Our DOJ Refuses to Send Officials to Jail - Scott Bloch Edition
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bmazThe Obama Administration and Holder Justice Department were not willing to make misrepresentations and disingenuous arguments to cravenly insure that Executive Branch officials, including Scott Bloch, lying to Congress do not serve so much as a day in jail.
Judge: Government Can Shield Its Conversations about Engaging in Torture
Josh Gerstein reports that a Federal Judge has rejected ACLU's effort to get the government to remove more of the redactions in the OPR Report on the torture memos. Judge Rosemary Collyer basically argued that the President's need to get candid…
The Shirley Sherrod Complaint Against Andrew Breitbart
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bmazShirley Sherrod is quite a woman, and now she has followed through on her promise and filed a lawsuit against Andrew Breitbart. Ms. Sherrod has come to the dance locked and loaded and with a very compelling story. Andrew Breitbart better strap in, it could be a bumpy ride.
The HBGary Scandal: Using Counterterrorism Tactics on Citizen Activism
As I described on the Mike Malloy show on Friday and as Brad Friedman discusses in his post on being targeted by the Chamber of Commerce, the essence of the Chamber of Commerce/Bank of America/HBGary scandal is the use of intelligence techniques…
Senior Officials Wave Their SIGINT Around
You've probably already read this story detailing how Hosni Mubarak used his 18 day delay in resigning to rob the Egyptian people. While the whole thing is worth a read, I wanted to point out how a senior Western intelligence official makes…
The CIA IG Report on Renditions
There are a couple of details I want to return to in this AP story on what has happened to those responsible for CIA's biggest fuck-ups and crimes.
One is this discussion of the CIA Inspector General's report on "erroneous" renditions.
While…
A Lovely Day at the Beach
Every year, for the first few Sundays after the Super Bowl, McCaffrey the MilleniaLab starts sulking at about 3:00 because for some reason we won't turn on our weekly football game. (Last year we actually resorted to watching basketball the…
FBI Still Inventing New Ways to Surveil People with No Oversight
Marisa Taylor has an important update on the OLC exigent letter opinion. Last year, DOJ's now-retired Inspector General Glenn Fine released a report revealing how the FBI had used exigent letters to get call data information from telecoms with…
From the ChamberPot: Number Two
The Chamber of Commerce has tried to craft another non-denial denial that they engaged a bunch of private spooks to spy on people like Brad Friedman.
But it's still a non-denial denial.
Once again, they emphasize that they didn't pay HBGary.
The…
Egyptian Trash Talk
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bmazTime to get the lead out and get America's youth into an American Tahrir Square because the United States needs a revolution as much as anywhere in the world right now. Time for some real hope and change instead of the disingenuous drivel we were conned with in 2008.
Dear Egypt: We Love You for Your Freedom
Remember when that ignorant fool opined, "They hate us for our freedoms"?
As one American still ashamed by that comment, let me thank Egypt for such an amazing display of what freedom is about. Congratulations!
May it inspire those of…
HBGary Fees: "Dam It Feels Good to Be a Gangsta"
One of the more interesting documents on HBGary et al's partnership with the Chamber of Commerce details the prices they wanted to charge. Now, other emails make it clear that the Chamber balked at what the team originally proposed would be…
Palantir Tries to Preserve Their Government Contracts
In a post I'll write some day, I will show how the WikiLeaks cables show that every time a partner government threatens to use the high tech intelligence toys we share with it--notably our telecommunication wiretapping--to spy on domestic opponents,…
Our Government Has Been Declaring Children's Nosebleeds a State Secret
At some point the courts are going to have start calling bullshit on the government's transparent attempts to use State Secrets to hide embarrassing information.
From Charlie Savage, we have the story of Kevin Shipp, who tried to sue the…
From the ChamberPot: A Carefully Worded Nondenial Denial
The Chamber of Commerce has responded to ThinkProgress' reporting of the Chamber's discussions with Hunton & Williams about an intelligence campaign against USChamberWatch and other anti-Chamber efforts. It purports to deny any connection…
Hacked Documents Show Chamber Engaged HBGary to Spy on Unions
[Ed: Read the documents about the US Chamber's plan to spy on unions.]
I noted yesterday how mind-numbingly ignorant analysis of Glenn Greenwald's motivation as a careerist hack that was provided by HBGary. And if the allegations in the…
The Government's Amended Twitter Order
After successfully petitioning the court to unseal them, EFF has posted the motion to vacate, motion to unseal court records, and motion to unseal motions it filed in the government's effort to get Twitter information on several people in its…
The Homes Chuck Schumer Didn't Save
DDay and Zach Carter both reported yesterday on the NY Fed's conclusion that the 2005 Bankruptcy Bill had pushed an extra 200,000 people into foreclosure. Here's Zach:
Economists at the New York Federal Reserve have concluded that a controversial…
The Disinformation Campaign Bank of America Considered
Wikileaks has posted the presentation three security companies--Palantir, HBGary Federal, and Berico Technologies--made to Bank of America, proposing to help it respond to Wikileaks.
In addition to the degree to which the proposal emphasizes…
Security Firms Pitching Bank of America on WikiLeaks Response Proposed Targeting Glenn Greenwald
On Saturday, private security firm HBGary Federal bragged to the FT that it had discovered who key members of the hacking group Anonymous are. In response, Anonymous hacked HB Gary Federal and got 44,000 of their emails and made them publicly…