Emptywheel Fundraiser -- Halfway There
We're halfway done with the Emptywheel Two Millionth Visitor Fundraiser. We've had a great response so far, but that number represents just a fraction of regular readers. If you value what we do, please consider a donation.You can donate via…
James Clapper's Financial War on the World
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Yesterday, TV Globo published details of NSA spying on Brazil's oil company, Petrobras, SWIFT, and financial organizations. Besides revealing that man-in-the-middle attacks are sometimes…
Did Kerry's "Impossible" Diplomatic Demand Just Get Met? Update: Now Possible?
If you enjoy the detailed analysis that only Marcy Wheeler can bring to complex issues, please donate if you can.
Okay, this is breaking very rapidly and could turn out to be nothing, but it is amazing and would even be hilarious if it weren't…
Keith Alexander's Pizza Problem
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Shane Harris has a great piece of a bunch of people hanging Keith Alexander out to dry. It shows how Alexander has always grabbed for more data -- at times not considering…
NSA and Compromised Encryption: The Sword Cuts Both Ways
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A friendly handshake is offered;
Names are swapped after entry;
The entrant delivers a present;
The present is unboxed with a secret key...
And…
Any Bets FBI Was Already Searching US Person Data?
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In the department of news that got reported here two months ago, the WaPo is reporting on FISC's approval to let the government search…
Rumble at the Big House Trash Talk
[As a reminder, it is fundraising week Chez Emptywheel. Please help support our work if you can.]
[special Live Update From the America's Cup below]
We are only a week into real football and already there is a blockbuster game on tap. The…
Syria: The Administration's Attribution Failure
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Reuters confirms something that I have long suggested: the government doesn't know who ordered the CW attack in Syria on August 21.
The Administration's best case tying Bashar…
Bandar's Hot and Cold Running Jihadis
As a reminder, it is fundraising week Chez Emptywheel. Please help support our work if you can.
In my questioning of the Administration's case on Syria, I have focused on holes within their own story -- inconsistent numbers, claims about…
Playing Chess with Russia and Iran
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The WSJ reports that the US just doesn't get Vladimir Putin (even while explaining that Putin is legitimately miffed that US and its allies conducted regime…
John Kerry's Cakewalk
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For the life of me, I don't know why they're doing this. But in both the House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing Wednesday and on Chris Hayes'…
Mission Creep Hits Syria Targeting, Training Before First Tomahawks Fly
Even while Barack Obama and John Kerry are busily lobbying for a positive vote in Congress for their Not-War in Syria, it appears the Defense Department isn't waiting for a pesky thing like Congressional approval or even the official start (as…
The Return of the NFL: It's ON!!!
[Hey there Lugnuts!! We are having a fundraiser here at Emptywheel. Help the effort out! We have been really hesitant about doing this in the past. To the best of my recollection, we have not done one at all since leaving FDL. Marcy will not…
The Emptywheel Two Million Visit Fundraiser
I've been so busy covering the Syria war effort and NSA spying that I almost missed it: on September 6, we will receive our two millionth visitor. To celebrate that fact -- and to ensure we can keep doing this work -- we're going to have a week-long…
NSA, GCHQ, Declare Civil War on Their Own People
The Guardian, NYT, and ProPublica have the first of the co-reported stories we've been promised, reporting that after the government failed to get Congress to require back doors into encrypted communication, it just went ahead and took it.
I'll…
Parallel Processing: AUMF Assad Spanking and Then Article II Regime Change
There's a fundamental dishonesty in the debate about Syria derived from treating the authorization to punish Bashar al-Assad for chemical weapons use in isolation from the Administration's acknowledged covert operations to support the rebels.…
If We Collect Warning of CW Attacks But Nobody Notices, Does It Do Much Good?
Almost a week after the rebels first complained that the US had warning of the chemical weapon attack before it happened on August 21, James "Too Cute by Half" Clapper's office is offering an explanation: They had collected, but not analyzed,…
Joby Warrick Is the New Judy Miller
Poor Joby Warrick. With Judy Miller so disgraced that Fox News had to issue a "she has nothing to apologize for" press release when they hired her back in 2008, Joby drew the short straw yesterday and was assigned to transcribe the hyped bullshit…
With All These Defections, How Can Intelligence Agencies Make Claims about Chain of Command?
The French, who have a long history with Syria, offered a somewhat more developed explanation for why they're so sure that Bashar al-Assad should be held responsible for the August 21 attack even while someone in his Ministry of Defense appears…
The Syrian Not-War: Money Issues
The most interesting details in today's House Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Syria pertained to money.
First, when asked how much this not-war (for a second day, Kerry insisted this isn't a real war) would cost, Chuck Hagel said it…