The CIA's Excuse: Hiding the Double Agents
Adam Goldman and Greg Miller offer the CIA's excuse for removing documents from the SCIF where they had been made available to Senate Intelligence Committee staffers: they had to hide their double agents.
After the CIA provided a massive cache…
Caroline Krass Confirmed as CIA General Counsel in Landslide Vote
In the background of the fight between CIA and the Senate Intelligence Committee lurked the nomination of Caroline Krass.
Mark Udall had said that he would hold her nomination to get some answers on the Torture Report.
But she just got…
SASC Hearing: Dunford Advocates for Forever War in Afghanistan
I was only able to monitor portions of yesterday's Senate Armed Services Committee hearing in which Joseph Dunford provided an update on the situation in Afghanistan. Most of the hearing was the usual frustrating bunk, such as Roger Wicker whinging…
Aspiring Senate Intelligence Chair Richard Burr Goes After Mark Udall
Yesterday, I predicted the CIA and its Republican apologists would try to use the torture crisis to knock off a few Democrats in an attempt to retake the Senate. If that happened, Richard Burr, who would become Senate Intelligence Chair, would…
Robert Eatinger and CIA's Counterterrorism Center Lawyers' Lies about Torture: A Timeline
The traditional media is catching up to my post the other day focusing on Robert Eatinger, the CIA lawyer who referred Senate Intelligence Committee staffers for criminal investigation. Welcome traditional media!!
Just to expand the discussion…
In Nomination Hearing, DIRNSA Nominee Mike Rogers Continues James Clapper and Keith Alexander's Obfuscation about Back Door Searches
Yesterday, the Senate Armed Services Committee held a hearing for Vice Admiral Mike Rogers to serve as head of Cyber Command (see this story from Spencer about how Rogers' confirmation as Cyber Command chief serves as proxy for his role…
Starving, Displaced Civilians: Ongoing Tragedy of War in Syria
The iconic photo above, provided by the UN and showing hungry refugees in Yarmouk Camp lining up to receive food, has helped to raise awareness of the plight of millions of displaced civilians from Syria who are now facing a fourth year of…
Where the Bodies Are Buried: A Constitutional Crisis Feinstein Better Be Ready To Win
In a piece at MoJo, David Corn argues the Senate Intelligence Committee - CIA fight has grown into a Constitutional crisis.
What Feinstein didn't say—but it's surely implied—is that without effective monitoring, secret government cannot…
John Brennan Trolls Emptywheel Even Before He Prevaricates in Response to Dianne Feinstein
There's a lot to be said about John Brennan's appearance at the Council on Foreign Relations today (video here). I'm actually most interested in Brennan's refusal, twice, to answer questions about whether the NSA needs to engage in bulk collection.
QUESTION:…
Robert Eatinger, Lawyer Who Approved Torture Tape Destruction, Tries to Intimidate Senate Investigators
Dianne Feinstein just gave a barn burner of a speech explaining the CIA/SSCI fight over the Torture Report. There are a lot of details I'll return to.
But one of the most important issues, in my mind, is the detail that the Acting General…
Pakistan Suddenly Receives Mysterious $1.5 Billion
Back in January, I mused on whether Pakistan was making a play for counterterrorism funds that were being freed up by the US cutting back on its funding plans for Afghanistan. It now appears that Pakistan is not only starting to receive renewed…
The Government Tries to Quickly Force Feed Its Dog Its Phone Dragnet Homework
I have been following the government's claims that it needs to make the phone dragnet plaintiffs look bad preserve evidence in the phone dragnet cases. I noted:
NSA's claim, on February 20, that it might need to preserve the phone dragnet…
John Kiriakou's Prosecution Is an Important Precedent to CIA - Senate Intelligence Committee Spat
On several occasions, I have pointed to the arbitrary system our classification system constructs. It asks government employees to spy on their colleagues. It permits agencies to conduct fishing expeditions into personal information as part…
Pause in Afghan Presidential Campaign With Death of Vice President; Taliban Vow to Disrupt
Afghanistan's Vice President Muhammad Qasim Fahim died yesterday, in what the New York Times described as a heart attack. Fahim was a warlord with a checkered past and had ties, through a brother, to the looting and downfall of Kabul Bank.…
Notice Of Tinkering Going On
Hello one and all. This is just a very brief advisory that we are going to be doing some updating to Emptywheel blog today. It should start in the next 30 minutes to hour from the time of this post. The site may be down briefly. Frankly we think…
FISA Court Finally Discovers a Limit to the Word "Relevant"
A few weeks back I laughed that, in a probable attempt to score political points against those challenging the phone dragnet by asking to retain the phone dragnet longer than 5 years, DOJ had shown a rather unusual concern for defendant's rights.
Judge…
DOJ's Leaky SCIF Double Standards
McClatchy's latest in the CIA-Seante Intelligence Committee fight reports that FBI is now investigating Senate Intelligence Committee staffers for unauthorized removal of classified information from CIA's SCIF.
The FBI is investigating the…
If CIA Pwned SSCI's Segregated Shared Drive, the Torture Report Should Be FOIA-able
As reader Tom has helpfully reminded me, both Mark Udall's follow-up questions for Stephen Preston and the CIA's declaration in ACLU's FOIA to liberate the Torture Report describe the arrangements CIA required of the Senate Intelligence Committee…
Do Senators Collins, King, and Warner Like Being Spied On?
Over the last few days, I've tracked the accusations and counter-accusations between CIA and the Senate Intelligence Committee.
A number of people have asked why, as a way to end this issue, the Committee doesn't just declassify the entire…
US Strike Kills Five Afghan Soldiers in Charkh District
In what is virtually certain to be a new example of why he continues not to sign the Bilateral Security Agreement, Afghan President Hamid Karzai is expected to react with anger toward the US strike this morning that killed five Afghan soldiers…