Dianne Feinstein Glosses Jeffrey Miller Phone Dragnet Decision
Dianne Feinstein just released a statement effectively saying she likes the FISA Court phone dragnet decisions and the one Judge Jeffrey Miller made in the Moalin case better than the one Richard Leon issued yesterday.
Clearly we have competing…
US Government Slaps HSBC's Wrist for Facilitating Terrorism, Again
As I noted last year, when DOJ trumpeted their settlement with HSBC for a slew of money laundering violations, they didn't mention that HSBC had provided almost a billion dollars to a Saudi bank that funded terrorists. Effectively, HSBC's material…
Leon Panetta Torture Review Agrees with Senate Torture Report
I'm watching the confirmation hearing for Caroline Krass to be General Counsel of the CIA.
When his turn, Mark Udall just started by saying that after the review process between CIA and Senate Intelligence Committee, "I'm more confident than…
The Pre-Dragnet Cold War Contact Chaining
I'm still working through some things from Judge Richard Leon's injunction against the phone dragnet.
But for the moment I wanted to point to something the government claimed in the FBI's declaration in the case, by Acting Assistant Director…
Will Obama Attempt to Co-Opt the Internet Companies?
Of late, Keith Alexander has added a new thing to his public schtick: inviting tech companies to come up with a way to dragnet more effectively. In the middle of discussions of why NSA must retain the phone dragnet, he'll stop, and say, if the…
Keeping the Crazies Occupied While Finishing Iran Nuclear Negotiations
Last Thursday, the US announced that it was adding more companies and more people to its blacklist of those banned from making deals with Iran as part of the overall sanctions aimed at Iran developing nuclear weapon technology. Iran responded…
Richard Leon: A Phone Dragnet Is Not a Special Need
As I noted briefly in this post, Judge RIchard Leon ruled that Judicial Watch's Larry Klayman is very likely to succeed in his suit challenging the phone dragnet on Constitutional grounds. He issued an injunction requiring NSA to take out Klayman's…
That Pirate May Be the Missing Link We Should Drone Kill
As I mocked last night, 60 Minutes decided to use pirate data collected under EO 12333 to demonstrate how it conducts call chaining on US citizen data collected under Section 215. But the exchange is rather interesting for the way the NSA analyst,…
"He's sure as hell no traitor"
Fortune has an interview with a former colleague of Edward Snowden's in Hawaii (some have questioned its provenance, but details in the interview accord with other stories about Snowden at NSA; even Keith Alexander said he was very good at his…
NSA's 60 Wiretaps and FBI's 1,728 Wiretaps?
I want to return to the exchange shown on last night's 60 Minutes piece on NSA where CBS's in-house national security shill asked Keith Alexander about collecting the content of phone calls.
John Miller: There is a perception out there that…
Fallout From Wedding Party Drone Strike in Yemen Continues
As more details emerge on the drone strike Thursday in Yemen that hit a wedding party, it is becoming clear that the New York Times got it wrong, and those killed were mostly civilians rather than mostly suspected al Qaeda militants. A follow-up…
60 Minutes Betters Their Benghazi Debacle: Pirates Ahoy! and Chinese Global Suicide Bombers
I will have more to say about tonight's 60 Minutes debacle.
But for now, let me make three points.
First, John Miller should never work in journalism again (he's reportedly prepping to run NYPD's intelligence shop, so he may not need to).…
Emptywheel's Pro Football Trash Talk - Week 15
Only one college game left before the endless series of bowl games starts up. The annual Army Navy game from Philadelphia. Both teams have among the best rushing offenses in the country, and among the most anemic passing offenses. Seems like…
How FISA Dockets (Appear To) Work and Why Snowden Likely Got Few or No PayPal Documents
Because Bill Binney made an observation about the high docket number of the phone dragnet order released this year, Sibel Edmonds has decided that Glenn Greenwald is hiding a bunch of Edward Snowden documents to protect Pierre Omidyar showing…
DOJ's IG Hints at Concerns about Back Door Search Issues
In addition to focusing on whether the classification of past IG Reports will limit what he can release about the Section 215 dragnet and Section 702 content collection, DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz laid out one more significant civil…
Will DOJ's 1,265-Day Old Section 215 Review Be Squelched By Past Classifications?
DOJ's Inspector General Michael Horowitz released his annual list of challenges today (which includes a focus on prison problems). In his section on national security and civil liberties he spends 4 paragraphs calling for more information sharing…
Brennan Blows Up Another Wedding Party, This Time in Yemen
At least fifteen people were killed by a US drone strike in Yemen yesterday. It is particularly difficult to get accurate information in the immediate aftermath of strikes in Yemen, and the reports being generated now conflict in several regards,…
"We're Not Going to Leave It To the Guy Who Lies to Congress with Impunity Anymore"
The regular outlets for NSA leakers are presenting details of the recommendations the NSA Review Committee has given to President Obama (Gorman, Sanger). Curiously, Siobhan Gorman suggests that because the recommendations closely following the…
Yup, John Brennan Rolled DiFi on the Torture Report
The 15th paragraph of this story on CIA's continuing efforts to water down the Senate Intelligence Committee's torture report reads,
The CIA's current director, John Brennan, was a senior agency official when the harshest CIA tactics were in…
Did DOJ Prosecute Basaaly Moalin Just to Have a Section 215 "Success"?
At yesterday's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the dragnet, the government's numbers supporting the value of the dragnet got even worse. At one point, Pat Leahy asserted that the phone dragnet had only been useful in one case (in the last…