Susan Landau, author of Surveillance or Security? The Risks Posed by New Wiretapping Technologies (which I highly recommend), writes in with a different take than Paul’s on the WP CALEA story:
The Washington Post reported yesterday on the FBI’s
Carrie Cordero, Georgetown’s Director of National Security Studies and a former Justice Department official, writes in with this piece on the Boston attacks and possible improvements to our approach to counterterrorism:
If the recent news reports are accurate (a
On Monday, my Brookings colleague Bruce Riedel held an excellent discussion with Philip Mudd, former deputy director of the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center and author of the new book Takedown: Inside the Hunt for Al Qaeda. Mudd has also served … Read more »
The head of the House Intelligence panel is worried the Justice Department may have jeopardized the public’s safety by allowing a federal judge to read the Boston bombing suspect his Miranda rights before fully interrogating him.
This report from today’s Wall Street Journal is fascinating. It involves the decision of a Magistrate Judge to deny a government application for a search warrant in which the government proposed to install surreptitious software on the target computer (putatively … Read more »
Yesterday, Senator Lindsey Graham held a press conference, in which he unsurprisingly lamented the White House’s decision not to treat Dzhokhar Tsarnaev as an “enemy combatant.”
A transcript is below.
GRAHAM:
Thank you for coming.
I understand at 2:50, we’re
The freshly unsealed criminal complaint was filed sometime yesterday. (The complaint’s attachments—a supporting affidavit and cover sheet—can be found here and here.) And it appears that Bobby’s prediction proved correct: the charges include one count of using a … Read more »
David S. Kris and J. Douglas Wilson’s second edition of National Security Investigations & Prosecutions is a necessary read, or at least necessary to have in your library, for just about anyone who practices, teaches, or writes about national security … Read more »
Big Data finally has its own coffee table book. From Day in the Life series creators Rick Smolan and Jennifer Erwitt, The Human Face of Big Data is bursting with stories of Big Data modern miracles, promising even those will … Read more »
Stewart Baker points to a provision in Congress’s continuing resolution that is the first serious attempt I have seen to punish (as opposed to rail against) China for its cybersecurity practices. Section 516 of what Stewart describes as “the continuing … Read more »
In its latest transparency report published this week, Google began sharing very general data about the number of National Security Letters (NSLs) it receives from the FBI or other government agencies seeking non-content transactional data in relation to national security … Read more »
Carrie Cordero, Georgetown’s Director of National Security Studies and a former Justice Department official, writes in with the following useful compilation of administration warnings about the effects of sequestration on national security:
One might think it would have been
NSA General Counsel Rajesh De gave the following address at Georgetown Law School on Wednesday:
Remarks of
Rajesh De, General Counsel, National Security Agency
Georgetown Law School, February 27, 2013
(as prepared for delivery)
Thank you for the introduction and
A reminder, Lawfare fans: our military commissions coverage continues at 9:00 a.m. tomorrow, as hearings resume in United States v. al-Nashiri. The docketing order for this week’s four-day session can be found here.
On that list are, among other … Read more »
That’s the cyber news from Mashable.com. From the site’s report—which elsewhere says the attack was intended as retaliation for the prosecution of Aaron Swartz:
The hacktivist group Anonymous hacked the US federal sentencing website early Saturday, using the page to
The WSJ reports that U.S. banks “are pressing for government action to block or squelch what Washington officials say is an intensifying Iranian campaign of cyberattacks against American financial institutions.” The banks are asking the USG to use diplomatic pressure, … Read more »
Last week, my Brookings colleague Daniel Byman and I released our fun little Disposition Matrix App–on The Atlantic‘s web site. The rather surprising response—who knew that so many Americans were anticipating catching citizen terrorists and needing to … Read more »
Steve has already noted (and critiqued) this Washington Post story about continued “renditions” by the United States government. The term “renditions” is used in so many ways (often, as Steve suggests, with connotations of harsh interrogation), and this article defines … Read more »
[Updated 3:08 p.m] Last night, the Senate approved Senator Dianne Feinstein’s amendment (No. 3018) to the pending NDAA bill, regarding the military detention of citizens and lawful permanent residents. The vote was 67-29.
As Lawfarers well know by now, the … Read more »
In connection with the Petraeus matter, the NYT reports:
The Federal Bureau of Investigation did not inform the Senate and House Intelligence Committees about the inquiry until this week, according to Congressional officials, who noted that by law the
[Update: Ben Weiser’s coverage in the Times points out that real benefit of the plea for Ahmed of course was to avoid the firearms charge, which entailed a thirty year minimum. Ben also confirms that Judge Castel had not yet … Read more »
The scope of the leak investigations announced by Attorney General Holder yesterday remains unclear. Holder appointed U.S. Attorneys Ronald Machen and Rod Rosenstein to “direct[]separate investigations currently being conducted by the FBI.” But he did not say what those investigations … Read more »
Here is his statement:
“Today, I assigned U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Ronald C. Machen Jr. and U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein to lead criminal investigations into recent instances of possible unauthorized disclosures
This morning, Paul flagged a Washington Post op-ed by Senators Coats, Rubio and Burr. The trio’s piece concerns the improper revelation of national security secrets. As one example, the authors cite the recent disruption, by the CIA and a foreign … Read more »
The Federal government acknowledged, on Friday, that a contractor operating aspects of the Thrift Savings Plan (the government’s in-house pension plan) suffered a significant cyber breach. As a result of the breach more than 120,000 TSP participants have had … Read more »
As I’ve argued previously here (at length) and here (briefly), if you are interested in government counterterrorism intelligence activities and privacy, don’t just pay attention at the federal level – there’s a lot of interesting stuff going on at … Read more »
Dramatic news out of Atlanta yesterday, as federal prosecutors announced the arrest of members of a “fringe militia group” charged with conspiring to carry out an array of terrorist attacks on government officials and the public–including the potential use of … Read more »
The case is United States v. Ferdaus, and the complaint and underlying affidavit for the arrest are attached here and here. In brief, the case involves a US citizen who thought he was working with members of al … Read more »
A divided 11th Circuit panel has issued a lengthy opinion (112 pages in pdf, with the dissent) affirming the conviction of Jose Padilla, Adham Hassoun, and Kifah Jayyousi, and granting the government’s cross-appeal challenging the adequacy of Padilla’s sentence. Chief … Read more »
In November 2009, the ACLU brought a suit on behalf of an American citizen–Amir Meshal–against two FBI agents and two unnamed officials, alleging the following: that he went to Somalia in 2006, that he fled the fighting there … Read more »
A grand jury yesterday returned an indictment in the case of Naser Abdo, the guy recently arrested in connection with an alleged bomb plot in relation to Killeen (the same guy who shouted “Major Nidal Hassan 2009!” in the courtroom … Read more »
Well, this no doubt will contribute the burgeoning conversation about the pros and cons of sting operations. The criminal complaint is here. From the press release:
BALTIMORE – Antonio Martinez, aka Muhammad Hussain, age 21, of Baltimore, a U.S.
DOJ’s IG has issued a report exonerating the FBI from charges that it targeted domestic groups (and one individual) for investigation based on their First Amendment activities. (“In sum, the evidence in our review did not indicate that … the … Read more »
Friday, May 17, 2013
The Department of Justice’s Inspector General released an interim report on the Department’s handling of “known or suspected” terrorists who have entered the government’s witness protection program. The report found, among other things, that information on some program participants had not been turned over to no-fly list authorities; and, that two such people could not be located—though one… Read more »
