Dean Baquet Explains that the CIA Cries Wolf, But Misses How Transparency Helps Hold Feinstein Accountable
Jack Goldsmith conducted fascinating interview with NYT Executive Editor Dean Baquet about the latter's decision to name Michael D'Andrea and two other top CIA officials whose identities the CIA was trying to suppress.
He attributes his…
Now That's Some Disturbance in the Force
At some time around 9:30 PM ET at the INSA Leadership Dinner, John Brennan suggested that maybe the CIA Director -- that is, maybe he -- should have a 10 year term.
D/CIA John Brennan says it might make sense to have the CIA director and DNI…
The Government's Two Freebie Phone Dragnet Orders
The mood among dragnet reformers has been outright panic about how we need to do something now omigosh we only have 6 weeks.
That's true, to a point.
But as people scream about the urgency of this, they should consider that the government…
USA F-ReDux: Chaining on "Session Identifying Information" that Is Not Call Detail Records
The House Judiciary Committee just released the latest incarnation of USA Freedom Act, which for now I'm calling USA F-ReDux.
One thing they've changed from the Patrick Leahy version is to reword what, under Leahy's bill, provided for two…
On the Nonsense of Norms about Secrets
At a panel on secrecy yesterday, Bob Litt proclaimed that the NYT "disgraced itself" for publishing names, some of which were widely known, of the people who were conducting our equally widely known secret war on drones.
Sadly, Litt did…
On Drone Rule Books and Breaking the Rules
Back when we first learned that the CIA had killed an American (and an Italian) hostage in a January drone strike that also killed American, I predicted, based on posts like this and this, we would learn that Obama was never applying the rules…
Alberto Gonzales: The Counsel Represented by Counsel and Babysat by Cheney's Counsel
Footnote 147 of the DOJ IG Report on Stellar Wind (PDF 462-3) modifies a discussion of the discussions on March 6 and 7, 2004 in which Jack Goldsmith and Patrick Philbin informed David Addington and Alberto Gonzales that they could not reauthorize…
OLC Lowers Its Standards for Retroactive Legal Reviews
There's an interesting passage in the DOJ IG discussion of Jack Goldsmith's efforts to rewrite the Stellar Wind OLC memos (PDF 456).
The first passage describes Jim Comey permitting a lower standard of review to apply for activities already…
John Yoo Approved the Stellar Wind Authorization that First Covered Iraq
As I noted, one interesting aspect of reading the Stellar Wind IG Reports is tracking the things that show up in the Snowden-leaked draft IG Report that are completely redacted in the DOJ-released report.
One thing that is completely redacted…
The Burr Family USE to Assassinate People in Light of Day
At the end of a must-read article on how the people -- whom it names -- in charge of the CIA's drone program are the same people who were in charge of the torture program, the NYT also reveals that Richard Burr joined Mike Rogers pressuring…
Stellar Wind IG Report, Working Thread
Charlie Savage has liberated the Stellar Wind IG Report completed on July 10, 2009. He wrote it up here. This will be a working thread. [Note page numbers here are off by 1]
(PDF 13) The report reveals that OPR had not yet finished its review…
The Magic Lawyering Behind Stellar Wind
The NSA IG Report on Stellar Wind reveals this about the legal review behind the dragnet of Americans. (PDF 156)
After having received the Authorization on 4 October 2001, General Hayden asked NSA General Counsel Robert Deitz if it was lawful.…
In Newly Released IG Reports, Administration Redacted Discussion of the Bill Binney Option
One of the most fascinating aspects of the IG Reports Charlie Savage just liberated is how they redacted the NSA IG Report, a draft of which Edward Snowden already got released.
Consider the following redactions.
NSA redacts the discussion that…
The "Accidental" Phone Dragnet Violations IDed in 2009 Were Actually Retained Stellar Wind Features
I have long scoffed at the claim that the phone dragnet violations discovered in 2009 were accidental. It has always been clear they were, instead, features of Stellar Wind that NSA simply never turned off, even though they violated the FISC…
America's Intelligence Empire
I've been reading Empire of Secrets, a book about the role of MI5 as the British spun off their empire. It describes how, in country after country, the government that took over from the British -- even including people who had been surveilled…
The "Sitting Next to a Baddie" American Death Authorization Has become the "Sitting in a Baddie Compound"
As Jim laid out, yesterday President Obama admitted that we killed two hostages, including American Warren Weinstein, in a drone operation in the Af-Pak border in January. In that same strike, we killed American citizen Ahmed Faruq, though he…
Brennan's Addiction to Signature Strikes Killed Weinstein
The US insists that the deaths of hostages Warren Weinstein and Giovanni Lo Porto were a "mistake". Both the New York Times and Washington Post open their articles about the drone strike that killed them with descriptions couched in the language…
On Mitch's PATRIOT Gambit
Mitch McConnell, as you've probably heard, has just introduced a bill to reauthorize the expiring provisions of the PATRIOT Act until 2020.
The move has elicited a bunch of outraged comments -- as if anyone should ever expect anything but…
I Con the Record's Annual Transparency™
Amid about 100 pressing bills having to do with surveillance, I Con the Record released the yearly FISA letter and pretty Transparency Report. Here's what I can see in it (here's last year's report and letter for comparison).
Probable Cause…
Why Do All the Stingray NDAs Date to 2011 to 2012?
The other day, the Baltimore Sun continued its great work on Stingrays with a report on the most recent court disclosure from the Baltimore Police Department, revealing that instead of the 4,300 uses of its Stingray that it testified to earlier…