NSA Apologists Now Blaming Snowden for NSA's Own Cyberdefense Failures
Read this claim about NSA spying, but don't laugh.
"None of what the U.S. is doing is benefiting American business."
Did you manage not laughing at the notion that the US is spending $70 billion a year on spying and none of it -- not one little…
Dianne Feinstein Opens the Tech Back Door to the Dragnet Database Even Wider
I've been writing for months about the great big loophole providing access to the phone dragnet database.
Basically, the NSA needs someone to massage the dragnet data before analysts do queries on it, to take out high frequency call numbers…
Robert Litt: Isn't Weakening Encryption Our Job?
Office of the Director of National Intelligence General Counsel Robert Litt gave a speech to the American Bar Association's National Security Law conference yesterday. It's full of lots of patent bullshit, as you might expect, including misrepresenting…
How Ridiculous is Pakistan's New Civilian Drone Victim Estimate? Terrorist Okra-Picking Grandma!
On October 24, 2012, Nabila Rehman, who was eight years old at the time, was helping her grandmother pick vegetables in the family's garden in North Waziristan. Here is her description of what happened next:
[youtuber youtube='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDlvGqQ7VUo']
Remarkably,…
Feinstein's Fake Fix May Expand Use of the Phone Dragnet
Dianne Feinstein and 10 other Senate Intelligence Committee members approved a bill yesterday that purports to improve the dragnet but actually does almost nothing besides writing down the rules the FISA Court already imposed on the practice.
I'll…
What's the Relationship Database About?
Atrios asks what the whole dragnet is about.
It's actually a serious question. Maybe it's just a full employment program for spooks. Maybe they just do it because they can. But the only "real" point to such an extensive surveillance system…
Angry Mom and First Principles: What is the Nature of a Broken Lock?
This won’t be a cool, calm, collected post like Marcy writes, because it’s me, the angry mom. You might even have seen me Tuesday afternoon in the school parking lot waiting to pick up a kid after sports practice. I was the one gripping…
What Are NSA's Standards for Surveilling Transnational Crime Organizations?
Yesterday, the Italian magazine Panorama claimed that the NSA had wiretapped the Vatican.
I have some questions about the veracity of the report. NSA has denied it more vigorously than other allegations of tapping world leaders. Panorama…
The Smartest European Blowback In the World
For the record, I think European and Brazilian efforts to crack down on US cloud companies -- especially Google -- are mostly just an effort to gain further access to the data themselves and create more competitive conditions for their countries'…
NSA Non-Denial Denial 241,352,052
Here's the best the NSA could come up with to deny the WaPo's report about how it steals data from Google and Yahoo overseas.
NSA has multiple authorities that it uses to accomplish its mission, which is centered on defending the nation. The…
Why Swim Upstream Overseas?
In 2011, when John Bates declared the existing upstream collection illegal, he didn't stop the practice. Instead, he imposed new minimization procedures on part of the collection (just that part that included transactions including communications…
NSA Returns to Stealing from Yahoo and Google
The entire point of the Protect America Act and FISA Amendments Act was to provide a way for NSA to collect data from Yahoo and Google without stealing it from telecom switches, which is what they had been doing for 6 years. That was the primary…
How Does NSA (and Its Partners) Catch More Terrorists in Europe with Less Metadata?
In follow-up to yesterday's I Con, Le Monde reports that France's spy agency, DGSE and the US, established a data sharing arrangement in 2011-2012 via which France provides call data to the US. It notes that part of the data the US gets comes…
Peace Initiative Gains Momentum in Afghanistan Despite Lack of Participation by US
Last week, Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif visited Washington, DC for a series of meetings. The final press appearance by Sharif and Barack Obama was noted by the New York Times to be somewhat awkward as Sharif paid whispered lip service…
In Which the I Con Uses Top Secret Spy Weapon, the "Conjunction," Against Journalists
Man, it looks Mike Rogers and Keith Alexander conducted one hell of an InfoOp against the nation's NatSec journalists today. Congratulations, spooks, you've finally managed successful propaganda.
Before I explain what I understand to have…
John Bates Intervened in the Phone Dragnet Problems
Yesterday, I Con the Record released more records in response to the ACLU FOIA for records on the Section 215 program (though once again, they didn't mention the FOIA).
Three of the documents provide more data points for a notable progression…
One Day after Rolling Out "Comprehensive Review," Feinstein Proceeds with Mark-Up Anyway
Yesterday, Dianne Feinstein announced, "a total review of all intelligence programs ... so that members of the Senate Intelligence Committee are fully informed as to what is actually being carried out by the intelligence community."
Today,…
The White House -- Lisa Monaco? -- "Cutting Off the Intelligence Community"
Too bad for Obama he has decided the great new way to aggressively prosecute leaks without the bad PR of doing it through the Courts is to have James Clapper's Inspector General investigate them. Because I'm betting the IC IG will be unenthusiastic…
Has John McCain Been Chatting Up Bibi on a Tapped Phone?
Even more than Dianne Feinstein's so-called reversal on the NSA, I'm intrigued by John McCain's.
"We have always eavesdropped on people around the world. But the advance of technology has given us enormous capabilities, and I think you might…
Civil Libertarians to Dianne Feinstein: We Told You So
The moment when Dianne Feinstein should have called for a comprehensive review of NSA's programs was no later than August 18, when she admitted the Senate Intelligence Committee doesn't get briefed on violations that occur under Executive Order…