Female Senator Too "Emotional" about Torture

These words come from former NSA and CIA Director Michael Hayden:

Former CIA and National Security Agency director Michael Hayden suggested Sunday that Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) might have compromised the objectivity of a report on CIA interrogation techniques because she personally wants to change them.

On "Fox News Sunday," Hayden cited comments Feinstein made last month in which she said declassifying the report would "ensure that an un-American, brutal program of detention and interrogation will never again be considered or permitted."

Hayden suggested Feinstein feels too strongly about the issue on an "emotional" level.

"That sentence -- that motivation for the report -- may show deep, emotional feeling on the part of the senator, but I don't think it leads you to an objective report," Hayden said.

I for one am glad this guy led the agency that was able to spy on all Americans at any time for any reason. He seems swell.

So Where Can Snowden Apply for His Reward?

So if a judge says the NSA broke the law, does that end the debate over Snowden? Where does he apply for his reward?
— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) December 17, 2013

This is far from a final ruling on the subject, but from the legal stuff I read if *this* judge can give them a favorable ruling... the NSA is in trouble:

U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon put his decision to grant an injunction against the NSA on ice, predicting a government appeal would take at least six months. He said he was staying the ruling pending appeal "in light of the significant national security interests at stake in this case and the novelty of the constitutional issues." Even after the appeals court rules, the Supreme Court will probably have the last word. "This is the opening salvo in a very long story, but it's important symbolically in dispelling the invincibility of the metadata program," said Stephen Vladeck, a national security law expert at the American University law school.

Glenn Greenwald's Partner Detained Under Terrorism Law

This is appalling:

The latest NSA news — over the weekend — is the detention for nine hours at Heathrow Airport of Glenn Greenwald’s boyfriend, David Miranda. Miranda is one of the journalists working with the under-appreciated Laura Poitras in releasing the Edward Snowden whistle-blown NSA material. Greenwald says Miranda’s laptop and cellphone were confiscated by the British authorities, and never returned.

Base details — Miranda (the detainee) was flying from Berlin after meeting with Poitras on his way to Rio de Janiero. As near as I can tell, he was simply changing planes and not exiting the airport (Glenn says Miranda did not attempt to go through Customs). Miranda was perhaps carrying documents from Poitras to Greenwald. The detention was carried out under an anti-terrorism law. Nevertheless, the interrogation centered on Snowden and Greenwald.

In addition the obvious offensiveness of this, how ham handed and dumb of the UK/US governments?

Just like Obama's press conference on this showed, these actions surrounding a crackdown on the journalism involved here are simply impossible to defend. Stunts like this only make matters worse. Glenn Greenwald is, uh, not the type to be intimidated by bullshit scare tactics.

There are RULES. Come on people.

One of the most laughable arguments from the NSA and administration's defenders was the NSA has rules that it must follow, so therefore, what they do is ok. Unless they break the rules constantly, which is apparently what they were doing:

The National Security Agency has broken privacy rules or overstepped its legal authority thousands of times each year since Congress granted the agency broad new powers in 2008, according to an internal audit and other top-secret documents.

Most of the infractions involve unauthorized surveillance of Americans or foreign intelligence targets in the United States, both of which are restricted by statute and executive order. They range from significant violations of law to typographical errors that resulted in unintended interception of U.S. e-mails and telephone calls.

The documents, provided earlier this summer to The Washington Post by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, include a level of detail and analysis that is not routinely shared with Congress or the special court that oversees surveillance. In one of the documents, agency personnel are instructed to remove details and substitute more generic language in reports to the Justice Department and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

In one instance, the NSA decided that it need not report the unintended surveillance of Americans. A notable example in 2008 was the interception of a “large number” of calls placed from Washington when a programming error confused the U.S. area code 202 for 20, the international dialing code for Egypt, according to a “quality assurance” review that was not distributed to the NSA’s oversight staff.

In another case, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which has authority over some NSA operations, did not learn about a new collection method until it had been in operation for many months. The court ruled it unconstitutional.

This is the debate that the administration wanted to have all along! If only Snowden hadn't come along and forced us to actually look at these civil liberties violations, then we could have had an even better debate that didn't discuss this information that we would have never found out otherwise. The NSA and administration defenders are looking more pathetic by the day.

David Gregory Humiliates Himself More Than Usual

We know from watching David Gregory over the years that he simply isn't that bright, and has been promoted 5-6 levels too high into his current position as MTP host. He's like a smarter Luke Russert, in that all he knows is DC conventional wisdom, and since most of that currently involves anger at the NSA leaker and the reporting that brought this to light, it's no wonder that he says something this absurd. Greenwald's response is pretty damn satisfying.

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The NSA Whistleblower Reveals Himself

The courage it takes to do something like this is breathtaking. He lived in Hawaii with his girlfriend making $200,000 a year. There's a good chance he's voluntarily given up the chance to see her/his family and friends ever again to make this information public. Listen to him in his own words, it's unbelievably powerful.