"Destroy Them Immediately:" William McRaven Adopts the Jose Rodriguez Approach
"Destroy them immediately."
That's what Admiral William McRaven said 11 days after Judicial Watch FOIAed for pictures of Osama bin Laden's remains.
As I was the first to note back in June, McRaven ordered that all photos in JSOC's…
The Drone Assassinate Americans Overseas That Want to Kill Americans Overseas Plan
Kimberly Dozier reports -- based primarily on 4 US Officials (AKA members of Congress or their staffers) and one Senior Administration Official probably located near DOJ -- that the Obama Administration is trying to decide whether to drone kill…
Civilian Casualties Rise Yet Again in Afghanistan, Confirming Surge Failure
The United Nations is the best source of information on the impact of the war in Afghanistan on civilians. They released their latest data this weekend (pdf), and their results show that the vaunted "surge" of US troops into the country…
Death by Geolocation: "We're Going after Their Phones"
In December, I talked about the role I thought SIGINT played in drone targeting (here, noting that the same analysis that picks key pirates out of a database might choose to kill them).
[I]t is very easy to see what kind of role metadata analysis…
Will NSA Lose Access to All Verizon Cell Metadata in 12 Days Time?
Last week, NSA selectively leaked a claim it only obtains 20 to 30% of US call data because it doesn't collect some or all cell provider data. (WSJ, WaPo, LAT, NYT)
I believe the claim itself is true only in a narrow sense and the premises…
The Faulty Premise of the 30% Call Data Claims: Legal Limits on Geolocation Data
In this post, I suggested that reports (WSJ, WaPo) that NSA collects only 20 to 30% of US phone records probably don't account for the records collected under authorities besides Section 215.
So why did WSJ, WaPo, LAT, and NYT all report…
DOD Complains about "Speculative" Risk of Bulk Collection
Maybe I have a sick sense of humor.
But I laughed at the irony of this NYT story about how Edward Snowden used a web-crawler to scrape data from the NSA's servers.
In paragraphs 28 and 29 (of 29), Defense Intelligence Agency head Michael…
NSA's Latest Claim: It Only Gets 30% of "Substantially All" the Hay in the Haystack
In December 2007, the FBI began intercepting MOALIN’s cell phone.
-- FBI search warrant affidavit seeking (among other things) additional cell phones, October 29, 2010
Yesterday, Siobhan Gorman reported that NSA's "phone-data program"…
Friday News Dump Not Dead Yet: Stephen Kim Guilty Plea
Just when Kevin Drum declared the "Friday News Dump" dead, comes proof news of said death was greatly exaggerated.
As Josh Gerstein and others have reported, the plea will be entered this afternoon:
Under the terms of the agreement, Kim…
The Lapses in Dragnet Notice to Congress
I'm at a great conference on national security and civil liberties. Unfortunately, speakers have repeatedly claimed that NSA fully informs Congress on its programs.
Even setting aside Dianne Feinstein's admission that the intelligence committees…
Breaking: Four Senators Rediscover Congress Has Oversight Role for Committing Troops
Don't look for this important bit of news in the New York Times or Washington Post. At least at the time I started writing this, they hadn't noticed that Senators Jeff Merkley, (D-OR), Mike Lee (R-UT), Joe Manchin (D-WV), and Rand Paul (R-KY)…
emptywheel and First Look Media: Beginnings and Continuity
I've got some exciting new beginnings -- and some continuity -- to announce.
As Pierre Omidyar and Eric Bates just announced, I will be joining First Look Media as part of a new magazine that will publish Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras, Jeremy…
The Twitter Gag
Like a bunch of tech companies, Twitter has now released an updated transparency report since last week's settlement.
But unlike the other tech companies, Twitter offers no information about national security requests. It suggests, at first,…
Peace Talks Between Pakistan Government and Taliban Are Underway
After a cancelled meeting earlier in the week, peace talks between Pakistan's government and the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a Taliban group that has been carrying out terrorist attacks against targets inside Pakistan, have gotten underway.…
GCHQ DDoS Hackers Hang Out with NSA's Audit-Free Techies
Yesterday, I noted NBC's report that GCHQ conducted a DDoS attack against Anonymous IRC chat.
There's a subtle point that deserves more attention: GCHQ presented the underlying Powerpoint to NSA's SIGDEV conference.
The documents, from…
The "McCain Committee" Would Be Full of NSA Defenders
Imagine a McCain Committee as the inheritor of the tradition of Frank Church and Otis Pike.
(Yes, I did that to make bmaz' head explode.)
That seems to be what John McCain intends with his resolution calling for a Committee to Investigate…
Density within Legal Density
Ben Wittes has a long post trying to explain the NSA's job in such a way as to "tell a young student what intelligence collection under the rule of law looks like" without inducing "a sense of betrayal."
I have no problem with Wittes' attempt…
The State Monopoly on DDoS
One reason I harped on the way Ken Dilanian referred to the "official position" that hacking other governments was acceptable was because I suspected the government does what NBC just reported they do: engage in hacking against other targets,…
Mike Rogers Throws Tantrum Over Obama's Drone Policy
It seems that Mike Rogers lately is aiming to take over the Emptywheel blog. When he's not yapping about criminalizing journalism or dissembling about Congressional briefings on the Patriot Act renewal, he's putting out bloodthirsty endorsements…
James Clapper Confirms NSA Engages in Domestic Surveillance
In today's threat hearing, Jim Langevin tried to get James Clapperto provider him with talkingp points he could use in radio interviews about the seriousness of the Snowden leaks. (39:15 and following)
One problem with that -- as Clapper…