Michael Hayden's Masturbatory Claims of Dragnet Efficacy
In a bid to extend a dragnet that has proven useless in the function the Intelligence Community claims it serves, Mitch McConnell is claiming there are secret reasons we need to keep the dragnet.
It's possible this is just a tactic, to…
Mike Morell's Performance of "Intelligence"
Given that Bill Harlow co-wrote George Tenet and Jose Rodriguez' autobiographical novels, it's fairly clear he continues to propagandize for the CIA years after he left the Agency as Public Affairs officer. Still, his past autobiographical…
About those Brennan Lies about Working with Iran and Those Who Commit Atrocities
During the whole flap over Seymour Hersh's reporting questioning the Osama bin Laden raid, I kept pointing to Ron Wyden's comments to John Brennan about lies he told in March, probably at his Council on Foreign Relations speech.
I guessed…
Joel Brenner Reveals David Addington's Sources and Methods
Several people (including Dan Froomkin) have pointed to the speech former NSA Inspector General Joel Brenner gave at NSA today for the confirmation of what was pretty clear from the joint IG Report on Stellar Wind -- that David Addington ran…
How the Second Circuit, FISC, and the Telecoms Might Respond to McConnell's USA F-ReDux Gambit
Update: Jennifer Granick (who unlike me, is a lawyer) says telecoms will be subject to suit if they continue to comply with dragnet orders.
Any company that breaches confidentiality except as required by law is liable for damages and attorneys’…
Some Thoughts on USA F-ReDux
There's a funny line in the House Judiciary Committee's report on USA F-ReDux. Amid the discussion of the new Call Detail Record function, it explains the government will be doing CDR chaining on "metadata it already lawfully possesses," even…
USA F-ReDux: The Risks Ahead
Sometime after 2 today, the House will pass USA F-ReDux by a large margin. Last night the Rules Committee rejected all amendments, including two (a version of the Massie-Lofgren amendment prohibiting back doors and a Kevin Yoder amendment that…
Did the Government Comply with FISC Requirement of Notice on Appellate Decision
I'm prepping a post on how all the various deadlines over the next several weeks will work together. So I've been reviewing the instructions James Boasberg laid out in the most recent dragnet order, which he signed on February 26.
First,…
Did the Second Circuit Decision ALSO Blow Up SPCMA?
In a post on last week's Second Circuit opinion finding NSA's Section 215 phone dragnet unlawful, Faiza Patel observed that the government may have problems with the court's ruling that a seizure of metadata can constitute an injury. She points…
HJC USA F-ReDux Report: Other Thoughts
More thoughts on the House Judiciary Committee report on USA F-ReDux.
The Data Handshake
The bill seems to explicitly envision a data handshake, based off contractual agreements.
This section does not require any private entity to retain…
HJC's USA F-ReDux Report Narrows Language on Call Detail Records
As I've written extensively, for the last 15 months, the government, FISC, and Congress have been playing around with the definition of Call Detail Records under the USA F-ReDux and its predecessors. As written, I believe the CDR language in…
Will Ben Wittes Pre-Prove Ben Wittes is NAKED?
Ben Wittes wrote a post about last week's Second Circuit ruling deeming the NSA 215 phone dragnet unlawful, arguing that the ruling is actually good for the Agency.
It may seem odd to suggest that a unanimous panel defeat on a basic legal theory…
USA F-ReDux: Dianne Feinstein Raises the Data Handshake Again
As I noted last November, in her defense of USA Freedom Act last year, Dianne Feinstein suggested the telecoms (principally, Verizon) had agreed to retain their data for longer than their business purposes required without any mandate --…
In 2003, OLC Doubled Down on Unlimited (de)Classification Authority for the President
One of the tactics those in DOJ attempted to use in 2004 to put some controls on Stellar Wind, it appears from the DOJ IG Report, was to point to legal requirements to inform Congress (for example, to inform Congress that the Attorney General…
Wyden et al: Spot the Lie in Brennan's CFR Speech Contest!
As the Daily Dot reported, Senators Wyden, Heinrich, and Hirono wrote John Brennan a letter trying to get him to admit that he lied about hacking the Senate Intelligence Committee.
But, as often happens with Wyden-authored letters, they also…
How the NSA Connection Chains without Calls
For a very long time, I've been trying to figure out what the government means when it says it "connection chains" data call detail records under its Section 215 dragnet (and, possibly, once it passes, under USA F-ReDux).
The phone dragnet…
The Problem with Unidentified Drone Victims: NSA Never Learns Who the Journalists Were
Al Jazeera Islamabad bureau chief Ahmad Muaffaq Zaidan is lucky.
Thus far, the CIA has not drone-killed him because the NSA has identified him as a terrorist courier, which the Intercept explains at length today.
The U.S. government labeled…
Richard Burr's IP Dragnet Disappears into the Memory Hole
As I noted yesterday, Richard Burr gave a planned colloquy on the Senate floor yesterday in which he said bulk collection included IP addresses.
Now what’s bulk data? Bulk data is storing telephone numbers and IP addresses — we have no…
Edward Snowden Richard Burr Exposes IP Address Dragnet on Senate Floor
Update: As I show in this post, the transcription of Burr's speech in the Congressional record removed the reference to IP addresses.
Update: While Burr's office did not respond to my request for comment, they did respond to Buzzfeed (which…
2nd Circuit Decision Striking Down Dragnet Should Require Tighter "Specific Selection Term" Language in USA F-ReDux
When I wrote up the hearing in ACLU v. Clapper back in September, I noted that Judge Gerard Lynch got the problem with the definition of "relevant to" FISC had rubber stamped in secret. There's nothing distinct about phone records. So if the…