Military Intelligence Industrial Complex Providing 30% Bonuses to Potential HASC and HPSCI Chairs
Because of Buck McKeon and Mike Rogers' retirement this year, the Chairmanships of both the House Armed Services Committee and the House Intelligence Committee will be up for grabs early next year.
Roll Call decided to see how this was affecting…
State's Funny View of Our Democracy
In addition to its story about the State Department talking points it "accidentally" got (see my post on that), the AP included the talking points themselves.
The talking points are particularly pathetic for the way they try to turn the…
Tortured Diplomacy
The AP has a story reporting (something that was public) that Colin Powell was not briefed on torture from the start, which meant in several cases Ambassadors to affected countries got briefed and instructed not to tell their superiors.
A…
Hackers Did Not Flood LA's Critical Infrastructure
Yesterday, a water main broke at UCLA, causing flooding and the tremendous waste of drought-era CA's scarcest resource, water.
The rupture of the 90-year-old main sent a geyser shooting 30 feet in the air and deluged Sunset Boulevard and…
Will Obama Show Reagan's Courage and Suspend Tank Transfers to Israel?
In the worst strike yet by Israel against a United Nations school where Palestinian civilians were seeking shelter from the carnage, up to 19 people were killed and 125 were wounded last night when Israeli tanks shelled the school in Jebalya.…
Microsoft's Very Public Spat in the Cloud
A few weeks back, I did a Salon piece laying out how both the US and UK were claiming they can demand data stored in a cloud in any country. The UK is doing that with their new DRIP law, which will increase their ability to demand data from…
A Good Idea that May Backfire: FISCR Fast Track
I've written several posts about Leahy's USA Freedom already. To recap:
The bill is definitely an improvement off of USA Freedumber, though it retains "connection" chaining language I'm seriously concerned about
The bill permits the government…
Leahy USA Freedom's Bulky Corporate Persons
As I said in my post the other day, the definition of Specific Selection Term in the Leahy version of USA Freedom addresses almost all my concerns about bulk collection under USA Freedom Act.
But not all of them.
I have two concerns.
First,…
Leahy Freedom Act Exempts FBI from Counting Its Back Door Searches
As I said in my post last night, Pat Leahy's version of USA Freedom Act is a significant improvement over USA Freedumber, the watered down House version. But it includes language that no one I've met has been able to explain. I believe it may…
Suicide Bomb Kills Karzai's Cousin: First Victim of Abdullah-Ghani Battle?
The cousin of the Afghan President, Hashmat Karzai was a colorful character. He kept a pet lion at his home. NDTV tells us that the photo of him and the lion at left was posted by him on Facebook. The Washington Post gives us more of his…
How Much Does Keith Alexander's Patented Solution for Creating Fear Depend on CISA?
Keith Alexander has attempted to explain his million dollar salary demands for cyber consulting to Shane Harris. This story doesn't necessary hang together any better than his claims about NSA's spying.
Alexander is worth a million a month,…
Improved USA Freedom Retains "Connection" Chaining and "Foreign Intelligence" Retention
Thanks to this NYT editorial, everyone is talking about Patrick Leahy's version of USA Freedom, which he will introduce tomorrow.
Given what I've heard, my impression is the editorial is correct that Leahy's bill is a significant improvement…
SIGAR Finds That ANSF Weapons SCIP Away from OVERLORD
I have been harping lately on the US approach to international crises being to first ask "Which group should we arm?" and how this strategy has come back countless times to bite us in the ass, as seen most spectacularly in Osama bin Laden. Further,…
The Intelligence Propaganda Complex
Matt Apuzzo has a remarkable story about the efforts DOJ is making to protect the records of United Against Nuclear Iran, a purported NGO that shames entities potentially doing business with Iran.
Greek shipping magnate Victor Restis is…
Cofer Black Gets to Rebut Torture Report that Shouldn't Include Him
In a piece that gets at some of the points of leverage between the White House and CIA over torture, Mark Mazzetti describes George Tenet's effort to "challenge" the torture report.
It suggests Brennan's close ties to Tenet -- Brennan was…
NSA Got Into Bed with the Saudis Just Before Our Technical Cooperation Agreement Expanded
In February 2011, around the time the CIA took over the hunt for Anwar al-Awlaki, NSA started collaborating with Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Interior's (MOI) Technical Assistance Directorate (TAD), under the umbrella of CIA's relationship with…
NSA's Disingenuous Claims about EO 12333 and the First Amendment
Thanks to John Napier Tye's Sunday op-ed, some surveillance watchers are just now discovering EO 12333, which I've written some 50 posts about over the last year.
Back in January, I focused on one of the most alarming disclosures of the 2009…
With Afghan Runoff Audit Hopelessly Mired, Clock Running Out on US Hopes for BSA
I'm wishing that I had started a spreadsheet a couple of years ago to track the various deadlines the US has issued for having a signed Bilateral Security Agreement in hand. Such an agreement would authorize US troops to remain in Afghanistan…
Gitmo: Broken Minds, Broken Justice
The WaPo reports that Judge James Pohl has just severed Ramzi Bin al-Shibh from 9/11 trial, creating two 9/11 trials. He did so for two reasons: because he could not quickly resolve whether the FBI investigation into defense attorneys has compromised…
In a Nation Ravaged by Banksters, FBI Can't Afford the "Luxury" of Frivolous Counterterrorism Stings
In a JustSecurity post reviewing the same speech that I observed ignored US failures to prevent violent extremism, NYU Professor Samuel Rascoff defends the US use of counterterrorism stings, even in spite of the details revealed by HRW's report…