Author Archives: Michael Froomkin

What He Said (Gen. Sanchez edition)

I was going to fulminate about the trial balloon launched regarding promoting Gen. Sanchez. But Billion already did the job. So go see Whiskey Bar: Rewarding Failure.

One tiny footnote: as I understand it, Gen. Sanchez technically may not have perjured himself in front of Congress as he said he hadn't authorized highly coercive interrogation methods in the past year. It may have been just over twelve months since he'd done it.

That's very misleading, and certainly prevarication, but I'm not sure if it's technically perjury.

Posted in Iraq | 2 Comments

Snooper Nation

Most employers read staff's email:

MORE THAN 55 per cent of US companies snoop on their staff's private email and over 60 per cent are planning to hire more spies, according to a 2005 survey by the American Management Association and Columbus, an Ohio-based training and consulting firm The ePolicy Institute.

Generally speaking, if the staff has advance notice this is legal. (In some cases it may be legal without the notice either.)

Think about what this means for the social compact.

And be warned.

Posted in Law: Privacy | 1 Comment

More “Downings Street Memos”

Newsday has the AP story: Newsday.com: Memos show U.S. push for war, describing another six unvarnished pre-invasion memos now leaked from the UK.

Money quote is from Toby Dodge, identified as an Iraq expert who teaches at Queen Mary College, University of London:

Dodge said the memos also confirm that “soon after 9/11 happened, the starting gun was fired for the invasion of Iraq.”

Even though, as UK Foreign Minister Jack Straw then wrote, “there has been no credible evidence to link Iraq with OBL [Osama bin Laden] and al-Qaida.”

Posted in Iraq | Comments Off on More “Downings Street Memos”

Spiking a Rumor

I frequently run into this rumor that the Pentagon is trying to keep down the US casualty count by not including deaths which happen outside Iraq (e.g. wounded who die on the evac plane). And, alas, I don't have much any faith in the integrity of the Rumsfeldian spinmeisters. So it's nice to have an authoritative debunking from a neutral source: 9,000 dead and the Reality-Based Community:

For two solid years now, Michael White and I have followed the deaths in Iraq literally on a daily basis. We haunt the CENTCOM, MNF-Iraq and DOD websites … as well as all of the major news feeds. In fact, the two of us have grown adept at finding death notices in the news media prior to the military issuing them. For about the past year and a half, Michael and I have been joined in the research by Evan D., an historian in the Washington D.C. area, and by Lynn L., another researcher whose husband is in the 4th ID. So that makes 4 of us searching the news media and the military sites, each and every day mind you, for deaths.

And after all this time, we all four of us concur. Yes, there are a few unreported deaths, which I'll explain in a minute. But not thousands. We'd have found them if there were.

[…] there's no truth to the rumor that if you die outside of Iraq, the DOD automatically ignores you. Yes, occasionally it does … especially if the death happens months after the soldier gets back from Iraq (Lynn's husband knows of 5 men that this applies to). And I am told that occasionally Special Forces deaths may be hush-hush. But as a rule, no. It's just a wild rumor.

Settles that.

Posted in Iraq | Comments Off on Spiking a Rumor

What Goes Around, Comes Around Faster These Days

“What goes around comes around” is an old and optimistic truism. Thanks to the Internet, the cycle seems to be happening a little more quickly these days.

Posted in Internet | Comments Off on What Goes Around, Comes Around Faster These Days

Jeb Bush Sinks to a New Low

Jeb Bush has called for an “investigation” into something unknowable in an attempt to rehabilitate his ultra-right-wing credentials. It can only mean he hopes to be the vice-presidential nominee in the next election. (I believe him and his father when they say he won't be the presidential candidate…this time.)

Schiavo's 1990 Injury to Be Investigated in Fla.:

Gov. Jeb Bush (R) said Friday that a prosecutor has agreed to investigate why Terri Schiavo collapsed 15 years ago, citing an alleged time gap between when her husband found her and when he called 911.

In a letter faxed to Pinellas-Pasco County State Attorney Bernie McCabe, the governor said Schiavo testified in a 1992 medical malpractice trial that he found his wife collapsed at 5 a.m. on Feb. 25, 1990, and he said in a 2003 television interview that he found her about 4:30 a.m. He called 911 at 5:40 a.m.

“Between 40 and 70 minutes elapsed before the call was made, and I am aware of no explanation for the delay,” Bush wrote. “In light of this new information, I urge you to take a fresh look at this case without any preconceptions as to the outcome.”

On Wednesday, Michael Schiavo's attorney, George Felos, has said his client did not wait to call for help and has conceded that he confuses dates and times. Felos has said that if Michael Schiavo had not called 911 immediately, Terri Schiavo would have died that day. “There is no hour gap or other gap to the point Michael heard Terri fall and called 911,” Felos said. He called this a “baseless claim to perpetuate a controversy that in fact doesn't exist.”

It's highly [likely] that this craven act will produce a result the base will be able to brag is “inconclusive” since there is no relevant evidence to be found now. The major effects will be to further torment Michael Schiavo — HASN'T HE SUFFERED ENOUGH? — and throw a sop to the red-meat crowd.

Experts agree: Jeb Bush is a ghoul.

Posted in Florida | 2 Comments