The Stalker Outside Your Window: The NSA and a Belated Horror Story
It’s a shame Halloween has already come and gone. The reaction to Monday’s Washington Post The Switch blogpost reminds of a particularly scary horror story, in which a young woman alone in a home receives vicious, threatening calls.
There’s…
60 Minutes Writes the Final (?) Installment of the Benghazi Left Behind Novels
The very last scene of 60 Minutes' now-discredited "scoop" on Benghazi -- in which the Project Manager (alternately described as the Security Manager) for the project, whom 60 Minutes names Morgan Jones and WaPo names Dylan Davies describes…
William Webster Meets Edward Snowden, IRTPA, Roving Wiretaps, and the Phone Dragnet
For a post on back-door searches, I'm re-reading the William Webster report on whether the FBI could have anticipated Nidal Hasan's attack. In the light of the Edward Snowden disclosure, I'm finding there are a number of passages that read very…
Do We Dare Dream of a Middle East Without WMD's?
Just a few short months ago, speculation regarding a US attack on Syria centered only around when the attack would take place, how large it would be and how long bombardment would continue. But then accidental diplomacy broke out and it appears…
US Getting Its Cyber-Ass Handed to It
David Sanger has early reporting on a report that will be sure to affect the NSA debate, though it has nothing to do with Edward Snowden. The National Commission for the Review of the Research and Development Programs of the United States Intelligence…
Apparently Criticizing TSA's Boss Is Anti-Worker
Yasha Levine insinuates I'm responsible for Paul Ciancia's attack on TSA workers the other day.
The "progressive" blog FireDogLake was perhaps the biggest and loudest leftie media outlet to promote the anti-TSA crusade. The site even launched a…
Lawfare Uses Incomplete Facts about Abdulmutallab Trial to Attack Dirty Wars
I'm going to take a break from noting how Lawfare ignores the public record on NSA spying -- both of past failures to inform Congress, and of Intelligence Community lies about having done so -- to note how Lawfare ignores the public record on…
With US-Pakistan Relations Nearing Tipping Point Again, Watch the Border Crossings
When NATO forces killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in November of 2011, Pakistan retaliated by closing both of its border crossings into Afghanistan. They remained closed until then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton issued an apology in July of…
NSA Lost the House Judiciary Committee During the 2011 PATRIOT Act Reauthorization
I want to put the two documents pertaining to the NSA's geolocation effort released last week into context. Because they show yet another instance where the Intelligence Community did not inform Congress about what they were doing.
The two…
NSA's Notion of Regaining Confidence
In my apparent never-ending job of documenting all the lies, half truths, and misrepresentations the Intelligence Community has told Congress, I wanted to look at one more document from the chunk the I Con released last week: the briefing…
DiFi's "Surveillance" Dictionary Makes Her Beloved Phone Dragnet Illegal
Ut oh.
Dianne Feinstein's been writing op-eds again.
This one mostly rehashes the old arguments.
There's the claim that stopping a guy less dangerous than Peter King once was is worth creating a database of all the phone-based relationships…
Raj De and the Back-Door Loophole
As I already noted, NSA General Counsel lied in today's PCLOB hearing when he said the use of Section 215 to conduct a phone dragnet had the indicia of legitimacy because Congress twice reauthorized the PATRIOT after the executive had given…
DOJ Did Not Fulfill Legally Required Disclosure on Section 215 to Congress Until After PATRIOT Reauthorization
In the Guardian's superb summary of the importance of the NSA leaks, Zoe Lofgren challenges the claims that Congress has received all the documents NSA claims it has gotten.
I do serve on the Judiciary Committee and various statements have…
Crazy Posturing Over Hakimullah Mehsud Drone Killing Drowns Out Key Question: Why Now?
We are awash in analyses of the drone killing on Friday of Hakimullah Mehsud, who was the leader of Pakistan's Taliban. Declan Walsh in the New York Times captures much of the puzzlement in the DC establishment over why Pakistan is responding…
Anonymous Aide Pushback Strengthens Case that DiFi Bill Supports Backdoor Searches
Ellen Nakashima wrote a truly remarkable article on the DiFi Fake FISA Fix, in which she quotes the following critics of the bill:
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.)
Elizabeth Goitein, co-director of the Brennan Center for Justice’s Liberty and National…
Drowning in Haystacks
The NYT and Guardian have similar stories out today describing the sheer breadth of NSA's spying. The Guardian describes how NSA gleefully embraced change because it presented more opportunities for SIGINT collection.
n one of the leaked 'State…
BIG CHEESE AND TUNDRA Mitten and Seminole Trash Talk
MOVED UP AND FEATURED BITCHEZZ!!! FOR THE OBLITERATION OF TEH BEARZZ.
This ain't no party, This ain't no disco. This ain't no fooling around. We got some big ass state rivalries starting this weekend. Since the Red Sawx Nation has already…
DiFi's Fake FISA Fix: The Roamer Pre-Emergency Exigent Excuse To Be Used on Internet Content
There's one more aspect of Dianne Feinstein's Fake FISA Fix bill that doesn't make any sense: it's proposed solution to the "roamer problem."
Roamers are, at least as the NSA's internal review explains them, when a foreign target with a GSM…
DiFi's Fake FISA Fix Appears to Further Extend Searches on US Persons Under Section 702
There's a section of DiFi's FakeFISAFix bill, called "Restrictions on the Querying of the Contents of Certain Communications," that purports to put new limits on the searches of data collected under Section 702 for US person information.
(m)…
It Was Verizon, with the Fiber Cable, Under the Atlantic
Egads. Nate is right. The SZ report is old -- from August. Folks were chatting about it, I think, in conjunction with the new attention on the 12333 collection overseas, which is why I pointed to it. Thanks for pointing it out.
Remember when…