Fact-Checking 9/11 Anniversary Report on Info and Dragnets with 9/11 Report
In Salon, I point out something funny about the report released on Tuesday to mark the 10 year anniversary of the release of the 9/11 Commission report. The report says we must fight the "creeping tide of complacency." But then it says the…
Breaking: CIA Tortured Abu Zubaydah at a Prison in Poland
Earlier today, the European Court of Human Rights ordered Poland to pay Abu Zubaydah and Abd al Rahim al-Nashiri a combined total of 230,000 Euros for facilitating the torture suffered at Stare Kiejkuty.
The court found Poland violated…
As Debunking Continues, Congress Pushes for US Contractors to Profit Off Iron Dome
Back in April, I wrote about the horrible success rate of Israel's Iron Dome defense system and the outrageous sums of money that the US has poured into it. With more rockets now being fired fired from Gaza and Israel responding by massacring…
You're Doing Counter-Propaganda Wrong, Hand-Picked Journos Edition
I've been so buried in Netroots Nation and related issues I've only followed the top-line coverage of the MH17 shoot-down. I think the version the Administration released yesterday -- that Ukrainian rebels shot down the airliner by mistake --…
David Medine's PCLOB Defense
Today, David Medine attempts to answer (most) of the questions Jennifer Granick argues weren't answered in the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board's report on Section 702. Here's my summary of how he does so:
Even while Medine "challenges"…
Kabul Suicide Attack Kills Foreign Guards in Buffer Between Afghans and Americans
On the surface, today's suicide attack in Kabul looks like many others, but some details disclosed in the New York Times story on the attack illustrate the lengths to which the US has been forced to go to protect against green on blue attacks…
Sting: Two New Reports on How the FBI Creates Terrorists
In the last several days, two important new reports on the FBI's creation of Muslim terrorists.
The first is an Al Jazeera English video, above, from Trevor Aaronson, who also wrote The Terror Factory. He interviews both informants and…
Kerry Castigates Putin For Using US Strategy of Training, Arming Rebels
Aside from the fact that the only craft beer served at the National Security Caucus session at Netroots Nation 2014 was an outdated California beer rather than a local Michigan beer, it was a session marked by interesting discussion. I received…
Leaving Motown
Hi there Wheelhouse denizens,how ya doing? Jim White and I are both in the air right now on our way home from yet another Netroots wild weekend. We were dropped off at the airport by Marcy, who is on the actual road on her way home to Grand…
EO 12333 Threatens Our Democracy
Among the many posts I've written about Executive Order 12333 -- the order that authorizes all non-domestic spying -- includes this post, where I noted that proposed changes to NSA's phone dragnet won't affect programs authorized by EO 12333.
Obama…
Snowpiercer: Bong Joon-Ho's Jab at the God of the Machine
(The cats are away at Netroots Nation, leaving the meese to play. — Rayne)
A number of film critics have written that Snowpiercer — director Bong Joon-Ho's adaptation of the French dystopic graphic novel, Le Transperceneige — is…
Dick Durbin's Obscure Transparency Bid
Steven Aftergood notes that the Senate Appropriations Committee has included a reporting requirement on NSA on its "bulk collection" programs.
That's all well and good, if the language isn't stripped before final passage. But there are a…
Edward Snowden's Smut
In an interview with the Guardian published yesterday, Edward Snowden claimed that compromising pictures get shared around NSA.
Made a startling claim that a culture exists within the NSA in which, during surveillance, nude photographs picked…
The Other Authority for the Phone Dragnet
Back in February, I noted Ron Wyden's question for then acting OLC head Caroline Krass (she's now CIA's General Counsel) about Jack Goldsmith's 2004 OLC opinion authorizing the dragnet.
In the follow-up questions for CIA General Counsel…
The Anglo-American Data Empire
In a piece for Salon today, I note that both in US domestic warrants for Stored Communication and in the law the UK will push through, DRIP, the US and the Brits are asserting they should be able to demand data stored anywhere in the world.…
Chihuly In The Desert
Last January, I went to a late afternoon through night wedding at the Desert Botanical Garden here in Phoenix. The first couple of hours there were normal visitors in the park, the rest of the time, especially later at night, we had the place…
Why Challenge the Washington Consensus Now?
A number of outlets are reporting on the BRICS move to establish a competitor to the World Bank.
The so-called BRICS countries agreed to form an international development bank with aspirations to challenge the dominance of the World Bank and…
Meet Adam Kwasman, Arizona's Racist Bigot Politician of the Month
With the latest furor over minor children and the border already in full swing on top of all the other immigration fear mongering going on in this election year, you would think you had about heard it all when it comes to preening idiotic nonsense…
CISA: The Banks Want Immunity and a Public-Private War Council
A group of privacy and security organizations have just sent President Obama a letter asking him to issue a veto threat over the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act passed out of the Senate Intelligence Committee last week. It's a great explanation…
Latest Catch-22 For US Military: Training Iraqi Troops Too Dangerous Due to Previous "Training"
The abject failure of US efforts to train troops in Iraq and Afghanistan has been one of my most frequent topics. Even though the US mission in Iraq has officially ended and the mission in Afghanistan is mired in a surreal form of purgatory…