The American Bar Association: Since NSA Is Committed to the Rule of Law, It MUST Respect Attorney-Client Privilege
It has taken the American Bar Association almost a week to respond to the reports that Mayer Brown's communications with the government of Indonesia got collected by Australia's SIGINT service.
In a rather stilted letter, it suggests that…
Did GCHQ and NSA Lose an Eye Today?
As the business press is crowing, Vodaphone and Verizon are officially divorced.
After pulling off the $130 billion sale, Vodafone will drop from the world’s second-biggest phone company to the fourth, measured by market value, behind China…
DHS Fear-Mongers Off Apparent Diminishment in Ibrahim al-Asiri's Skills
The Department of Homeland Security wants you to be afraid of the latest handiwork of AQAP's bomb-maker, Ibrahim al-Asiri. They've issued a warning (and leaked that warning) about new-and-improved shoe bombs.
Senior U.S. officials say that…
Judge William Martini Endorses Hunting for Terrorists in Muslim Girls Schools
The AP correctly captures the jist of Judge William Martini's rejection of a lawsuit against the NYPD for spying on Muslims.
The core of his logic is that Adam Goldman and Matt Apuzzo have injured NYC's Muslim community by providing them…
1st Amendment Justice Delayed is Justice Denied for Col. Morris Davis
Col. Morris Davis is, at least for my money, an American hero. He served and fought not only for his country, but for the Constitution he swore to protect. The subject of what happened to him at the hands of the very government he defended deserves…
Chelsea Manning Wonders Whether She Could Have Gotten Anwar al-Awlaki's Treatment
In accepting the Sam Adams prize, Chelsea Manning raised the ACLU/NYT lawsuits for the OLC memo authorizing the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki. (h/t Kevin Gosztola)
In doing so, she borrows an argument about separation of power and secrecy Judge…
Framework in Place for P5+1, Iran Final Nuclear Negotiations
After several days of warnings from both sides not to expect too much from the current round of talks between the P5+1 group of countries and Iran on Iran's nuclear program, we have word today that the two sides have agreed to the framework…
NSA's Data Retention Oddities
NSA's defenders are enjoying this one: WSJ says that NSA may temporarily have to expand the phone dragnet (it really means retain more data) because of all the lawsuits to end it.
A number of government lawyers involved in lawsuits over the…
Between Two Ends of the WikiLeaks Investigation: Parallel Constructing the FBI's Secret Authorities
Two pieces of news on the government's investigation of WikIleaks came out yesterday.
At the Intercept, Glenn Greenwald reported:
In 2010, a "Manhunting Timeline" described efforts to get another country to prosecute what it called the…
Peace Talks Prove Fatal for Yet Another Participant
Earlier this week, I noted that a ranking member of Afghanistan's Taliban, Abdul Raqib, was gunned down in Peshawar, Pakistan. It turns out that Raqib wasn't just any Taliban leader, though. He had in fact just returned from Dubai, where he…
AT&T's "Transparency" Report: Polite Requests Versus Demands
I want to make two more points about AT&T's "Transparency" Report which, as I mentioned earlier, shows how deceitful "transparency" reports can be.
First, compare the number of subpoenas AT&T shows, total, compared to the rough numbers…
Would We Have Accepted the Dragnet if NSA Had to Admit It Could Have Prevented 9/11?
I'm going to return to Glenn Greenwald's latest showing details of how the NSA treated WikiLeaks and, to a lesser degree, Anonymous (as well as Alexa O'Brien's update on the investigation into WikiLeaks) later.
If GCHQ does this kind of tracking,…
Meanwhile, Back in Syria...
The last time I checked in on Syria, there was much consternation over the delays in getting Syria's chemical weapons precursors sent to the staging area in Latakia so that they can be moved on to the next steps in the process that will eventually…
AT&T: Anti-Transparency and Trickery
I noted last month that Verizon released its transparency report before the Tech Company transparency deal, which gave it a way to avoid revealing this embarrassing detail:
Had Verizon released a transparency report yesterday, it would have…
Obviously Bogus Clapper Exoneration Attempt 5.0 Doesn't Exactly Line Up with OBCEA 4.0
Office of Director of National Intelligence General Counsel Robert Litt, 45 days ago:
Senator Ron Wyden asked about collection of information on Americans during a lengthy and wide-ranging hearing on an entirely different subject. While his…
SPCMA: The Other NSA Dragnet Sucking In Americans
In December, I wrote a post noting that NSA personnel performing analysis on PATRIOT-authorized metadata (both phone or Internet) can choose to contact chain on just that US-collected data, or -- in what's call a "federated query" -- on foreign…
Pakistan Facing Difficult Choice: Peace Talks or Military Action?
With mounting pressure from many sides, Pakistan is quickly approaching a decision point at which it must choose whether it prefers to pursue peace talks with militant groups or to take military action against them. The latest spectacular incident…
The NSA May Not "Target" Lawyers, But It Does "Spy" on Them
Congratulations to Ben Wittes who, with this post, demonstrates how the NSA can "spy" on Americans without "targeting" them.
His piece consists of several steps. First, Wittes goes to great effort to show that Laura Poitras and James Risen…
Former Professional Journalist Suggests NYT Shouldn't Pay Its Journalists
I'm working on a more substantive response to this Ben Wittes post claiming that the NYT's latest Snowden story doesn't mean the NSA spies on lawyers.
But I wanted to note how it begins.
Unless the public is really tiring of matters Snowden,…
Keith Alexander Refutes Claims NSA Doesn't Get Cell Data
Eight days ago, the country's four major newspapers reported a claim that the NSA collected 33% or less of US phone records (under the Section 215 program, they should have specified, but did not) because it couldn't collect most cell phone…