The Dolphin Code: NFL Gangsta in Miami
We are going to take a little detour in our weekly lighthearted football trash talk here at the Emptywheel Blog. I will return to the actual games at the end of this post, but for now I want to discuss a hideous and, hopefully, transformative…
"Morgan Jones'" Blue Mountain Whitewash
One thing that surprises me about this whole 60 Minutes "Morgan Jones" fiasco is that no one mentions that, regardless of whether "Jones" lied to his supervisor about running to the compound or not, it's clear he lied to his supervisor about…
The Leahy-Sensenbrenner Language on Back Door Searches Improves But Doesn't Eliminate the Back Door
As the top Intelligence Community lawyers have made clear, the IC maintains it can search US person data incidentally collected under Section 702 without any suspicion, as well as for the purposes of making algorithms, cracking encryption, and…
The Intelligence Community's Wide Open, Unprotected Back Door to All Your Content
PCLOB has posted the transcript from the first part of its hearing on Monday. So I want to return to the issue I raised here: both Director of National Intelligence General Counsel Robert Litt and NSA General Counsel Raj De admit that there…
"Morgan Jones'" Three Unverifiable Claims Covered Up His Own Failures
As Michael Calderone reports, 60 Minutes has finally conceded they got hoodwinked by "Morgan Jones" AKA "Dylan Davies."
I've heard no related concession from Dick Cheney propagandist Mary Matalin that her Simon & Schuster imprint, Threshold,…
Science in the ‘National Interest’: What About Everything Else? [UPDATE]
The Republican-led House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, chaired by Rep. Lamar Smith (TX-21), wants the National Science Foundation’s grants to be evaluated based on the “national interest.”
Bring it, boneheads. By all means…
Leahy-Sensenbrenner Would Shut the Section 702 Cybersecurity Loophole
I'm going to have a few posts on the Leahy-Sensenbrenner bill, which is the most likely way we'll be able to rein in NSA spying. In addition to several sections stopping bulk collection, it has a section on collection of US person data under…
Senate Intelligence Swiss Cheese on OLC Memos
Great news!
After a member of the President's party had to hold up that President's nominee to head the CIA just to get Office of Legal Counsel memos authorizing the killing of an American citizen with no due process, the Senate Intelligence…
Red-Teaming Abdulrahman al-Awlaki's Assassination?
The Senate Intelligence Committee just released their Intelligence Authorization for next year. As part of it, they include "Targeted Lethal Force Reform." Part of it -- a useful part -- requires the government to produce unclassified numbers…
Aikins in Rolling Stone: Zakaria Kandahari Was in Facebook Contact With Special Forces After Escaping Arrest
By now, you undoubtedly have heard about Matthieu Aikins' blockbuster story published yesterday by Rolling Stone, in which he provides a full description of war crimes carried out by Special Operations forces in the Nerkh District of Maidan…
Did CIA Take Its Phone Dragnet Business to AT&T When FISC Enforced the Rules?
One important takeaway from Charlie Savage's report that the CIA pays AT&T $10 million for phone records to hunt (the story goes, though I don't buy it) terrorists is that CIA can replicate part of what the NSA's phone dragnet does by working…
Charles McCullough Too Busy Investigating Leakers to Investigate the Dragnet
As I noted back in September, Patrick Leahy and a bunch of other Senators asked the Intelligence Community Inspector General Charles McCullough to investigate the dragnet.
In particular, we urge you to review for calendar years 2010 through…
The New Antiwar Release: "They can't keep this stuff secret. Nothing is secret anymore."
Two years ago, Antiwar.com became aware of files relating to the site, that had been requested and were posted in relation to a FOIA on allegations Israelis had observed the 9/11 attack. I wrote about those files here. The files -- which started…
The Stalker Outside Your Window: The NSA and a Belated Horror Story
It’s a shame Halloween has already come and gone. The reaction to Monday’s Washington Post The Switch blogpost reminds of a particularly scary horror story, in which a young woman alone in a home receives vicious, threatening calls.
There’s…
60 Minutes Writes the Final (?) Installment of the Benghazi Left Behind Novels
The very last scene of 60 Minutes' now-discredited "scoop" on Benghazi -- in which the Project Manager (alternately described as the Security Manager) for the project, whom 60 Minutes names Morgan Jones and WaPo names Dylan Davies describes…
William Webster Meets Edward Snowden, IRTPA, Roving Wiretaps, and the Phone Dragnet
For a post on back-door searches, I'm re-reading the William Webster report on whether the FBI could have anticipated Nidal Hasan's attack. In the light of the Edward Snowden disclosure, I'm finding there are a number of passages that read very…
Do We Dare Dream of a Middle East Without WMD's?
Just a few short months ago, speculation regarding a US attack on Syria centered only around when the attack would take place, how large it would be and how long bombardment would continue. But then accidental diplomacy broke out and it appears…
US Getting Its Cyber-Ass Handed to It
David Sanger has early reporting on a report that will be sure to affect the NSA debate, though it has nothing to do with Edward Snowden. The National Commission for the Review of the Research and Development Programs of the United States Intelligence…
Apparently Criticizing TSA's Boss Is Anti-Worker
Yasha Levine insinuates I'm responsible for Paul Ciancia's attack on TSA workers the other day.
The "progressive" blog FireDogLake was perhaps the biggest and loudest leftie media outlet to promote the anti-TSA crusade. The site even launched a…
Lawfare Uses Incomplete Facts about Abdulmutallab Trial to Attack Dirty Wars
I'm going to take a break from noting how Lawfare ignores the public record on NSA spying -- both of past failures to inform Congress, and of Intelligence Community lies about having done so -- to note how Lawfare ignores the public record on…