The Just Right Fear Industry, in 18,000 Words
Steven Brill thinks we're not worried enough about bioterrorism and dirty bombs. He makes that argument even while acknowledging that a dirty bomb attack launched in Washington DC would result in just 50 additional cancer deaths. And curiously,…
Just Another Misogynist Monday
I'm not watching the Olympics on NBC. I see more than enough of the events in my social media feed that I don't need to turn on the television. This post is based on the observations and media content shared online, an indicator of just how…
The Classified Appendix Fifth Bullet on "Certain Counterterrorism Matters"
I want to make a really minor point about one of the documents produced to ACLU with the Drone Rule Book -- which the White House calls a Presidential Policy Guidance -- last week (here's my working thread on the Rule Book). The Rule Book itself…
Drone Rule Book, Working Thread
What ever happened to the inclusions of headers and footers in documents? It used to be, documents would ID what document you were reading on every page, which is really useful if one page walks or gets replaced with a new one. Now even life-and-death…
Training Camp Trash Talk
Welp, the NFL and Olympics have both descended on us. There is not much up in F1, the same usual boring Mercedes dominance with intra-team squabbling and petulance. Yawn. There is some really decent racing behind the Mercs, but the crappy coverage…
Friday: Little Fly
Friday jazz comes to us from vocalist and bassist Esperanza Spalding, one of my personal favorites. She's the first jazz musician to ever win the Grammy Award for Best New Artist, awarded only a handful of months after this featured performance…
Tear Up Texas, Tear Up Another Encryption Claim
Both the Intercept and the Daily Beast have reported on this eye-popping exchange from the criminal complaint charging Erick Hendricks with conspiracy to provide material support for terrorism, showing an undercover FBI employee advising one…
CIA Director Entry Number 2: Mike Morell, Fabulist
As Eli Lake wrote the other day, there are three men angling to be CIA Director under President Hillary: John Brennan, Mike Morell, and Mike Vickers.
I've already explained what is terrifying about Vickers' audition to be CIA Director: after…
Thursday: Move
Need something easy on the nerves today, something mellow, and yet something that won't let a listener off too lightly. Guess for today that's John Legend's Tiny Desk Concert.
I promised reindeer tales today, haven't forgotten.
From Anthrax…
One Beheaded Child Here and There...
On the same day that the FBI culminated a six year investigation into DC Metro Police Officer Nicholas Young by busting him for sending $245 in gift card serial numbers to an undercover FBI officer posing as someone Young believed to be a friend…
Wednesday: Not the Shape
I know that the spades are the swords of a soldier
I know that the clubs are weapons of war
I know that diamonds mean money for this art
But that's not the shape of my heart
-- excerpt, Shape of My Heart by Sting and Dominic Miller, 1993
After…
Eli Lake's Portrayal of the CIA Director Campaign: Drones, Benghazi, and ... ?
Eli Lake reports that John Brennan wants to stay on as CIA Director under President Hillary. That's not surprising given that Brennan believes (as Lake notes) CIA Directors should get 10 year terms just like FBI Directors do.
I thought maybe…
What Price Victory?
Virtually the entire political class has now united to defeat Donald Trump, with Morning Joe today staging a Michael Hayden appearance that served largely to allow Scarborough to tell the story of Trump asking three times in a foreign policy…
Tuesday: Allez Vous F
J'adore Stromae. I'm not in the hip hop demographic, but Stromae -- whose real name is Paul Van Haver -- pulls me in. This multi-talented artist born to a Rwandan father and a Belgian mother pulls together multiple genres of music laced with…
Monday: Grey Bull
Hope you have some free time today to enjoy this short film. Grey Bull by Khoby runs 15 minutes long, but worth it. Its pace is slow, but the emotions this short musters are full and richly explored. I look forward to more from filmmaker Khoby.
Energy…
Did Wikileaks Do US Intelligence Bidding in Publishing the Syria Files?
Consider this nutty data point: between CNN's Reliable Sources and NBC's Meet the Press, Julian Assange was on more Sunday shows today than John McCain, with two TV appearances earlier this week.
Sadly, even in discussions of the potential…
Brennan Calls Out the Press for Giving ISIS More Credit Than They Deserve
Both James Clapper and John Brennan appeared at the Aspen Security Forum this week (it was Brennan's first appearance, apparently). As I may lay out, Clapper was by far the more measured of the two. But this exchange, between Brennan and…
Was "Computer Network" "Analytics Data Program" Hacked at Hillary HQ VAN or Something Else?
Several outlets have reported that Hillary's campaign -- or rather, a network the Hillary campaign uses -- got hacked along with the DNC and DCCC, presumably by the same APT 28 group presumed to be Russia's military intelligence GRU. But reports…
I Con the Record Rolls Out Its 3-Page Intel Collection Efficacy Process
Last year, PCLOB suggested that the intelligence community formalize its process to assess the efficacy of intelligence collection. While it made the recommendation as part of its 702 report, the recommendation itself came against the background…
Waving the Constitution at Those Who Ignore It
In real time Thursday night, I caught only the final few seconds of Khizer Khan's powerful speech at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. Through the rest of Thursday and Friday, more and more of the details of the speech flitted…