Obama's Treasury Department: Our Sanctions Regime Is SEKRIT
Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Controljust sent out its invite for a symposium helping the Financial Industry learn about how to comply with sanctions. The symposium will include the following:
The Financial Symposium will feature a Keynote…
Department of Pre-Crime, Part 4: The NDAA Congress Is Not About to Legislate Targeted Killing
In three earlier posts, I have discussed the problem with turning the FISA Court into the Drone and/or Targeted Killing Court: As I noted, the existing FISA Court no longer fulfills the already problematic role it was set up to have, ensuring…
Afghanistan Kills Yet Another Military Career: Allen to Retire
Many times throughout recorded history, would-be empires have attempted to conquer Afghanistan, only to fail. These failures often have been so spectacular that they end up taking the would-be empires down for their efforts, as most recently…
Jane Harman Now Targeting Individual CyberTargets with Drone Court
Jane Harman's advocacy for a drone court suffers from the same problem I touched on here (and will lay out at more length in the next day or so): before you can have a Drone and/or Targeted Killing Court, you need some law the court will apply.…
Why So Surprised? CIA, U.S. Military Knew Chinese Hackers Expected Since 1999
The breathless reporting about the alleged Chinese hacking at The New York Times is truly annoying because of the shock it displays. The surprise any major government or private corporate entity shows at this point about any network-based…
What a Targeted Killing in the US Would Look Like
Warning: Several minutes into this video, graphic images of a corpse appear. Also, the government may start tracking your online viewing if you view this YouTube, as someone started following my mostly defunct YouTube account after I watched…
Monday Mess: Moar Dronz, Gen Killz, (Horse)Meatz, and Clownz
Happy Monday. Insert a picture of that cat here--you know which one. I resemblez it.
• Good gravy, people. When National Geographic Magazine covers drones, it’s way past time for a national dialog about their use domestically.…
The AUMF Fallacy
There's a whole strand of commentary on the targeted killing that lets the Obama Administration off easy for what it maintained in the white paper on the targeted killing of Americans.
There's the argument made by David Cole and Jane Mayer…
Pakistan Signs Gwadar Port Over to China Despite Rohrabacher's Meddling
Even though he was unsure of its pronunciation, Representative Dana Rohrabacher mounted what was initially a one-man campaign that he claimed was for a free and independent Balochistan. He did eventually enlist top-notch intellectual luminaries…
Is This Why the Press Finally Revealed the Saudi Drone Base?
In spite of all the furor over the way the NYT and WaPo sat on news of a Saudi drone base, the only explanation I know of for why they chose to reveal it now was this one.
So, what changed? Why did the New York Times decide to break the silence…
Colleen McMahon: The Covert Op that Killed Anwar al-Awlaki Was Illegal
A lot of people have discussed this section of Judge Colleen McMahon's January 2, 2013 ruling dismissing ACLU and NYT's FOIA for memos and other documents related to the targeted killing of Anwar al-Awlaki, Samir Khan, and Abdulrahman al-Awlaki:
I…
The War and Intelligence behind Anwar al-Awlaki's Targeting
Believe it or not, there's a fascinating debate going on over at NRO. First, Charles Krauthammer points to the muddle of the Administration's white paper, which could have (he argues) just authorized Awlaki's killing under the laws of war.
Unfortunately,…
Sunday Buffet: Domestic Drones, Cosmic Clouts, and More
Here’s an assortment of goodies that crossed my tablet over the last 24 hours or so. Which of these tidbits fires you up?
• The Verge reported Friday that a new bi-partisan privacy bill sponsored by representatives Ted Poe (R-TX)…
The CIA Glomared Their Own Public Speech
I've been reading the Colleen McMahon ruling on the ACLU Awlaki FOIA again in light of the release of the white paper. And I realized that the CIA must be treating the public targeted killing speech of CIA General Counsel Stephen Preston with…
The "Darker Side" to Dual Citizenship
A central thrust to Peter Schuck's argument that it should be easier to deny citizens of judicial due process is that there are so many dual citizens. And dual citizenship, he says, has a darker side.
Dual citizenship has proliferated as easier…
John Brennan Refuses to Deny the Government Collects US Person Data with No Predicate
John Brennan pointedly refused to answer Mark Udall's question about whether the government collects information on Americans without a predicate.
In 2008, you stated, “I would argue the government needs to have access to only those nuggets…
Brennan Continues to Stonewall on His Own Leaks
John Brennan has now been asked three times (four, presuming Richard Burr asked during the closed hearing, as he said he would) to list the specific times he has leaked to journalists. He has refused all the unclassified questions, as he does…
Is This a Benghazi Question?
Particularly given some of the rumors about what the CIA was doing in Benghazi when Ambassador Chris Stevens got killed, I wonder whether this question -- from the follow-up to John Brennan's confirmation hearings -- pertains to Benghazi.
In…
Dianne Feinstein Commits the Drone and/or Targeted Killing Fallacy
I'm not sure whether Dianne Feinstein is this dumb, or this exchange -- from follow-up questions to John Brennan's confirmation hearings -- is just an effort to trick people like Rand Paul into believing that the Administration doesn't believe…
Lamar Smith: It's Critical to Invest in Space Balls, But Not Climate Change
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In reaction to last night's meteorite impact in Russia, Lamar Smith, who now chairs the Science, Space, and Technology Committee, has announced he will hold a hearing to identify more pork for Houston's space…