Car Bomb Targeting Afghan Supreme Court Employees Kills at Least 14
A very large bomb set off near the Supreme Court building in Kabul has killed at least 14 and injured at least 38. As noted in this report from ToloNews, the toll is likely to rise:
A bomb blast happened at Masud Square near the Supreme…
If Wanting to Reveal that All Americans' Metadata Gets Swept Up Is Treason, Edward Snowden Is in Distinguished Company
Earlier this evening, Dianne Feinstein called Edward Snowden's decision to leak NSA documents an act of treason.
“I don't look at this as being a whistleblower. I think it's an act of treason,” the chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence…
Section 702 Is Used for Terror, Proliferation, AND Hacking
The AP has a story about the way algorithms control Section 702, the legal program for which PRISM provides NSA analysts acces.
And while he also admits that Obama "had expanded the scope of the surveillance," Michael Hayden makes this false…
James Clapper Hails Checks and Balances While Treating Oversight "Too Cute by Half"
I've been citing bits of this interview between James Clapper and Andrea Mitchell here and there, but the whole thing needs to be read to be believed.
But the quick version is this. Mitchell asks Clapper whether "trust us" is enough, given…
Is Robert Mueller, a Purported Hero of the Hospital Confrontation, Responsible for Section 215 Use?
On March 23, 2004 at noon, less than two weeks after the dramatic hospital confrontation and threats to quit reportedly got the Administration to agree to stop data mining Americans, FBI Director Robert Mueller had a meeting with Dick Cheney,…
NATO Supply Convoy Attacked in Pakistan Again
The last time I addressed the transit of NATO goods through Pakistan, I noted that NATO is now facing similar problems with convoys as goods are removed from Afghanistan to those seen previously while sending supplies to Afghanistan through…
Truck-sized Holes: Journalists Challenged by Technology Blindness
Note: The following piece was written just before news broke about Booz Allen Hamilton employee Edward Snowden. With this in mind, let's look at the reporting we've see up to this point; problems with reporting to date may remain even with the…
Are Guardian's Sources Responding to a New Use of Surveillance, Post-Boston?
Update: The Guardian source, Edward Snowden, has revealed himself. Stunning.
Little mentioned as we talk about the massive amounts of spying Obama's Administration undertakes is this passage from the President's recent speech on counterterrorism.
That’s…
Dianne Feinstein: We Need to Collect Data on Every Single American Because We Can't Control Our Informants
I will have far, far more to say about the claims about the various surveillance programs aired on the Sunday shows today.
But this is absolutely batshit crazy.
FEINSTEIN: Well, of course, balance is a difficult thing to actually identify…
Once Upon a Time the PRISM Companies Fought Retroactive Immunity
Since the disclosure of the PRISM program, I have thought about a letter the industry group for some of the biggest and earliest PRISM participants -- Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo -- wrote to then House Judiciary Chair John Conyers during the…
What Obama's Presidential Policy Directive on Cyberwar Says about NSA's Relationship with Corporations
The Guardian has had three big scoops this week: revealing that Section 215 has, indeed, been used for dragnet collection of US person data, describing PRISM, a means of accessing provider data in real-time that was authorized by the FISA Amendments…
Mike Rogers: As Confused about Telecom Surveillance as He Is about Drone Strikes
Congressman Mike Rogers, like most members of the ranking Gang of Four members of the Intelligence Committees, has long made obviously false claims about the drone program, such as that public reports of civilian casualties (which were being…
Meet 3 PATRIOT Act False Positives Investigated for Buying Beauty Supplies
Both Mike Rogers and Ron Wyden made claims about the efficacy of the surveillance scoops of the last few days, especially the use of Section 215 to collect the phone data -- and other tangible stuff, including credit card records -- of every…
Side by Side: Timeline of NSA’s Communications Collection and Cyber Attacks
In all the reporting and subsequent hubbub about the National Security Administration’s ongoing collection of communications, two things stood out as worthy of additional attention:
— Collection may have been focused on corporate metadata;
—…
James Clapper's Tip for Avoiding Lies: Don't Do Talking Points
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For a guy who warned for years about an abuse of the FISA Amendments Act and Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act, I have to admit Ron Wyden was pretty circumspect yesterday. He issued a statement, partly to reiterate…
WHO, Bill Gates and Islamic Scholars All Push For Polio Vaccination in Province Now Governed by Khan's PTI
There are public calls on a remarkable number of different fronts for a renewed commitment to polio vaccination in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan, which is now governed by Imran Khan's PTI party. Direct appeals to Khan are coming…
Jim Sensenbrenner's Horseshit Claims of Innocence
The reaction from members of Congress to the revelation that the Section 215 surveillance was just as bad as some of us have been warning has varied, with Dianne Feinstein and Saxby Chambliss reiterating claims about the value and oversight…
Section 215: The White House's Bullshit Talking Points
Here's what the White House has offered as talking points to defend collecting (DiFi has confirmed) all the call data from all Americans since 2006. Interspersed is my commentary.
The article discusses what purports to be an order issued by…
Ron Wyden Calls Bullshit on Mike Rogers' Claims
Mike Rogers, in an effort to defend his efforts to approve and hide dragnet collection on all Americans for years, claimed today that the dragnet prevented a terrorist attack.
“Within the last few years, this program was used to stop a terrorist…
Post-2014 NATO Mission in Afghanistan Has a Name, But No Enabling Agreement
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In a complete repeat of the process the Obama administration used to get NATO to be the entity to propose extending the mythical 352,000 Afghan National Security Force…