Ex-federal agent: “We certainly have ways” to listen to past phone conversations

A former federal anti-terrorism specialist says the government can “certainly” listen to a phone call one of the accused Boston bombers made before he was killed. Via CNN:

More recently, two sources familiar with the investigation told CNN that (widow Katherine) Russell had spoken with Tamerlan (Tsarnaev) after his picture appeared on national television April 18.

What exactly the two said remains under investigation, the sources said.

Investigators may be able to recover the conversation, said Tom Clemente, a former counterterrorism agent for the FBI.

“We certainly have ways in national security investigations to find out exactly what was said in that conversation,” he told CNN’s Erin Burnett on Monday, adding that “all of that stuff is being captured as we speak whether we know it or like it or not.”

If that guy is right, that “all that stuff is being captured as we speak,” it ought to be a little more prominent than the second half of an 1,100-word story about the dead suspect’s widow.

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The humanitarian case for newspaper subscriptions

Earlier this week 32 mentally challenged men were granted a huuuge $240 million in a workplace abuse case, which disability advocates called a big win for their cause. It wouldn’t have happened without the Des Moines Register, according to Iowa political operative Graham Gillette:

These men were abused by an employer who retained the men’s government disability checks, paid the men a shockingly low wage and mistreated them while government inspectors, health workers and social service personnel went about their business as usual. It wasn’t until Clark Kauffman, a reporter for the Des Moines Register, investigated and wrote about these men of Atalissa that anyone had the gumption to take action. … Without investigative journalism, the plight of these mentally challenged individuals would have gone unreported. These men might still be suffering today.

Gillette goes on to say all citizens ought to support some news organization and stay tuned to its content. “A healthy democracy depends on an informed citizenry. By choosing to not be informed, a person shirks his responsibility as a citizen.”

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How to tell if a journalist is a crotchety old man

An Illinois sportswriter wrote this week that newly openly gay NBA player Jason Collins deserves “mercy and forgiveness not applause.”

Brian Neilsen’s column in the Mattoon, Illinois paper goes on to liken Collins being gay to former NBA-er Shawn Kemp fathering illegitimate children or golf star Tiger Woods cheating on his wife.

“At least Woods, sincere or not, made a public apology for his faults and expressed the desire to change. Best that I can tell, Collins has not done that,” Nielsen wrote.

I don’t necessarily take issue with what Nielsen writes. For instance, I think a lot of people can identify with his idea that professionals should stick to what they do, rather than inject their personal lives into the situation.

If that’s the case, though, maybe Neilsen should stick to writing about sports.

Still, I was willing to give the guy the benefit of the doubt that he’s not a crotchety old man. However, his Twitter presence eliminates all doubt. One follower, and one tweet from about a year ago: Watching the Bulls play the Mavericks and hoping Rose won’t get injured.

Protip: If you’re an grown-up working at a newspaper in 2013, be more interesting than this guy.

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Anwar al-Awlaki, dead for 2 years, influenced Boston bombers

Officials are starting to disclose more details about what they’ve learned from accused Boston bomber Dzhokar Tsarnaev. He reportedly said he and his accomplice brother were influenced by a famous U.S.-born radical before the attack, according to the New York Times.

(Tsarnaev) told authorities that he and his brother viewed the Internet sermons of Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical American cleric who moved to Yemen and was killed in September 2011 by an American drone strike. There is no indication that the brothers communicated with Mr. Awlaki before his death.

You can kill as many accused terrorists as you want, but you can’t kill the Internet (try as they may).

Al-Awlaki’s is likely the best-known victim of the Obama-era drone wars. Despite his U.S. citizenship, he was targeted by the U.S. government, called illegal by civil libertarians. Critics are doubly outraged that the Obama administration won’t disclose its legal rationale for the killing of al-Awlaki and likely other targeted U.S. citizens living abroad.

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“Bush and Obama are going down, or up, in history together”

Barack Obama and George W. Bush’s presidential legacies are inextricably linked, according to two Politico reporters.

The president whose campaign was fueled by attacks on his predecessor is turning out to be more similar than not, James Hohmann and John Harris write as part of their coverage of the new Bush library:

Despite radically different personalities, biographies and political philosophies, it is already clear that the continuities from Bush to Obama matter as much as the reversals, especially on national security. Obama applied the Bush surge strategy from Iraq to Afghanistan. Both men said they wanted to close the terrorist detention center at Guantanamo Bay but proved unable to do so. More broadly, both men are governing in a post-Sept. 11 environment, in chronically sluggish economies, amassing large budget deficits. Both came to the presidency promising to be unifiers and each won reelection with narrow majorities cobbled together from deliberately polarizing campaigns.

Obama and Bush are perhaps most similar on foreign policy. Not only did Obama keep Bush’s defense secretary and later appoint another Republican to the position, the Obama administration has borrowed heavily from and greatly expanded parts of the Bush foreign policy playbook with regard to terror investigations, surveillance, and transparency.

“It’s a matter of fact that much of the Obama administration’s foreign policy is a continuation of the Bush administration’s foreign policy,” former U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, told me last year, adding that Obama has “obliterated” the differences between Republicans and Democrats in that area.

More broadly, the post-9/11 presidency is starkly different than the pre-9/11 presidency. During the War on Terrorism, executive power has expanded just as transparency has diminished. Regardless of who succeeds Obama, that isn’t likely to change.

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