Drone Strikes in Yemen Are Very Effective -- For AQAP Recruitment

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Jim White
Marcy has been all over the current episode of security theater surrounding the latest al Qaeda "conference call" that led to the closure of many US embassies, but I want to focus on news reports that have come out over the last month or so…
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NBC News Hires Edison Carter and Blank Reg For Big Time TV

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bmaz
NBC News, showing it can move 20 minutes into the future, has made a new and exciting digital acquisition. From Brian Stelter (who was a great replacement for Howard Kurtz today on CNN's "Reliable Sources". Seriously) at the New York Times: When…
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The White Paper's Selective Forgetting on FCC Phone Record Retention History

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emptywheel
In two different places, the White Paper justifying the Section 215 dragnet discusses the FCC's requirements that telecoms retain phone records. First, without describing what current requirements are or where they came from, it claims current…
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Mike Rogers' Double Secret Invitation to Dance

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emptywheel
I'm working on a very weedy post on the White Paper's duplicitous presentation of what it calls support for Congress for the Section 215 dragnet. But I'd like to compare a claim from this WaPo story on how secrecy makes it difficult for Congress…
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Dictionary Arbitrage and Section 215: "Relevant"

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emptywheel
There's an odd footnote in the White Paper the Administration released to justify its Section 215 dragnet. 3 The word “tangible” can be used in some contexts to connote not only tactile objects like pieces of paper, but also any other things…
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Is This Why Banksters Don't Go to Jail for Laundering Terrorist Finances?

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emptywheel
I'm in the middle of a deep dive in the Section 215 White Paper -- expect plenty of analysis on it in coming attractions! But I want to make a discrete point about this passage, which describes what happen to query results. Results of authorized…
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Shon Hopwood, Stephen Glass and Second Chances in America

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bmaz
Say what you will about District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Janice Rogers Brown, and much has indeed been said by both sides of the ideological divide, but she has done something truly remarkable and admirable. Brown has accepted…
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Obama's Credibility Trap

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emptywheel
President Obama just stood before the nation and said, And if you look at the reports -- even the disclosures that Mr. Snowden has put forward -- all the stories that have been written, what you're not reading about is the government actually…
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BREAKING! Information "is collected" on millions of Americans

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emptywheel
[youtube]HIcJ_QFSuUU[/youtube] Obama just gave a press conference to announce some changes to FISA. They include four things: Making some changes to the dragnet program Appointing a privacy officer to do for NSA what DOJ's IG has done…
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NSA-Speak -- Timely: (Adj.) 2-Month Delay

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emptywheel
For some reason, this Ellen Nakashima story covering parts of what CNN, Wired, and I have already reported is generating a lot of attention today. While I'm grateful that more people are catching on to what I've been harping on for months…
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Did NSA Interpret Adverse FISC Fourth Amendment Ruling as Permission to Search American Contacts?

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emptywheel
Finally! The backdoor! The Guardian today confirms what Ron Wyden and, before him, Russ Feingold have warned about for years. In a glossary updated in June 2012, the NSA claims that minimization rules "approved" on October 3, 2011 "now allow…
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Virginia Doesn't Want Detroit to Get Convention Dollars

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emptywheel
About 14 months ago, I was at Netroots Nation in Providence, RI. RI has, like MI, been really battered by the Great Recession. Nevertheless, we had just seen Providence's glorious WaterFire installment. And I had spent lots of time talking to…
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Count Von Count Drones Yemen

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emptywheel
[youtube]L5bqMDGWXO8[/youtube] The flurry of drone strikes in Yemen has gotten so difficult to keep up with that I imagine a twisted version of Count Von Count leading counting lessons after each one. As of last count, he'd be up to the…
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Against Legion of Doom Alert, Is Hadi Playing Saleh's Old Game?

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emptywheel
After President Obama met with Yemen's President Abdo Rabu Mansour Hadi on the eve (or during the progression) of the Legion of Doom alert last week, he said this about Hadi's cooperation on terrorism. I thank President Hadi and his government…
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Behind Legion of Doom: Breaking "Encrypted Electronic Communications between High Level Al Qaeda Leaders"

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emptywheel
[youtube]xY-wsEh6CZk[/youtube] David Garteinstein-Ross, who did his own research into the Daily Beast Legion of Doom story, noted a couple of things via Twitter that I have been pointing to: the conference call behind the Legion of Doom scare…
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Displacing the Reset with Russia

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emptywheel
As you no doubt heard yesterday, Obama called off a planned meeting with Putin after the G20 next month in response to a number of things (including Russia's increasing persecution of gays), but largely triggered by Russia's offer of asylum…
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I Told You So, It's about Cybersecurity Edition

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emptywheel
When James "Least Untruthful" Clapper released the first version of PRISM success stories and the most impressive one involved thwarting specific cyberattacks, I noted that the NSA spying was about hackers as much as terrorists. When  "Lying…
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Maybe the Gimmick Is in the Timing of Legion of Doom?

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emptywheel
In my first post on this Yemen scare -- which I will henceforth call "Legion of Doom" in honor of the Daily Beast source's use of the term -- I suggested the big part of the plot might have already transpired. There’s the increased drone…
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The Ooga Booga* Continues to Wear Off

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emptywheel
Two and a half years ago, I noted how TSA head John Pistole pointed to a plot the FBI created while he was still its Deputy Director to justify the use of VIPR teams to stop people on non-aviation public transportation. A couple of weeks back,…
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Did Yemen Evacuation Cover Staging of JSOC Troops, Equipment for Attack?

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Jim White
Earlier this morning, a tweet from Joshua Foust alerted me to this BBC article, where it appears that some observers suspect that the US may be preparing a JSOC strike within Yemen: Amid the escalating tensions, sources also told BBC Newsnight…
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