Against Legion of Doom Alert, Is Hadi Playing Saleh's Old Game?
After President Obama met with Yemen's President Abdo Rabu Mansour Hadi on the eve (or during the progression) of the Legion of Doom alert last week, he said this about Hadi's cooperation on terrorism.
I thank President Hadi and his government…
Behind Legion of Doom: Breaking "Encrypted Electronic Communications between High Level Al Qaeda Leaders"
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David Garteinstein-Ross, who did his own research into the Daily Beast Legion of Doom story, noted a couple of things via Twitter that I have been pointing to: the conference call behind the Legion of Doom scare…
Displacing the Reset with Russia
As you no doubt heard yesterday, Obama called off a planned meeting with Putin after the G20 next month in response to a number of things (including Russia's increasing persecution of gays), but largely triggered by Russia's offer of asylum…
I Told You So, It's about Cybersecurity Edition
When James "Least Untruthful" Clapper released the first version of PRISM success stories and the most impressive one involved thwarting specific cyberattacks, I noted that the NSA spying was about hackers as much as terrorists.
When "Lying…
Maybe the Gimmick Is in the Timing of Legion of Doom?
In my first post on this Yemen scare -- which I will henceforth call "Legion of Doom" in honor of the Daily Beast source's use of the term -- I suggested the big part of the plot might have already transpired.
There’s the increased drone…
The Ooga Booga* Continues to Wear Off
Two and a half years ago, I noted how TSA head John Pistole pointed to a plot the FBI created while he was still its Deputy Director to justify the use of VIPR teams to stop people on non-aviation public transportation.
A couple of weeks back,…
Did Yemen Evacuation Cover Staging of JSOC Troops, Equipment for Attack?
Earlier this morning, a tweet from Joshua Foust alerted me to this BBC article, where it appears that some observers suspect that the US may be preparing a JSOC strike within Yemen:
Amid the escalating tensions, sources also told BBC Newsnight…
What If the Tor Takedown Relates to the Yemeni Alert?
Eli Lake and Josh Rogin reveal that the intercept between Ayman al-Zawahiri and Nasir al-Wuhayshi was actually a conference call between those two and affiliates all over the region.
The Daily Beast has learned that the discussion between…
Who Will the Government Scapegoat Now on the Wuhayshi Leak?
Yesterday, I noted that McClatchy, the first outlet to publish (though probably not the first outlet to get the leak) the news that the big terror alert stems from an intercepted communication between Ayman al-Zawahiri and Nasir al-Wuhayshi,…
Was It NSA or a Yemeni "Ally" Leaking the "Clear Orders" from Zawahiri to Wuhayshi?
Apparently, it wasn't enough for someone to leak this information to the NYT (which said that it withheld some information at the request from the government).
The United States intercepted electronic communications this week among senior operatives…
Pakistan Deploys Troops to Beef Up Security at Jail Housing Shakeel Afridi, Key Taliban Figures
As we await word on why the airlines' SABRE reservation system would go down at exactly the time the US is warning that Undie 3.0 could be underway and the US is evacuating our personnel from Yemen, there are interesting developments on the…
CIA's Cloud Storage Just Bought the WaPo
You've no doubt heard that Jeff Bezos just bought WaPo.
Which means the same guy who owns WaPo also provides the CIA with its new cloud storage (unless IBM succeeds in their bid to challenge it).
I'm sure this will have an utterly salutary…
More Lies to the FISA Court
I was pulling up something else from Ron Wyden's site, and noticed a sentence in this release pointing out how last week's so-called transparency dump from James Clapper actually shows the lies the Intelligence Community told to Congress. I…
US Justice: A Rotting Tree of Poisonous Fruit?
Saturday, the NYT reported that other agencies within government struggle to get NSA to share its intelligence with them.
Agencies working to curb drug trafficking, cyberattacks, money laundering, counterfeiting and even copyright infringement…
About the Reuters DEA Special Operations Division Story
Reuters is out this morning with what is being hailed as somewhat of an eye opening expose on the Drug Enforcement Agency's Special Operations Division. The article is very good and should be read in full, but I would like to make a couple of…
Stewart Baker's User Interface and Edward Snowden's Authorities
Former NSA Counsel Stewart Baker has been in an increasingly urgent froth since Edward Snowden's leaks first became public trying to prove that the NSA should have more, not less, unchecked authority.
He outdid himself yesterday with an attempt…
Shut Down CyberCommand -- US CyberCommander Keith Alexander Doesn't Think It's Important
Back on March 12 -- in the same hearing where he lied to Ron Wyden about whether the intelligence community collects data on millions of Americans -- James Clapper also implied that "cyber" was the biggest threat to the United States.
So when…
Premature NFL Trash Talk Under Duress
Are y'all paying attention to that Twitter widget thingy lodged on our blog on the right hand side? Well do ya? If so, then you have seen the oppressive brutality with which the otherwise demure Empthwheel has demanded pre-season Trash Talk.
I…
If Only DOJ Hadn't Burned AP's Sources ...
The State Department announced a broad but vague warning today.
The Department of State alerts U.S. citizens to the continued potential for terrorist attacks, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa, and possibly occurring in or emanating…
"Congress Was Fully Briefed" ... at the Last Minute
On September 30, 2009, Silvestre Reyes, then the Chair of the House Intelligence Committee, requested that DOJ provide a description of the Section 215 metadata dragnet program.
Reyes sent that request 8 days after September 22, when Patrick…