SECRECY & THE SECURITY STATE - page 51

This week, Hollywood actor Bradley Cooper said that he hoped Americans would not use his latest film, about the now-deceased Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle, to discuss politics. Then he helped the Department of Defense do just that. In a video interview he gave to a US Navy public relations organ, Cooper on Thursday spoke about the Clint Eastwood-directed “American Sniper” and repeated talking points often employed by hawkish politicians seeking to justify military adventurism. “The reason y’all are doing what you’re doing is allowing us to…

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Hundreds of US troops are deploying to the Middle East on a mission to boost the odds of a moderate rebel victory in Syria’s civil war. The news, reported on Thursday night, comes after Congress appropriated funds last December to help arm and train elements of the moderate Syrian opposition in their fight against both the Assad government and forces aligned with the Islamic state or al Qaeda. According to Defense One, more than 400 troops will be dispatched to Turkey, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia…

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One day after federal authorities arrested a man they claimed was plotting to blow up the US Capitol building, Speaker of the House John Boehner is applauding notorious surveillance programs for the disruption, while failing to offer any evidence to support his claims. “We live in a dangerous country and we get reminded every week of the dangers that are out there,” said Speaker Boehner (R-Ohio), while briefing reporters at the Republicans leadership retreat in Hershey, Pa. “The first thing that strikes me is we…

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Attorney General Eric Holder on Thursday denounced the lack of information collected by the federal government on killings involving police officers. “The troubling reality is that we lack the ability right now to comprehensively track the number of incidents of either uses of force directed at police officers or uses of force by police,” he said at a Justice Department event honoring Martin Luther King Jr. “This strikes many–including me–as unacceptable. Fixing this is an idea that we should all be able to unite behind.”…

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Faced with two reports offering different conclusions about the CIA’s spying on Senate staffers, the White House chose to back the one that found no wrongdoing. On Wednesday, the Agency Accountability Board released its findings on the CIA-Senate row, which concluded that “the actions and decisions” of agency personnel were “reasonable.” White House spokesperson Josh Earnest, on Thursday, briefed reporters saying, “The administration has a lot of confidence in the report that was put forward by this group.” The findings of that report directly contradict…

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Administration spokesman Josh Earnest is pessimistic that the infamous military prison at Guantanamo Bay will be shuttered in the next two years, casting doubts on a signature campaign promise his boss made more than six years ago. “It will be very, very difficult for us to achieve that goal before the president leaves office,” Earnest admitted to reporters on Tuesday. He cited measures passed by Congress that placed restrictions on detainee releases and the outright barring of prisoner transfers to the United States for trial.…

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During a House Foreign Affairs Committee briefing on North Korean cyber and nuclear threats, one high-ranking Republican veered off course and suggested that Monday’s hack on a US military twitter account is “severely disturbing” and necessitates a discussion about how to define an act of war. “What is going to be the response of the United States of America…when our military is under fire?” asked Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) Tuesday morning. The chair of the House Homeland Security Committee went on to claim that the…

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Despite the allocation of security clearances to nearly five million people, an inspector general report found few problems with over-classification within the US intelligence community. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s (ODNI) report, which was made public last Friday, “found no instances where classification was used to conceal violation of law, inefficiency, or administrative error; prevent embarrassment to a person, organization, or agency; restrain competition; or prevent or delay the release of information not requiring protection in the interest of national security.” The…

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Since news broke that charges could be filed against retired Gen. David Petraeus for allegedly disclosing classified information to a biographer who became his lover, lawmakers have rushed to his defense. But on Monday, one Member of Congress wasn’t willing to grant special treatment to the former top general. “It’d be very hard to justify not prosecuting [Petraeus] if the facts were there,” said. Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) on MSNBC. Those sentiments run counter to what other lawmakers have said, in reaction to the news…

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An April 2014 European Union Court of Justice decision could limit the National Security Agency dragnet, according to an opinion published Thursday by EU Parliament legal advisers. Last year’s ruling, which found that the EU Data Retention Directive violated human rights, could see EU and member states’ surveillance laws and international cooperation challenged, they stated. The lawyers said the precedent set by the court opens the programs up to litigation and executive revision on the grounds that they violate the EU Charter on Fundamental Rights.…

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