The SSCI Contemplates Splitting CyberCommand from DIRNSA
The Intercept's Jenna McLaughlin liberated a copy of the Senate Intelligence Committee's Intelligence Authorization for 2017 which was passed out of committee a few weeks back. There are two really shitty things -- a move to enable FBI to get…
NSA's Curious Goal-Post Moving on Snowden's Complaints
In our piece on NSA's response to requests for records of Edward Snowden's complaints, Jason Leopold and I reported that a senior NSA official apologized to Admiral Mike Rogers for providing insufficient context about Snowden's contacts with…
Wednesday: Graduate
To the bastard talking down to me
Your whipping boy calamity
Cross your fingers
I'm going to knock it all down
Can I graduate
-- excerpt, Graduate by Third Eye Blind
Well. That took a lot longer and was a much bigger pain in the rear…
Why Is the Government Poison-Pilling ECPA Reform?
Back in 2009, the Obama Administration had Jeff Sessions gut an effort by Dianne Feinstein to gut an effort by Patrick Leahy to gut an effort by Russ Feingold to halt the phone and Internet dragnet programs (as well as, probably, some Post…
On Presidential Powers to Destabilize Entire Regions
In his latest installment on Trump and the powers of the American presidency, Ben Wittes manages to avoid calling his adversaries delusional while making delusional arguments himself, which makes for a much more intriguing post. In this one,…
Lawyer Who Filed Crime Report against SSCI Staffer, Robert Eatinger, Complains about Lack of Trust
Robert Eatinger, whose name was redacted 1,600 times in the Senate Torture report, and who went on to file a crime report against Senate staffers for using materials provided to them by CIA, is complaining about lack of trust in this summary…
Obama's "Successful" Counterterrorism Approach in Yemen Has Quadrupled Membership in AQAP
On September 10, 2014, President Obama gave a speech advocating for the same kind of approach to counterterrorism against ISIL his Administration had been using with Yemen (and Somalia).
Now, it will take time to eradicate a cancer like ISIL. …
The Theory of Business Enterprises Part 6: Government as an Arm of Business
The international policies of the US government are organized around the needs of businessmen, according to Thorstein Veblen, in the same way the legal system was organized to protect their interests and not those of the common people.
…
Carrie Cordero's Counterintelligence Complaints
I wasn't going to respond to Carrie Cordero's Lawfare piece on my and Jason Leopold's story on NSA's response to Edward Snowden's claims he raised concerns at the agency, largely because I think her stance is fairly reasonable, particularly…
When Does a Random Taxi Driver Become a Lawful Combatant?
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post questioning the Obama Administration's logic in killing the leader of the Afghan Taliban in a drone strike in Pakistan. It turns out that the Defense Department also employed some very suspect reasoning…
NSA Kills People Based on Metadata, But Can't Preserve Its Own Personnel Metadata for a Simple FOIA
Over at Vice News, I've got a story with Jason Leopold on 800 pages of FOIAed documents from the NSA pertaining to their response to Edward Snowden. Definitely read it (but go back Monday to read it after VICE has had time to recover from having…
Hillary Promises Not to Order the Military (!?!) to Torture
Though I agree with the general sentiment that Donald Trump should not be trusted with America's nuclear codes, there's a lot I loathed in Hillary's foreign policy speech yesterday.
Her neat espousal of American exceptionalism, with the…
Wednesday: Looking Back
Looking back over my deeds
I can see signs a wise man heeds
And if I just had the chance
I'd never make that same mistake again
-- excerpt, Looking Back by Nat King Cole (c. 1958)
Sorry this is so late. Still have family here from out…
Treasury's New So-Called Transparency about Saudi-Held US Debt
According to Bloomberg, Treasury has for the first time ever not only revealed that it hides how much US debt the Saudis are holding, but how much debt that is: $117 billion dollars this month.
The U.S. would buy oil from Saudi Arabia and…
The Theory of Business Enterprises Part 5: A Legal System That Supports Businessmen
In Chapter 8 of The Theory of Business Enterprises, Thorstein Veblen takes up the political and legal systems of the US. Both are designed to support business at the expense of everyone and everything else. By 1904, people were used to…
Tuesday Morning: Family
Don't read anything into this music video. It's the only one I could think with family as the theme.
Which is why I have to bail on you folks today: family. My folks are in town and are now subsuming the entire day here. I'll try to have…
Monday Morning: Diasporic
Hope you're having a pleasant holiday. I feel sorry for many East Coast folks who are wet due to Tropical Depression Bonnie today. We've got clear skies, a light breeze out of the northwest and 80F degrees here, which seems odd for Memorial…
Pat Buchanan, Dick Cheney, and American Exceptionalism
Back when Dick Cheney was being hailed for calling out Donald Trump's racism, I noted one aspect of that radio interview that largely escaped notice: his embrace of the myth that the American continent was empty when his Puritan ancestors got…
Friday Morning (Somewhere, Maybe in Alaska): Rhapsodic
Friday, you old dog, you. You came back once again, a little worse for wear but alive and kicking. Let's see what kind of jazzy treat we can cook up for you.
Ah, let's have some Third Stream (not to be confused with neoliberalists' Third…
Ben Wittes' Delusion: FBI IS the Intelligence Community
Ben Wittes has started a series of posts on how to tyrant-proof the presidency. His first post argues that Jennifer Granick's worries about surveillance and Conor Friedersdorf's worries about drone-killing are misplaced. The real risk,…