Days after Bombing a Wedding Party and Squelching UN Investigation in Yemen, Saudi Arabia Worries about Civilian Casualties
On Monday, coalition forces in Yemen bombed a wedding party, killing over 130 people.
The death toll from an air strike on a wedding party in Yemen has jumped to 131, medics said on Tuesday, in one of the deadliest attacks on civilians in Yemen's…
In His Latest "Eat the Journalists for Lunch" Lunch, Jim Comey Flirts with Ferguson Effect
Periodically, Jim Comey invites a group of select journalists in for lunch and eats them alive with his charisma and unsubstantiated claims. The first I noticed came when Comey made some false claims about National Security Letters, without…
With One Bombing Run Russia Gets the US to Acknowledge CIA's "Covert" Regime Change Forces
For some time, a number of us have been tracking the collective forgetfulness about CIA's acknowledged covert forces on the ground in Syria. I often point back to the day two years ago when Chuck Hagel confirmed our covert efforts in Syria in…
Compare Hillary's 5 Phishing Emails with DOD's 602 Million Spam and Phishing Emails a Month
As usually happens, more journalists are examining the latest tranche of Hillary emails for gotchas than for interesting policy discussions. The latest is AP's report that Hillary received 5 emails from Russian linked hackers attempting to phish…
Apple's Transparency Numbers Suggest Claims of Going Dark Overblown
Apple recently released its latest transparency report for the period ending June 30, 2015. By comparing the numbers for two categories with previous reports (2H 2013, 1H 2014, 2H 2014) we can get some sense of how badly Apple's move to…
TSA Security Still Not Secure But Maybe We Can Keep Our Shoes on Soon
The Senate Appropriations Committee is holding a hearing to discuss results of a still secret IG audit of TSA screening, featuring testimony from both TSA Administrator Peter Neffenger (who was only confirmed in July) and DHS's IG, John Roth.
While…
Someone Tell Bill Nelson Apple Isn't a Telecom and that Metadata Is Available with Encryption
There were a number of interesting exchanges in the Senate Armed Services Committee on cybersecurity hearing today, which I'll return to in a bit. But for the moment I wanted to point to this bizarre exchange featuring Bill Nelson.
Nelson:…
Preston Burton Was Not Necessarily Appointed to Represent Privacy Interests; Was He Appointed to Undercut EFF?
In my post on Michael Mosman's appointment of Preston Burton as an amicus to decide whether NSA should be permitted to keep bulk telephony data collected under section 215 past November 28, 2015 I noted he was appointed pursuant to provisions…
How Did Two CISA Beneficiaries and Numerous Agnostics Come to Support CISA?
When the Business Software Alliance released this letter a while back, I was perplexed.
In addition to its call for Congress to pass a set of designated bills, including ECPA reform, that would give assurances to international customers…
Green Bay TitleTown MNF Fall Is Here Trash Talk (NFL Week 3)
Hi there lugnuts, it is time for another edition of Emptywheel's Famous Trash Talk! I actually would have started this last night, and therefore had it up earlier this morning, but had to go out to dinner and my new iPhone 6S had been delivered…
Command in Middle of Intelligence Scandal Admits It Can't Vet a Twitter Picture
As a number of outlets are reporting, CentCom released this statement yesterday afternoon.
U.S. Central Command was notified at approximately 1 p.m. today that a commander of a New Syrian Forces element operating in Syria surrendered some of…
Timeline: Is Volkswagen's 'Bug' an EU Feature? [UPDATED]
Reports this last week that Volkswagen deployed "defeat devices" — software designed to cheat diesel passenger vehicle emissions controls tests — revealed more than an automobile manufacturing group run amok. One might suspect European…
Obama and Xi Set Up a Red CyberPhone
Here are the terms of the cyber agreement announced today.
The United States and China agree that timely responses should be provided to requests for information and assistance concerning malicious cyber activities. Further, both sides agree…
Raising Pat Kane and Lawyers Selling Out Clients
If you haven't seen the reportage, there is a bit of a fascinating case going on up in Erie County of New York. That would be the Buffalo area, give or take. The matter involves the star of the Chicago Blackhawks, the current Stanley Cup…
Q: Whose Secrets Are More Sensitive than the DC Madam's? A: NSA's.
On September 17, FISC Judge Michael Mosman appointed the first known amicus under the terms laid out in USA F-ReDux; notice of which got posted yesterday (Mosman could have done so before USA F-ReDux, of course, but he did cite the statute…
Pope Francis Nails the Rhetoric of Addressing Congress
Pope Francis just finished his address to Congress. It was a masterful speech from a political standpoint, designed to hold a mirror up to America and provide a moral lesson.
He started with an appeal the most conservative in America would…
The Real Story Behind 2014 Indictment of Chinese Hackers: Ben Rhodes Moves the IP Theft Goal Posts
As I've noted repeatedly, there has been some abysmal reporting on the indictment, in May 2014, of 5 Chinese People's Liberation Army hackers. Over and over reporters claim, without any caveat, that the indictment was for the theft of intellectual…
Delusional DOJ Claims Documents Declassified, Released Under FOIA Not Declassified, Not Authentic
Back in March, NYT's Charlie Savage sued to get the NSA to respond to a FOIA request asking for "copies of -- and declassification review of, as necessary" a bunch of things, including IG reports on "bulk phone records collection activities…
BREAKING: OPM and DOD (Claim They) Don't Think Fingerprint Databases Are All That Useful
In the most negative news dump released behind the cover of Pope Francis' skirts, Office of Public Management just announced that rather than previous reports that 1.1 million people had had their fingerprints stolen from OPM's databases, instead…
"It's Good to Be Back," Petraeus Says before He Offers a Vague Apology and Oil Market Advice
John McCain has officially launched David Petraeus' rehabilitation tour.
Petraeus testified today before the Senate Armed Services Committee on what to do in the Middle East. But you could tell how much this is about rehabilitation for the…