SECRECY & THE SECURITY STATE - page 22

The thrust of possible future surveillance reform was outlined during a Senate hearing focused on the expiration of a law permitting the NSA’s most controversial activities. Although Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Amendments Act is still valid until the end of 2017, the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday got off to an early start weighing its renewal. It was the body’s first public hearing on reauthorizing the statute since 2013, when former NSA contractor Edward Snowden exposed how US spies use…

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A firm granted special access to Twitter’s universe of data was instructed by the social media company to stop sharing information with US intelligence agencies, according to a report published over the weekend by the Wall Street Journal. The move effectively cuts off domestic spy outfits from data analysis conducted by the private firm Dataminr. The company sifts through countless tweets for breaking news, patterns, and other useful information on behalf of both private sector and government clients. In a statement to the WSJ, Twitter…

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The Speaker of the House gave a heads up to the administration on Tuesday, warning President Obama to lawyer up if he is thinking about closing the military prison at Guantanamo Bay without Congress’ permission. Speaker Ryan seized on comments made by the President in a radio interview on WMUR this week. Obama said he would prefer to work with Congress on a plan he submitted earlier this year to close the Gitmo facility, but noted he’s “going to look at everything.” “President Obama admitted…

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A federal district judge in California denied the Obama administration’s request to move Twitter’s legal challenge of a gag order on surveillance programs to a secretive court that oversees them. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rodriguez said Monday that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) was not the proper venue for the case. The body approves of wiretap and business records requests made by federal agents under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Surveillance reform passed by Congress last year shed some light on FISC proceedings, after…

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The golf courses and beaches of South Carolina are no place for a Guantanamo Bay “terrorists,” Gov. Nikki Haley (R-S.C.) told a congressional committee on Thursday, pleading with them to reject President Obama’s plan to relocate the military prison’s remaining detainee population to stateside facilities. “Why would anyone want to put terrorists in Charleston?” Haley asked a House Homeland Security subcommittee, referring to Pentagon plans to bring Gitmo prisoners to a military prison near the city. “Charleston, the city we call the Holy City. The city…

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The government appears ready to allow a lawsuit to proceed against designers of the CIA’s torture program. Department of Justice officials have decided not to invoke state secrets privilege in a case brought by three detainees who were tortured and made the subjects of experiments while in US custody. Federal prosecutors can, with reliable success, convince judges to block litigation against government agencies if they claim sensitive information might be disclosed as a result. In this case, the DOJ has suggested that it will allow discovery…

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The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that its decision last year to narrow minimum sentencing “three strike” laws applies retroactively. Justices voted 7-1 to allow a Florida prisoner named Gregory Welch to challenge the length of his incarceration. An appeals court had last year denied Welch’s case three weeks before Johnson v. United States was decided by the top federal court. The move to apply the June 2015 opinion retroactively could eventually see more than 1,000 prisoners released earlier than previously expected, according to SCOTUSblog.…

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More American soldiers are being deployed to Iraq to assist local security forces trying to retake land captured by the Islamic State (ISIL). During a trip to Iraq on Monday, Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced plans to send 217 additional US troops to the country, expanding the Pentagon’s ongoing train and advise program. The latest deployments will bring the total US soldier count in Iraq to above 4,000 for the first time since 2011, when President Obama ordered a full withdrawal from the country. The new…

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