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SECRECY & THE SECURITY STATE - page 38

Justice Department: America’s Cops Were Given More Authority To Use Stun Guns Between 2007 and 2013

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A Justice Department report released on Tuesday added additional details to the ongoing debate over police use of force in communities across America. The Bureau of Justice Statistics study, based on a semi-annual survey it last conducted in 2013, chronicled how widely certain methods of combat and surveillance tactics are used by local cops in the US. Among the more noteworthy findings published Tuesday: since the last comparable BJS survey was conducted in 2007, the use of “less lethal” energy weapons increased significantly. In 2013, local authorities…

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Like War? Thank A Teacher! Obama Makes Nat Sec Case for Increased School Funding

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Describing the education system as a neglected pillar of a national security strategy, President Obama reiterated his opposition to a mandatory defense policy bill that is nearing completion in both houses of Congress. In a press briefing focused on ongoing operations against the Islamic State, Obama reaffirmed his threat to veto the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The administration has said that the bill is part of Republicans’ strategy to boost military spending without adequately funding other domestic programs. “We’ve got an incredible research operation…

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White America: Actually, the Confederate Flag is Still Good

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The results of a public opinion survey released Thursday show that most White Americans believe that the Confederate Flag is more representative of “Southern pride” than racism, even after a Confederate sympathizer opened fire and killed nine people inside a black church in Charleston, S.C. A CNN/ORC poll revealed that 66 percent of whites “viewed [the flag] as a symbol of pride,” while 72 percent of blacks deemed it a “symbol of racism.” Just one-in-four whites shared the majority of Black Americans’ views on the…

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Merkel Hoped To Pressure U.S. To Support Bank Tax While NSA Spied On Her

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A private conversation between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and a top aide concerning plans to urge the US to support a financial transaction tax was intercepted by the National Security Agency and its British partner, GCHQ, according to a batch of top secret documents released by Wikileaks. The organization released a cache of intelligence records on Wednesday, providing more details about US and British surveillance on the German government—a practice first confirmed thanks to information provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. The intercepts gave Washington…

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Military Chief Blames Failing Syria Strategy On Ramadan

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Although the Pentagon’s train and equip mission in Syria is threatened by woefully low recruitment numbers, the problem isn’t the strategy, according to one US general—it’s just bad timing. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey claimed that the month of Ramadan is one of the headwinds facing the US military’s efforts to assist moderate Syrian rebels in their fights against Bashar Al-Assad and the Islamic State. “Sometimes there are seasonal factors that contribute to the willingness of young men in…

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Pentagon Calls on Congress To Double Percentage of Defense Budget For Nukes

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The second-in-command at the Pentagon on Thursday called on Congress to double the share of the defense budget allocated to existing and administration-desired nuclear weapons programs over much of the next two decades. Deputy Secretary of Defense Bob Work said on Thursday that the request was “a very expensive proposition” but claimed fulfilling it is necessary to maintain an effective nuclear deterrence. He remarked in testimony before the House Armed Services Committee that the cost of “modernizing and sustaining our nuclear arsenal” will cost an inflation-adjusted…

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In Phone Call With Hollande, White House Doesn’t Deny Past Spying On French Presidents

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In damage-control mode, President Obama phoned Francois Hollande on Tuesday to discuss stories published this week which revealed that US spies had tapped the French president’s phone. Obama, notably, stopped short of denying the reports. “The President reiterated that we have abided by the commitment we made to our French counterparts in late 2013 that we are not targeting and will not target the communications of the French President,” according to a carefully-worded White House readout of the conversation. WikiLeaks released documents on Tuesday showing…

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House Dems Call For L.G.B.T. Immigration Detention Moratorium, Citing Systemic Homophobic and Transphobic Abuses

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Almost three dozen Democratic lawmakers called on the Obama administration to change its immigration detention policies saying that they lead to systemic homophobic and transphobic abuses. The 35 House members said in a letter sent Monday to Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson that, under the status quo, the US would be better served if lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer and transgender alleged offenders of immigration laws are not detained during proceedings. “We believe [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] should consider an LGBT person’s detention as ‘not in…

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Unlike Dylann Roof, FBI Considers Indicted Black Ohio ISIL Supporter To Be Terrorist–Unlike Roof, He Attacked No One

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The FBI investigation of an Islamic State supporter in Ohio—which was revealed last week upon his arrest–contrasts sharply with the bureau’s reluctance to broadly probe a white supremacist’s politically-motivated mass murder that occurred two days before in South Carolina. Amir Said Rahman Abdul Al-Ghazi, 38, an African-American convert to Islam, was, at the bureau’s urging, charged under federal anti-terrorism statutes for inciting violence. Unlike Dylann Storm Roof–who, the FBI head last weekend declined to describe as having possibly committed an act of terrorism–Al-Ghazi never actually…

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Torture Amendment Sails Though Senate, Door To Abuse Still Left Open

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A measure aimed at preventing government officials and contractors from engaging in illegal torture passed the Senate on Tuesday in an overwhelmingly vote. The legislation, however, falls short of completely eradicating abusive practices at US government detention facilities. Approved 78-21, the amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) requires most government agencies and contractors handling detainees to obey interrogation policies laid out in the Army Field Manual, which prohibits torture techniques like waterboarding that were used by the CIA on terror suspects post-9/11. Torture…

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NSA Backdoor Searches Would End If House Amendment Survives

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The House passed legislation Thursday that would prevent the NSA from spying on American citizens whose data was incidentally collected during foreign dragnets, marking the second year in a row that the lower chamber has put the kibosh on backdoor domestic spying. Read more of this article at The Intercept.

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