Tamerlan Tsarnaev Moved Inspire onto Dzhokhar's Computer the Day He Left for Russia
Yesterday, the defense in the Dzhokhar Tsarnaev trial rested; closing arguments will be Monday. Dzhokhar's defense consisted of just four witnesses, undermining the suggestions by the prosecution that he was just as steeped in jihadist propaganda…
Judge Rejects Panetta Review FOIA Because Review Is True
Fresh off approving the phone dragnet for what might be the last time, Judge James Boasberg rejected Jason Leopold's FOIA for the Panetta Report. Ultimately, Boasberg upheld a broad Exemption 5 deliberative privilege claim.
But his discussion…
The Crooks Who Took Down Silk Road
You've no doubt heard that a DEA and a Secret Service Agent involved in the Silk Road investigation got charged yesterday for stealing Bitcoin from Ross Ulbricht.
According to the complaint, Force was a DEA agent assigned to investigate the…
More Straws on US Financial Hegemonic Camel's Back
Over the weekend, Juan Cole laid out how, if nuke negotiations with Iran fail this week, Europe is likely to weaken or end its sanctions anyway.
Iran-Europe trade in 2005 was $32 billion. Today it is $9 billion. There isn’t any fat in the…
Heinonen Moves Deceptive Anti-Iran Campaign from Washington Post Opinion Page to New York Times News Page
Last week, I called attention to the fact that in printing an op-ed by Olli Heinonen (co-authored by Michael Hayden and Ray Takeyh), the Washington Post failed to disclose Heinonen's position on the advisory board of the anti-Iran group…
NSA Tried to Roll Out Its Automated Query Program Between Debates about Killing It
As I noted earlier, after reporting in November that there was a debate in 2009 about ending the phone dragnet...
To address their concerns, the former senior official and other NSA dissenters in 2009 came up with a plan that tracks closely…
Software Is Not Capital if You're Not a Software Company
The Economist trumpets Thomas Piketty's Capital and his theory, r > g, has had its first serious rebuttal, glowing like a proud parent over graduate student Matthew Rognlie's work.
Note this bit:
Mr Rognlie mounts three main criticisms…
The AP's Recycled "We Don't Need a Phone Dragnet" Story Lays the Groundwork for Swapping Section 215 for CISA
The AP has a story that it calls an "Exclusive" and says "has not been reported before" reporting that the NSA considered killing the phone dragnet back before Edward Snowden disclosed it.
The National Security Agency considered abandoning…
The NSL to 215 Collection: Data Flows AND URLs
Since last summer, I have been noting that majority of Section 215 production now consists of Internet data the government used to collect using National Security Letters but -- after the Internet companies successfully refused compliance under…
Did Authorizing Torture Make the National Security Council an Agency Subject to FOIA?
Almost 3 years ago, I discovered that the judge in the ACLU torture FOIA, Alvin Hellerstein (who recently ordered the Administration to release images from torture), was trying to force the Administration to declassify a phrase making it clear…
FBI's Preventative Role: Hygiene for Corporations, Spies for Muslims
I'm still deep in this 9/11 Follow-up Report FBI, which Jim Comey and now-retired Congressman Frank Wolf had done last year and which released the unsurprising topline conclusion that Jim Comey needs to have more power, released earlier this…
FBI Field Offices Don't See the Point in Racial Profiling
As I noted earlier, I'm reading the 9/11 Follow-Up Report just completed for FBI. And while there are some interesting insights in it, in general I think the analysis of the report itself is pretty horrible (which is funny because the report…
Tamerlan's Search on Remote Control Car Info
I want to do a quick post about details defense attorney Timothy Watkins snuck into today's testimony at the Dzhokhar Tsarnaev trial. FBI Supervisory Special Agent Edward Knapp testified at length about how he investigated the bombs used in…
Report: FBI Needs to Hunt "Space-System Intruders" Better
I'm reading through the report released yesterday that basically says FBI needs to do more spying and analysis.
On top of some observations on the substance of the report (to come), I think it was poorly edited, with some fairly humorous…
Details on the Pressure Cooker Dragnet
In this morning's Tsarnaev trial testimony, FBI's Christian Fierabend testified to the evidence about purchases leading up to the attack (h/t to CBS's Jim Armstrong among others for the live-tweeting). As much as possible, he tried to show…
DOJ Pissed Away $2.1 Million on Drones that Don't Work
DOJ's IG just released a report on the Department's drone use. Its overall recommendation is that FBI get more drones, so it has them in locations around the country for quick use if they're needed (sigh). It also found that FBI doesn't have…
Devin Nunes Thinks Congress Needs More Classified Briefings to Understand Phone Dragnet
In an article describing the current state of play on the Section 215 sunset, WaPo quotes Devin Nunes claiming that the poor maligned phone dragnet is just misunderstood. So he plans on having more briefings (curiously, just for the Republican…
Does Mossad Take Requests?
Yesterday, WSJ caused a stink by reporting that the Obama Administration was pissed because Israel had shared intelligence it gathered about the Iran negotiations and shared it with Congress.
Soon after the U.S. and other major powers entered…
On CISA the Surveillance Bill
After the Senate Intelligence Committee passed CISA, its sole opponent, Ron Wyden, said, "If information-sharing legislation does not include adequate privacy protections then that’s not a cybersecurity bill – it’s a surveillance bill…
The $450 an Hour Terror Industry Echo Chamber
Matthew Levitt, a prominent figure in the Terror Industry, has been testifying in the Dzhokhar Tsarnaev trial. He's one of a number of noted figures who gets presented as experts at trials who doesn't speak Arabic, who hasn't bothered to learn…