Phone Records of Journalists Seized by U.S. -
“First Amendment experts and free press advocates portrayed the move as shocking in its breadth.”
Nearly nine years passed before American forces reached their first 1,000 dead in the war in Afghanistan. The second 1,000 came just 27 months later, after a troop surge in 2010.
Ex-Lawyer in State Department Criticizes Drone Secrecy -
Harold H. Koh, a former legal adviser to the State Department, said the lack of transparency was unnecessary and had backfired.
There is integrity after service in the Obama administration. Just not during. - David C. Unger
Free Speech on the Internet: Silicon Valley is Making the Rules | New Republic
U.S. Is Weighing Wide Overhaul of Wiretap Laws -
The Obama administration is on the verge of backing an F.B.I. plan for an overhaul of surveillance laws that would make it easier to wiretap people who communicate by Internet rather than phone.
“Albert Gidari Jr., who represents technology companies on law enforcement matters, criticized that proposed procedure. He argued that if the United States started imposing fines on foreign Internet firms, it would encourage other countries, some of which may be looking for political dissidents, to penalize American companies if they refused to turn over users’ information.
“We’ll look a lot more like China than America after this,” Mr. Gidari said.”
578 under George W. Bush. 1,623 under Barack Obama. Whose war? - David C. Unger
C.I.A. Replaces Clandestine Chief Linked to Detentions -
“Mr. Brennan could be sending a signal that he intends to shift the agency’s focus after more than a decade of intense manhunting and paramilitary operations — as well as put distance between his tenure and the agency’s controversial detention and interrogation program.
Mr. Brennan also passed over the head of the agency’s Counterterrorism Center, who for years has managed the C.I.A.’s escalation of drone strikes in Pakistan and other countries.”
New U.S. representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan is critic of Biden on war -
If Dobbins still holds the COIN-weighted 2010 views cited here, the prospects are grim to hopeless. - David C. Unger
Off-the-Cuff Obama Line Put U.S. in Bind on Syria -
Taking the United States into another no-win war in the Middle East would do far more damage to American in terests and credibility than belatedly clarifying an unscripted remark nine months ago. - David C. Unger
“…“what the president said in August was unscripted,” another official said. Mr. Obama was thinking of a chemical attack that would cause mass fatalities, not relatively small-scale episodes like those now being investigated, except the “nuance got completely dropped.”
As a result, the president seems to be moving closer to providing lethal assistance to the Syrian rebels, even though he rejected such a policy just months ago. “
Mayor Michael Bloomberg fails to persuade in his defense of a troubled police program.
“…over the last decade the Police Department has shown utter contempt for Fourth Amendment guarantees of freedom from unreasonable search and seizure. And worse, these tactics have been used largely against young black and Hispanic men.”