SECRECY & THE SECURITY STATE - page 39

President Obama has set up a showdown with Congress over money for the construction of what has been called the “Western intelligence capital.” The administration on Tuesday, in threatening to reject the defense appropriations bill making its way through the House, cited the legislative branch’s move to “limit expending funds associated with the construction of the Joint Intelligence Analysis Complex Consolidation (JIAC).” The facility is set to be located at a Royal Air Force base near Croughton, England. The Office of Management and Budget noted that…

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A bid to quietly include controversial cybersecurity legislation into a must-pass defense policy bill didn’t go unnoticed by the top Democratic judicial authority in the Senate. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) blasted the procedure as being the result of “closed door” maneuvering involving Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and said “the privacy of millions of Americans is at stake.” He issued the statement on Tuesday, hours after legislation known as the Cyber Security Information Sharing Act (CISA) was introduced as an amendment to a separate…

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The Thursday disclosure of a rife-for-abuse top-secret NSA program may have come too late to affect the recently concluded USA Freedom Act debate. But lawmakers are already suggesting that the new revelation about bulk collection activities will influence the next NSA fight on the horizon. A joint-investigation by the New York Times and ProPublica revealed that the agency was using its internet dragnet capabilities to monitor IP addresses and computer code related to foreign hackers—a surveillance method that leaves Americans’ communications prone to exploitation by…

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UPDATE: The House approved Rep. Massie’s amendment this afternoon. The measure prohibits the National Institute of Standards and Technology from working with the National Security Agency or the CIA to weaken cryptographic or computer standards. Headline has been updated to reflect passage. Article continues below.   NSA reformers who argue that the USA Freedom Act didn’t go far enough are readying a new salvo of measures to rein in the surveillance state. “This is not over,” Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) said Wednesday morning, announcing that he has…

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Cannabis legalization advocate Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) said Wednesday that while Americans have the right to be concerned about people driving under the influence of pot, it’s just not that big of a deal, man. He downplayed a viewer’s fears about stoned motorists, during Washington Journal, a daily call-in program on C-SPAN. “If you talk to the experts and you talk to police officers who are in traffic control, they are much less concerned about somebody who has smoked a joint and driving [sic],” Blumenauer…

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The Senate passed a “clean” version of the USA Freedom Act Tuesday afternoon in a stunning rebuke of the chamber’s Majority Leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) The surveillance reform bill already passed the House last month and now awaits President Obama’s signature. Once codified, surveillance authorities under the USA Patriot Act will be reauthorized through 2019. Telephone companies will also begin taking over the NSA’s phone dragnet program—a process that must be completed within six months, as required by the legislation. Ahead of the 67-32…

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The House Oversight Committee is holding hearings this week to discuss the backlog of Freedom of Information Act requests and the use of redactions in response such filings—both practices have burgeoned, respectively, in size and frequency under an Obama administration that has failed to live up to its promises to be the most transparent administration ever. But if you ask White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest about it, the tables should be turned on the committee. In response to a question during a daily press…

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Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Rand Paul this week (R-Ky.) unsuccessfully sought to broaden the scope of a prominent surveillance reform bill that the Senate is expected to pass Tuesday evening. The pair of lawmakers were blocked by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in their attempt to attach even more civil liberties-minded amendments to the legislation “Wyden and Paul called on Republican leaders to allow votes on amendments to strengthen privacy protections, rather than forcing votes on amendments that would water down the USA Freedom…

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Law enforcement officials are using front companies to operate a fleet of surveillance planes across major American cities, often without a warrant, according to the results of an Associated Press investigation. Equipped with cameras and cellphone intercepts known as “Stingrays,” the aircraft have been spotted recently flying over cities like Washington, Boston, and Baltimore. In the latter city, an FBI plane was seen, by observers on the ground, circling the city during demonstrations against police brutality following the death of Freddie Gray. The AP found that over the…

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