The runaway military surveillance blimp that came loose from an Army base in Maryland on Wednesday dragged its torn tether through power lines in two Pennsylvania counties before crashing into the woods. But at least no one died. The same… Read More ›
Tag Archive for ‘Froomkin’
Bush White House’s Repeated Torture Denials Led CIA Torturers to Seek Repeated Reassurances
The Bush administration was so adamant in its public statements against torture that CIA officials repeatedly sought reassurances that the White House officials who had given them permission to torture in the first place hadn’t changed their minds. In a… Read More ›
FBI Flouts Obama Directive to Limit Gag Orders on National Security Letters
Despite the post-Snowden spotlight on mass surveillance, the intelligence community’s easiest end-run around the Fourth Amendment since 2001 has been something called a National Security Letter. FBI agents can demand that an Internet service provider, telephone company, or financial institution… Read More ›
A Year After Reform Push, NSA Still Collects Bulk Domestic Data, Still Lacks Way to Assess Value
The presidential advisory board on privacy that recommended a slew of domestic surveillance reforms in the wake of the Edward Snowden revelations reported today that many of its suggestions have been agreed to “in principle” by the Obama administration, but… Read More ›
Torture If You Must, But Do Not Under Any Circumstances Call the New York Times
Monday’s guilty verdict in the trial of former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling on espionage charges — for talking to a newspaper reporter — is the latest milepost on the dark and dismal path Barack Obama has traveled since his inaugural… Read More ›
Obama’s Cyber Proposals Sound Good, But Erode Information Security
The State of the Union address President Obama delivers tonight will include a slate of cyber proposals crafted to sound like timely government protections in an era beset by villainous hackers. They would in theory help the government and private… Read More ›
John Brennan Exonerates Himself with Sham Investigation
The outrageous whitewash issued yesterday by the CIA panel John Brennan hand-picked to lead the investigation into his agency’s spying on Senate staffers is being taken seriously by the elite Washington media, which is solemnly reporting that officials have been… Read More ›
Q&A: On the Untouchable ‘Lords of Secrecy’
Powerful, unaccountable, and operating far in the shadows, the Lords of Secrecy, as author Scott Horton calls them, are real, and they are in charge of our national security state. Horton, a lawyer, journalist and human rights advocate, makes the… Read More ›
Billion Dollar Surveillance Blimp to Launch over Maryland
In just a few days, the Army will launch the first of two massive blimps over Maryland, the last gasp of an 18-year-long $2.8-billion Army project intended to use giant airships to defend against cruise missiles. And while the blimps… Read More ›
Torture, ‘Meet the Press’ and Cheney’s Quest for Revenge
Dick Cheney gave no ground in his “Meet the Press” interview on Sunday, but he did something arguably even better: He bared his twisted soul. Parrying questions from Chuck Todd with what he must have figured were winning talking points… Read More ›