SECRECY & THE SECURITY STATE - page 11

The Trump Administration is considering the deployment of more troops to Afghanistan, according to testimony Thursday before the Senate Armed Services Committee. Gen. Joseph Votel, the leader of US Central Command, told the panel that the Pentagon is developing a new strategy, and that it will likely include an uptick in soldiers serving in the 15-year-old conflict. “I do believe that it will involve additional forces to ensure that we can make the ‘advise and assist’ mission more effective,” Votel told committee chair John McCain…

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For the first time, key figures associated with the CIA’s post-9/11 enhanced interrogation program could be forced to testify under oath about their activities. During a death penalty trial at Guantanamo Bay on Tuesday, a military judge permitted defense attorneys to call as witnesses four former CIA officials with intimate knowledge of the agency’s torture tactics. Abd Al-Rahim Al-Nashiri is accused of plotting the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole. His defense team is moving to dismiss evidence against their client that was collected while Nashiri…

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The Supreme Court ordered Colorado to reconsider a guilty verdict because one juror involved in the trial had openly expressed “anti-Hispanic bias.” Justices voted 5-3 on Monday to reverse and remand the decision back to the state’s court system. “It must become the heritage of our Nation to rise above racial classifications that are so inconsistent with our commitment to the equal dignity of all persons,” Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the majority. In 2007, Miguel Angel Pena-Rodriguez was convicted of unlawful sexual contact and…

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The minority party’s congressional leadership is calling on Attorney General Jeff Sessions to step down following revelations that he may have lied during his confirmation hearing, when denying he had spoken with Russian government officials during last year’s presidential campaign. According to a Washington Post report on Wednesday, while still a senator, Sessions met twice with Russia’s ambassador to the US, contradicting testimony he gave to the Senate Judiciary Committee. “After lying under oath to Congress about his own communications with the Russians, the Attorney General…

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The Department of Justice received 37 allegations of illegal leaks within the federal government last year, almost double the number reported in 2015. Despite several measures put in place by former President Obama to prevent illegal disclosures, the latest figures track closely with a leak trend dating back to 2009. Since that year, the DOJ has received 39.7 leak crime reports on average every year. The 2016 figures were released on Monday in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from investigative journalists Steven…

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Newly-appointed Attorney General Jeff Sessions reiterated his belief on Monday in cannabis prohibition, citing unfounded claims about the policy. Sessions told reporters that analysts have demonstrated a link between marijuana legalization and crime, despite the destruction of black markets brought about by the move. “We’re seeing real violence around that,” he said, according to Politico. “Experts are telling me there’s more violence around marijuana than one would think and there’s big money involved.” The Attorney General did not cite which experts he had been speaking…

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A prisoner’s bid to end a fifteen-year stint at Guantanamo Bay, by arguing that the war in Afghanistan was over, had his hopes dashed in a federal court this week. Moath al-Alwi, captured in 2001, argued that statements made by the previous administration, suggesting hostilities in Afghanistan had ceased, meant that prisoners of war from that conflict should be freed, in accordance with long-established law of war principles. Alwi’s legal team specifically cited statements made by former President Obama in 2015. One was made during his annual State…

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Another Department of Justice informant program is under scrutiny following a New York Times report disclosing the existence of an undercover financing operation–this one involving illegal cigarette sales. Agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) enlisted the help of a Virginia tobacco distributor in 2011, to swindle a farmers’ cooperative out of $24 million. Some of the money was then used to finance ATF undercover activities, including $1 million payments each to two owners of the distribution company. The Times expose was…

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The Supreme Court on Wednesday voted overwhelmingly to put on hold a death sentence that had been upheld twice in lower federal circuits. Duane Buck was granted the temporary reprieve after six justices decided an appellate court had not properly adjudicated his claims of having an incompetent lawyer. The Sixth Amendment guarantees “the Assistance of Counsel for…defense.” Buck had been sentenced to death in Texas, after his own attorneys said he was more likely to re-offend on the account of his race. Buck is black. “No…

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Homeland Security chief John Kelly issued a memo to department leadership Monday, outlining how agencies will implement anti-immigration executive orders given last month by President Trump. The guidance broadens the criteria of individuals eligible for removal from the country. It also loosens restrictions on immediate deportations, and orders Department of Homeland Security (DHS) offices to reallocate funding away from immigration advocacy programs. The move also allows for the hiring of 10,000 more Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, and for the dismantling of safeguards erected for undocumented immigrants during…

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A report released by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) on Tuesday revealed that federal agencies are dragging their feet establishing necessary safeguards against cyber attacks. The government watchdog noted that it has over recent years made about 2,500 recommendations to agencies to bolster their cyber defenses. “As of February 2017,” the report went on to state, “about 1,000 of our information security-related recommendations had not been implemented.” Federal information security, protecting critical infrastructure, and defending the government’s store of personally identifiable information are all listed as “high…

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