DOJ's Awesome New Trick to Break into Apple Phones
DOJ has apparently come up with an amazing new trick to break into Apple phones: to ask defendants in the weeks before they sentence them.
Throughout the challenge over the phone in EDNY, Apple has raised a number of other ways DOJ could…
The Government Admits 9 Defendants Spied On Under Section 702 Have Not Gotten FISA Notice
As I noted, in his opinion approving the Section 702 certifications from last year, Judge Thomas Hogan had a long section describing the 4 different kinds of violations the spooks had committed in the prior year.
One of those pertained to…
Former Top Holder Aide Says Back Door Searches Violate Fourth Amendment; FISC Judge Thomas Hogan Doesn't Care
My apologies to Amy Jeffress.
When I first realized that FISA Court Presiding Judge Thomas Hogan picked her to serve as amicus for the review of the yearly 702 certifications last year, I complained that she, not Marc Zwillinger, got selected…
Friday Morning: This Thing Called Life
It's Friday, when we usually cover a different jazz genre. But we're playing these sorry cards we've been dealt this week and observing the passing of a great artist.
We'll probably all be sick of seeing this same video, but it is one of…
Thursday Morning: Come on Now [UPDATE]
Come on now,
who do you,
who do you,
who do you,
who do you think you are,
Ha ha ha bless your soul.
You really think you're in control.
-- excerpt, Crazy by Gnarls Barkley
The kids are all #TBT on Twitter -- posting throwback material…
FBI's Back Door Searches: Explicit Permission ... and Before That
I have written numerous times about the timing of authorization for FBI to do back door searches. There's a passage of the November 6, 2015 FISC opinion finding those searches to be constitutional that some have taken to clearly date the authority.…
The Theory of Business Enterprise Part 1: Introduction
Thorstein Veblen wrote The Theory of Business Enterprise in 1904. He is best know for The Theory of the Leisure Class, with its famous phrase, conspicuous consumption. Here's his Wikipedia entry. There are two things that recommend him to…
Last July, NSA and CIA Decided They Didn't Have to Follow Minimization Procedures, and Judge Hogan Is Cool with That
Yesterday, I Con the Record released three FISA Court opinions from last year. This November 6, 2015 opinion, authorizing last year's Section 702 certifications, has attracted the most attention, both for its list of violations (including the…
SS7 and NSA's Redundant Spying
On Sunday, 60 Minutes brought attention to an issue first exposed by researchers some years back: the ease with which people can use the SS7 system that facilitates global mobile phone interoperability to spy on you.
Sharyn Alfonsi: If you…
Wednesday Morning: Water, Water, Everywhere [UPDATE]
Day after day, day after day,
We stuck, nor breath nor motion;
As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean.
Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink.
--…
Apple's Spiking National Security Requests Could Reflect USA Freedom Compliance
A number of outlets are pointing to an alarming spike in Apple's national security requests, as reflected in its privacy numbers (though I think they are exaggerating the number). Here's what the numbers look like since it began reporting national…
Tuesday Morning: Trash Day
It's trash day in my neighborhood. Time to take the garbage to the curb. I aim for as little trash as possible, which means buying and consuming less processed/more fresh foods. I use paper/glass/ceramic/stainless steel for storage, avoiding…
Wonks and Activists
Marcy took on the excellent Jonathan Cohn’s piece on wonks vs. activists here, but I want to pile on. Wonks only get heard if politicians want to hear them, and even then, they aren't always right.
Paul Krugman has written many laudatory…
The Obamacare "Wonks" Are Awfully Selective about Which Taxes and Costs They See
Let me start this critique (what may be the first of two parts) of Jonathan Cohn's scolding of Bernie Sanders on health insurance by looking at this passage, from the end of his piece:
[Bernie] might not get his plan through Congress, sure,…
Monday Morning: Calm, You Need It
Another manic Monday? Then you need some of Morcheeba's Big Calm combining Skye Edward's mellow voice with the Godfrey brothers' mellifluous artistry.
Apple's Friday-filed response to USDOJ: Nah, son
You can read here Apple's response to…
Are the Economic Pins to the Saudi-US Relationship Still in Place?
As I noted the other day, 60 Minutes renewed attention on the 28 pages implicating Saudi, surely to set up the announcement that the White House is conducting a declassification review of the section of the Joint Congressional Inquiry that implicates…
The FBI's Asinine Attempt to Retroactively Justify Cracking Farook's Phone
"Hold on honey," said Syed Rizwan Farook, who had just murdered 14 of his co-workers, "let me go get my work phone in case they call me during our getaway"
That's the logic the FBI is now peddling to reporters who are copping onto what was…
The CIA Doesn't Want You To Know that ISI Supports Terror, But DIA Does
The National Security Archive just got a number of documents on the funding of the Haqqani network, showing it gets (or got) funding from Gulf donations, the Taliban in the tribal lands, and Pakistan's ISI. A particularly interesting DIA cable…
Friday Morning: Dark Water Jazz
It's Friday and that means jazz here at emptywheel. But no genre exploration today, just this lovely, evocative downtempo jazz/trip hop fusion work.
It's dark water jazz indeed this week...
Congress oublies the Flint water crisis
I can't…
Hillary's Bold Plan to Financially Penalize Recidivist Super-Predators
The other day Hillary promised she would appoint Attorneys General like Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch. "I will appoint an Attorney General who will continue the courageous work of Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch." Given that the comments came…