SECRECY & THE SECURITY STATE - page 44

A year after the Cliven Bundy ranch showdown, an organization for environmental public servants is leveling charges that the Bureau of Land Management isn’t doing enough to protect its workers. Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility said Thursday that the Department of the Interior agency has tucked itself into a “fetal position” in response to the growing number of armed militias who question the authority of Washington. The non-profit watchdog also announced that it is suing BLM for access to information about the incident last April,…

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For more than two decades, the Drug Enforcement Agency was running a mass surveillance program focused on telephony metadata—a program nearly identical to the one run out of the National Security Agency revealed by former contractor Edward Snowden. A new report published on Tuesday by USA Today revealed that the DEA’s phone dragnet was halted following Snowden’s summer of leaks in 2013, but it has since taken a form markedly similar to what surveillance reform advocates have envisioned—at a minimum—for the NSA. Beginning in 1992,…

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Law enforcement records released on Tuesday following a New York Civil Liberties Union lawsuit confirmed that local police are being forced by the FBI to deny having “stingray technology”—part of an apparatus used to conduct dragnet cell phone surveillance. The documents divulge details about a non-disclosure agreement that the FBI entered into with the Erie County Sheriff’s office, and make the case that transparency “could result in the FBI’s inability to protect the public from terrorism and other criminal activity.” “Law enforcement agencies increasingly rely…

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Speaking at a forum on cyber security threats, the Director of the National Security Agency cautioned against increasing the role that for-profit entities are playing in US military operations. When asked a question about the possible threat that could come from a private security going rogue–a reference to a plotline in the most recent “Call of Duty” video game–Adm. Mike Rogers intoned that it wasn’t worth entirely ignoring. Rogers said that he believed “the application of force” is “best controlled through the nation state,” in remarks delivered…

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Corrected data released on Thursday by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) shows that Academi—the firm formerly known as Blackwater—is not the top contractor for the Pentagon’s counternarcotics mission in Afghanistan. According to the revised data, Academi has still, in recent years, made a lot of money in Afghan counternarcotics, just not as much as Northrop Grumman. Between 2002 and 2013, Academi received $309 million from the Department of Defense to provide training, equipment, and supplies in the effort to limit opium production…

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After a former defense contractor was busted selling sensitive military blueprints to foreign actors, the Obama administration opted not to pursue Espionage Act charges, despite its frequent use of the law against whistleblowers On Wednesday, Hannah Robert, formerly the owner of two New Jersey contracting firms, pleaded guilty to charges of violating the Arms Export Control Act after feds discovered she had exported secret military documents to India and beyond. Mostly drawings, they included details about “parts used in the torpedo systems for nuclear submarines,…

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A defense contractor has agreed to give up a long-standing policy that has intimidated potential whistleblowers, following a historic enforcement action by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC said that a company-imposed gag order used by KBR, Inc. could violate securities laws implemented through Dodd-Frank Wall Street reforms. The first company punished under Dodd-Frank whistleblower protection rules, KBR had previously urged employees to sign confidentiality agreements during internal investigations into taxpayer waste and malfeasance. Under the terms of the agreement, workers would be fired…

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After spending a week trying to narrow its scope, President Obama on Wednesday released an executive order that still grants the White House broad authority to sanction individuals and organizations engaged in civil society online. The order targets entities located partially or wholly outside the United States “directly or indirectly” responsible for cyber-activities “harming, or otherwise significantly compromising…entities in a critical infrastructure sector.” “I’m for the first time authorizing targeted sanctions against individuals or entities whose actions in cyberspace result in significant threats to the…

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