Brian Sonenstein

The Obama administration has ignored over 23 requests from Congress for access to memos explaining the Executive’s legal authority to conduct Targeted Killings of ‘suspected terrorists.’ As former FDL’er Marcy Wheeler writes over at emptywheel.net, “Thus far, only the Intelligence Committees and the Senate — but not the House — Judiciary Committees have been able [...]

President Obama finally promised to release legal memos on the Targeted Killing program to members of congressional intelligence committees on February 6, 2013, after over 21 formal requests from legislators. But members of these committees have so far only been given limited access to 4 memos and the most important, including those addressing the government’s [...]

President Obama would rather succumb to Republican extortion than release the targeted killing memos to select members of Congress. The New York Times reports that the Obama administration is working on a deal to give Senate Republicans on the Intelligence Committee more information on the Benghazi embassy attack in exchange for the confirmation of CIA [...]

We’re happy to see the Department of Justice take Standard & Poor’s to court — but this civil suit represents just a small first step in holding Wall Street accountable for the 2008 financial crisis. Many people are still unsatisfied about the lack of prosecutions against Wall Street fraudsters. We need to make sure the [...]

On February 23rd, protests will take place in over 50 cities around the world to mark accused Wikileaks whistle blower Pfc. Bradley Manning’s 1,000th day in pretrial confinement. From the Bradley Manning Support Network: The government can still charge as planned, including using the Espionage Act and UCMJ Article 104, alleging Manning indirectly “aided the [...]

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities (RMBS) task force received ample attention from news and activist organizations alike following its dramatic announcement at last year’s State of the Union Address. The task force was supposed to investigate and prosecute Wall Street fraud that led to the housing bubble and the eventual collapse [...]

If Pfc. Bradley Manning is convicted of ‘aiding the enemy,’ it could be the end of whistleblowing as we know it in the United States Armed Forces. We made this YouTube advertisement entitled “Aiding the Enemy” to raise awareness of the dangers posed to the American public by leveling this charge at Bradley Manning, and [...]

At tonight’s State of the Union address, the president will likely touch on the social safety net and the need for a “grand bargain” to reduce the deficit. While we were able to push the president away from reducing medicare benefits for the elderly, it appears we have more work to do to communicate that [...]

Unless we act now, whistleblower John Kiriakou will be the first and only person to go to prison in connection to CIA torture. Please donate $10+ to put this ad on YouTube and recruit supporters from across the country to call on President Obama to pardon John Kiriakou. Why is the only American to go [...]

President Obama has opposed waterboarding as torture since the 2008 campaign – so why is he sending the man who helped shed light on that practice to prison? Former CIA officer John Kiriakou, who helped expose the Bush administration’s torture program, recently plead guilty to sharing the name of a colleague to journalists to use [...]