Why Has the Intelligence Community Missed So Many Digital Bales of Hay?
In a piece on the intelligence community's increasing reliance on SIGINT, LAT reports that the amount of the President's daily brief that comes from SIGINT has increased from 60% since 2000.
Determined to identify and track Al Qaeda terrorists…
Afghanistan Claims Zakaria Kandahari Arrested Six Weeks Ago
The continuing saga of Zakaria Kandahari, who has been at the heart of the torture and murder cases that prompted Hamid Karzai to ban US Special Forces troops from the Nerkh District of Maidan Wardak Province took another huge twist Sunday,…
FISC Opinions as Legal Cover
WSJ has a story on how the FISA Court came to render the phrase "related to" -- which has been used for 7 years to collect the phone records of almost all Americans -- entirely meaningless.
The history of the word "relevant" is key to understanding…
Popcorn Futures: Client No. 9 Versus Manhattan Madam in NY Comptroller Race
Get out the biggest popcorn bowl you own and extra napkins, find your cushy tushy pillow, and get ready for some serious entertainment.
Former New York State governor Eliot Spitzer (D) has thrown his hat in the ring for state comptroller.…
In These Times We Can't Blindly Trust Government to Respect Freedom of Association
One of my friends, who works in a strategic role at American Federation of Teachers, is Iranian-American. I asked him a few weeks ago whom he called in Iran; if I remember correctly (I've been asking a lot of Iranian-Americans whom they call…
FISC Already Invented that Database-and-Mining Precedent in Secret
Almost 18 months ago, I suggested that the Amnesty v. Clapper suit challenging the government's Section 702 collection might invent what I called a "database-and-mining" precedent.
Over at Lawfare, Steve Vladeck noted that this case would…
Edward Snowden's Extradition Request
As I noted last night, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro offered Edward Snowden asylum last night. (The Spanish was "hemos decidido" and "he decidido ofrecerle asilio" which included none of the sense of hypothetical that Nicaragua's President…
FBI Retirees Warn against Jim Comey, Torture, and Indefinite Detention
When one of the unions that represent FBI Agents floated a trial balloon supporting Mike Rogers to be FBI Director, it got a lot more press attention than the unlikelihood of their request merited.
Let's see whether this letter -- from 5…
Serving the Truth
Writing yesterday in the Daily Beast, Lt. Col. Daniel Davis provides a moving tribute to the late Michael Hastings. In the piece, we learn that Hastings didn't merely help Davis by publishing Davis' long-form unclassified report detailing how…
Europe again stuck saying, "They told us they were sure"
The NATO members who refused overflight privileges for Bolivian President Evo Morales are, in the process of trying to justify what they did, revealing more details of what led them to risk such a diplomatic affront. Among other explanations,…
The Union Imperfect
Like Marcy, I find myself pondering today the Declaration of Independence as well as the subsequent system of government set in motion with publication of this influential document.
So much of what our founding fathers protested about the…
Happy Birthday, You Rebels!
It's that day again where we contemplate the great project a bunch of rebels set out on 237 years ago.
In recent years, I've focused on what those rebels said about the judicial abuses of King George -- language about denying some of Trial…
SWIFT: Big Brother with a Booz Assist, Only without the Paperwork
As reporting on Edward Snowden reveal the scope of our spying on European friends, I've been thinking a lot about SWIFT.
SWIFT, you recall, is the database tracking international online money transfers. After 9/11, the US Government started…
Tasers with Wings
I've been focusing on Edward Snowden's NSA revelations, but I didn't want this tidbit of news to go unnoticed. Among the other documents EFF has gotten in its FOIA on drones in the United States is a planning document for Customs and Border…
Wyden and Udall: As with Torture, Intelligence Committee Lies about Efficacy
Mark Udall and Ron Wyden have persistently repeated one of the findings from the Senate Intelligence Committee torture report: the CIA gave inaccurate information about the program, and it wasn't very effective.
So it's unsurprising that…
Researcher Exposes Government, Military Lies About Civilian Drone Deaths in Afghanistan
A tweet this morning by Daphne Eviatar alerted me to a very important article by Spencer Ackerman at his new home with the Guardian. Ackerman interviewed Dr. Larry Lewis, who is a research scientist at the Center for Naval Analyses but is also…
On the Meanings of "Dishonor" and "Hack"
The former NSA IG (and current affiliate of the Chertoff Group profiteers, though he didn't disclose that financial interest) Joel Brenner has taken to the pages of Lawfare to suggest anyone trying to force some truth out of top Intelligence…
Transpartisan Arguments the Government Won't Want to Succeed
Justin Amash, Paul Broun, Tulsi Gabbard, Morgan Griffith, Rush Holt, Walter Jones, Barbara Lee, Zoe Lofgren, Thomas Massie, Tom McClintock, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Beto O'Rourke, Steve Pearce, Matt Salmon, Mark Sanford, Ted Yoho.
Well, that's…
Gitmo Detainees Try to Force End to Force-Feeding in Time for Ramadan
According to Carol Rosenberg's count, 44 of the 106 Gitmo detainees currently on hunger strike are being tube-fed. Which suggests there are too many men to carry out the tube feeding after sunset and sunset, which is what the camp has done in…
Alberto Gonzales and Internet Data Mining
I was going to leave this speculation well enough alone. But George W Bush decided to interrupt his dog painting to defend Obama's surveillance dragnet.
Bush also defended the surveillance program, which began during his administration after…