The Truth Missing from Alexander Joel's "Truth" about EO 12333
Over at Salon, I've got a piece responding to Office of Director of National Intelligence Civil Liberties Officer Alexander Joel's column purporting to describe the "truth" about EO 12333.
Click through to see this part of my argument:
Joel…
The Government Uses the Dragnets for Detainee Proceedings
In the middle of a discussion of how the NSA let FBI, CIA, and NCTC directly access the database of Internet query results in the report accompanying the Internet dragnet End-to-End report, a footnote describes searches NSA's litigation support…
For John Kerry's State Department, Constitutions Matter Only on One Side of Durand Line
John Kerry has made not one, but two trips to Afghanistan to pursue his extra-constitutional "power sharing" agreement between Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah that creates the completely new position of chief executive within the Afghan government.…
Working Thread, Internet Dragnet 5: The Audacious 2010 Reapplication
At some point (perhaps at the end of 2009, but sometime before this application), the government tried to reapply, but withdrew their application. The three letters below were sent in response to that. But they were submitted with the reapplication.
See…
Afghanistan Bars Rosenberg From Leaving Over Times Report on Coup Plan
With the latest deadline for Afghanistan to resolve its election crisis and put into place a government that can sign a Bilateral Security Agreement now only two weeks from tomorrow (when the NATO Summit convenes in Wales), the pressure on Afghan…
Holder's Agency in Ferguson
Eric Holder just published an op-ed in the St. Louis Post Dispatch, apparently aiming to generate confidence in DOJ's investigation into Darren Wilson's killing of Mike Brown.
It starts with 3 sentences describing Brown's killing -- with…
How Abu Zubaydah's Torture Put CIA and FBI in NSA's Databases
I said yesterday that the plan, going as far back as 2002, was to let CIA and FBI tap right into NSA's data. I base that on this explanation from Keith Alexander, which he included in his declaration accompanying the End to End Report that was…
Destruction of Syria's Chemical Weapons-Related Materials Completed Weeks Ahead of Schedule
As militarized local police riot in Ferguson, Missouri, Iraq continues its meltdown and Afghanistan can't even agree on how to recount votes, the world has been overdue for the tiniest morsel of good news. Good news is what we got yesterday…
USA Freedom Must Explicitly Require NSA and CIA to Comply with Law's Minimization Procedures
I know I've had a lot of mostly unenthusiastic things to say about even Pat Leahy's version of the USA Freedom Act.
It explicitly exempts FBI from counting back door searches
It may not do anything to existing non-electronic communication…
Working Thread, Internet Dragnet 4: Later 2009 Documents
The early focus on the dragnet violations was on the phone dragnet. At the end of March, however, DOJ started preparing to look more closely at the PRTT program in late April 2009, which may be why some of the following violations got disclosed…
Is DOJ Still Hiding Their Logic Behind Use of Drones to Execute American Citizens?
Back in June, I compared the content of Charlie Savage's account of the Awlaki drone memo with the content of the July 16, 2010 memo released that month. I noted that Savage reported the memo discussed whether killing Awlaki would violate the…
Pakistan Revolution Fizzling Out
Last week, I noted that two opposition parties in Pakistan were organizing what they said would be massive marches on Islamabad aimed at bringing down Pakistan's government. While crowd size estimates vary widely, it is clear that the hoped-for…
Working Thread: NSL IG Report
I give up. I'm going to have to do a working thread on the IG Report on FBI's use of NSLs. Here goes. References are to page numbers, not PDF numbers (PDF numbers are page+15).
ix: The report noted that NSL numbers dropped off what they…
Why Was CIA Assessing Whether They Could Drone-Kill Anwar al-Awlaki?
For years, defenders of the drone killing of Anwar al-Awlaki have always pointed to the second confession Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab made, implicating Awlaki in each and every part of his plot.
There were always problems with that. Several…
Internet Cats, Weaponized: US Defense Contractor Consulted on Targeted Network Injection Surveillance for Commercial Sales Abroad
First, a caveat: I would not click on the links embedded in the story I'm recommending (I'm this || close to swearing off embedded links forever). I don't trust traffic to them not to be monitored or exploited.
But as Jeremy Scahill tweeted…
7 Pages to Drone Kill an American Citizen
7 pages.
That's all that current 1st Circuit Court Judge and then acting OLC head David Barron needed -- in February 2010 -- to dispense with niceties like the Constitution and Rule of Law before he okayed the drone killing of Anwar al-Awlaki.
Lucky…
Gov. Nixon Should Remove Prosecutor McCulloch Too
What a difference a day makes. After several days of police wilding in the streets of Ferguson, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon removed local and county control of policing and ordered the head of the Missouri State Patrol to take over. The change…
The Majority of 215 Orders Come from Internet Companies that Refuse NSLs
According to the new DOJ IG report on FBI's use of NSLs, there are some Internet companies that have been refusing NSLs for some data since 2009 (this discussion appears on pages 71- 73).
The decision of these [redacted] Internet companies…
A Note Of Praise For Jake Tapper
Yammering on the internet is not hard work, in fact it is blindingly (and sometimes maddeningly when it is pointed in your direction) easy. Getting heard, and functionally interacting in a fashion that can contribute to the real focus and discussion,…
The FBI Has Significant Problems Counting Its National Security Letters
Today's Inspector General Report on FBI's use of National Security Letters has set off a bunch of alarm bells in my head.
At issue are two unexplained problems.
First, the Inspector General identified a huge drop in NSL use for the years…