The CIA spies on Congress
This is an important story. The Senate Intelligence Committee is responsible for oversight of the CIA. The Committee prepared a lengthy report on the torture policies of the George W. Bush...
View ArticleIs Dianne Feinstein too “emotional?”
Bush-era National Security Agency and Central Intelligence Agency Director Michael Hayden, speaking on Fox News yesterday slammed Senate Intelligence Committee Chairperson Diane Feinstein for being...
View ArticleThe Senate Intelligence Committee torture report is beginning to leak
Finally. It appears that someone is leaking at least portions of the Senate Intelligence Report on the brutal torture program carried out by the CIA during the George W. Bush administration. McClatchy...
View ArticleThe surveillance state reaches nearly everyone
The political culture of spying and surveilling is broad-based and, it seems, virtually out of control. No one is safe. And we now know that this includes the Senate Intelligence Committee. Yesterday,...
View ArticleWhich is most important?
We now know that the CIA breached the security of a computer system used by the Senate Intelligence Committee in preparing its report concerning the black site torture programs that the US undertook in...
View ArticleFeinstein challenges Obama administration on CIA torture study
Senator Dianne Feinstein is not pleased. She believes that the Obama administration excessively redacted major portions of the Senate Intelligence Committee‘s report on the various torture programs...
View ArticleUS torture regime quote of the day
The CIA brought top al-Qaeda suspects close “to the point of death” by drowning them in water-filled baths during interrogation sessions in the years that followed the September 11 attacks, a security...
View ArticleUdall should speak truth to power
Conor Friedersdorf, writing in The Atlantic, calls on lame-duck Senator Mark Udall to use the “Speech or Debate privilege,” to expose the violations of the NSA and the details of the torture program...
View ArticleThe “most transparent administration ever”?
The Obama administration fancies itself the “most transparent ever.” I call bullshit. Exhibit A: White House chief of staff Denis McDonough met with Senate Democrats on Thursday afternoon to discuss...
View ArticleSchedule for release of Senate torture report
It appears that the executive summary (600 pages out of the full 6,000 pages) of the Senate Intelligence Committee report on torture will be released around 11 am this morning, when Dianne Feinstein...
View ArticleCompare and contrast
Via Andrew Sullivan: “Warning that it would be reckless to release the full findings to the general public, critics in Washington condemned the Senate’s 480-page report detailing the CIA’s...
View Article2009 internal CIA report says torture effectiveness low
The New York Times is reporting that a classified 2009 report, generated at the order of Leon Panetta, then CIA Director, questioned the effectiveness of the torture regime operated by the United...
View ArticleSurveillance state quote of the day
Yeah, there’s plenty of stuff. — Ron Wyden, U.S. Senator, on being asked whether U.S. intelligence agencies have domestic surveillance programs of which the public is still unaware. (via The Quotation...
View ArticleMitch McConnell pushes to continue telephone meta-data collection through 2020
McConnell is shameless. He is using a maneuver designed to block debate on his proposal. Currently the program is set to expire on June 1. The legal authority enabling the National Security Agency’s...
View ArticleTorture quote of the day
Apparently, the several CIA torture defenders are planning to release a book in a few weeks that responds to the Senate Intelligence Committee torture report, according to The Intercept. However, the...
View ArticleSenators Push to Broaden Inquiry on Election Hacking
Via The New York Times: Pressure mounted on Sunday for a broader congressional investigation of Russian cyberattacks aimed at influencing the American election, even as a top aide to President-elect...
View ArticleNunes’s grandstanding proves he can’t lead the Russia investigation
Via The Washington Post Editorial Board: REP. DEVIN NUNES (R-Calif.) on Monday denounced what he described as the illegal leak of classified information concerning conversations between associates of...
View ArticleRice denies compiling, leaking names of Trump officials from intelligence...
Via The Washington Post: Former Obama national security adviser Susan E. Rice said Tuesday that she “absolutely” never sought to uncover “for political purposes” the names of Trump campaign or...
View ArticleTop intelligence official told associates Trump asked him if he could...
Adam Entous, reporting in the Washington Post: The nation’s top intelligence official told associates in March that President Trump asked him if he could intervene with then-FBI Director James B. Comey...
View ArticleThe Case for Obstruction Charges
Daniel Hemel and Eric Posner, writing in the New York Times: Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election, appears to be looking into whether...
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