In Which the National Security Council Discovers the Grand Jury Subpoena
Back when Jim Comey ate 20 journalists for lunch, he said that if Congress imposed more controls on National Security Letters, FBI would just get more grand jury subpoenas, which require fewer approvals than NSLs anyway.
Which is one reason…
Correlations and FBI Claims in the Marathon Trial
Kevin Swindon, the FBI Supervisory Special Agent in charge of computer forensics for the Boston Marathon attack just finished testimony. His testimony raised more questions than it answered. That's true, in part, because the government had…
Washington Post Fails to Disclose Heinonen's UANI Connection in Anti-Iran Op/Ed
We are now in the "final" week of negotiations to set the framework for the P5+1 long-term agreement on Iran's nuclear technology. With so much in the balance, voices are popping up from every direction to offer their opinions on what constitutes…
CISA's Terrorists Are Not Just Foreign Terrorists
In addition to hunting hackers, the Cybersecurity Information Security Act -- the bill that just passed the Senate Intelligence Committee -- collects information domestically to target terrorists if those so-called terrorists can be said to…
Have the Banks Escaped Criminal Prosecution because They're Spying Surrogates?
I'm preparing to do a series of posts on CISA, the bill passed out of SSCI this week that, unlike most of the previous attempts to use cybersecurity to justify domestic spying, may well succeed (I've been using OTI's redline version which shows…
Is Matt DeHart Being Prosecuted Because FBI Investigated CIA for the Anthrax Leak?
Buzzfeed today revealed a key detail behind in the Matthew DeHart case: the content of the file which DeHart believes explains the government's pursuit of him. In addition to details of CIA's role in drone-targeting and some ag company's role…
David Petraeus' Defense Attorney Argues Mistress-Biographers Have More Legal Privilege than Defense Attorneys
In a letter to the NYT complaining that the paper compared his client, David Petraeus, with Stephen Kim and John Kiriakou, defense attorney David Kendall implicitly makes the argument that mistress-biographers have a better recognized privilege…
Chelsea Manning Warned of Nuri al-Maliki's Corruption in 2010. David Petraeus' Subordinates Silenced Her.
In early 2010, Chelsea Manning discovered that a group of people Iraq's Federal Police were treating as insurgents were instead trying to call attention to Nuri al-Malki's corruption. When she alerted her supervisors to that fact, they told…
If FISC Consults Technical Experts and Nobody Sees It, Does It Really Happen?
Back in January, PCLOB released a progress report on the reports it released, describing whether the government has taken up its recommendations. There's a detail in it I've been meaning to call attention to:
Recommendation 5: Take Full…
If Section 215 Lapsed, Would the Government Finally Accede to ECPA Reform?
Now that the Section 215 Sunset draws nearer, the debate over what reformers should do has shifted away from whether USA Freedom Act is adequate reform to whether it is wise to push for Section 215 to sunset.
That debate, repeatedly, has…
Hint: USA Freedom Act Would Have Ratified FISC's "Relevant To" Interpretation, Too
Steve Vladeck has an uncharacteristically silly post at Just Security, warning that, because Congress has not moved to reform Section 215, making it more likely Congress will pass a straight reauthorization of Section 215, that will amount…
What Was the Anthrax Attack Targeting Patrick Leahy Doing in the Iraq NIE?
As Jason Leopold reports, the government recently released a newly declassified version of the 2002 NIE that justified the war with Iraq to Black Vault's John Greenwald. Leopold has a useful overview of what the report includes. But I'm most…
The Unopened Torture Report and Trusting CIA on Other Covert Operations
Yesterday, Pat Leahy issued a Sunshine Week statement criticizing Richard Burr for attempting to reclaim all copies of the Torture Report, but also complaining that State and DOJ haven't opened their copy of the Torture Report.
I also was…
If US Won't Share Intelligence with Those Hosting Snowden, Why Are We Engaged with Russia on ISIL?
Glenn Greenwald reports that, when he asked German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel why he doesn't offer asylum to Edward Snowden, Gabriel revealed the US had threatened to cut Germany off from intelligence sharing if they did.
German Vice Chancellor…
Edward Snowden Got One Fifth of Americans to Adopt Better Passwords
Thanks to Edward Snowden, almost 22% of Americans have adopted more complex passwords, one of the most basic things they could do to keep themselves safer online.
That's according to a Pew Research study released this week tracking how Americans…
Dick Cheney's Foggy Memory on Bush's Plausible Deniability for Torture
One of just three issues this Playboy interview [marginally SFW] with Dick Cheney pressed him on (the other two being whether Bush misjudged Putin and whether Cheney's father loved him) was whether President Bush had been briefed on the torture…
Dick Cheney on the Dangers of Internet Spying
There are several notable things about this interview [Playboy link: mostly SFW] with Dick Cheney (in addition to the detail that Cheney has his "slender, mustachioed housekeeper named Gus" provide a never-ending stream of lattes, prepared…
In February, the Government Turned in Its Dragnet Homework Late
Last Wednesday, I Con the Record released the latest dragnet order, signed on February 26.
This order actually has several changes of note.
As I predicted, yet another new FISC judge signed the order, James Boasberg, who only joined…
Is There a Programmatic Stingray?
The NYT yesterday had a story on the secrecy surrounding Stingrays including these admissions from an FBI affidavit to explain the secrecy.
A fuller explanation of the F.B.I.’s position is provided in two publicly sworn affidavits about…
Iran Sends Missiles to Iraq: US Finally Shows Concern for Sectarianism, Civilian Casualties
From the very beginning, when George W. Bush and his co-defendants wanted to invade Iraq over the 9/11 attacks, the US war in Iraq has been promoted, waged and defended with a complete lack of self-awareness of the illegal nature of the war…