John Brennan’s Counterterrorism Vision vs. American Muslim Reality

John Brennan, President Obama’s chief counterterrorism, intelligence and homeland security adviser, is probably the foremost advocate of the proposition that domestic counterterrorism efforts will fail if they don’t treat American Muslims as partners. That attitude informed the National Security Strategy’s pledge to “clearly communicate our policies and intentions, listening More…

Meet the Next NSA Top Lawyer

Following up on our stories earlier this week about the legal vacancy at the National Security Agency, Mark Hosenball at Newsweek finds that the Justice Department is sending some relief to Fort Meade.

Declassified has learned that the Obama administration has now asked a career Justice Department

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NSA Has Been Without a Top Lawyer Since October 2009

Some more details following yesterday’s story about the National Security Agency looking for a new top lawyer. As it turns out, the super-secret surveillance agency has been without a top-level legal adviser for about nine months.

According to an “NSA spokesperson” who insisted on anonymity — you would think More…

Judge: Warrantless Surveillance Was Illegal

As first reported by Firedoglake’s Marcy Wheeler, a federal judge has ruled that the Bush administration illegally wiretapped the defunct Islamic charity al-Haramain, a major legal step in a years’-long battle to determine whether Bush’s constellation of warrantless surveillance programs begun after the 9/11 attacks broke the law. More…

Are You a Source or a Target?

With fears of a new wave of domestic terrorism rising (even though those fears are statistically way out of proportion to the millions of American Muslims), The New York Times takes a look at something that really could contribute to it: fraying relations between American Muslim community leaders More…

Sex and the Single Wolf

Are there really any “lone wolves” engaging in dangerous terrorist liaisons? That’s what some opponents of section 6001(b) of the USA PATRIOT Act are asking.

Lots of Democrats now concede that Congress overreacted a bit after the 9/11 terrorist attacks to give sweeping authority to the FBI to conduct various More…

Patriot Act Renewal Debate Kicks Off Over Party Lines

Eight years after it was passed, the USA Patriot Act remains among the most controversial pieces of counterterrorism legislation in the so-called “war on terror.” On December 31 of this year, some of its more controversial provisions will expire, forcing Congress to revisit it More…

What Brennan Knew (Sort of) About Domestic Surveillance

Marc Ambinder follows up on my question to John Brennan, President Obama’s chief counterterrorism aide, about what role Brennan played in domestic surveillance during the Bush administration. From 2003 to 2005, recall, Brennan ran two organizations — the Terrorist Threat Integration Center and then the National Counterterrorism Center — More…

Attacking ‘Misrepresentations,’ Brennan Suggests He Played a Role in Domestic Surveillance

I’ll have a broader piece up soon about John Brennan’s speech about counterterrorism, which in many ways represented a stark departure from several key tenets of the Bush administration’s approach. But on one issue that I asked Brennan about, the president’s chief adviser for counterterrorism and homeland security seemed More…

Some Bush-Era Legal Memoranda For Surveillance Still In Place

Here’s some clarity on a post I wrote Friday. I wondered what Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) meant when he called on President Obama to withdraw certain Justice Department legal memoranda that remain operative. Which memoranda? Apparently some from President George W. Bush’s second term are still in place.

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