Ron Wyden: Obama Killed Anwar al-Awlaki with Authority Granted to Him
As part of a letter asking the Administration to provide more details on its drone and/or targeting killing program, Senators Wyden, Udall, and Heinrich have judged the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki to be "a legitimate use of the authority granted…
Information Monopoly Defines the Deep State
The last decade witnessed the rise of deep state — an entity not clearly delineated that ultimately controls the military-industrial complex, establishing its own operational policy and practice outside the view of the public in order to maintain…
Thanksgiving: Scarcity among Bounty
Some of you may have already grown tired of my tweets expressing awe that, rather than the 15 pound turkey I had ordered from our farmers, I came home Tuesday with a 21 pounder. They just didn't have any smaller birds this year, it seems.
So…
The NSA versus "Issue-Based Extremists"
The CBC has a Snowden-based story about how the NSA helped Canada's Communications Security Establishment Canada in advance of and during the G20 held in Toronto in 2010. That isn't all that surprising. As the story notes, it's consistent with…
Emptywheel's Pro Football Turkey Day Trash Talk
Well, here it is Turkey Day time and there is a big day of football scheduled to go with the bird and fixins. First off, all of us here, me. Marcy, Jim, Rayne and Roving Reporter Rosalind are thankful for your willingness to join us, help us…
In 2009, NSA Said It Had a "Present Example" of Abuse Similar to Project Minaret
While we're discussing new hints that the NSA actually has targeted Americans in creepy old-style spying, I want to look closely at a training program that ODNI describes as dating to August 2009. The I Con description reads, in part,
August…
Imran Khan's PTI Party Retaliates for Drone Strike, Outs Islamabad CIA Station Chief
Recall that back on November 21, John Brennan allowed the CIA to carry out a drone strike that hit a settled area of Pakistan rather than the tribal areas where most strikes occur. I noted that by striking within the province governed by former…
Definition of a "Radicalizer:" A Sunni Opponent to Unchecked US Power
As if on cue in response to my post noting that while the NSA may not be like the Stasi for most Americans, it may well be closer for Muslims, Glenn Greenwald teams up with HuffPo's two Ryans to disclose that the NSA has been snooping on online…
Chomsky v. Gellman on the Stasi
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Noam Chomsky and Barton Gellman did a panel at an MIT Big Data conference. In the middle of it, they get into a quasi debate about whether the NSA is like the Stasi (this starts after 20:00).
For what it's…
60 Minutes' Response Is Still Inadequate
60 Minutes has released the results of its review of Lara Logan's ridiculous story on Benghazi. In response, they're putting Logan and the producer of the story on administrative leave for an undisclosed period of time.
I guess if Dan Rather…
Exploitation: "In my ears and in my eyes"
Goldman and Apuzzo, perhaps as a swan song before the former heads off to WaPo, break the story of Penny Lane -- the story of the Gitmo camp where recruited double agents stayed until they were sent off to spy for the CIA.
They focus primarily…
Phone and Internet Associations Are Both Terror Group Membership and a Chance Encounter in a Dance Hall
As I noted last week, from the start of the dragnet programs, neither the Court nor the government appear to have considered the implications dragnet analysis had for Freedom of Association.
Several of the training documents released…
John Brennan: "Gone Native," or Always Already Native?
In a piece laying out how, rather than shift drone strikes to DOD (as much of the press credulously claimed John Brennan planned to do while he was still in the White House), the Executive will instead merge CIA and DOD operations more closely,…
Stuxnet and the Poisons that Open Your Eyes
Playwright August Strindberg wrote, “...There are poisons that blind you, and poisons that open your eyes.”
We’ve been blinded for decades by complacency and stupidity, as well as our trust. Most Americans still naively believe that…
Keith Alexander: The One General Obama Didn't Fire
Obama has developed a reputation for firing Generals (so much so the wingnuts have developed some conspiracy theories about it).
Most famously, of course, he fired Stanley McChrystal for insubordination. He ousted CENTCOM Commander James…
Jirga Approves BSA While Karzai Stands by Pledge to Delay Signing
After Sunday got off to a historic start with the announcement of an agreement between the P5+1 and Iran, the day continued to be momentous as the loya jirga in Kabul approved the Bilateral Security Agreement between the US and Afghanistan.…
Historic P5+1 Interim Agreement With Iran Buys Time for Permanent Solution
There will be much weeping and gnashing of teeth by Bibi (Red Line) Netanyahu, war mongers John (Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran) McCain and Lindsey Graham and paid MEK shills throughout Congress today because an agreement was reached early…
NSA Denies Their Existing Domestic Cyberdefensive Efforts, Again
James Risen and Laura Poitras have teamed up to analyze a 4-year plan the NSA wrote in 2012, in the wake of being told its collection of some US person content in the US was illegal. I'll discuss the document itself in more depth later. But…
The Quarterback With The Golden Gun Trash Talk
For all the yammering about nuclear options and assassination anniversaries and other wild news, this weekend there is only one big bang. The big guns are being positioned on the battlefield.
Brady v. Manning. Manning v. Brady. Mano a mano.…
50 Years: That Day, JFK and Today
Where were you fifty years ago today? If you were old enough to remember at all, then you undoubtedly remember where you were on Friday November 22, 1963 at 12:30 pm central standard time.
I was at a desk, two from the rear, in the left…