Robert Burns | Washington | June 15

WaPo - The White House is partially lifting the lid of secrecy on its counterterrorism campaign against al-Qaida in Yemen and Somalia by formally acknowledging for the first time that it is conducting lethal attacks in those countries.

The White House’s semiannual report to Congress on the state of U.S. combat operations abroad, delivered Friday, mentions what has been widely reported for years but never formally acknowledged by the administration: The U.S. military has been taking “direct action” against members of al-Qaida and affiliates in Yemen and Somalia.

The report does not elaborate, but “direct action” is a military term of art that refers to a range of lethal attacks, which in the case of Yemen and Somalia include attacks by armed drones. The report does not mention drones, which are remote-controlled, pilotless aircraft equipped with surveillance cameras and sometimes armed with missiles.

The Atlantic's Robert Wright charges that the Obama administration is letting America drift toward war with Iran because of fear of Israel and it's lobby's influence on election-year domestic politics.

The basic story line, pretty well known inside the beltway, is simple: There are things Obama could do to greatly increase the chances of a negotiated solution to the Iranian nuclear problem, but he seems to have decided that doing them would bring political blowback that would reduce his chances of re-election.

Specifically, Wright contends, Obama's acceptance of the pro-Israel lobby's demand that there be zero enrichment from Iran and that no sanctions relief be offered while any enrichment is going on has hamstrung negotiations.

Nick Malkoutzis | June 15

Ekatimerini - Trying to predict how Greeks will vote on June 17 in the midst of the turmoil created by the country’s grueling economic crisis and the disorientating political transition is a thankless task, but the latest Public Issue poll for Kathimerini indicates we might get a clear result.

More so than at any other point over the last few weeks, Public Issue suggests that SYRIZA has built a commanding -- although not decisive or unassailable -- lead over New Democracy. The survey shows a rise of 1.5 percent for the leftists since last week, so they now stand at 31.5 percent. New Democracy suffered

Chad Bray, MIchael Rothfield and Reed Albergotti | June 15

WSJ - A federal jury convicted Rajat Gupta, once an executive and board member at the pinnacle of American business, of insider trading, capping the fall of the most prominent figure caught in the government's drive to stop the leaking of corporate secrets to Wall Street.

A former director at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. GS +1.96% and Procter & Gamble Co., PG -0.47% Mr. Gupta was convicted in New York on three counts of securities fraud and one count of conspiracy for passing along confidential boardroom information about both companies to a hedge fund that earned millions of dollars trading on his tips. He was acquitted of two counts of securities fraud.

Just as George H.W. Bush was for the original Earth Summit in Rio twenty years ago, the current U.S. President will be a no-show for Rio 2012. He's sending Clinton instead. Because, y'know, re-election campaigning is more important than the impending end of civilization as we know it...and because Hillary likes a good Latin American party.

Deja-vu at Rio +20.

Here's interesting:

Recent revelations about clandestine U.S. drone campaigns against al Qaeda and other militants are not part of two major leak investigations being conducted by federal prosecutors, sources familiar with the inquiries said.

Most detailed information on the drone wars, which were initiated by the George W. Bush administration but expanded by President Barack Obama, is highly classified, officials said.

But Obama and top administration officials, including White House counter-terrorism chief John Brennan, recently have been alluding more openly to drone operations in public remarks, and detailed news coverage has been widespread.

The CIA has not filed a "crime report" with the Justice Department over reports about Obama's drone policy and a U.S. "kill list" of targeted militants, an action which often would trigger an official leak investigation, two sources familiar with the matter said. They requested anonymity to discuss sensitive information.

The appointed prosecutors will be investigating the Stuxnet and Undies-Bomber leaks but not this one. So presumably the Kill List story in the New York Times was sourced from officially unofficial leaks sanctioned by the White House after all. Despite Obama's denials, it looks very like those who were saying it was a deliberate "put" to burnish his image as a Tough Guy in front of the electorate were right all along. Note also the delicious irony of two officials leaking to tell us all this. Sadly, however, Obama's initial denial and the appointment of two prosecutors without being clear about which leaks they were investigating defused the immediate outcry and now the news cycle has moved on, so this confirmation that the Kill List leak was politically sanctioned will get little notice.

June 15

BBC - Illegal immigrants who came to the US as children may be eligible for work permits and will not be deported, the Department of Homeland Security says.

Under a new plan, those aged between 16 and 30 who have lived in the US continuously for five years would be eligible for amnesty from deportation

According to the official DoD count (PDF), as of today (Thursday) there have been 2,000 American fatalities in Operation Enduring Freedom. As John Kerry famously asked in 1971: "How do you ask someone to be the last American soldier to die for a mistake?", because that's certainly what the failed nation-building experiment in Afghanistan has turned into. Born out of the same Western hubris as the Iraqi occupation and perpetuated by Western leaders who are too scared of admitting their hubris to their electorates.

Raphael Satter | London | June 14

AP - British authorities on Thursday unveiled an ambitious plan to log details about every Web visit, email, phone call or text message in the U.K. – and in a sharply-worded editorial the nation's top law enforcement official accused those worried about the surveillance program of being either criminals or conspiracy theorists.

The government insists it's not after content. It promises not to read the body of emails or eavesdrop on phone calls without a warrant. But the surveillance proposed in the government's 118-page draft bill would provide authorities a remarkably rich picture of their citizens' day-to-day lives, tracking nearly everything they do online, over the phone, or even through the post.

Noah Shachtman:

After years of sending drones and commandos into Pakistan, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta last week finally admitted the obvious: The US is “fighting a war” there. But American robots and special forces aren’t just targeting militants in Pakistan. They’re doing the same — with increasing frequency and increasing lethality — in Yemen. The latest drone attack happened early Wednesday in the Yemeni town of Azzan, killing nine people. It’s the 23rd strike in Yemen so far this year, according to the Long War Journal. In Pakistan, there have been only 22.

Surely, if America is at war in Pakistan, it’s at war in Yemen, too. And it’s time for the Obama administration to admit it.

Admit we're at war in Yemen? The Justice Deptartment doesn't even admit there's such a thing as a drone program, despite everyone from Obama on down talking about it publicly. Orwell meets Kafka.

This is not a rhetorical question: would you have the guts to appear on the cover of Time magazine if you were in their shoes?

Featured on the magazine's cover between the phrases "We Are Americans*" and "*Just not legally," Vargas is joined by other undocumented immigrants from around the world. The men and women pictured along with Vargas also recently came out of the shadows and revealed their immigration status publicly.

In the introduction to the cover story, Vargas argues that the immigration system is fundamentally broken and that it prevents deserving candidates, many of who identify as American, from residing in the country legally. Vargas also discusses his new campaign, Define American.

"I founded a campaign called Define American, to document the lives of the undocumented and harness the support of our allies around this very controversial and misunderstood issue," Vargas writes. "There are an estimated 11.5 million people like me in this country, human beings with stories as varied as America itself, yet lacking a legal claim to exist here," Vargas adds.

There has never been an American administration more likely to order the deportation of otherwise law-abiding people, with families who rely on them and lives built in America. Three hundred and ninety seven thousand were deported in 2011 alone. Would you have the guts to stand up as an illegal and call for changes to the system that breaks families apart?

Honestly, I don't think I'm brave enough for that. I don't think I'm brave enough to risk an eight year old autistic child who has had his Daddy around to help and educate him every day of his life wondering aloud for a year, 18 months or more where Daddy has gone. I couldn't do it.

Update: Obama finally takes some affirmative action. It's politically motivated, it's not enough and it's taken to long - but that shouldn't detract from the hope it gives 800,000 young people. Thirty-two of the thirty-three people on that Time cover above are now safe. Jose isn't, he's too old by a year for Obama's initiative.

Via The Atlantic.

"You learn more from the book than I did as chairman of the intelligence committee...and that's very disturbing to me."

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, on David Sanger's new book "Confront and Conceal".

John Redwood, a Conservative member of Parliament, comments in the NY Times, on the future structure of a relationship of the United Kingdom to European nations staying in the euro zone:

If the euro countries decide they want to integrate more, our government should negotiate a new relationship with their emerging country (call it Euroland). If they want to govern themselves as one state — to provide central controls over taxing, spending and borrowing — that would be a different deal from the grouping of countries we joined in 1972 to create the European Common Market. Most people here have never wanted much more than trade and friendship with our neighbors in what is now the European Union. Among the large majority here, there is little appetite for more common government.

Cairo | Jun 14

CNN - Egypt's highest court on Thursday declared the parliament invalid, and the country's interim military rulers declared full legislative authority, triggering a new level of chaos and confusion in the country's leadership.
..
The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, in control of the country since Mubarak's ouster, announced that it now has full legislative power and will announce a 100-person assembly that will write the country's new constitution by Friday.

Craig Whitlock | Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso | Jun 14

WaPo - The U.S. military is expanding its secret intelligence operations across Africa, establishing a network of small air bases to spy on terrorist hideouts from the fringes of the Sahara to jungle terrain along the equator, according to documents and people involved in the project.

At the heart of the surveillance operations are small, unarmed turboprop aircraft disguised as private planes. Equipped with hidden sensors that can record full-motion video, track infrared heat patterns, and vacuum up radio and cellphone signals, the planes refuel on isolated airstrips favored by African bush pilots, extending their effective flight range by thousands of miles.

A bout a dozen air bases have been established in Africa since 2007, according to a former senior U.S. commander involved in setting up the network. Most are small operations run out of secluded hangars at African military bases or civilian airports.

The nature and extent of the missions, as well as many of the bases being used, have not been previously reported but are partially documented in public Defense Department contracts.

Graphic of The African network

By Andrew Kreig
Justice-Integrity Project

Republicans on Capitol Hill this week escalated their attacks on Obama administration for alleged national security leaks, fatal lapses in gun-control and supposed interference with state power to curtail voting fraud lapses. Some Republicans are questioning the integrity of Attorney General Eric Holder, below left, and calling for his resignation.

Democrats are used to relying on the civil liberties community for support in such battles. But here the facts are still largely hidden and Obama officials who have pooh-poohed domestic civil rights issues for most of their administration don't deserve much support as they withstand attacks, fairly or not, for their own conduct.

Led by Holder, the Obama administration has whitewashed bogus Bush-era political prosecutions in Alabama, New Jersey, North Carolina and elsewhere. Also, it has crushed civil rights protections for torture victims and other detainees and whistleblowers. Further, it has fostered an unprecedented war on news reporters such as James Risen of the New York Times covering such matters. The DOJ's overall strategy clearly came from high levels at the White House. Why, therefore, should civil rights advocates grieve if Republicans hound Holder and snipe at the White House?

By Michael Collins

It's about time.


John Edwards Trial: Justice Department Drops Case Against Ex-Senator

By MICHAEL BIESECKER 06/13/12 08:44 PM ET AP

RALEIGH, N.C. — Federal prosecutors dropped all charges Wednesday against John Edwards, triggering criticism that the year-long prosecution of the former presidential candidate was a waste of time and taxpayer money.

The U.S. Justice Department said in a court order that it will not seek to retry Edwards on the five unresolved counts.

"Last month, the government put forward its best case against Mr. Edwards, and I am proud of the skilled and professional way in which our prosecutors.... conducted this trial," he said, adding that he respected the jury's judgment and decided not to seek a retrial "in the interest of justice."

How many times have you seen a Discovery ID or other documentary crime show in which a prosecutor is adamant on the guilt of a convicted murderer who was just proven innocent by reason of DNA testing.

Why is this any different? Never mind that the Supreme Court's Citizens United made the charges irrelevant, largely Never mind that cases against politicians brought by the Federal government against politicians are on a losing streak (see Justice-Integrity Project).

This was a turkey from the start. That's all the motivation by the government we need to know now.

The Edwards Prosecution – They have better things to do, June 7, 2011,

John Cole (re: Greenwald's latest):

Our mere presence in Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War I years was what helped to radicalize Osama bin Laden. What on earth is so controversial about noting that a decades long reign of bombing and drone strikes and civilian casualties might be the motivating force behind terrorists plotting and attempting another 9/11 style attack?

Apparently it's only truly controversial when noted by a selectively-edited, decontexualized scary black preacher. Regardless, an asymmetrical counterstrike on the US by terrorists to further blur the lines of where the battlefield ends (and how one defines 'civilian' and 'combatant') is seemingly inevitable, as is the subsequent disproportionate response on the part of whomever is CiC at the time.

Change is just a glossy synonym for destruction, even when saturated with a sick sense of deja vu all over again (also, TANSTAAFL).

Update: File under "it's the policy, not the tech": Daniel Trombly outlines how the targeted killing debate has thus far been too narrowly framed by technophobic drone opponents: "There are merits to creating legal frameworks that clarify the use of targeted killings, but framing the problem as controlling the technology is absurd."

(Title slightly modified to mitigate initial drunkfail. Never blog after uncorking teh chardonnay.)

I've suspected that when Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu visited the US earlier in the spring, President Barack Obama laid down some lines on Israel's behavior. This small bit of news isn't enough to support that idea, but I'd like to note it for future reference.

Last week, the Global Counterterrorism Forum held its first meeting. Without Israel. Turkey is the co-convenor of the Forum, with the United States, and the rumor circulated that Turkey had insisted on excluding Israel. The official US statement on that subject was noncommittal.

At a press conference yesterday, a Pentagon spokesman seemed to contradict SecState Hillary Clinton's very public, and widely reported, accusation that Russia was sending new attack helicopters to Syria (Via Lucy Kaminov):

Q: Just one more quick follow-up. Secretary of State Clinton said just a short time ago that Russia is now supplying attack helicopters to the Syrians, and warns of a serious escalation in the fighting there. Can you provide any details as to what kind of helicopters, when were they delivered, how are they being delivered?

CAPT. KIRBY: I am not seeing reporting that indicates the -- that the Russians are providing attack helicopters to the Syrians. I've just not seen that.

What I can tell you is that we have been in consultations with our Russian partners for some time now about the way forward in Syria and about soliciting their support for the kinds of international and economic pressure that we believe needs to continue to be applied against the Assad regime. But I have not seen reports about specific helicopter airframes being provided to Syria.

When even the CEO of Business Insider says trickle down economics is just the elite urinating on the rest of us (with copious charts), you know the robber barons have gone too far.

In November, Americans will have a chance to speak their minds.

And there's one thing everyone should agree on:

America just isn't working right now.

...Over the past couple of decades, the disparity between "the 1%" and everyone else has hit a level not seen since the 1920s. And there is a widespread and growing sense that life here is not fair or right.

If America cannot figure out a way to fix these problems, the country will likely become increasingly polarized and de-stabilized. And if that happens, the recent "Occupy" protests will likely be only the beginning.

There's something happening here.

You poor kids will have to support your parents while your kids are still in college.

My dad worked 45 years in construction. He was union. He got full health insurance for him and his family, including us younglings until we were 21 or out of college. This included full eyecare, dental, and disability coverage. The man didn't work an hour of overtime (although he did skip nearly every vacation he could so he could bank the paid time off.)

We were far from rich-- when he was out of work, we made do on sandwiches for lunch and dinner from the ham my mom would boil on Sundays-- but he managed to sock away a few bucks here and there such that he had about $250K put away when he retired. He and my mom almost outlived that money, but then they did not live a frugal retirement.

Hilary Clinton says that Russia is sending attack helicopters to the Syrian regime, while the UK's Independent cites a Western diplomatic source in Turkey and FSA members to report that Quatar and Saudi Arabia are sending assault rifles, machine-guns, RPGs and anti-tank missiles to the rebels with Turkish help. As Clinton says, these moves "will escalate the conflict quite dramatically". Well, actually, she was only talking about the Russian weapons - Arab weapons are unescalating, apparently...

The UN is finally saying it's a civil war - something all but the most pedantic observers decided was the case some time ago. The latte-sipping interventionist crowd are still calling for a full-press Western military intervention while pretending that's not what would be needed, and if one unconfirmed report is correct, Russia is preparing troops in case it needs to do an intervention of its own in return. Even if that story is false, the gunship sales alone show Russia isn't about to abandon Assad.

It seems to me that we're on a slippery slope to a major war once again, requiring only time and the inevitable progressing narrative for that war. No Western government has yet openly advocated Western military intervention, but Clinton and others have said clearly that the West's objective now is regime change, which I cannot see happening otherwise. Once intervention begins - Syria is not Libya and is possibly even more of a quagmire in the making than Iraq ever was.

As the High Park fire in Colorado (60 square miles) joins the massive Whitewater-Baldy, New Mexico blaze (450 square miles) and the Ruidoso, New Mexico fire (40 square miles) as well as smaller fires in Wyoming and Utah, the Mid-West's wildfire season has come early and hard in 2012.

Now comes a report from Texas Tech University climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe and others that shows climate change is definitely playing a role.

"The traditional answer is: We can't say anything about just one event," Hayhoe said. With this report, "we can say a little bit more than that now." Hayhoe, along with an international team of scientists, discovered that climate change will disrupt fire patterns across over 80 percent of the globe by the end of the century. "Scientists found compelling agreement in long term models that more fires would occur at mid-to-high latitude areas like North America (shorter term models present more variability)."

"There's no question that humans have altered the background atmosphere on a global scale," Hayhoe said. "And there's also no question humans have altered the environment on the local and regional level" by living near forests and choosing how to manage them. "Climate change is often the final straw in a lot of those cases."

..."The spatial extent of the disruption raises our awareness that climate change's effect on fire is not just a regional issue. It's not unique to certain parts of America," Hayhoe said. In particular, the world's grasslands, desert shrublands, and temperate conifer forests (like the one now burning) are likely to see more fires.

It's going to get harder and harder for the denialist camp to keep its supporters in the GOP heartland as they see smoke on the horizon or flames in their backyards. I don't think the GOP has worked this out yet though.