NSA PRISM Slides: Notice Anything Unusual or Missing?
We haven't seen (and likely will never see) all of the NSA slides former Booz Allen employee Edward Snowden shared with the Guardian-UK and the Washington Post. But the few that we have seen shared by these two news outlets tell us a lot —…
Is the Section 215 Dragnet Limited to Terrorism Investigations?
Unlike PRISM, most public discussions about the Section 215 dragnet program suggest that it is tied to terrorism. It's a claim, for example, that Charlie Savage makes in this story, which he traces back to this statement from Director of National…
The Section 215 Dragnet Started as Abusive Exigent Letter Practice Wound Down
Julian Sanchez (who, if you're not already following, you should, @normative) just made an important observation about the Section 215 collection that collects metadata on all phone calls every day.
Carriers keep call detail records for years.…
Exigent Letters Timeline
July 2002: CAU formed
March 14, 2003: First exigent letter issued in NY
May 2003: First contract with telecom for onsite exigent assistance
March 2004: Last contract with telecom for onsite exigent assistance
February 2, 2005: Operation…
Have Clapper, Feinstein, and Rogers Confused the Distinct Issues of Section 215 and PRISM? Or Are They Indistinct?
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Last year, when Pat Leahy tried to switch the FISA Amendments Act reauthorization to a 3 year extension instead of 5, which would have meant PATRIOT and FAA would be reconsidered together in 2015, the White…
ACLU, Another Civil Liberties Narcissist, Defends Its Own Freedom of Assembly, Speech
Since the Edward Snowden leaks first started, many have called him and Glenn Greenwald narcissists (as if that changed the dragnet surveillance they exposed).
If that's right, I can think of nothing more narcissistic than ACLU, which is a…
Google Begs for Transparency
However annoying Googe's recent software changes have been, it is true that they have been more aggressive about protecting privacy than most other companies. They fought a broad subpoena from DOJ for URLs and search returns in 2006. And it…
Still No Answer on How Minh Quang Pham Materially Supported Terror While in Custody
The WaPo has an interesting story about US intelligence efforts to disrupt the most recent release of Inspire magazine. While the confirmation that the US was responsible for the recent disrupted release is not surprising, I find this rather…
Clapper Couldn't Even Do Better Than "Least Untruthful" with a Day's Notice
As I noted yesterday, when Andrea Mitchell asked James Clapper about his lie to Ron Wyden earlier this year, Clapper offered a baloney answer, admitting both that he gave the "least untruthful" answer and that he had been "too cute by half."
First–…
Car Bomb Targeting Afghan Supreme Court Employees Kills at Least 14
A very large bomb set off near the Supreme Court building in Kabul has killed at least 14 and injured at least 38. As noted in this report from ToloNews, the toll is likely to rise:
A bomb blast happened at Masud Square near the Supreme…
If Wanting to Reveal that All Americans' Metadata Gets Swept Up Is Treason, Edward Snowden Is in Distinguished Company
Earlier this evening, Dianne Feinstein called Edward Snowden's decision to leak NSA documents an act of treason.
“I don't look at this as being a whistleblower. I think it's an act of treason,” the chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence…
Section 702 Is Used for Terror, Proliferation, AND Hacking
The AP has a story about the way algorithms control Section 702, the legal program for which PRISM provides NSA analysts acces.
And while he also admits that Obama "had expanded the scope of the surveillance," Michael Hayden makes this false…
James Clapper Hails Checks and Balances While Treating Oversight "Too Cute by Half"
I've been citing bits of this interview between James Clapper and Andrea Mitchell here and there, but the whole thing needs to be read to be believed.
But the quick version is this. Mitchell asks Clapper whether "trust us" is enough, given…
Is Robert Mueller, a Purported Hero of the Hospital Confrontation, Responsible for Section 215 Use?
On March 23, 2004 at noon, less than two weeks after the dramatic hospital confrontation and threats to quit reportedly got the Administration to agree to stop data mining Americans, FBI Director Robert Mueller had a meeting with Dick Cheney,…
NATO Supply Convoy Attacked in Pakistan Again
The last time I addressed the transit of NATO goods through Pakistan, I noted that NATO is now facing similar problems with convoys as goods are removed from Afghanistan to those seen previously while sending supplies to Afghanistan through…
Truck-sized Holes: Journalists Challenged by Technology Blindness
Note: The following piece was written just before news broke about Booz Allen Hamilton employee Edward Snowden. With this in mind, let's look at the reporting we've see up to this point; problems with reporting to date may remain even with the…
Are Guardian's Sources Responding to a New Use of Surveillance, Post-Boston?
Update: The Guardian source, Edward Snowden, has revealed himself. Stunning.
Little mentioned as we talk about the massive amounts of spying Obama's Administration undertakes is this passage from the President's recent speech on counterterrorism.
That’s…
Dianne Feinstein: We Need to Collect Data on Every Single American Because We Can't Control Our Informants
I will have far, far more to say about the claims about the various surveillance programs aired on the Sunday shows today.
But this is absolutely batshit crazy.
FEINSTEIN: Well, of course, balance is a difficult thing to actually identify…
Once Upon a Time the PRISM Companies Fought Retroactive Immunity
Since the disclosure of the PRISM program, I have thought about a letter the industry group for some of the biggest and earliest PRISM participants -- Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo -- wrote to then House Judiciary Chair John Conyers during the…
What Obama's Presidential Policy Directive on Cyberwar Says about NSA's Relationship with Corporations
The Guardian has had three big scoops this week: revealing that Section 215 has, indeed, been used for dragnet collection of US person data, describing PRISM, a means of accessing provider data in real-time that was authorized by the FISA Amendments…