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Sam Sacks - page 31

Sam Sacks has 859 articles published.

USAID Weaponized FOIA Delays Against Journalists Probing Failed Cuban Twitter Operation

When journalists uncovered a bungled social media project designed to destabilize the Cuban government, US officials relied on the State Department’s poor transparency record to dodge future questions about the program. According to emails revealed on Monday by the Associated Press, a former senior official with the US Agency for International Development (USAID) worried that the department’s scheme could be exposed by Freedom of Information Act Requests, if USAID obtained records from a private contractor involved in the Cuban ZunZuneo program. “The risk is that it gets FOIA’d later,”… Keep Reading

Tweaked Email Privacy Act Headed Toward Committee Vote This Week

A House judiciary panel will attempt on Wednesday to pass new privacy measures to protect Americans’ email and digital communications from warrantless government spying. With broad bipartisan support, including more than 300 co-sponsors, the Email Privacy Act is expected to pass committee, but with some last-minute changes to it made by Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.). Late last week, Rep. Goodlatte proposed stripping out a provision that required the government to notify citizens after ten days that it had collected emails from their provider, The… Keep Reading

Armed With New Hacking Tools, Administration Hints at Crypto Wars Thaw

The White House will reportedly not advocate for anti-encryption legislation about to make its way through Congress. The administration “remains deeply divided on the issue” sources told Reuters, and will provide “minimal public input, if any,” on a bill being worked on by leadership on the Senate Intelligence Committee. Sens. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) plan to introduce their measure as early as next week. The proposal would give federal judges the power to order tech companies to break into cryptographically-secured information at the behest… Keep Reading

Attorney General Calls Oil Merger “Not Fixable,” Sues to Block It

A proposed wedding of two behemoths in the oil services industry is on the rocks after the Department of Justice filed suit to block it. The $25 billion merger between Halliburton and Baker Hughes—the number two and three largest companies in the field—would violate “core antitrust principles,” Attorney General Loretta Lynch stated in a press call Wednesday morning, announcing the launching of litigation in a Delaware federal court. “The proposed merger would substantially reduce competition in 23 separate markets for oil field products and services,… Keep Reading

Bernie Takes Huge Chunk of Cheddar in Wisconsin, Historic Comeback Still Within Reach

Wisconsin voters gave Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) exactly what he needed Tuesday night: a lifeline to stay in the race. The Sanders campaign had to not only win the Badger state primary, it had to win big. And with nearly all the vote counted, it did just that, beating the former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton 57 to 43 percent. The Democratic Socialist was fueled by the support of young voters, winning 82 percent of voters 19-29 years old, according to CNN exit polls. He also… Keep Reading

Trump-Supporting Senator: “Good People Don’t Smoke Marijuana”

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) portrayed himself as the lead protagonist in a Reefer Madness sequel shot on Capitol Hill Tuesday. The Senate’s Caucus on International Narcotics Control convened a hearing to examine the Department of Justice’s oversight of states that have legalized pot for recreational use. A government watchdog reported in February that the department was not collecting enough data to monitor efforts in Colorado and Washington state to tax and regulate cannabis. But for Sessions, the real problem is abandoning the Drug War and… Keep Reading

NSA Chief Dismisses Notion of “Mutual Deterrence” in Cyber War

It has been a stated US military policy for roughly 50 years to deal with nuclear-armed adversaries, but mutual deterrence as we’ve come to know it doesn’t exist on the cyber battlefield, the head of the National Security Agency suggested—publicly, at least. Under questioning Tuesday from Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Adm. Michael Rogers affirmed in one word the top line cyber attack capabilities of Moscow, but declined to disclose if the US has an effective counterpunch. “Does Russia have the capability to inflict serious harm… Keep Reading

Mars or Bust? NASA Likely on Verge of Huge Cost Overruns

The nation’s space administration is approaching uncertain stages of development in more than half of its major projects, including a manned mission to Mars that could see spending explode over the next decade. On the surface, this week’s Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on how well NASA is progressing in its various enterprises looks positive, with overall cost and schedule performances improving over the last five years. But the government watchdog noted than nine of the seventeen projects it reviewed are about to enter the… Keep Reading

Kabul Bank Collapse Probe to Turn up Heat in U.S.

The largest corruption probe in Afghanistan’s history is going to turn its focus on the United States. More than six years after the collapse of Kabul Bank, looted to the tune of nearly a billion dollars by its owners and a cadre of political elites, Afghanistan’s President has enlisted the help of a US government watchdog to track down stolen funds. In a speech to the University of Pittsburgh on Wednesday, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) John Sopko revealed he has been… Keep Reading

E.P.A. Busted for Laissez-faire Oversight of Fracking Poison Wells

A federal watchdog reported that regulators at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) aren’t bothering to collect enough information necessary to ensure that fracked wastewater isn’t poisoning people. According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the EPA has shirked its responsibilities under the Safe Drinking Water Act to keep tabs on Underground Injection Control (UIC) programs, which work to ensure that wastewater associated with oil and gas production is properly injected into underground wells to prevent contamination of nearby areas. “EPA has not collected inspection and enforcement information,… Keep Reading

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