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Why Was Manafort FISA Tapped Rather than Criminal Tapped?

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emptywheel
Some thoughts on the news that Paul Manafort was targeted under FISA.
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SSCI Plays Hardball with Michael Cohen's Attempt to Distract from Trump Tower Deal

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emptywheel
As he did with HPSCI, Michael Cohen tried to manipulate the press to present a narrative suggesting his testimony to Congress pertains exclusively to the Steele dosser. Richard Burr and Mark Warner were having none of that.
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Can Congress -- or Robert Mueller -- Order Facebook to Direct Its Machine Learning?

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emptywheel
Congressional demands for more data from Facebook are actually far more complex than let on.
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USA Freedom Act Scofflaw Rosemary Collyer Claims She Can't Find a Tech Expert

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emptywheel
Rosemary Collyer claims she can't find a tech expert who can help her avoid the errors she made in this year's 702 reauthorization. That's unconvincing.
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[Photo: National Security Agency, Ft. Meade, MD via Wikimedia]
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The Domestic Communications NSA Won't Reveal Are Almost Certainly Obscured Location Communications

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emptywheel
Reading the documents released since Ron Wyden and Dan Coats started fighting about how NSA collects on Americans using Section 702 strongly suggests this is about collecting from location obscuring servers.
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Jemele Hill Is Right, Trump Is A Racist Bigot, Trash Talk

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bmaz
The biggest sports story of the week, unless you are a legal freak in the Zeke Elliot weeds, is more politics than sports. The classy and wonderful Jemele Hill of ESPN let fly some hard truth about Trump on his favorite medium, Twitter. And…
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The (Thus Far) Flimsy Case for Republican Cooperation on Russian Targeting

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emptywheel
We already know of cases where Russian related targeting assistance was provided in last year's election. But it was provided by Russians to Republicans, not the other way around.
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Financing Medicare For All

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Ed Walker
If you only read mainstream media you’d think Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All bill was terrifyingly expensive. An opinion piece behind the paywall in the Wall Street Journal cites a couple of studies with huge headline numbers like $2.5…
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Facebook Doesn't Need a Probable Cause Search Warrant to Turn Over Ad Data to Robert Mueller

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emptywheel
Everyone is in a froth because two articles assume, based on faulty assumptions, that Robert Mueller got a probable cause search warrant to obtain information from Facebook. Short of having a confirming source, there's no reason to believe that's the case.
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[Photo: National Security Agency, Ft. Meade, MD via Wikimedia]
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Shadow Brokers and the "Second Source"

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emptywheel
While I doubt that Shadow Brokers is the Second Source of NSA files shared with Jacob Appelbaum and WikiLeaks, I think he may have a mutual shared source with them.
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Mike Morell Resigns Out of Conscience because of [Leaks about] Torture

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emptywheel
Mike Morell has discovered a conscience he apparently didn't have when his CIA was torturing people.
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Software is a Long Con

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Quinn Norton
Computer systems are poorly built, badly maintained, and often locked in a maze of vendor contracts and outdated spaghetti code that amounts to a death spiral. This is true of nothing else we buy.
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Coats v. Wyden, the Orwellian Reclassification Edition

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emptywheel
Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats has all but admitted that the NSA knowingly collects, but does not knowingly target, entirely domestic communications. But he won't explain how that happens.
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[Photo: National Security Agency, Ft. Meade, MD via Wikimedia]

Companies Victimized by Repurposed NSA Tools Don't Share Those Details with Government

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emptywheel
It turns out that private sector companies victimized by repurposed NSA hacking tools are not all that forthcoming with the US government about being victims of those tools.
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The Jared Firing Line

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emptywheel
If Steve Bannon is behind the story that Jared Kushner almost got fired in July, then one reason he would have been fired is to blame him for the Comey firing.
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Twitter Asked to Tell Reality Winner the FBI Had Obtained Her Social Media Activity

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emptywheel
Of the four providers from which the government obtained information pertaining to Reality Winner back in June, just Twitter appears to have asked the FBI to disclose that request to Winner.
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Senate Intelligence Committee Doesn't Think the Intelligence Community Inspector General Does Enough All-IC Oversight

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emptywheel
Along with the unclassified sensible policy in the Intel Authorization this year (and the stupid WikiLeaks one), it appears the Senate Intelligence Committee is trying to make the Intelligence Community Inspector General more functional, which is a good thing.
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Senate Intelligence Committee Tried to Say WikiLeaks Constituted -- Not Just Resembled -- A Spy

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emptywheel
The original language in the Intelligence Authorization targeting WikiLeaks said that it "constituted" a non-state hostile intelligence service, not just resembled one.
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Hurricane Trash Talk

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bmaz
Late start today, had obligations all morning. And now that am back, am also trying to check on some relatives in Naples Florida, which seems to be the anticipated ground zero when Irma hits for real tonight and tomorrow. It is pretty concerning…
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