SECRECY & THE SECURITY STATE - page 33

A top US military commander briefly revealed Wednesday that US special forces were operating in Syria late last year to combat the Islamic State (ISIL). Gen. Lloyd Austin, the leader of the US military’s Central Command, claimed before the Senate Armed Services Committee, that Special Operations Forces “didn’t wait for the new Syrian force program, the train and equip program to fully develop” before engaging certain Syrian Civil War factions already fighting ISIL. “At the very outset, they began to engage elements like the YPG and…

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The Department of Homeland Security is in the process of figuring out what information it can share across its offices in “near real time” to address cyber threats, even though officials reported being confused about the online responsibilities of a key agency. The DHS inspector general (OIG) said that the department is currently hashing out a wider digital security strategy that will layout which types of data “that can and will be shared, information handling procedures, and access controls.” OIG officials said in a report…

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The lack of news footage showing Islamic State (ISIL) fighters horsing around on military vehicles proves that the US strategy against the militant group is working, a US government official claimed Monday. State Department spokesman John Kirby said that the lack of the ostentatious displays by the insurgents demonstrated that, one year on, the US-led coalition was making progress in its campaign “to degrade and destroy ISIL.” “A year ago they had thousands more pieces of military equipment,” Kirby told reporters, without mentioning that much…

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The administration doesn’t have any doubts about the intelligence it’s receiving on the impact of the war against the Islamic State (ISIL), despite news that more than fifty spies have complained to a government watchdog about their reports being politicized. White House spokesman Josh Earnest deflected questions on Friday about allegations that senior officials at the Defense Intelligence Agency scrubbed negative assessments of anti-ISIL operations. Those charges prompted the Pentagon’s inspector general to launch an investigation into the matter. “The president does have confidence in…

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Director of National Intelligence James Clapper cautioned lawmakers on Thursday about the posture they take toward certain foreign countries’ adversarial cyber behavior, reminding them that the US engages in similar activities around the world. Clapper was responding to comments from Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, who called for more international rules when it comes to foreign intelligence gathering. “With respect to that which is conducted for espionage purposes, I would just caution that we think—in the old psalm…

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An inspector general investigation into charges that senior intelligence officials pressured analysts to downplay setbacks in the war against the Islamic State (ISIL) was triggered after more than 50 spies lodged formal complaints, according to a report by The Daily Beast. The inquiry was launched in July after two senior analysts at the US military’s Central Command (CENTCOM) protested to the Pentagon’s watchdog that their assessments were being politically manipulated to hype up coalition forces’ successes on the battlefield. Following the complaints from the two…

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As the State Department scrambles to respond to the flood of requests for official emails to and from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a separate federal department is struggling to manage the consequences of its own failure to keep its business on its servers. The Department of Energy’s Inspector General released a report Wednesday, describing several “issues” with the department’s handling of electronic records—particularly staff emails. “Guidelines within which employees could send or receive work-related email from their personal accounts had not been established,…

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Plaintiffs aiming to dismantle the NSA’s phone metadata dragnet added another complainant to their lawsuit—one who may hold the key to advancing their legal action. Conservative activist Larry Klayman on Tuesday filed documents adding a California criminal defense attorney, J.J. Little, as plaintiff in the suit, fulfilling a requirement laid out by an appellate court last month that stopped the litigation in its tracks. “He has litigated and continues to litigate against the Government on behalf of his clients,” Klayman stated of Little in the…

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A US military official claimed on Friday that a crippling ambush on Pentagon-trained Syrian fighters in July actually showed that America is effectively protecting the moderate rebel force it supports. Brig. Gen. Kevin Killea, the chief of staff of the Combined Joint Task Force, made the remark during a press briefing with reporters, alleging that the July 31 assault showed how the US protected its first round of graduates from its Syrian train-and-equip program. . “If you’re asking me about the support that we give…

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Technology used by police to track cell phones is being reined in by the Department of Justice—with exceptions, however, that a prominent Democratic Senator has taken notice of. The department policy was released on Thursday, outlining new precautions that law enforcement must take before deploying cell-site simulators—often known as “stingrays” or “dirtboxes.” Those include a warrant requirement based on probable cause and mandates regarding data retention. Sen. Pat Leahy (D-Vt.), the ranking member on the Senate’s Judiciary Committee said in a statement Thursday afternoon that…

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The Pentagon looked into dozens of reports alleging that US-led coalition bombings against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIL) killed civilians and dismissed four out of five of them in two days. Some of the fatal incidents, which took place between September of last year and April of this year, were believed to have been caused by the Syrian government, according to one close observer of the bombing campaign. But its lead investigative journalist said that “numerous” others were deemed not the responsibility of…

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