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SECRECY & THE SECURITY STATE - page 52

Pentagon Moves to Reduce Military Footprint In Europe, Still Maintains Massive Force Presence

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Citing a climate of austerity, the Department of Defense announced it will carry out a number of base closures and realignments across the Atlantic that, it says, will save the department roughly a half billion dollars annually. More than 60,000 US troops will still remain on the continent – a contingency that Pentagon officials claim is “absolutely vital” to national security. A poll released by Rasmussen in May 2014 showed that 39 percent of likely voters want US troops to remain in Western Europe. Thirty-six…

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After “Charlie Hebdo” Attack in Paris, Senators Rush to Undermine Defense Reforms

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American lawmakers took to Twitter on Wednesday morning to express sympathy with the victims of the grisly attack on a satirical Parisian publication. But some rushed to use the “Charlie Hebdo” tragedy to criticize efforts to reform draconian national security policies. . “Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims, the families, and the French people in the wake of this horrendous attack,” said Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.) in the first of a series of tweets on the issue. “Here at home, we must use…

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Border Patrol Hiding Costs of Ineffective Drone Program

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The deployment of surveillance drones along the periphery of the United States was supposed to revolutionize border security. But nearly a decade and hundreds of millions of dollars into this endeavor, a government watchdog says it’s not working and federal officials have been burying the program’s failures. On Tuesday, the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general released an audit of the US Customs and Border Unmanned Aircraft System Program. The study found that “CBP has invested significant funds” in using drones that have “not achieved…

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Amid Growing Doubts, White House Rejects Calls to Release Sony Hack Evidence 

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The White House’s claim that North Korea is responsible for last month’s cyber attack on Sony has been met with skepticism in recent weeks, but the administration on Monday denied requests to publicly release the evidence implicating Kim Jong Un’s regime in the crime. Speaking to reporters on Monday, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest suggested that releasing the evidence collected by the FBI would threaten national security. “Obviously what they’re dealing with here is something that’s pretty sensitive,” he said. Earnest added that making…

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Bernie Sanders Vows Trade Transparency Bill Over TPP Secrecy

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Republican leaders and the White House have both made it clear that they hope to pass trade agreements during the 114th Congress. But Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Monday vowed to throw cold water on those ambitions. He claimed that trade negotiations aren’t being conducted with proper oversight or transparency, and promised to introduce legislation that would compel the administration to be more forthcoming about deals it is hammering out. In a letter dated Jan. 5, Sanders asked US Trade Representative Michael Froman for a…

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New Report Opens Wide Loopholes in Digital Surveillance Protections

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The feds and corporations are hijacking Americans’ webcams to conduct surveillance, and there isn’t much legal recourse for innocent victims when it happens, according to a new report. The paper, which details these 1984 telescreen-like capabilities using court documents, was released this week by a team of lawyers with the Chicago-Kent College Privacy Program. The report’s authors say that federal officials who remotely activate webcams routinely flout the Bill of Rights, and call for an end to the practice. “Allowing law enforcement to remotely activate…

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Defense Contractor Caught Bilking the Pentagon

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A classified report alleged that a major defense contractor might be charging unfair rates for an engine maintenance program. The Pentagon Inspector General found that taxpayers might be getting ripped off by Pratt and Whitney, and that the contractor has been improperly withholding information from the Defense Department. The Air Force “does not know whether the $1.54 billion already spent” on the deal through October 2014 “is a fair and reasonable price,” the inspector general found, but service branch currently intends to see out the…

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President Obama Declares NDAA Guantanamo Restrictions Unconstitutional

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On Friday, President Obama signed a defense spending and policy bill crafted annually by Congress. What was remarkable about the enactment of the routine legislation was that he reserved the right to ignore certain provisions of the law related to the US detention facility at Guantanamo Bay. At the heart of the matter, were provisions in the bill that withheld authorization for the transfer of prisoners to the United States. President Obama said he had the right to overlook those stipulations as Commander-in-Chief of the…

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White House Promises Response, But Documents Show North Korea Cyber War Began Long Ago

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As the rhetoric surrounding the attack on Sony ratcheted up from “hack” to “cyber-terrorism” to “an act of war” – with the last description following FBI allegations of North Korean involvement – pressure built on the White House to formulate some sort of response. Speaking to reporters on Friday, President Obama didn’t offer much by way of specifics. “We just confirmed that it was North Korea,” he said, stressing the timely nature of the discovery. “We have been working up a range of options. They…

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Last Year, Prison Population Decline Trickled to a Near Halt

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Last year the Obama administration announced plans to reduce the US prison population. But new stats released Friday show that it might encounter difficulties carrying out that initiative, if it is, in fact, serious about it. A Justice Department report found that the decline in the prison population, which had started in 2010, decelerated to a near halt in 2013. The annual Bureau of Justice Statistics paper, which accounts for the total number of “offenders supervised by adult correctional systems in the United States at…

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Pentagon Again Downplays Once-terrifying Khorasan Group

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Earlier this year, after the White House announced the start of military operations in Syria, the Obama Administration partially justified its actions by claiming a mysterious terrorist cell using the war-torn country for sanctuary posed an imminent threat to the US. But on Thursday, the Pentagon again downplayed the importance of the so-called Khorasan Group. Lt. Gen. James Terry, the highest ranking officer overseeing attacks on the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, said at a press briefing that the mission, “Operation Inherent Resolve,” is…

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