SWIFT Change
I've long tracked developments in SWIFT, the system that tracks international bank transfers. The NSA got SWIFT to turn over data willingly after 9/11. But then the consortium moved its servers to Europe, making the data legally safer -- though…
CIA to Stein: "Sorting Syrian Fighters is Hard!"
Jeff Stein has a fascinating read over at Newsweek. From the url, I'm guessing that Stein titled his piece "Moderate Rebels Please Raise Your Hands", but his editors eventually went with "Inside the CIA's Syrian Rebels Vetting Machine". As Stein…
DOJ's Claims about the Adequacy of Shitty WiFi Rendered Inoperative
Over at Vice, I have a piece reviewed DOJ's explanation for why they turned off some alleged Asian mobsters DSL so they could then go in as fake DSL repairmen and collected evidence.
The whole thing has a Keystone cops character, especially…
What Drove Timing of NYTimes Publishing Risen-Apuzzo Disclosure of McHale Jundallah Contacts?
Saturday night, the New York Times published a blockbuster article by James Risen and Matt Apuzzo that was then carried on the front page of Sunday's print edition. The article described the jaw-dropping revelation that somehow, a lowly Port…
If the NSA "Won" the War in Iraq, Why Are We Still Losing It?
To Shane Harris' misfortune, his book, @War, out today, came out on the same day that General Daniel Bolger's book, Why We Lost, came out.
That means Harris' first excerpt, initially titled "How the NSA Sorta Won the Last Iraq War," came…
White Georgetown Student Sentenced to One Year, Tutoring Underprivileged Kids for Ricin Offense
Tell me what kind of charge (much less sentence) you think this kid would get if he were a Muslim immigrant.
Daniel Milzman, 20, was sentenced today to one year and one day in prison on a federal offense stemming from the discovery of a plastic…
The Foreign Metadata Problem
In this post, I argued that a likely explanation for the NSA's limits on collecting domestic cell phone data stem from a decision Verizon made in 2009 to stop participating in an FBI call records program. I'm not sure if I'm right about the…
Emergency Dragnet Chaining, Now with First Amendment Protections!
Thursday, I Con the Record quietly released the most recent phone dragnet order, BR-125, dated September 11, 2014 (curiously, I Con the Record went back to correct its original release to indicate the order had been reauthorized on 9/11, not…
Madame Defargewheel's Football Guillotine Trash Talk
So, I heard on the radios today that the "sharps", "insiders" and other "experts" were calling this weekend a "guillotine" because there were so many make or break games in both college and pros. Seasons on the chopping block and whatnot. I…
Why DOJ Withheld the Correlations Opinion: The DC Circuit's Mosaic
On January 9, 2014, the government appealed Judge Richard Leon's decision finding the phone dragnet in Klayman v. Obama to the DC Circuit.
The DC Circuit, of course, is the court that issued US. v Maynard in 2010, the first big court decision…
Jim Comey Scolds the Press for Reporting on a Court Filing
Jim Comey, seemingly intent on squandering once limitless credibility in record time, has written a letter to the NYT to explain two of the FBI's deceptive operations reported recently. The one that's getting the attention -- his admission…
Ebola Outbreak Receding in Liberia, Still Strong in Sierra Leone
Back in late September, the press had a field day with a mathematical model developed by CDC that estimated that if left unchecked, the Ebola outbreak in West Africa could wind up infecting over 1.4 million people. Almost missed in the hysteria…
The Klayman Hearing: Everyone Can Stand If DOJ Has the Backbone
Update: See this post, which explains that I'm wrong about the timing of Verizon's different approach to production than AT&T. And that difference precedes Verizon's withdrawal from the FBI call record program in 2009 -- it goes back to…
Even the Government Can't Figure Out How It Uses Its FISA Dragnet
Things are getting interesting in the case of Raez Qadir Khan in Oregon, who was charged in 2011 with conspiring to materially support a suicide bombing that took place in Pakistan in 2009.
As I laid out in September, his lawyers asked to…
Did ISAF Joint Command Chief Leak Classified Information on Afghan Troop Capabilities?
Recall that back on October 30, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction informed us in a quarterly report that the military suddenly has classified its evaluation of the capabilities of Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF).…
Less than 15 Hours After Winning Senate Majority GOP Started Laying Plans to Grow the Deficit
As I laid out yesterday, Mitch McConnell's victory lap made it clear he plans to set up ObamaCare -- the individual mandate -- as a key campaign issue for 2016.
There were another few details from that speech that were very telling.
First,…
Why the 2016 Senate Election Is Sure to Be About ObamaCare, Again
Mitch McConnell already announced how the GOP plans to retain the Senate in 2016: ObamaCare.
Again.
In his press conference today, he said that one tweak they'll make to ObamaCare will be to eliminate the individual mandate, which is…
Was Alex Brown a CIA Front When It Was "Innocuously" Shorting 9/11?
This is going to sound very tinfoily. But here goes.
Prominent Baltimore banker Ed Hale has come forward to reveal he was a CIA NOC while Chair of the Bank of Baltimore from sometime around 1991 until 2001.
In a life that reads like a spy…
One Potential Civil Liberties Bright Spot from Yesterday's Shellacking: Thad Cochran
There has been a lot of belated attention to the impact that Mark Udall's loss yesterday will have on the Senate Intelligence Committee. I've been pointing to the possibility of a Udall loss and a Richard Burr Chairmanship since March. I warned…
Connecting the Dots: Putting Both Sides of Conversations in One Database
In addition to its comments about Section 215 which I discussed earlier, the FBI's statement for my article on surveillance at VICE included one other passage of interest. As part of its explanation for why it couldn't keep track of its back…