Judge in WikiLeaks FOIA Cites "Events that Have Transpired," Government Claims FOIA Is "Improper"
Back in 2011, the Electronic Privacy Information Center sued to enforce a FOIA for documents on FBI's investigation of WikiLeaks supporters. In response, the government cited an ongoing investigation exemption. But they also cited a statutory…
Petraeus Plans for The Day After
On September 26, 2004, the Washington Post disgraced itself by giving David Petraeus space to write an op-ed in which he spouted pure bullshit on how well his vaunted "training" program was going in Iraq. Of course, that program failed multiple…
Fingerprints and the Phone Dragnet's Secret "Correlations" Order
Yesterday, I noted that ODNI is withholding a supplemental opinion approved on August 20, 2008 that almost certainly approved the tracking of "correlations" among the phone dragnet (though this surely extends to the Internet dragnet as well).
I…
James Clapper Doesn't Want You To Know about Verizon's Foreign Metadata Problem He Already Told You About
Back in September, I noted that the September 3, 2009 phone dragnet Order turned production from a particular telecom back on; it had been turned off in the July 8, 2009 Primary Order.
In addition, the Custodian of Records of [redacted]…
British Captain Resigns from Military to Publish Book on Helmand Failures
Today marks the launch in London of a book titled "An Intimate War: An Oral History of the Helmand Conflict, 1978-2012". The book's author is Dr. Mike Martin. Until Monday, he was known as Captain Mike Martin. In order to publish the book, however,…
Shorter DiFi: The Torture Report Started in Response to Michael Hayden's Lie
I gotta hand it to Dianne Feinstein: the closest she comes to calling Michael Hayden a shriveled impotent old man in response to his suggestions she's a hysterical female is when (at 6 minutes) she says calling women emotional is "an old…
Dianne Feinstein Invokes Torture's Covert Status on Declassification
Five years ago, I reported (BREAKING) that the Bush Administration (aka Dick Cheney) made the torture program a Special Access Program in unusual fashion. Rather than CIA Director George Tenet make torture a SAP, as mandated by the Executive…
The August 20, 2008 Correlations Opinion
On August 18, 2008, the government described to the FISA Court how it used a particular tool to establish correlations between identifiers. (see page 12)
A description of how [name of correlations tool] is used to correlate [description of…
Iran Still Refusing to Confirm Death of Missing Border Guard
I have been following the story of the five Iranian border guards who were abducted in early February by the Jeish Al-Adl terrorist group. Late in March, the group claimed to have executed one of the guards. Last week, four guards were released…
In Defending Dianne Feinstein, Ron Wyden Reminds that Michael Hayden Lied to Congress
Like Harry Reid and Mark Udall, Ron Wyden has defended Dianne Feinstein against Michael Hayden's suggestion that she's too "emotional" to investigate torture.
But unlike Reid and Udall -- who attack Hayden for being a sexist pig (though not…
Judge Collyer's Factually Erroneous Freelance Rubber Stamp for Killing American Citizens
As I noted on Friday, Judge Rosemary Collyer threw out the Bivens challenge to the drone killings of Anwar and Abdulrahman al-Awlaki and Samir Khan.
The decision was really odd: in an effort to preserve some hope that US citizens might have…
The Torture Apologists Raise Brennan's Torture-Derived Scary Memos
Some time in mid-2004, 8 high ranking National Security officials gave then presiding FISA Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly a briefing. Their goal was to convince her the then halted and now-discontinued Internet dragnet program was so important,…
US Trade Rep Complains Other Countries Aren't Letting NSA Spy
In the NYT, David Sanger describes US efforts to develop some common understanding over cyberattacks with China by briefing it on what our escalation process would be. Unsurprisingly, China (which hasn't had a massive data leak as an excuse…
High Urban Turnout, No Major Violence, But How Successful Was Afghan Election?
With no catastrophic attacks taking place and reports of over 7 million people voting, on first impressions it would appear that Afghanistan's presidential election on Saturday was a resounding success. Digging a bit deeper, though, reveals…
The Neverending CIA Drone Story Actually about Outsourced Intelligence
On March 20, 2013, I wrote one of several stories calling bullshit on reports that CIA would get out of the drone business. Not only did John Brennan's actions up to that point (as opposed to what had been leaked to journalists anonymously)…
Dragnet FOIA, Hiding the Dragnet Numbers and Providers from Congress
Unrelated, but Rosemary Collyer threw out the Awlaki wrongful death suit, meaning the government can kill its own citizens (including the innocent 16-year olds) with no due process with impunity. I'll write about this ruling later.
Last…
Turns Out the NSA "May" Destroy Evidence of Crimes before 5 Years Elapse
The metadata collected under this order may be kept online (that is, accessible for queries by cleared analysts) for five years, at which point it shall be destroyed. -- Phone dragnet order, December 12, 2008
The Government "takes its preservation…
Chronicle of the Phone Dragnet
Howard, Malcolm BR 06-05 (5/24/06)
One group (al Qaeda) originally approved, a second (or more) added via amendment in August 2006)
Footnote 1 asserting most calls domestic to domestic (redacted thereafter)
Probably just 2 providers…
Afghan Policeman Kills AP Photographer Niedringhaus, Wounds Reporter Gannon
Yesterday, in noting the large deployment of Afghan security personnel for Saturday's presidential election, I wondered in an aside how well these troops had been screened, since a large contingent of them were described in the Afghan press…
Why Did 3 Top DOJ Officials Feed Their Dog DOJ's Homework?
DOJ has submitted what it claims is an explanation for why it materially misstated facts to Reggie Walton in discussions about destroying phone dragnet data. (See this post and this post for background.)
As you recall, Walton had read EFF's…