The Phone Dragnet Adopted "Selection Term" by 2013
As I laid out last week, I'm not convinced the term "specific selection term" is sufficiently narrowly defined to impose adequate limits to the "reformed" Section 215 (and NSL and PRTT) programs. Here's how the House defined it:
SPECIFIC…
Big NSA Funding Recipient, Ethiopia, Spies on Journalists in US
Along with the release of his book today, Glenn Greenwald has released a stash of documents, many of them new. One of them PDF 39) shows how much funding NSA gives some of its international partners.
The amounts involved aren't huge -- even…
Verizon Loves Dragnet Reform
If there was any doubt that Verizon was the source of some of the difficulties behind the phone dragnet, this may address them.
Verizon supports the bipartisan USA Freedom Act because it will achieve the important goals of ending Section 215…
How David Barron Played Judge and Jury for Anwar al-Awlaki
Rand Paul has gone and united drone apologists and opponents with an op-ed explaining his opposition to David Barron's confirmation without full transparency on the drone memos Barron wrote. It's a good op-ed, though the only new addition from…
Jim Sensenbrenner Seems to Endorse Two Times Two Hops
I'm working on a larger post about a theory I have about the Internet dragnet. But while working on that, I noticed that in 2009 the government admitted that it had used the Internet dragnet, like the phone dragnet, to contact chain on US…
As Taliban Launch Offensive in Afghanistan, More Data Pierce Narrative of Weakened Insurgency
As noted last week, the Afghan Taliban brazenly stated the day and hour at which their 2014 offensive would launch while also characterizing the targets they would attack. It appears that the attacks started pretty much at the appointed hour…
About HR 3361, the NSA Surveillance Efficiency Act, AKA USA Freedom Act
The House Intelligence Committee passed a bill out of its committee Thursday, HR 3361, that will reportedly solve a problem (or problems) the NSA has been struggling with since 2009. The bill will now move to the full House for a vote.
The…
Days after Last American Journalist Expelled from Yemen, Ray Davis-Like Story Breaks
On Monday, the last remaining American journalist in Yemen, Adam Baron, got kicked out.
Baron’s ordeal began at midnight Monday with a phone call from a security officer ordering him to report to an immigration office the following day because…
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's Search Motion: the Reddish-Brown Powder and the Pizza Papers
In addition to his motion challenging his confession, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev also submitted at least one more motion to suppress on Wednesday (there's a third motion to suppress the search of his laptop; that appears to be sealed document 284 in…
Lying Keith Alexander to Shack up with Promontory and Profit Off His Fearmongering
Man, I knew Keith Alexander was going to cash in after he retired. And I probably would have placed all my chips on him profiting off his cyber fearmongering.
Former National Security Agency chief Gen. Keith Alexander is launching a consulting…
DOJ Abused Classification to Delay Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's Presentment
As a number of outlets are reporting, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's lawyers have submitted a long anticipated motion to suppress the statements he made during the weekend the FBI interviewed him while he kept asking -- 10 times -- for a lawyer.
The motion…
After Delaying Runoff, Afghan Taliban Announce Start Date of Fighting Season, Targets
One of the most enduring formulas throughout the nearly 13 year US quagmire in Afghanistan has been the persistent claims by our military and their fans that we are making tremendous progress and that the Taliban has been weakened significantly.…
Where Does the Bulk Collection Under NSLs Happen?
Back in January, I noted that both the President's Review Group and those behind the Leahy-Sensenbrenner USA Freedom Act seemed very concerned that the government is using NSLs to conduct bulk collection (which is the term I used, based off…
Will the Dragnet Reform Criminalize Ordering Pizza?
There are two major problems with the phone dragnet, as it currently exists.
First, the government has a database of all the phone-based relationships in the United States, one they currently (as far as we know) do not abuse, but one that…
"Specific Selection Term:" Still Not Convinced
While I was squawking about how Jim Sensenbrenner issued a manager's amendment (aka USA Freedumb) purporting to end bulk collection by tying everything to a "specific selection term" without defining what "specific selection term" meant, the…
NSA Destroyed Its Illegal Content-as-Metadata Data in 2011
The government released a bunch more documents in its several legal battles with EFF today. One of those is the newly-declassified declaration SID Director Theresa Shea submitted back in March about how difficult it would be to retain the phone…
Why Should Someone Who Authorized Due Process Free Executions Be A Judge Anyway?
Yesterday, Rand Paul announced he would filibuster the nomination of First Circuit nominee David Baron until the Administration released the OLC memo authorizing the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki, as ordered by the Second Circuit last month.
As…
USA Freedumb Act and RuppRoge Both Adopt Intelligence Community Definition of "Bulk Collection"
Update: An updated version of the Managers Amendment does define the term:
(2) SPECIFIC SELECTION TERM.—The term ‘specific selection term’ means a term used to uniquely describe a person, entity, or account.
This is far better than…
Section 215, Under USA Freedumb
This post attempts to do more than lay out how Section 215 will look if USA Freedumb were to pass in its current form. For sections that don't change, I just mark what they cover. Bolded text is new. My comments are in red. Please let me know…
CIA, Pakistan Taliban Bring Fighters to Syria...and a Global Polio Emergency
Recall that last fall, Barack Obama spent some time altering the public record on when CIA-trained death squads first entered Syria to move the date from just before the Ghouta sarin attack to just after (while also trying to shrink the size…