SECRECY & THE SECURITY STATE - page 7

The chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee told reporters Wednesday that he’s eyeing an end of the year completion of his panel’s report into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible coordination with the Trump campaign. Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C) provided the timeline on the same day his committee convened yet another public hearing as part of its probe—this one focused on Russian meddling in European elections. “I’d like to finish by the end of this year, but that’s aspirational right now,” Sen.…

Keep Reading

Privacy and civil rights groups have been warning for years about the potential abuse of surveillance authorities, but only now are certain Republican lawmakers waking up to that possibility—fearing that they’ve been targeted. During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday focused on renewing Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) authorities, including Section 702, which expires at the end of the year, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) demanded to know if he personally has been spied on. “Is it possible to find out if I, Lindsey Graham, was incidentally…

Keep Reading

The Supreme Court agreed to decide on the legality of President Trump’s Muslim Ban and temporarily reversed parts of lower court rulings blocking enforcement of the order. Justices announced Monday that they would hear arguments about the ban during the next Supreme Court term, which starts in October. They said, in the meantime, that an injunction against the ban would be lifted, except for those with “any bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States.” “A foreign national who wishes to…

Keep Reading

The previous Homeland Security Secretary, Jeh Johnson, told senators on Wednesday that he recalled being frustrated over how his department was blocked from directly probing last year’s hack of the Democratic National Committee. Johnson appeared before the House Intelligence Committee as part of its ongoing investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential race. According to prior reporting, the FBI was denied access to the DNC’s servers after it became clear the systems were hacked. Johnson testified that the Department of Homeland Security was…

Keep Reading

The lack of clear authorization for the use of military force (AUMF) against the Islamic State could lead to the US, once again, rendering people accused of extremist activity to jurisdictions permitting torture. The prospect of such a scenario was brought up on Tuesday by John Bellinger III, a private sector lawyer who served as a legal adviser for the National Security Council under George W. Bush, while the War on Terror was ramping up. “Right now, they have the right to habeas if they’re…

Keep Reading

The Supreme Court may be the ultimate arbiter of constitutionality, but the body will not allow a class action lawsuit to proceed against ex-federal officials who oversaw War on Terror abuses. Justices ruled 4-2 on Monday that Congress has not allowed the judicial branch to permit the lawsuit, which was based on alleged Fourth and Fifth Amendment violations. Before becoming a wider-reaching class action, the suit was filed by six Arab and South Asian men who were detained immediately after 9/11. The litigation sought damages…

Keep Reading

In his opening statement before the Senate Intelligence Committee, the recently-fired FBI Director called the President of the United States a liar. James Comey also told the panel on Thursday that he believes he was terminated for his handling of the Russia probe, and that Trump’s requests for him to drop a separate investigation into former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn were “stunning.” The much-anticipated hearing on Capitol Hill treaded mostly along the written testimony provided to the committee by Comey, which was publicly released Wednesday…

Keep Reading

Lawmakers on the Senate Intelligence Committee were dismayed Wednesday over the lack of candor from top US officials when asked direct questions about their possible improper interactions with the President of the United States. The focus of the hearing was supposed to be on the reauthorization of surveillance authorities under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). That agenda, however, was derailed after the Washington Post reported Tuesday that President Trump reached out to his Director of National Intelligence, and the heads of the NSA and…

Keep Reading

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) doesn’t want leniency for the source of classified information in a recent story by The Intercept about Russian cyber operations related to last year’s election. The Ranking Member of the Senate Intelligence Committee told USA Today on Tuesday: “Whoever’s the leaker should be pursued to the full extent of the law.” Warner did, however, ascribe some value to the information revealed by The Intercept and its source. He said that he was calling on intel agencies to declassify more details about the alleged Russian cyber…

Keep Reading

Barack Obama’s CIA head found common ground with the Trump administration, decrying media reports of the President sharing state secrets with the Russian government. Testifying before the House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday, John Brennan told lawmakers that American officials have shared classified information with the Russian government, and that Trump probably violated protocols for information-sharing, if press reports about the May 12 meeting are true. “What I was very concerned about, though, is the subsequent releases of what appears to be classified information purporting to point…

Keep Reading