Author Archive

“Do Unto Others…” »

By Jim Marcinkowski on Nov 5, 2007 in Current Affairs | 16 Comments

By Jim Marcinkowski
The debate about whether “waterboarding” constitutes torture misses the point.
Imagine for a moment that you are the chief law enforcement officer investigating the kidnapping of an infant. You have a suspect in custody who is believed to be the only person who knows where the child is being kept. Without food and [...]

What Americans Know…and Don’t Get »

By Jim Marcinkowski on Sep 11, 2007 in Current Affairs | 49 Comments

By Jim Marcinkowski
Put away the charts and graphs, the generals with all of their shiny metals, and the politicos with all their spin and dishonesty. None of it matters to the average American, and for good reason.
What American’s know:
Charts and graphs mean nothing. If you “surge” police forces onto every street corner in [...]

Wilson Case Dismissed »

By Jim Marcinkowski on Jul 23, 2007 in CIA, Current Affairs, Intelligence, Joseph Wilson, Plamegate | 88 Comments

Posted by Jim Marcinkowski
SECRET/NOFORN/NOMORONS/NOREPUBS/NOPOLITOCOS/NOHACKS
TO: CIA STATIONS WORLDWIDE
FM: LEGAL COUNSEL – LANGLEY, VIRGINIA
RE: DISMISSAL OF WILSON/PLAME DISCLOSURE CASE – SUMMARY
REF: Valerie Plame Wilson et al v. I. Lewis Libby, et al.
As you are no doubt aware, last week Judge John D. Bates of the federal district court in WDC dismissed the Wilson case. While you operate overseas in [...]

A VERY THIN LINE »

By Jim Marcinkowski on Jul 20, 2007 in Afghanistan, Al Qaeda, CIA, Current Affairs, Pakistan | 20 Comments

By Jim Marcinkowski and Kelly Raskauskas
Without sufficient caffeine, I opened yesterday morning’s NY Times to find my local legislator quoted in the front-page story, Bush Aides See Failure in Fight With Al-Quaeda in Pakistan.
“We have to change policy,” said Representative Mike Rogers of Michigan, a Republican member of the House Intelligence Committee who has long [...]

Ain’t No Cure for Stupid »

By Jim Marcinkowski on Mar 29, 2007 in Current Affairs | 21 Comments

by
Jim Marcinkowski
As an attorney, you may not always get a client that you are philosophically aligned with, who is pleasant or in many, many cases, who is not guilty as hell.  Your job is not to protect the guilty but to protect the system under which the guilty get convicted.  It’s a matter of [...]

Victoria’s Secret »

By Jim Marcinkowski on Feb 27, 2007 in Current Affairs | 32 Comments

As a prosecutor and former CIA operations officer, I found Victoria Toensing’s article, “Trial in Error” to be as outrageous as it was misleading.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/16/AR2007021601705.html

The logic-defying argument advanced by Victoria “I Don’t Know Squat About Secrets” Toensing can be broken down into three major points:  that Valerie Plame Wilson was not covert; that the case itself [...]