Emptywheel Fundraiser 2011

I'm late in posting this, but last month, Emptywheel (Marcy Wheeler) asked readers to "Please Help Support My Next 525 Posts on Torture":

Just over two years ago, right around the time I reported that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was waterboarded 183 times in a month, many of you chipped into the “Marcy Wheeler fund” to support my work; that generosity paid my way until a short time ago. Here’s what that support made possible.

Between May 1, 2009 and yesterday, by my rough count, I wrote 525 posts on torture. I unpacked the torture memos, the CIA IG Report, the OPR Report, and thousands of documents released through FOIA. I showed the bureaucratic games they used to set up our torture program, early efforts to place limits on things like mock execution, followed by more bureaucratic and legal means to get away with violating even those limits. I showed how they hid documents and altered tapes to hide evidence of their torture. I showed how, after CIA and parts of DOJ tried to put limits on torture in 2004, they again used bureaucratic tricks and ridiculous legal documents to reauthorize it. I’ve tracked DOJ’s kabuki claims to investigate torture (though bmaz gets credit for forcing DOJ to admit John Durham’s torture tape investigation had run out the clock on Statutes of Limitation). And I’ve tracked the Obama Administration’s successful efforts to suppress all evidence of torture. And all the while, I’ve relentlessly pushed back against the torture apologists’ lies.

Of course, while writing about torture is a major part mapping out the decline of the rule of law, it’s not the only part. Since May 2009, I’ve written almost 200 posts on wiretapping, almost as many on our Gitmo show trials, posts about state secrets, drones, fusion centers, the forever war metastisizing around the world. I’ve written about Wikileaks and Bradley Manning’s treatment and the banksters and the auto companies.

Emptywheel's blog is part of the Firedoglake network. FDL is asking for memberships, but there's also a page for one-time donations. Personally, I don't agree with some of the FDL diarists, but Emptywheel, David Dayen and TBogg do excellent work. (One of TBogg's beloved basset hounds, Fenway, is currently sick but slowly recovering.) When it comes to covering the Bush torture regime and its aftermath, Emptywheel has been absolutely invaluable. Personally, since I care about the subject passionately, but have limited time to write and sometimes even to read, I'm very grateful that Marcy Wheeler is on the case.