Yellowcake In the Soles of His Shoes
Last night, The Smoking Gun and then CBS reported on the latest sting carried out by our government to keep us safe from people too stupid for their own good. This time, instead of the FBI setting up the security theater sting, it was an…
Not-So-Trusted Computing: German Government Worried About Windows 8 Risks
Microsoft’s “trusted computing platform.”
Microsoft’s “secure boot” technology.
The doublespeak almost writes itself these days. Whose “trusted computing”? Whose “platform”? And whose “secure boot”?
At least…
NSA Has a Database Problem
Back in 2009 when the government released what we now know is a FISA Court of Review decision ordering Yahoo to cooperate in PRISM, I questioned a passage of the decision that relied on the government's claim that it doesn't keep a database…
Advocate of Secret Infiltration, Cass Sunstein, on Obama's "Committee To Make Us Trust the Dragnet"
ABC reports that, along with former CIA Deputy Director Mike Morell, former Homeland Security Czar Richard Clarke, and former Obama special assistant for economic policy Peter Swire, the White House (or James Clapper -- who knows at this point)…
DNI's Latest "I Con" Speak: "Sift Through and Have Unfettered Access To"
The Director of National Intelligence, after having repeatedly refused to answer any questions about the WSJ's big scoop in yesterday's conference call, has released a new document pretending to debunk stories based on the WSJ (though not the…
Who Is Disrupting Pakistan's Peace Talks With Taliban This Time?
Back in May, the CIA chose to take out Wali Ur Rehman in a drone strike that appeared to be follow-through on their vow to take revenge for his role in the bombing of the CIA outpost in Khost. As I pointed out on the day of the strike, the revenge…
NSA's "Presumption of Regularity"
As you've probably heard, the most striking part of the October 3, 2011 FISA opinion finding NSA's collection violated the Fourth Amendment is Footnote 14.
The Court is troubled that the government's revelations regarding NSA's acquisition…
Olympic Fact-Checking of the NSA
One of the disclosures from yesterday's WSJ blockbuster that shocked a lot of people was that the NSA and FBI collected all the email and phone communications from Salt Lake City around the time of the 2002 Olympics.
For the 2002 Winter Olympics…
Bradley Manning's Sentence, Parole and Appeal Implications
On Monday I laid out the dynamics that would be in play for the court in considering what sentence to give Bradley Manning in light of both the trial evidence and testimony, and that presented during the sentencing phase after the guilty verdict…
More Signs Iran May Want Nuclear Agreement
When Hassan Rouhani scored such a decisive and surprising victory in Iran's elections, many took this as a sign that the hard-liner positions of Amadinejad were ending and that a new, more moderate position for the country would emerge. Iran-watching…
How NSA Bypassed the Fourth Amendment for 3 Years
On October 3, 2011, the FISA Court deemed some of the NSA's collections to violate the Fourth Amendment. Since Ron Wyden first declassified vague outlines of that ruling a year ago, we've been trying to sort through precisely what practice that…
Both These Things Cannot Be True
Last Friday, NSA's Compliance Director John DeLong assured journalists the violations NSA reported in 2012 were "miniscule." (I noted that the report showed some of the most sensitive violations primarily get found through audits and therefore…
If NSA Commits Database Query Violations, But Nobody Audits Them, Do They Really Happen?
Barton Gellman, at the beginning of the worthwhile video above, addresses something I addressed here: the only way the government can claim they haven't "abused" the rules governing NSA activities is by treating all abuse done in the name…
The Importance of Being Earnest
Q Why was the United States given a heads-up by the British government on this detention?
MR. EARNEST: Again, that heads-up was provided by the British government, so you can direct that question to them.
Q Right. But was this heads-up…
Pervez Musharraf Indicted for Benazir Bhutto Murder
Although he is already under house arrest for a number of other charges pending against him, Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's former military leader who took control of the government after ousting then (and once again, now) Prime Minister Nawaz…
Have There Been Significant Phone Dragnet Violations Since 2009?
As I laid out in more obscure fashion here, there are slight -- but interesting -- differences between how the 2009 Congressional notice, the 2011 Congressional notice, and the 2013 White Paper on the PATRIOT Act dragnet(s) describe the compliance…
20 Questions: Mike Rogers' Vaunted Section 215 Briefings
Comment -- Russ Feingold said that Section 215 authorities have been abused. How does the FBI respond to that accusation?
A -- To the FBI's knowledge, those authorities have not been abused.
That exchange is, according to DOJ's Congressional…
Working Thread: Section 215 Chronologies
This post consists of two things. First, a comparison of the 2009 notice and the 2011 one on the PATRIOT Act dragnet programs (as well as the one paragraph from the White Paper that largely replicates their compliance language).
Then, it…
New High School Course in Iran: Drone Hacking
AP informs us that a reformist newspaper in Iran has a story on a new course to be taught in high schools in Iran beginning in September:
Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards paramilitary units plan to teach drone-hunting to school students,…
The Bradley Manning Sentencing Dynamics
U.S. Army Private First Class Bradley Manning stands convicted of crimes under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). The convictions result from two events. The first was a voluntary plea of guilty by Pvt. Manning to ten lesser included…