a long way toward defining a person’s character. For instance, a person might have a great love for his or her country, and yet have a greater love for God. If such people hold in their heart a religious belief that war is immoral, then they are granted a conscientious objector status and exempted from combat duty. Are these people disloyal to the United States? Not at all, but they...

NEW YORK Managing Editor Paul Steiger of The Wall Street Journal and Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr. of The Washington Post were both asked to be part of last weekend's unique joint Op-Ed piece by the editors of The New York Times and Los Angeles Times, which defended the publication of stories about the secret SWIFT bank monitoring program, E&P has learned. But each declined. "We had talked about doing something together," Steiger said. "But when I looked at it and thought about it, our position was so different from theirs -- that nobody asked us not to publish [our...

June 30, 2006 "Show Me The Money!" By: Oliver North WASHINGTON, D.C. -- In the movie, "Jerry Maguire," Tom Cruise, playing a sports agent in the title role, euphorically shouts, "Show me the money!" Until this week, when the editors of the New York Times decided to reveal highly classified details about the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program, that's exactly what the U.S. government has been doing to Al Qaeda. In an effort to prevent another Sept. 11, the CIA and Department of the Treasury -- with the help of several U.S. and European financial institutions -- have been secretly mapping...

I'm hearing buzz about a protest in front of the NYTimes soon. Stay tuned.

Attorney General Gonzales: Indict the New York Times June 24th, 2006 Within days of the September 11th attacks, the head of Reuters’ worldwide news division, explaining the agency’s refusal to use the word “terrorist,” made the famous fatuous remark that “one man’s freedom terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.” Reuters, it seemed, wouldn’t be taking sides in America’s war on Islamic jihad, because as journalists, Reuters didn’t believe the American people and our allies are any “better” than our putrid enemies. Such is the repulsive state of the “moral equivalence” mongers in what passes for news journalism, even among those...

Why does The Washington Post willingly publish "classified" information affecting national security? Should Post journalists and others who reveal the government's secrets be subject to criminal prosecution for doing so? These questions, raised with new urgency of late, deserve careful answers. There's a reason why we're hearing these questions now. We live in tense times. The country is anxious about war and terrorism. Washington is more sharply divided along ideological lines than at any time since I came to work at The Post in 1963. The Bush administration has unabashedly sought to enhance the powers of the executive branch as...

...Mary McCarthy's leftist ties The world can sometimes seem a bit upside down. Take for example [edit] the constant complaints by "journalists" at the big mainstream media outlets about their reputation for having a liberal bias. Then watch as the journalistic community awards Pulitzer Prizes to the Washington Post for undermining the detention of terrorists by the Bush administration. Or how about the New York Times for undermining the Bush-supported program that involves wiretapping of phone conversations by suspected terrorists. How did we get to the point where journalists are rewarded when they put American national security at risk?...

Mary McCarthy is a new name on the public's radar screen, although she's apparently been known to some members of the mainstream media (MSM) for quite some time. Well, what has this woman wrought? To any discerning mind, her actions -- unauthorized disclosures of classified information -- are treasonous in nature. According to news reports, CIA officer Mary McCarthy provided classified information to the Washington Post and other news organizations regarding the transfer of terror suspects to overseas prisons for questioning, a practice often referred to as "rendition". The implication is that these suspects would be subjected to rougher treatment...

FOR THE LEFT, “FITZMAS” CAME YESTERDAY. A court brief filed by Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald states President Bush and Vice President Cheney declassified portions of the National Intelligence Estimate, allowing I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby to defend the administration in interviews with the press. In a typically mendacious sleight-of-hand, the Left has conflated this with the outing of non-covert CIA desk jockey Valerie Plame, intimating this “proves” Bush named her to “punish” her husband, Ambassador Joseph Wilson IV. Although Fitzgerald’s brief actually has nothing to do with the Plame leak – which he has never been treated as a crime –...

Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, testified to a federal grand jury that he had been "authorized" by Cheney and other White House "superiors" in the summer of 2003 to disclose classified information to journalists to defend the Bush administration's use of prewar intelligence in making the case to go to war with Iraq, according to attorneys familiar with the matter, and to court records. According to sources with firsthand knowledge, Cheney authorized Libby to release additional classified information, including details of the NIE, to defend the administration's use of prewar intelligence in making...

Lawyers for a former top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney on Monday made their first request to use classified evidence at his trial, launching a highly secretive court process that could bog down the case. In the filings made under seal in federal court, lawyers for I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby put the judge and prosecutors on notice that they want a jury to hear evidence the government now says is classified. Their action puts the Libby case on a dual track one public, the other secret that often can delay criminal cases from going to trial. (snip) Plame's identity...

WHAT is the proper balance between protecting public safety and promoting public knowledge? Thats a question news organizations face constantly, particularly at a time when American troops are in action overseas. The answer is that we in the media must take both values seriously. Freeing citizens from fear, and from ignorance, are both profound acts of patriotism, but sometimes they are in conflict. The latest example of this conflict comes from the New York Times, where Steve worked for 25 years. Last week the paper disclosed a secret program of government eavesdropping that evaded clear requirements for judicial review. At...

Paul over at Power Line poses a fascinating question -- in subtext -- in a recent post: How does the CIA protect its turf so well? Its skill in the art of the leak must play a major role. For one thing, this skill helps explain how the agency exerts so much control over those in the mainstream media who cover it. The subtextual question is, of course, what to do about this? My suggestion is that the Bush administration must realize that this is a terribly dangerous situation: at a time of national danger, when we are at war,...

House takes up leak reviewThursday, November 10, 2005 8:01 PM PST WASHINGTON (AP) - The House Intelligence Committee will look into a possible leak of classified information about secret CIA prisons but will not reopen its 2003 inquiry into prewar intelligence on Iraq. As calls for intelligence-related reviews grow on Capitol Hill, Rep. Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., said Thursday his committee will study several specific leaks of classified information, including a Nov. 2 Washington Post story that discussed the existence of secret CIA prisons overseas. The story said the ‘‘black sites'' were in eight countries, including democracies in Eastern Europe. Hoekstra...

Crossposted at Part-Time Pundit by John BambenekDuring the press conference this afternoon, US Prosecutor Fitzgerald emphasized that no one knew that Valerie Wilson/Plame worked for the FBI and that her cover has been blown. He said that she needed that cover and the blowing of that cover has harmed national security. After reading the indictment and listening to the press conference. Libby was charged with perjury, obstruction, and lying to investigators. If Libby leaked the name of a covered operative why is he not charged as such? The prosecutor during the press conference, Fitzgerald said he was “the first person...

WASHINGTON - The prosecutor in the CIA leak probe repeatedly asked New York Times reporter Judith Miller how Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff handled classified information in their discussions, and asked whether Cheney knew of their conversations. In a first-person account released Saturday on The Times' Web site, Miller recounted her recent grand jury testimony, which focused on her conversations in 2003 with Cheney's closest aide, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. Miller said she "didn't think" she heard covert CIA officer Valerie Plame's name from Libby. "I said I believed the information came from another source, whom I could...

SOCom to open site in Pinellas The operation responsible for coordinating the war on terror will establish a classified research center in St. Petersburg. TAMPA - The Pentagon is establishing a secret facility in St. Petersburg to help Special Operations Command better process intelligence. Because the project is classified, details remain sketchy. But Rep. C.W. Bill Young, R-Indian Shores, confirmed the basic outline late Friday. He said Blackbird Technologies of Virginia was awarded the $27-million contract to operate a Joint Intelligence Operations Center on behalf of SOCom, which is based at MacDill Air Force Base. SOCom oversees the nation's secret...

'DOCS IN SOCKS' BERGER RAPPED By DEBORAH ORIN September 7, 2005 WASHINGTON — The feds yesterday recommended that former Clinton National Security Adviser Sandy Berger get at least a year's probation and do community service — but no jail time — for stealing top-secret memos and lying about it. Berger pleaded guilty last April to taking the documents — and reportedly hiding them in his pants and socks — from the National Archives while vetting them to refresh his memory before testifying before the 9/11 commission. He's to be sentenced tomorrow. The memos were versions of a report that Berger...

An Arizona national guardsman serving in Iraq has been demoted for posting classified information on his blog, an army official said. Leonard Clark (40) was demoted from specialist to private first class and fined $1 640 said Colonel Bill Buckner, a spokesperson for the Multi-National Corps-Iraq, on Monday. Soldiers in Iraq are allowed to maintain blogs but cannot post information about army operations or movements. They also are barred from posting information about the death of a soldier whose family hasn't yet been notified. "The intent of the policy is not to violate soldiers' rights, but to safeguard soldiers," Buckner...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 8 - More than a year before the Sept. 11 attacks, a small, highly classified military intelligence unit identified Mohammed Atta and three other future hijackers as likely members of a cell of Al Qaeda operating in the United States, according to a former defense intelligence official and a Republican member of Congress. In the summer of 2000, the military team, known as Able Danger, prepared a chart that included visa photographs of the four men and recommended to the military's Special Operations Command that the information be shared with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the congressman, Representative...

COLORADO SPRINGS -- The U.S. military has devised its first-ever war plans for guarding against and responding to terrorist attacks in the United States, envisioning 15 potential crisis scenarios and anticipating several simultaneous strikes around the country, according to officers who drafted the plans. The classified plans, developed here at Northern Command headquarters, outline a variety of possible roles for quick-reaction forces estimated at as many as 3,000 ground troops per attack, a number that could easily grow depending on the extent of the damage and the abilities of civilian response teams. The possible scenarios range from "low end," relatively...

Sandy Berger's Sentencing Postponed Sentencing for former Clinton National Security Advisor Sandy Berger, who pled guilty in April to stealing and destroying top secret terrorism documents from the National Archives, has been delayed, NewsMax.com has learned. Asked why Berger wasn't sentenced as scheduled on Friday, July 8, a Justice Department spokesman told NewsMax on Tuesday that Berger's sentencing has been postponed till September. Story Continues Below The spokesman declined to offer an explanation for the delay. Repeated calls asking about the postponement to Berger's lawyer, Washington, D.C. attorney Lanny Breuer, went unreturned. Federal District Court's U.S. Magistrate Deborah Robinson, who...

MANILA, Philippines -- My Fox News producers and I have just returned from documenting an atrocity. While we were at the scene of the crime interviewing eyewitnesses, a copy of this week's Time magazine was placed in my hotel room. Our day was devoted to detailing the horrific treatment meted out to more than 75,000 Allied prisoners of war in the Philippines between 1942 and 1945. The day ended with an American "news" magazine's "sometimes shocking" classified account of how captured terrorists are treated at Guantanamo. A day that began with the Bataan Death March ended with a death wish....

Posted by CmdrTaco on Sunday May 01, @09:43AM from the hate-when-that-happens dept. cyclop writes "In March, U.S. troops in Iraq shot to death Nicola Calipari, the Italian intelligence agent that rescued the kidnapped journalist Giuliana Sgrena. U.S. commission on the incident produced a report which public version was censored for more than one third. Now Italian press is reporting that all confidential information in the report is available to the public, just by copying "hidden" text from the PDF and pasting it in a word processor (Italian). The uncensored report can now be directly downloaded (evil .DOC format, sorry)"

Sandy Berger... former National Security Advisor and Thief of Classified Documents, Receives slap on the Wrist As Bureaucracy covers for "it's own" DojGov.net Newswire 6 April 2005 The Justice Department said yesterday there was no evidence that former national security adviser Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger was trying to conceal information when he illegally took copies of classified terrorism documents out of the National Archives in 2003. This is in spite of the fact that he stole classified documents, destroyed them and lied about his actions in an attempt to revise historical events. Under an agreement with US Department of Justice...