Tom Coburn Suggests Problems with Use of PATRIOT Act Section 215 Will Be Big Court Battle
I'm watching the SJC's 51 minutes of almost entirely pathetic questioning of Robert Mueller to remain Director of FBI for two more years (the only real challenge came from Al Franken on civil liberties issues). And while by far the most telling…
SJC to Consider Re-Confirmation of Guy Who Let Major Domestic Terror Attack Go Unsolved
At 10, the Senate Judiciary Committee will consider the extension of Robert Mueller's term at FBI by two more years. You'll no doubt hear Ranking Member Chuck Grassley make all sorts of complaints about FBI in his wonderful grouchy Iowa voice.…
Have WSJ and Al Jazeera Already Ceded the Espionage Debate?
EFF has a report on the terms of service WSJ and AJ offer leakers using their WikiLeaks competitor sites. I had already heard that WSJ offered almost no technical security (which EFF describes), but it turns out neither offer much in the way…
Using Domestic Surveillance to Get Rapists to Spy for America
The reauthorization of the PATRIOT Act focused a lot of attention on the fact that the Administration is interpreting the phrase "relevant to an authorized [intelligence] investigation" in Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act very broadly. As Ron…
DHS Gutted Domestic Terrorism Analysis Unit after Report Leaked
The Southern Poverty Law Center has an interview with the guy who headed DHS' domestic terrorism analysis that produced the report on the rise in domestic right wing extremism, Daryl Johnson. (h/t Aravosis) He describes how, after the report…
The Crux of the Cisco-US Government Collaboration
As I said in this comment, we're going to have to wait until the Canadian court releases more details on the failed extradition of Peter Alfred Adekeye to get a better sense of what the government did to piss off the court so badly. But this…
Is Apparent US Conspiracy with Cisco about Wiretapping?
Canada has just discovered how much corporations own our legal system, how our legal system criminalizes whistleblowers, and our utter and total disdain for the rule of law.
At issue is the apparent conspiracy between Cisco and the US government…
FBI's Hacker-Informants
The Guardian uses an eye-popping stat from a hacker journalist--that a quarter of all hackers are FBI moles--to cement a a story about the FBI infiltrating hacker groups.
The underground world of computer hackers has been so thoroughly infiltrated…
Thomas Drake: The Government Hides Its Toys
As Josh Gerstein just reported, the government has decided to withdraw some evidence against Thomas Drake rather than come up with CIPA substitutions that would give Drake the ability to defend himself. At issue is "NSA’s targeting of a particular…
An American Fairy Tale: Prison Industry Edition
Only in America could the head of the public prison system who retired in shame for breaking the law himself move onto a sinecure in the private prison industry. But that appears to be what Harley Lappin has done.
Mind you, both Lappin and…
"As I plan to inform the White House"
DDay already noted Peter Diamond's op-ed withdrawing his nomination as a Fed Governor. But I wanted to emphasize one thing:
It is time for me to withdraw, as I plan to inform the White House.
It appears that this very public complaint was…
Trash Talk: Raffa v. Fed
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bmazThe event of the season is upon us! Yep, the men's final at the French Open. This is just a quick post for the heck of it because, well, I have been a life long tennis fan (and even played some competitively as a junior); and, out of the blue,…
Chiquita's Alleged Victims Can Sue for Torture, But Not Terrorism
As fatster noted, Judge Kenneth Marra has allowed the suit against Chiquita for its support of Colombian terrorists to go forward. But the ruling is fascinating, because it holds that the plaintiffs can sue for Chiquita's involvement in torture,…
Diplomats Concede Drones Might Destabilize Nuclear Armed Pakistan
WSJ reveals that some folks within the Obama Administration have finally started to weigh the possibility that our drone strikes in Pakistan do more harm than good. Unfortunately, in the fight over whether the US should rein drone strikes in,…
Teaching Our Polish Partners in Torture: State Secrets
I had been predicting for weeks before Obama went to Poland that the Poles would move to quash their investigation into the black site at which KSM and others were tortured.
And sure enough, that appears to be what happened.
The first…
"Terrorists are cowards. Torturers are, too."
Former Gitmo prosecutor Morris Davis makes, in really powerful fashion, a point I've been contemplating: how does Hillary Clinton get off criticizing the torture of Syrian teenager Hamza Ali al-Khateeb or Pakistani journalist Syed Saleem Shahzad…
Next They'll Put Gitmo Transfer Prohibitions on USDA Funding
A number of people have commented on the Obama Administration's statement of opposition to a ban on Department of Homeland Security funding for Gitmo detainee transfers. Here's Benjamin Wittes:
The administration just issued a Statement of…
How's that Plan Going, Mr. President?
I was going to write about this story--about a confrontation between Henry Waxman and Barack Obama over the latter's ineffective negotiating strategy--yesterday.
The president has heard the complaint before. Democrats have accused Obama repeatedly…
The Government Asked to Use Silent Witness Rule in Thomas Drake Case
This document, Judge Richard Bennett's rulings on the admissibility of a number of documents presented in CIPA hearings, is interesting for several reasons, some of which I may return to. But I wanted to highlight that the government is trying…
Why Didn't We Ask China to Find Scooter Libby's Missing Plame Leak E-Mails?
WSJ has an article reporting on the purportedly Chinese-launched GMail hacks that targeted top White House officials.
The article is interesting not because it claims the Chinese want to hack top officials. Who do you think they'd be most…