Sabrina de Sousa and the Drone Memo
Jason Leopold has a long piece on Sabrina de Sousa, the former CIA operative who got screwed over in the aftermath of the Abu Omar rendition.
Leopold's piece focuses on de Sousa's efforts to call attention to how stupid the rendition was.…
Stimson Center: Yes, the Drones Are Killing Westphalia
Three years ago, I wrote a long post called the Drone War on Westphalia arguing that our use of drones was eroding state sovereignty in ways we hadn't considered -- much less debated -- the impact of.
[W]e risk trading a failed state in…
Pakistan Military Offensive in North Waziristan Unleashed
Because I was away on an extended family trip ending last week, I was unable to comment on Pakistan launching a full-blown military operation in North Waziristan. Many had long held the view that such action would never be undertaken, but it…
Sonia Sotomayor, John Roberts, and the Riley Decision
In a piece just published at Salon, I look at John Roberts' citation in his Riley v. California decision of Sonia Sotomayor's concurrence in US v. Jones, the opinion every privacy argument has invoked since she wrote it two years ago. I argue…
Alan Grayson: Is Keith Alexander Selling Classified Information to the Banks?
I've been tracking Keith Alexander's utterly predictable new gig, getting rich off of having drummed up cybersecurity concerns for the last several years, while at the same time shacking up with the most dubious of shadow bank regulators, Promontory…
Riley Meets the Dragnet: Does "Inspection" amount to "Rummaging"?
It's clear today's decision in Riley v. California will be important in the criminal justice context. What's less clear is its impact for national security dragnets.
To answer the question, though, we should remember that question really…
Iraq Crisis Puts US on Same Side With Assad, Iran Quds Force
As I pointed out two weeks ago, US foreign and military policy is now so muddled that the primary response to any ongoing crisis is to choose a side to arm without thought to the inevitable blowback that will come from trying to pick winners…
Unanimous: Cops Need a Warrant to Access Your Phone Data
SCOTUS just unanimously held that cops generally need a warrant to access your cell phone data. Chief Justice Roberts wrote the opinion. The opinion is here.
I'm reading now to figure out what it means. Will update accordingly.
This passage…
Whither the Assassination Consideration?
As I noted earlier, I'm doing a fairly detailed comparison of what parts of the white paper don't show up in the drone memo released Monday. But that's going to take a while.
Far easier is to compare what Charlie Savage's sources said the…
Maybe It's Time Liz and Dick Cheney Registered Under FARA?
In my Salon piece last week, I noted that in their attack on Obama, Liz and Dick Cheney were talking about interests, but made it clear they were really presenting the interests of "capitals from the Persian Gulf to Israel."
And we should…
The Delayed "Imminence" of Anwar al-Awlaki's Killing
As a number of people have noted (Jen Daskal is one), the OLC memo released yesterday doesn't describe what the government considers an imminent threat.
Meanwhile, Ben Wittes is unexpectedly spending his time writing interesting posts about…
Please No Drone and/or Targeted Killing FISA Court!
Last year, after the drone white paper demonstrated how shoddy were the Obama Administration's claims to be able to kill Anwar al-Awlaki, a group of Senators decided the best way to avoid difficult questions but appear to address the issue…
The CIA's [redacted] Operations
As you read the Awlaki memo, it's worth remembering why it was written, after David Barron had already written a memo authorizing Anwar al-Awlaki's killing 5 months earlier. In April 2010, as newspapers reported that Awlaki had been added to…
Working Thread: The Awlaki Memo
The Awlaki Memo has just been released. This post will be a working thread. Note, page numbers will be off the page numbers of the memo itself (starting at PDF 61).
Pages 1-11: Barron takes 11 pages to lay out both the claims the government…
Immunity Empire
The Daily Beast has a story about how, having withdrawn in 2011 from Iraq because it could not get immunity approved for US troops approved by Iraq's parliament, the US will now be satisfied with an immunity deal signed only by Iraq's Foreign…
The Petraeus Failure Legacy in Iraq Grows
There are of course many people to blame for the war crime of US invasion of Iraq, but David Petraeus' role as the falsely constructed hero of Iraq who in reality was the author of some of its most profound failures stands out. Recall the heady…
The Opinion Accompanying the Latest Dragnet Order
As I noted on Friday, the Administration got a new phone dragnet order on the same day that Senators Wyden, Udall, and Heinrich pointed out that -- so long as the Administration only wants to do what it claims to want to do -- it could stop…
1st Amendment and Other Concerns On Appeal of Redskins Decision
There has been a lot of commotion over Wednesday's decision by the US Trademark Trial and Appeal Board to cancel several trademark registrations of the Washington Redskins originally recognized back in the 1960's by the United States Patent…
DiFi's Fake FISA Fix "Connection" Language
As you know, I've been trying to track the language in existing phone dragnet orders and new legislation approving the collection of records that are "connected" to a selector by means other than actual calls made. (See here, here, and here for…
Wyden, Udall, and Heinrich Call Obama's Bluff
The three surveillance critics from the Senate Intelligence Committee -- Ron Wyden, Mark Udall, and Martin Heinrich -- wrote a letter to Obama on the developments in the NSA reform. Generally, they repeat exhortations that Wyden and Udall have…