FBI Hides More and More of its National Security Letter Use
Recently I have started blogging occasionally over at Expose Facts -- an entity serving whistleblowers and transparency. There's even a SecureDrop, if you want to drop me secret documents to read!
Things will remain the same over here; I…
Leahy's Freedom Act May Not Change Status Quo on Records Other than Call Records
Update: According to the DOJ IG NSL Report released today, the rise in number of Section 215 orders stems from some Internet companies refusing to provide certain data via NSL; FBI has been using Section 215 instead. However they're receiving…
Company B (Verizon? Sprint?) Stopped Playing Nice with FBI in 2009
I'm reading this DOJ IG report on NSLs -- about which I'll have far more later.
But given everything we've learned about NSA's dragnet, I'm rather interested in footnote 156:
Company A, Company B, and Company C are the three telephone carriers…
The Hospital Confrontation Heroes of Rule of Law Gutted Separation of Powers
Remember that cinematic story of how Jim Comey and Jack Goldsmith and Robert Mueller stood up to Bush and Cheney and forced them to shut down their illegal dragnet to defend the rule of law in 2004?
It turns out, what Comey and Goldsmith…
Working Thread, Internet Dragnet Dump 3: Early 2009 Documents
This group of documents -- all released with this dump -- all come from the first couple of months of 2009. The following is my best reconstruction of what they mean; please let me know if you catch any problems with it.
The government noticed…
As Expected, Kerry's Power Sharing Agreement in Afghanistan Falling Apart
Well, that didn't take long. On Friday, John Kerry made a second pass at getting Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani to make nice. This time he even produced a signed document (probably) to go along with the happy photos. And then yesterday the…
NSA's Plans to Excuse Their Hacker Fuck-Ups: Blame Israel
Wired has a very fascinating interview with Edward Snowden. You should go read the whole thing, among other things, for the swell picture of Snowden posing with Michael Hayden at some black tie event in 2011.
But I wanted to point to this…
WSJ Falsely Paints John "Bates Stamp" as Aggressive
WSJ wrote a badly flawed article yesterday describing John Bates' 2010 opinion reauthorizing the Internet dragnet, claiming the memo -- which was released last November -- was just declassified.
Newly declassified court documents show one of…
Ashcroft, Comey, Goldsmith, and Baker: "All" Is the "Best" Reading of "Relevant"
Towards the end of the Memorandum of Law in support of the Internet dragnet -- which was signed by those guys ----------> -- DOJ makes a claim that its reading of "relevant" to mean "almost all" was the best possible reading.
Here, by contrast,…
Working Thread, Internet Dragnet Dump 2: 2004 Documents
This will be a closer working thread on documents released yesterday.
X: Initial Dragnet Application (prior to July 14, 2004)
(2) From the start, the government said they wanted to disseminate the dragnet info, perhaps to tag into FBI's…
James Clapper Thinks Fictitious Email Metadata Is Properly Classified
If you didn't already need proof that the FISA Court needs to consult technical advisors before they permit the government to collect all of Americans' metadata, consider this lesson DOJ offered as part of its initial application for the Internet…
Internet Dragnet Timeline
This timeline provides known dates for the PRTT Internet dragnet, important related dates in the phone dragnet, upstream 702 collection, and SPCMA (overseas Internet dragnet). In addition, it provides links to the documents in this release;…
Why US Wants BSA With Criminal Immunity: Amnesty Reports US War Crimes in Afghanistan Not Prosecuted
Barack Obama faces a huge amount of pressure during the current meltdown of Iraq because he withdrew all US military forces from the country. As I have pointed out in countless posts, the single controlling factor for that withdrawal was that…
Pablo Escobar on a Train Using Data for Other Purposes
Yesterday, AP reported that the DEA paid an Amtrak secretary $854,460 over 20 years to hand over train passenger lists.
According to a report released Monday by Amtrak's inspector general, the DEA paid an Amtrak secretary $854,460 to be an…
Internet Dragnet Materials, Working Thread 1
I Con the Record just released some ridiculously overclassified Internet dragnet documents it claims shows oversight but which actually shows how they evaded oversight. I've added letters to ID each document (I'll do a post rearranging them…
CIA's Torture Pushback Gets More Artful
I well remember when Robert Grenier testified at Scooter Libby's trial. His performance - like most of the witness testimony -- was a performance. But I was more intrigued by the response. Even the cynical old DC journalists were impressed by…
Meanwhile, in Pakistan, Revolution Is Scheduled for Thursday
Back in January of last year, the sudden return to Pakistan of cleric Tahir ul Qadri, who had been in a form of exile in Canada, threatened to derail the elections that took place two months later. There were accusations at the time that he…
Obama Pitches His Iraq Intervention with "Suck on This" Friedman
Steve Coll has a depressing article describing why Obama -- after having ignored red lines in the past -- drew one in Erbil.
Erbil’s rulers never quite saw the point of a final compromise with Baghdad’s Shiite politicians—as each…
Did Anthony Coppolino Fib about NSA's New Architecture?
On Tuesday, EFF told the tale of yet another government freak-out over purportedly classified information. The DOJ lawyer litigating their multiple dragnet challenges, Anthony Coppolino, accidentally uttered classified information in a hearing…
US Finally Admits Air Strikes in Iraq
As events unfolded rapidly yesterday afternoon into the evening, we had several different stories about what took place in Iraq in response to President Obama authorizing air strikes against Islamic State, or IS. Air drops of humanitarian…