Director of National Intelligence James Clapper got caught in a whopper this year. In March he testified before Congress that the NSA was not collecting data on millions of Americans. Turns out that was a bald-faced lie and Clapper knew it was a lie: [Read more…]

Watching the reaction to Edward Snowden’s revelations has been entertaining to say the least. Almost every media personality I’ve observed speak on it either talks about how they don’t trust him, or prefaces their concerns over the message with an obligatory swipe at the messenger. The latter often includes a shot not just at Snowden but at Glenn Greenwald, the UK Guardian journalist who brought the material to light.

It seems a bit over the top. Snowden and Greenwald appear subject to a standard of accuracy and at times vitriol quite different than the one facing high ranking NSA and contractor personnel. There is reason to be skeptical of spies in general, but why the high ranking spooks who have been caught splitting semantic hairs, evading, and glossing over key details are not much part of the story, while every last thing Snowden says is scrutinized for the slightest inconsistency, is puzzling. Perhaps what we’re seeing is a secret version of something many reading this would identify with: the difference in the treatment, perception and motive for corporate bigwigs vs the observations of rank and file worker. [Read more…]

We have no way to know if this is true — that’s the whole problem in a nutshell when it comes to double-super-secret spying. It’s just too easy to turn that apparatus against anyone. Back in 2004 a big story hit that the NSA was tapping US citizens without even using the secretive and allegedly flimsy FISA court warrent process. Russ Tice, the same whistle blower who helped bring warrantless wiretapping to light, now says then Senator Obama may have been one of the targets: [Read more…]

What do you know, despite the flip-flopping by Fox News talking heads and WH VPs across the board, here’s an issue the grass roots of both parties agree on.

Back in the go-go 90s there was a claim made far and wide afloat the various divisions of Wall Street biggies were separated from the rest of the firm by a firewall. So, for example, the firm would never ever think about putting buy recs on dotcoms rocketing up the NASDAQ simply to pad enrich senior execs, or use info gleaned from ongoing deals to advise newer, prospective clients who happened to be in competition with existing ones, for such tacky purposes like getting lucrative M & A or underwriting business. It was a questionable claim at best, we didn’t learn just learned how questionable until the dotcoms turned into dotbombs.

With that conflict of interest in mind, here’s our for profit private national security overlords, bellying up for some sweet, cloak and dagger petro-dollars courtesy of the UAE: [Read more…]

More hilarity, embarrassing for the powers that be, a warning of sloppy contractors and what looks like casual commercial spying gone amok for all. Not only could Snowden access all the stuff he’s handed over so far, he was able to get into the UK spy network and turn over evidence the Brits were actively spying, spoofing, and hacking their own allies at the G20 summit in 2009: [Read more…]