When FBI Director Jim Comey Ate 20 Journalists for Lunch, NSL Edition
Yesterday, charismatic FBI Director Jim Comey had what was alternately described as a "lunchtime interview" and a "roundtable" with a bunch of journalists. (See NYT, ABC, AFP, NPR, McClatchy, HuffPo, LAT, WSJ, Politico, AP)
Where he proceeded…
It Turns Out CREDO Will Respond to Administration Subpoenas
It turns out CREDO will respond to simple administrative subpoenas.
That's one thing their new Transparency Report -- the first of its kind in the industry -- reveals. They complied with 5 administrative subpoenas last year: 3 from the DEA,…
Is PCLOB Holding Out for EO 12,333 Information?
As you know, I've been tracking the way President Obama seems to want to game the various legislative and review group recommendations with his own.
Which is why I'm interested in this anonymous complaint, from someone in the White House,…
Let's Prosecute Treasury, State, and Drone Misses for Illegal Leaking
Some crisis communications moron apparently advised John Inglis to repeat "unauthorized disclosure" over and over in his interview with Steve Inskeep (he does so 7 times).
Because Inglis implicitly accuses Treasury, the State Department,…
John Inglis Explains Why (US-Based Collection of) Internet Metadata Doesn't Work
Steve Inskeep got a very long interview with NSA Deputy Director John Inglis. It suffers from the same problem that just about every interview the NSA has done since the Snowden leaks started has -- because the NSA will only allow friendlies…
US Stumbling Toward Exit From Afghanistan
Hamid Karzai continues his expert gamesmanship in his dealing with the US, forcing deadline after deadline to be abandoned in the US effort to get him to sign the Bilateral Security Agreement that would keep US troops in Afghanistan beyond the…
Obama Approves Releasing Classified Information to Attack Snowden for Leaking Classified Information
Kudos to Shane Harris who, unlike a number of other reporters, brought the appropriate skepticism to Mike Rogers and Dutch Ruppersberger's attempt to fearmonger Edward Snowden's leaks. Not only did Harris use the correct verb tense -- "could"…
After Meeting with Obama, Bob Goodlatte Calls for Reform of Phone Dragnet
Bob Goodlatte, the Chair of the House Judiciary Committee, voted against the Amash-Conyers Amendment that would have defunded the phone dragnet. Nor is he a named cosponsor of the USA Freedom Act, the Leahy-Sensenbrenner bill that would reform…
The Senate Torture Report and CIA's Lies about Hassan Ghul's 2004 Torture
Update, March 12, 2015: We know from the Torture Report that the detainees treated in July and August 2004 were not Hasan Ghul, but Janat Gul and two others.
In my last post, I noted that in his report that Hassan Ghul served as a double…
Drones and Double Agents: Hassan Ghul
On September 30, 2011, a drone killed Anwar al-Awlaki, a person long suspected of being a US double agent gone bad.
On October 1, 2012, a drone killed Hasan Ghul (see this post for background on Ghul), whom a new report from Aram Roston reports…
A Remembrance of Judge John Roll
It has now been three years to the day since Jared Lee Loughner went to the the Safeway Supermarket at Ina and Oracle Roads in Tucson where Congresswoman Gabby Giffords was holding her "Congress on the Corner" meeting for her constituents. The…
The FBI (or NSA?)'s Bulk National Security Letters
Say, did you notice that the NSA Review Group, like the Leahy-Sensenbrenner bill before it, endorsed dramatic restrictions on National Security Letters?
Both efforts set out to address the most extreme privacy risks posed by -- the perception…
Yesterday's "Symbolic" Gesture Is Today's Long-Held Political Stance
Yesterday morning, the White House explained that it hadn't prioritized legally ending the Iraq War because doing so would be just a symbolic act.
But “the Iraq AUMF is no longer used for any U.S. government activities and we therefore would…
The Maneuvers to Get Ahead of the NSA Review Group Recommendations
Here's a quick summary of all the events happening in response to the NSA Review Group report:
Tuesday, January 7: James Clapper "and other Intelligence Community Leaders" meet with Geoffrey Stone, Cass Sunstein, and Peter Swire; SSCI holds…
It Was JSOC, with the Errant Drone Targeting, in the Yemeni Countryside
Michael Isikoff reported yesterday that the Administration is conducting an investigation into the drone strike that reportedly killed a wedding party back in December. While the investigation is, by itself, intriguing, I'm just as interested…
Major Human Rights Victory: South Korea Halts Shipment of Tear Gas to Bahrain
Last fall, a leaked document showed that Bahrain intended to make a huge purchase of tear gas. In response, Bahrain Watch and a number of other human rights groups organized a movement around the Stop the Shipment campaign. The movement gained…
Proposal for the New Year: Training Wheels for Peace
As you may have been recently reminded by my Twitter stream, I have been obsessing for years about the Iraq AUMF lying around, like Chekov's gun waiting to be used, for years.
Which is why I'm rather chuffed that Yahoo News got Obama's National…
Sucky Assessments of the Phone Dragnet Reveal How Much They're Keeping "Secret"
The assessments of the phone dragnet suck.
I don't mean the assessments of the phone dragnet show the program sucks, though that may well be the case. I mean the assessments of the phone dragnet I've seen do a very poor job of assessing the…
The $3 Billion Saudi Pledge to Lebanon: Military Support, Extradition Fee or Hit Job Payment?
Back in November, two bomb blasts in front of the Iranian embassy in Beirut killed 23 people. From the very beginning, it was known that an al Qaeda-linked group known as the Abdullah Azzam Brigades was responsible for the attack. In a fascinating…
Maybe Jim Comey Killed Off the Nation's Premier Law Enforcement Agency?
Update: The change went into effect on July 1, 2013, so before Comey's coronation.
I've been tracking the FBI's embrace of its national security/intelligence role (with a consequent inattention to bank crimes, in particular) for years --…