The SSCI just released a narrative--originally requested by Jello Jay--of the general history of torture under the Bush Administration, including, purportedly, all the OLC memos that support torture (though it doesn't include the 2003 one Michael Hayden referenced the other day).

Senate intelligence panel confirms my scoop on the 2007 OLC memo

Spencer's story on a previously unknown 2007 OLC memo suggests the CIA continued to distrust Bush's willingness to give them policy cover for torture.

Boy, wouldn't you love to be a fly on the wall when Jane Harman runs into John Kerry after this choice bit from Jeff Stein: According to two officials privy to the events, Gonzales said he "needed Jane" to help support the administration's warrantless wiretapping program, which was about to be exposed by the New York Times. Harman, he told Goss, had helped persuade the newspaper to hold the wiretap story before, on the eve of the 2004 elections.

One aspect of the Jane Harman/AIPAC/Gonzo/wiretap scandal that could be cleared up very quickly by a player still slightly outside the frame: did AIPAC lobby Nancy Pelosi on behalf of Jane Harman's ascension to chair the House Intelligence Committee?

Leon Panetta just reassured Congress that contractors will no longer be used for interrogations.

In Family of Secrets, Russ Baker exposes many new details from the Bush family history. Those details may make you question what you know about US history.

Obama followed up his memo of the other day--promising not to use signing statements like Bush did--with a signing statement used like Bush did. Most troubling, he used it to counteract efforts to make it easier for whistleblowers to report problems and wrong-doing to Congress.

Sy Hersh reveals that Cheney had an assassination squad reporting directly to him.

Former U.S. Ambassador Charles "Chas" W. Freeman, Jr was considered "the wrong guy" to serve as the country's top intelligence analyst, ....