NSA

The Kentucky senator is staying mum about any concerns he may have regarding Kavanaugh’s views on spying powers.

During the George W. Bush presidency, Democrats were vehement and clamorous defenders of Americans’ civil liberties. They inveighed against the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs as though the agency were spying on ordinary Americans in their homes and generally behaving like the East…

Intelligence agencies are supplying the House Intelligence Committee with information about unmasking requests made by three former Obama administration officials, a spokesman for the committee chairman told THE WEEKLY STANDARD.

National Security Agency analysts under the Obama administration improperly searched Americans' information, but the searches were conducted largely out of error, according to a review of publicly available intelligence documents reported on by Circa last week.

Russia waged a conspicuous campaign to undermine the American political process and will continue attempting to do so in coming years, top intelligence and law enforcement officials told lawmakers Monday.

A veteran intelligence official slammed the Obama administration for ignoring a range of Iran's destructive activities in order to preserve the nuclear deal, and advised the incoming Trump administration to harshly retaliate against Tehran's illicit pursuits.

Another candidate is getting into the Marco Rubio-Ted Cruz feud over the NSA metadata program. Chris Christie was asked about Ted Cruz's vote to abolish the program in an interview this morning on MSNBC.

Left-wing filmmaker Michael Moore will release his next movie in September in Toronto. Moore made the announcement on the Twitter live-streaming service Periscope. It'll premier at the Toronto Film Festival:

President Obama called French president Francois Hollande to tell him he's not listening to his calls.

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with senior writer John McCormack on the expiration of provisions of the PATRIOT Act, the role of the NSA in Rand Paul's campaign, and the fate of the USA Freedom Act.

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders railed against the NSA and corporate privacy concerns this morning in an apeparance on NBC's Meet the Press.

While the country slept Friday night and into Saturday morning, the U.S. Senate debated and voted on whether to alter substantially the NSA’s bulk telephone meta-data collection program, extend it for a short period, or simply let it die on June 1 when the “sunset” provision governing the relevant…

Oklahoma City

Republican senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas said President Obama is "not providing the resources" to defeat the Islamic State in and that United States ought to send "a few thousand more" troops into Iraq to combat the terrorist group in that country.

On Wednesday afternoon Kentucky senator Rand Paul, a Republican presidential candidate, began what he's calling a filibuster of the Senate's renewal of the PATRIOT Act. Here's a tweet from Paul announcing the speech:

Last week, Edward Snowden came out (or was let out) of his home in liberty-loving Russia to grant an interview to John Oliver, erstwhile Comedy Central Daily Show correspondent and current host of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. A few seconds in, the ever-so-earnest Snowden began to realize…

Jeb Bush, a probable Republican presidential candidate, defended the "hugely important" NSA data collection program in a speech today in Chicago:

President Barack Obama said last night at a Democratic fundraiser in Rhode Island that the terrorism from ISIS "doesn’t immediately threaten the homeland." The reason? The security measures taken by President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, according…

The threat to the U.S. government and U.S. businesses from foreign hackers, especially from China, has been increasingly in the news in recent months. In a little noticed WTOP interview last week, recently installed National Counterintelligence Executive William Evanina expressed the threat in…

The topic of surveillance by the National Security Agency has arisen in, of all places, a House Republican primary in Kansas. Incumbent Mike Pompeo faced criticism from his challenger, former congressman Todd Tiahrt, over Pompeo's support for NSA surveillance programs. In a recent debate, Tiahrt…

Yesterday, the Washington Post’s top story was another leak from NSA contractor Edward Snowden.  Unlike many of the Post’s other Snowden stories, where sensationalism has greatly outweighed the reported facts about this or that NSA program, this one had more substance and less breathless analysis.

President Obama has released a statement "on the Section 215 Bulk Metadata Program," saying that "Having carefully considered the available options, I have decided that the best path forward is that the government should not collect or hold this data in bulk." The statement is released by the White…

Edward Snowden’s revelations about the foreign and domestic surveillance practices of the National Security Agency have inspired a great deal of anger around the world, but nowhere has the fury been stronger than in Germany. “Goodbye, Friends!” read the front page of Die Zeit last November, when it…

In the immediate days leading up to President Obama’s January 17 speech on the National Security Agency, news stories and leaks from the White House suggested the president would largely ignore the set of overhauls that had been put forward by his own presidential review panel—Peter Baker’s New…

In the wake of all the “leaks” by Edward Snowden of the National Security Agency’s collection programs and the resulting debate over those programs, one constantly hears from elected officials and the commentariat about the need to strike the right balance between privacy and security. More often…

In a little noticed interview President Obama did with German media last weekend, he defended his positioning on the NSA by saying, "I am one figure, one man in this broader process."

Florida senator Marco Rubio says that "some" of President Obama's proposed changes to the way the NSA collects date "go too far."

Thankfully, President Obama is not a doctor.  If he was and you happened to visit him in his office and mentioned that you were worried about the potential for lung cancer, he’d immediately put you under, open you up, and pull out a lung—or, at least, that’s the logic that seems to be guiding his…

President Obama announced that U.S. intelligence will still "gather information about the intentions of governments," despite changes to the NSA programs:

The complete text of President Obama's NSA speech, which he's delivering now at the Justice Department:

Not that long ago, one could assume that a judge with an activist approach to interpreting the Constitution was probably left-of-center politically and, accordingly, believed that overturning precedents was often necessary in order to make the Constitution relevant to present issues and alive to…

Robert Samuelon writes in the Washington Post about the "sensationalism" over Edward Snowden's leaks of details of the National Security Agency data mining:

Apparently relations between the United States and Europe are actually maturing. How else to account for the singular absence of transatlantic crisis-mongering over the many, many ways in which the Obama administration has annoyed our allies in Europe?

When the “President’s Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technology” issued its report (Liberty and Security in a Changing World) this past week, an honest and objective newspaper headline the next day would have read: “Rogue Panel Reports on Non-Rogue NSA Program.”

It is often remarked that espionage is the second-oldest profession. Written records from Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Iran suggest that spying and civilization sprang up together. In antiquity, spies could be the hidden bureaucrats of tyranny or good governance (a ruler needed to know whether a satrap…

Frankfurt

The White House announces that Brazilian leader President Dilma Rousseff told President Obama that she's postponing her planned trip to the United States:

There are reasons to worry about NSA surveillance. Civil servants have all the usual human frailties, and when they abuse their power, it’s good to know about it—that’s why we have extensive whistleblower protection laws. But whistle-blowing is different from stealing state secrets and absconding…

The National Security Agency (NSA) is broadening its recruiting efforts for future cyber experts.  An announcement on Wednesday named four new schools chosen to participate in the NSA's "Cyber Initiative."  The press release explains the program:

A curious episode unraveled last week that, in The Scrapbook’s judgment, tells us everything we need to know about the motives of Edward Snowden, and the ethics of Glenn Greenwald (the Guardian journalist who broke the Snowden story) and the Guardian itself, Britain’s premier left newspaper. 

President Barack Obama defended the NSA surveillance program in an interview with CNN's Chris Cuomo this morning.

In his Friday press conference, President Obama grappled with the tangled issues surrounding the collection of metadata by the NSA and the general topic of government surveillance of the citizenry.  He arrived at an interesting and somewhat disturbing formulation, as Dan Friedman reports in the New…

At his Friday afternoon press conference, President Barack Obama said he does not consider Edward Snowden, the National Security Agency contractor who leaked classified information, a patriot.

Lately, the Obama administration has taken to referring to "phony scandals" that have distracted Washington from the important issues--namely, the White House's domestic agenda. But a new poll from Fox News shows that the majority of Americans believe each of the four of the administration's…

Edward Snowden has given the country and the world an unprecedented look into the National Security Agency’s post-9/11 efforts to prevent terrorist attacks. Ignoring the success of those efforts, critics from the left and right have rained down opprobrium on the agency. But the criticism has not…

Edward Snowden, one of many thousands of people holding very high security clearances, stole the family jewels in what was, arguably, the greatest security breach in American history.  And the reaction of the agency that he violated?  The usual Washington shrug.  Stuff, you know, happens.…

New Jersey governor Chris Christie, asked on Tuesday to respond to an ongoing back and forth between himself and fellow Republican Rand Paul of Kentucky, said he was "asked a question" about national security and answered it.

Via the Washington Free Beacon, Arkansas congressman Tom Cotton defended the NSA tool on the House floor this evening:

The political tables have turned almost 180 degrees. President Obama uneasily defends surveillance programs of the National Security Agency, while his liberal and libertarian opponents accuse him of lawlessly abusing his powers. The spectacle might even be entertaining, were it not for its…

Reuters is reporting that Iceland has decided not to take in Edward Snowden. He is running out of options and soon, perhaps, the only one left to him will be to return to the United States and hire Ramsey Clark as his lawyer.

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with editor William Kristol on immigration reform's future, Edward Snowden

The Scrapbook’s hypothesis that the substance of blockbuster news stories tends to diminish with time​—​there’s less here than meets the eye​—​is borne out most of the time. Which, as nonscientific theories tend to go, is an enviable record. 

Politics can seem frustratingly complex. It can be a challenge to grasp that the targeting of conservatives by Internal Revenue Service officials over the last few years constitutes a genuine scandal, while the lawful activities of employees of the National Security Agency do not. It can be a…

One might expect Keith Alexander to advocate on behalf of the two programs at the center of our national debate about terrorism and surveillance. He is, after all, the head of the National Security Agency, which runs them. “It’s dozens of terrorist events that these have helped prevent—both here…

Should Americans fear the possible abuse of the intercept power of the National Security Agency at Fort Meade, Maryland? Absolutely. In the midst of the unfolding scandal at the IRS, we understand that bureaucracies are callous creatures, capable of manipulation. In addition to deliberate misuse,…

Ricardo Patiño Aroca, Ecuador's minister of foreign affairs for trade and integration, announces on Twitter that they've received a request for asylum from Edward Snowden: Tweet Tweet The foreign minister met with Julian Assange of WikiLeaks fame last week at the Ecuador embassy in London last week:

Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky defended NSA leaker Edward Snowden this morning on CNN:

The Chinese organ Xinhua reports that Ecuador might offer asylum to Edward Snowden. 

In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Senator Dan Coats accuses his congressional colleagues of "grandstanding" about the NSA:

Texas senator Ted Cruz, a Republican, told viewers on Fox News Monday morning that Americans should avoid a "rush to judgment" on the leaking of classified information by Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency systems analyst. The Washington Examiner has the video:

Edward Snowden says "lies" from the Gang of 8 are part of the reason he felt "compelled ... to act." He made the statement in response to a question about his motivations in releasing classified information on the Guardian's website.

In a Sunday evening statement, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence Public Affairs Office released this statement, meant to clear up information on the National Security Agency’s data program.

Members of the U.S. Senate were given the opportunity to attend a briefing on Thursday that would bring them up to speed on the NSA surveillance operations, among other things.  The briefing would be conducted by James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence, not some low-level staffer.

Friday evening, the State Department released a joint statement from the June 10-11 "U.S.-Germany Cyber Bilateral Meeting." The meeting was held in Washington.

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with editor William Kristol on the NSA's surveillance programs, the IRS scandal, and immigration reform.

NSA chief Keith Alexander says Edward Snowden's claim that he could tap any phone call or email is "false":

Gary Schmitt writes:

When Edward Snowden decided he wanted to release details about the NSA's intelligence operations to the public, he reached out to Laura Poitras, a 49-year-old film maker and political activist opposed to the war on terror. As the Washington Post noted on Monday, Poitras had "the odd distinction of…

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with senior writer Stephen F. Hayes on the recent leaks regarding the NSA's intelligence gathering programs.

Last Friday night, upper management of the country's national security establishment gathered for dinner, speeches, and an evening of conviviality at the annual banquet of the Intelligence and National Security Alliance. The event followed hard on the heels of the revelations about the NSA's…

Booz Allen confirms the NSA leaker was an employee of the consulting firm who made $122,000 per year. And, the firm says, he is no longer employed by Booz Allen.

Bill Gertz reports:

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with editor William Kristol 

After giving remarks about health care, President Obama said he'd take only one question because he doesn't "want the whole day to just be a bleeding press conference."

At a press conference in California, President Obama declaratively said, "When it comes to telephone calls, nobody is listening to your telephone calls. That's not what this program is about."

Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador the United Nations, is being considered to be the next national security adviser to the president of the United States, according to media reports. 

The must-read piece on terrorism this week comes from Philip Shenon, writing at The Daily Beast. Shenon writes about a cache of intelligence documents stored at the National Security Agency (NSA) that received a cursory review by the 9/11 Commission because they were only discovered shortly before…