(updated below - Update II) Following up on yesterday's post regarding NBC News' suppression of the "military analyst" scandal and its ongoing reliance on the deeply conflicted Barry McCaffrey: I have obtained, from a very trustworthy source, emails sent last week between NBC News executives and McCaffrey (which cc:d Brian Williams), reflecting the extensive collaboration between NBC and McCaffrey to formulate a coordinated response to David Barstow's story. The emails are re-printed here. Rather than ...

(updated below - Update II) The New York Times's David Barstow, whose excellent and aggressive journalism led to the uncovering last April of the Pentagon's domestic propaganda program involving network "military analysts," today returns to this topic with another lengthy front-page exposé. Barstow focuses today on the numerous, undisclosed conflicts of interest of Gen. Barry McCaffrey, who continues to be featured frequently by NBC News as an objective analyst as opines about war policies in ...

The New York Times Editorial Page, today, on poor U.S./Latin American relations: [T]he Bush administration did enormous damage to American credibility throughout much of the region when it blessed what turned out to be a failed coup against Mr. Chávez. Indeed it did. But what the Times fails to mention, and is apparently eager to erase, is that "the Bush administration" was far from alone in blessing that coup attempt: The New York Times Editorial ...

(updated below) Joe Klein, this week's Time Magazine, on George Bush's legacy: Bush has that forlorn what-the-hell-happened? expression on his face, the one that has marked his presidency at difficult times. You never want to see the President of the United States looking like that. So I've been searching for valedictory encomiums. . . . I'd add the bracing moment of Bush with the bullhorn in the ruins of the World Trade Center, but that ...

(updated below) From most precincts, there is lavish praise being heaped on Obama's new economic team, particularly soon-to-be Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and National Economic Counsel chief Larry Summers, who are being hailed as exactly the type of serious, deeply intelligent, pragmatic experts needed in this financial crisis. Oddly, that praise is pouring forth despite what many economic experts say is the role -- perhaps critical roles -- that each of them played in enabling ...

(updated below) One of the most significant aspects of Thursday's judicial ruling ordering the release of 5 Guantanamo detainees is that it came from Federal District Judge Richard Leon. Leon is an appointee of the very President whose decisions on these detainees he overrode and whose evidence he rejected as woefully inadequate -- George W. Bush. It was Lyon himself who ruled in the first instance that Guantanamo detainees have no right to habeas corpus ...

(updated below) I've been genuinely mystified by the disappointment and surprise being expressed by many liberals over the fact that Obama's most significant appointments thus far are composed of pure Beltway establishment figures drawn from the center-right of the Democratic Party and, probably once he names his Defense Secretary and CIA Director, even from the Bush administration -- but not from the Left. In an email yesterday, Digby explained perfectly why this reaction is so ...

(updated below - Update II) The Washington Post Editorial Page today hails the courage of six journalists who have faced down persecution and grave danger in their line of work and who, consequently, are this week receiving the International Press Freedom Award from the Committee to Protect Journalists: Plainclothes Ugandan police officers descended yesterday on the newsroom of the weekly newsmagazine the Independent, seizing computer documents and attempting to deliver an arrest warrant to managing ...

(updated below) A federal district judge, Richard Leon, today ordered the Bush administration "forthwith" to release five Algerian detainees who have been held in Guantanamo without charges since January, 2002 -- almost seven full years. The decision was based on the court's finding that there was no credible evidence that the 5 detainees intended to take up arms against the U.S. The court found sufficient evidence to justify the ongoing detention of a sixth Algerian ...

(updated below w/transcript) Scott Horton wrote the cover story for the current edition of Harper's (sub. req'd) -- entitled "Justice after Bush: Prosecuting an Outlaw Administration" -- in which he argues that it is imperative to investigate, expose, and prosecute the Bush administration's war crimes, particularly its torture of detainees. Scott sets forth a detailed proposal for how this should be pursued, beginning with the creation of a Truth Commission to expose what was done ...

Even before there has been a single Cabinet selection announced, I'm already weary from all the gossip and chatter about potential appointees, but, at least for me, the position of Attorney General is different. So much of the anti-constitutional abuses and radicalism of the last eight years emanated from the Justice Department, and few things will have more of an impact on what the Obama administration does about them than the views, integrity and independence ...

(updated below - Update II) An article in The Hill, describing how profoundly House Democrats will miss the leadership of Rahm Emanuel, recounts this episode, involving the vote by Democratic Rep. Tim Walz of Minnesota in favor of the dreadful Protect America Act in August of last year (h/t Matt Stoller): Members said [Emanuel] had a phenomenal knowledge of their districts, and he kept up to date well after the campaign ended. Rep. Tim Walz ...

(updated below) As Senate Democrats this morning prepare to reward Joe Lieberman with the powerful Chairmanship of the Homeland Security Committee, the most commonly recited claim -- both with regard to the Lieberman issue and Washington more generally -- is that Barack Obama's campaign to "change" Washington requires, first and foremost, an end to partisan bickering and a renewal of bipartisanship. As but one of countless examples, Steny Hoyer told The Hill yesterday "that bipartisanship ...

The international community now has a potent new motivating tool to dissuade world leaders from engaging in tyranny and aggression -- tell them they'll be like George Bush if they do it: Nicolas Sarkozy saved the President of Georgia from being hanged “by the balls” — a threat made last summer by Vladimir Putin, according to an account that emerged yesterday from the Élysée Palace. . . . The Russian seemed unconcerned by international reaction. ...

(Updated below - Update II - Update III - Update IV - Update V) A Washington Post article today on the need to restore confidence in the Justice Department quotes former high-level Clinton DOJ official Robert Litt urging the new Obama administration to avoid any investigations or prosecutions of Bush lawbreaking: Obama will have to do a careful balancing act. At a conference in Washington this week, former department criminal division chief Robert S. Litt ...

(updated below) Though it hasn't happened yet, it is appearing increasingly likely that Senate Democrats -- led by Barack Obama (who seems to be playing a much more active role in all of this than his spokesperson yesterday suggested) -- are going to choose Joe Lieberman to serve as their Chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in the next Congress. If that happens, there will be one important silver lining: it will ...

(Updated below - Update II - Update III - Update IV) There is much discussion about the signals Barack Obama is sending regarding whether Senate Democrats should strip Joe Lieberman of his powerful position as Chairman of Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Reports yesterday indicate that Obama is telling Senate leaders he wants Lieberman to remain in the Democratic caucus, but it's unclear whether or not that means Obama wants Lieberman to keep his Chairmanship, ...

Greenwald pwns Joe in record time.

(updated below w/transcript) My guest on Salon Radio today is Anthony Romero, the Executive Director of the ACLU, which recently released a detailed plan for the restoration of core liberties in America under an Obama administration. We discuss the most important priorities for civil libertarians in reversing the anti-constitutional abuses of the past, as well as strategies for holding Obama to his campaign pledges for doing so. Along those lines, the ACLU has a full-page ...

In today's New York Times, Maureen Dowd reveals (as always) standard Beltway thinking by writing that Barack Obama "has the chance to make the White House pristine again" -- somethings, she says, we haven't had for 16 years: But the monuments have lost their luminescence in recent years. How could the White House be classy when the Clintons were turning it into Motel 1600 for fund-raising, when Bill Clinton was using it for trysts with ...