Disappearing Kurdish Oil
The other day, a Houston judge threw out an order that would have prevented the sale of a tanker of Kurdish oil the Kurds and the central government were squabbling about.
The Kurdistan Regional Government can bring $100 million of crude…
Whatever Happened to Muhammed Khudayr al-Dulaymi?
On the same day the NYT published the latest in a series of reports of how ISIS has incorporated Baathists from Saddam's regime, the WaPo reported that ISIS had tortured some of its captives, including James Foley, using some of the same techniques…
Did Eric Arthur Blair Come Back from Catalonia Radicalized?
The UK raised its threat limit to "pee your pants" today, based on the assessment an attack on the country is "highly likely." This is a response to the 500 or so Britons who have gone to Syria and Iraq to fight with ISIS.
PM David Cameron…
Missing from the EO 12333 Discussion: Its Classified Annex Michael Hayden Revised on March 11, 2004
I recommend this ArsTechnica background piece on EO 12333. It describes how Ronnie Reagan issued EO 12333 to loosen the intelligence rules imposed by Jimmy Carter (with links to key historical documents). It includes interviews with the NSA…
Against Drumbeat of War With ISIS, Chris Murphy Delivers Healthy Dose of Skepticism
Olivier Knox has a report this morning in which he interviewed Connecticut's Democratic Senator Chris Murphy about potential Congressional authorization for use of force against ISIS. Before we get to Murphy's tremendous response, it's worth…
Laptop of Death, 2.0
The Greater US War to Remake the Middle East has been going on so long, it is already re-running its story lines.
Back in 2004, when Dick Cheney was trying to drum up a hot war against Iran, the CIA got dealt a laptop that provided a casus…
John "Bates Stamp" Lives Up to the Name
On February 19, 2013, John Bates approved a Section 215 order targeting an alleged American citizen terrorist. He hesitated over the approval because the target's actions consisted of protected First Amendment speech.
A more difficult question…
Does Its Use of Waterboarding Make ISIS More or Less Barbaric?
When ISIS beheaded James Foley, pundits in DC pointed to it as proof of the organizations barbarism. Never mind that Saudis were busy beheading people for sorcery in the same period. Not to mention America's latest penchant for executing people…
It May Not Have Been ISIS, But McCain Did Pose With Members of a Group That Beheads Opponents
On May 27, 2013, nearly three months before the deadly August, 2013 sarin attack, Josh Rogin was granted an "exclusive" to publish in The Daily Beast that John McCain had secretly slipped into Syria to meet with "moderate" rebels who oppose…
ICREACH and FBI's PRTT Program
I'll have a more substantive post about what we learn about NSA's broader dragnet from the Intercept's ICREACH story.
But for the moment I want to reiterate a point I made the other day. ICREACH is important not just because it makes NSA…
Should Alfreda Bikowsky's Lawyer Really Be in Charge of Declassifying the Torture Report?
It took McClatchy 21 paragraphs to illustrate why it was such a big conflict of interest for Director of National Intelligence General Counsel to lead negotiations over how much of the torture report would be declassified, as he currently is…
Abdullah Becomes Serial Quitter While Dempsey Continues Denying Reality
The last 24 hours in Afghanistan are a perfect summation of the insanity imposed by endless US occupation.
On the election recount front, after warning for several days that he might do so, Abdullah Abdullah has withdrawn his observers from…
SPCMA and ICREACH
Within weeks of Michael Mukasey's confirmation as Attorney General in November 2007, Assistant Attorney General Ken Wainstein started pitching him to weaken protections then in place for US person metadata collected overseas; Mukasey did…
ICREACH and the 2009 Phone Violations
The Intercept has an article on ICREACH, the middleware NSA implemented between 2005 and 2007 to permit greater sharing of metadata with its IC partners. The article makes this claim.
ICREACH does not appear to have a direct relationship to…
PCLOB Member Rachel Brand Asked NSA General Counsel to Help Her Dissent from PCLOB
Let me say straight out: Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board member Rachel Brand is no slouch. She's very smart and very accomplished.
All that said, I am rather intrigued by the way she consulted NSA General Counsel Raj De several…
With Clock Still Ticking, Afghanistan No Closer to Resolving Election Crisis
Reuters reminds us this morning that under one previous set of plans, today was to have been inauguration day for Afghanistan's new president. Karzai is now insisting that the candidates must work out the vote audit and their power sharing agreement…
Behold, John Brennan's Scary Memo!
I've been writing for a long time about the "Scary Memos" the government used to justify its dragnet.
As the Joint IG Report described, they started in tandem with George Bush's illegal wiretap program, and were written before each 45-day…
Adventures in Credulous NSA Journalism, Episode 2,524
The Hill sees fit to quote NSA's Compliance Officer John DeLong boasting that the NSA put in (one of) the reforms Obama announced the day he announced it -- which (DeLong claimed) was proof that NSA's compliance system works.
Earlier this…
Translation Issues Put Zarif's Remarks Somewhere Between Arak and a Hard Place (Iraq)
On Wednesday night, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Zarif was interviewed by Iranian state television. Reports about what he said in the interview provided quite the adventure yesterday. Here is Reuters this morning trying to sort out…
NSA's Lawyers Missed "Virtually Every Record" over 25 Reviews
As I've written before, the Internet dragnet did not get through the its first 90 day Primary Order before it violated the rules laid out by the FISA Court. In an effort to convince Judge Kollar-Kotelly they could conduct the dragnet according…