Eric Holder: Torture Inquiries, Ted Stevens Prosecutorial Misconduct...
Eric Holder is testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee right now. [watch here] In response to two questions from Orrin Hatch, Eric Holder revealed that the John Durham investigation into...
View ArticleWe Request to Inform You that You Inform Us We Killed Another Drone Target
I want to follow-up on Jim’s latest drone post–and go back to Greg Miller’s article on drones–to look at the the approval process. A lot of readers of Miller’s article noted this passage, revealing...
View ArticleDianne Feinstein Undermines John Cornyn’s Effort to Get Transparency on...
As I noted a few weeks ago, the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to prevent John Cornyn from adding an amendment to the FISA Amendments Act Extension. I will have to hunt down the...
View ArticleWill Senators Filibuster Chuck Hagel’s Nomination to Get the Targeted Killing...
Eleven Senators just sent President Obama a letter asking nicely, for at least the 12th time, the targeted killing memo. They remind him of his promise of transparency and oversight. In your speech at...
View ArticleSetting Up a Department of Pre-Crime, Part One: Why Are We Doing This?
I’m going to have a series of posts on the proposed FISA Drone (and/or Targeted Killing) Court, starting with a description of why I think there’s movement to do this now. There are, as I see it,...
View ArticleLeahy and Grassley Promise to Stop Pussy-Footing on OLC Memo Transparency
As Ryan Reilly demonstrated a few weeks ago, the Office of Legal Counsel refuses to release a list of all the memos they’ve written in the last four years. In response to [a FOIA list for all OLC...
View Article“At the Highest Levels of the U.S. Government”… Like the President?
Update: Obama did, in fact, take responsibility for ordering the killing. And as President, I would have been derelict in my duty had I not authorized the strike that took out Awlaki. There’s something...
View ArticleSection 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...
View ArticleOn the Refusal to Exercise Oversight over Vast Surveillance Programs, Episode...
The Joint IG Report on the illegal wiretap program left out all discussion of what happened to the Internet and (to a lesser extent) phone metadata collection that got moved into Pen...
View ArticleThe 2009 Draft NSA IG Report Makes No Mention of One Illegal Practice
The 2009 Draft NSA IG Report released by the Guardian last week — and related reporting from Barton Gellman — seem to clarify and confirm what I’ve long maintained (12/19/05; 7/29/07; 7/30/07): that...
View ArticleClapper’s Claim that FBI Cannot Count Back Door Searches for Technical...
I wanted to explain why I think it’s such a big deal that James Clapper specifically highlighted the carve out for transparency reporting on FBI’s back door searches in Leahy’s version of Freedom Act’s...
View ArticleJames Clapper, Bates-Stamp, and Gutting the FISA Advocate
As I noted the other day, in his letter purportedly “supporting” Patrick Leahy’s USA Freedom Act, James Clapper had this to say about the special advocate amicus curiae position laid out by the law. We...
View ArticleSupporters of USA Freedom Ignore the Courts
The National Journal reports that Leahy’s USA Freedom Act probably won’t move until after the election, if not next year. A bill that would curtail the government’s broad surveillance authority is...
View ArticleEvery Senator Who Supports USA Freedom May Be Affirmatively Ratifying a...
Now that I’ve finally got around to reading the so-called transparency provisions in Patrick Leahy’s USA Freedom Act, I understand that one purpose of the bill, from James Clapper’s perspective, is to...
View ArticleIf Patrick Leahy Wants to End Bulk Collection, He Needs to Amend His USA...
The other day, the government obtained another Primary Order to collect all our phone records. In response, Senator Patrick Leahy released this statement: Congress must ensure that this is the last...
View ArticleEmergency Dragnet Chaining, Now with First Amendment Protections!
Thursday, I Con the Record quietly released the most recent phone dragnet order, BR-125, dated September 11, 2014 (curiously, I Con the Record went back to correct its original release to indicate the...
View ArticleWhy I Don’t Support USA Freedom Act
Earlier today, Harry Reid filed for cloture for the USA Freedom Act. So Patrick Leahy’s reform for the phone dragnet will get a vote in the lame duck. As you may remember, I don’t support USAF. Here’s...
View ArticleFixes for USA Freedom Act
I’m now being accused by USA Freedom Act champions of not providing constructive suggestions on how to improve USAF (even though I have, both via channels they were involved in and channels they are...
View ArticleOnly Remaining Senator Personally Targeted by Terrorist Attack Still Believes...
The Senate just voted down cloture on the USA Freedom Act, 58-42. Even while we disagreed on the bill, I extend sincere condolences to civil liberties allies who worked hard to pass this in good faith....
View Article5 Democrats Have Called on Obama Not to Reauthorize the Dragnet Tomorrow
Tomorrow is dragnet day, the next 90-day reauthorization for the dragnet. In advance of that date, Pat Leahy just called on President Obama to simply let the dragnet end. The President can end the...
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