SECRECY & THE SECURITY STATE - page 25

The FBI has implemented new protocols that allegedly enhance privacy safeguards for Americans, when bureau agents search through the NSA’s massive intelligence databases for information. It can’t be confirmed, however, since details about the reported minimization procedures are classified. They were approved by the top-secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), which oversees sensitive spying operations, both domestic and abroad. US officials confirmed the changes to The Guardian in a report published on Tuesday. “Changes have been implemented,” an unnamed official told the paper. “We cannot comment further due to…

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Democrats and Republicans in the Senate and House have proposed making freely available thousands of reports produced annually for lawmakers. Sens. Pat Leahy (D-Vt.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.), and Reps. Leonard Lance (R-N.J.) and Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) introduced legislation on Thursday that would direct the Congressional Research Service (CRS) to publish its reports online. The Federation of American Scientists, a non-partisan public policy institute that routinely publishes CRS reports notes that “most…are available to anyone who has access to a congressional intranet.” “Yet at the…

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A final rule offered by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) mandates that anyone seeking the declassification of its records must be responsible for the full costs of disclosure. The regulation was published last week in the Federal Register, and first reported on by investigative journalist Steven Aftergood with the Federation of American Scientists. Declassification costs vastly more for ODNI than it does for other government agencies. “Requesters making requests directly to the ODNI shall be responsible for paying all fees under this regulation,”…

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As the State Department’s Inspector General probe into Hillary Clinton’s tenure as the nation’s top diplomat reportedly widens, the presidential frontrunner’s campaign boss is trying to discredit the office’s lead investigator. In comments published by The Hill on Tuesday, John Podesta responded to a source within the IG that its inquiry into the former Secretary’s use of a private email account has an “anti-Clinton” bias. “This person’s account is highly troubling, and is cause to ask serious questions about the independence of this office,” Podesta…

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Almost half of the analysts at the Pentagon structure overseeing military operations in the Middle East and South Asia have called into question the integrity of the organ’s intelligence work. In a poll taken annually by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), forty percent of respondents at US Central Command (CENTCOM) reported “problems with analytical integrity and CENTCOM processes,” according to House Intelligence Committee Chair Devin Nunes (R-Calif.). The director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Lt. Gen. Vincent Stewart, acknowledged that he…

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The president submitted to Congress on Tuesday a plan to close the military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay—a proposal that hinges on convincing GOP lawmakers to lift the ban on bringing detainees into the US. The blueprint named 13 different locations stateside, including already existing prisons and military bases in Kansas, Colorado, and South Carolina, that the Pentagon believes would be suitable to house the remaining Gitmo population. “It’s not just about closing the facility at Guantanamo, not just about dealing with the current group…

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The Pentagon’s Inspector General is stepping up its investigation of widespread child abuse in the Afghan Military and an alleged cover up of it by American military leaders. In a memo written late last week, Deputy IG Kenneth Moorfield said the inquiry would be deepening “in response to concerns raised by the staff of the Senate Committee on Armed Services and various Members of Congress.” Moorfield also noted that it would be looking for Pentagon violations of the Leahy Law—a statute that, in theory, forbids…

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Apple CEO Tim Cook remained defiant after a federal judge earlier this week ordered his company to help the FBI break into an iPhone that belonged to one of the San Bernardino shooters. In an open letter published Wednesday morning, Cook promised to fight the order, and called the actions by the US government an “unprecedented step” in its efforts to undermine privacy protections. Like all new iPhones manufactured in the last few years, the device belonging to Syed Rizwan Farook used full-disk encryption, which prevents anyone—including…

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