Government Executive - Authors - Connor Simpson

Obama Requests $500 Million for 'Moderate' Syrian Rebels

Connor Simpson, The Wire — Fri, 27 Jun 2014 11:54:01 -0400

President Barack Obama wants to increase the U.S.'s involvement in the Syrian conflict by asking Congress to approve $500 million in funding to train and arm "moderate" Syrian rebel forces. The proposed assistance will "help defend the Syrian people, stabilize areas under opposition control and facilitate the provision of essential services, counter terrorist threats, and promote conditions for a negotiated settlement," the administration said in its budget request to Congress.

Any potential recipient would be properly vetted first, the administration promised. The CIA vets any opposition group that receives training and small arms from the U.S. Some lawmakers fear any weapons provided to Syrian rebels will end up in the hands of terrorists. The newly equipped revolutionaries would work with Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq as part of a "Regional Stabilization Initiative."

"This funding request would build on the administration's longstanding efforts to empower the moderate Syrian opposition, both civilian and armed, and will enable the Department of Defense to increase our support to vetted elements of the armed opposition," said Caitlin Hayden, a spokesperson for the National Security Council.

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FBI Director: Don't Let Weed Stop You from Applying to the FBI

Connor Simpson, The Wire — Tue, 20 May 2014 17:22:31 -0400

Law enforcement angencies generally don't hire stoners and slackers. But as the cyber war heats up, groups like the FBI may be forced to turn to people who like to get a little heated to stay ahead of the curve.

“He should go ahead and apply,” was the advice FBI Director James B. Comey had on Monday for a young man who theoretically balked at applying for an FBI job because he liked to get lit. Comey spoke about the difficulties facing the FBI when it comes to hiring promising young hackers at the White Collar Crime Institute, an annual conference held at Manhattan's New York City Bar Association, according to the Wall Street Journal. The trouble is, a lot of hackers smoke weed, and that's something the FBI generally frowns upon.

One attendee asked Comey about a friend who considered an FBI job but ultimately did not apply because of the marijuana policy. The theoretical FBI applicant knew he would never pass a drug test. But director Comey's comments clearly signal the FBI at least wants to move on from the increasingly outdated anti-marijuana policy that is complicating its efforts to fight cyber crime.

Bongs are everywhere in the fictionalized hacker hangout on HBO's Silicon Valley. Heck, two weeks ago police accidentally busted Erlich, one of the main characters, for his grow-op hidden in their garage. Weed is baked into the tech culture at this point, and many people working in tech have zeroed in on the marijuana industry as one ripe for disruption, as Wired's Mat Honan explained recently. Plus, the USA is moving relaxing its marijuana attitudes, considering the drug is now legal in two states.

As it stands, the FBI's hiring policy on its website says an applicant must be marijuana free for three years if they hope to apply for a job with the bureau. Unfortunately for Comey — who has to fill 2000 new jobs this year, many of them dedicated to fighting cyber crime — finding a tech wizard who hasn't smoked in the last hour is hard enough. “I have to hire a great work force to compete with those cyber criminals and some of those kids want to smoke weed on the way to the interview,” Comey told the conference attendees.

The FBI could possibly amend those strict rules soon. Comey told the conference the bureau is “grappling with the question right now” of how to change the drug policy without scaring off the cream of the hacking crop.

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The Psychologist Behind the CIA's Torture Program Desperately Wants to Speak Out

Connor Simpson, The Wire — Fri, 18 Apr 2014 15:14:37 -0400

The psychologist who wrote the CIA's post-9/11 torture program wants to tell his story to the world, if only non-disclosure agreements with the U.S. government weren't holding him back.

James Mitchell, the retired Air Force general and psychologist who figures prominently in the Senate's report on the ineffectiveness of the post-9/11 torture program, gave his first extensive interview to the Guardian, in which he spoke broadly about "the program," and lamented about how he could not delve into the specifics. "I would be happy to tell my entire story," Mitchell told the Guardian's Jason Leopold. "But I have been told numerous times that if I violate the non-disclosure agreement there would be criminal and civil penalties." Those are very real consequences, so instead we're treated to Mitchell complaining about "fat guys in the basement" who have been ordered to slander him on behalf of the government. "People make up stuff about me," he says. "They say I'm a Mormon. I'm actually an atheist."

Mitchell welcomes the increased attention the government and public have given enhanced interrogation techniques, especially in the wake of Zero Dark Thirty's release, even if he can not participate in the discussion. "I am interested in having an active and honest debate, but only if the Justice Department and federal government release me from my agreement," he told the Guardian. Unsurprisingly, Mitchell is unapologetic about the possibly useless torture techniques he developed during his time with the CIA:

"The narrative that's out there is, I walked up to the gate of the CIA, knocked on the door and said: 'Let me in, I want to torture people, and I can show you how to do it.' Or someone put out an ad on Craigslist that said, 'Wanted: psychologist who is willing to design torture program.' It's a lot more complicated than that," Mitchell told the Guardian in his first public comments since he was linked to the CIA's enhanced interrogation program seven years ago.

"I'm just a guy who got asked to do something for his country by people at the highest level of government, and I did the best that I could," Mitchell says now.

The entire interview is fascinating, compelling, and worth your time. Mitchell's credentials with the military prior to his torture program work are impressive. His political ideology is interesting, to say the least. "I'm not a Republican or a Mormon or a gun nut or power hungry," he says. Mitchell believes global warming is a myth and that Obama's health care program is a "shit sandwich." Read the interview over at the Guardian.

(Image via ruskpp/Shutterstock.com)

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Obamacare Enrollment Results Will Come Down to the Wire

Connor Simpson, The Wire — Wed, 26 Feb 2014 11:23:37 -0500

It will go down to the wire but the latest numbers indicate Obamacare may sign-up 7 million people by the March deadline originally pushed by the Obama administration. Of course, they've already decided to move the finish line closer.

The most recent numbers are promising: senior administration officials tell the Huffington Post that over 4 million people have enrolled in an Obamacare program. Since the end of January, 700,000 people signed up for the service. Speaking to Obama for America volunteers Tuesday evening, President Obama confirmed the latest numbers. “We now have more than 4 million Americans who have signed up for quality, affordably health insurance," he said.

That puts the 7 million goal originally championed by the administration within spitting distance with five weeks to go before the end of March deadline. That would only happen in a perfect scenario, though. In truth, health care officials will more than likely fall short of 7 million enrollments, which is why Kathleen Sebeliustried to adjust the finish line to a more realistic "five to six" million Tuesday on Huff Post Live. "First of all, 7 million was not the administration,” Sebelius said. “That was a CBO, Congressional Budget Office prediction when the bill was first signed. I’m not quite sure where they even got their number. Their number’s all over the board, and you know, the vice president has looked and said it may be closer to 5 to 6.” That's much closer to reality.

Canada's Government Basically Never Closes for Snowstorms

Connor Simpson, The Wire — Tue, 10 Dec 2013 15:45:26 -0500

Federal offices in Washington, D.C. shut down on Tuesday because of a snowstorm that basically didn't happen.

The Wire decided to see what it would take for the Canadian government to close because of a snowstorm, and the answer is: it doesn't. We spoke with multiple Canadian federal government employees who wouldn't speak on the record because they're that polite. They don't want to offend anyone, especially Americans. But the overwhelming message was, nothing like today would happen up there, despite more extreme weather being more common.

Part of the reason is because, unlike in the United States, the Canadian federal government, especially in Ottawa, is so fractured and bureaucratic that the decision to close does not lie with one person. It's not run like a school board. One federal employee explained that each department makes its own decision on a "case-by-case basis" whether the elements are extreme enough to close for the day. Closing the entire Canadian federal government in one fell swoop is literally impossible.

Report: Russian Diplomats Who Scammed Medicaid Were Also Spying on the U.S.

Connor Simpson, The Wire — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 14:08:34 -0500

What started as a simple fraud investigation, has turned into a spy thriller as some of the 49 Russian diplomats and their spouses accused of defrauding Medicaid "were also engaged in espionage," according to a new report on CNN. How many of those 49 diplomats and relatives were spies is unclear, but it's yet another stick in the eye for U.S. and Russian relations.

No one from the group of accused diplomats (which includes Russian consulate employees and at least one former Russian embassy employee) will face espionage charges, CNN's Evan Perez reports, due to a lack of evidence.

The Medicaid fraud was bad enough for the already rocky Russia-U.S. relationship in a post-Snowden world. Spying accusations are the new black with these two."Counterintelligence officials say Russian spying activity in the U.S. is back to near Cold War levels," according to CNN. The FBI recently accused the leader of the Russian Cultural Center in Washington of recruiting new spies from within the U.S. with all-expense paid trips to Russia.

New Deal Could Keep U.S. Troops in Afghanistan for 10 More Years

Connor Simpson, The Wire — Tue, 19 Nov 2013 15:59:38 -0500

A draft of the potentially costly security agreement between the U.S. and Afghanistan shows that some American troops may stay on the ground long after the current deal — which was meant end U.S. involvement for good — expires at the end of next year.

NBC News reporter Richard Engel obtained a copy of the “Security and Defense Cooperation Agreement Between the United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan," a 25-page draft, dated July 25, 2013, that sets the stage for continued deployment after the majority of U.S. troops come home at the end of 2014. If signed by both countries, U.S. military operations in Afghanistan could continue until 2024.

Taken as a whole, the document describes a basic US-Afghan exchange. Afghanistan would allow Washington to operate military bases to train Afghan forces and conduct counter-terrorism operations against al-Qaeda after the current mission ends in 2014. For that foothold in this volatile mountain region wedged between Pakistan and Iran, the United States would agree to sustain and equip Afghanistan's large security force, which the government in Kabul currently cannot afford. The deal, according to the text, would take effect on January 1, 2015 and “shall remain in force until the end of 2024 and beyond.” It could be terminated by either Washington or Kabul with two years advance written notice.

"The document is a work in progress," Engels reports, but if adopted it would commit the United States to another decade of spending and troop deployments that most Americans believed would be ending next year. According to estimates from U.S. and Afghan officials, between 7,000 and 15,000 U.S. troops will remain in Afghanistan after the current mission ends in 2014 if this deal goes forward. "The anticipated costs would likely run into the billions quickly," Engels warns.

Tim Geithner Finally Moving to Wall Street

Connor Simpson, The Wire — Mon, 18 Nov 2013 09:45:46 -0500

After working with the Council on Foreign Relations and writing a book, former Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner finally got a new job. He's chasing the big bucks at a private-equity firm, following a long line of former government officials cashing out on Wall Street.

Friday evening, the Wall Street Journal reported Getihner will join private-equity firm Warburg Pincus in March. The former Obama administration official hasn't worked in the private sector in over 25 years, after spending time with International Monetary Fund and the New York Federal Reserve. In 2009, he was appointed Treasury secretary, and was credited with slowing the effects of the economic downturn. Geithner left the Treasury in January and enjoyed a low-key life outside of the private and public sectors. Details of his new compensation weren't reported.

"He brings a history of strong leadership, a deep understanding of economies and markets, and a truly global perspective," co-chief executive Chip Kaye said a statement, per Bloomberg. "These attributes will be of tremendous value to our firm in this increasingly interconnected world." Post-government positions are in-name-only, which is where Geithner's new job will differ from the norm, according to the Journal.

Read more on The Atlantic Wire.

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Navy Officials Accused of Taking Cash, Hookers and Lady Gaga Tickets

Connor Simpson, The Wire — Mon, 21 Oct 2013 09:57:56 -0400

The Washington Post's Craig Whitlock reports Michael Misiewicz, former commander of the USS Mustin, John B. Beliveau II, a onetime NCIS agent of the year, Leonard Glenn Francis, the CEO of Glenn Defense Marine Asia, and another official with the defense contractor were all arrested on corruption charges last month as part of an ongoing investigation alleging they provided special information about deployments, and occasionally directed Naval ships to ports where the company has outposts set up.

The Navy alleges Glenn Defense Marine used the information to overcharge Navy ships for parts and services. The extent of the fraud is unclear right now, but court documents "cite a handful of episodes that alone exceeded $10 million," Whitlock reports. The Navy terminated three contracts with the company worth $200 million last month.

The investigation into the extent of the corruption continues, with other naval officials already being targeted by authorities. Those involved already are accused of taking cash, hotel rooms, plane tickets and prostitutes on multiple occasions, all supplied by Francis.

Read more on The Atlantic Wire.

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FBI Releases Chilling Security Camera Footage of Navy Yard Shooter

Connor Simpson, The Wire — Wed, 25 Sep 2013 17:30:03 -0400

Video footage just released by the FBI shows 34-year-old Aaron Alexis as he entered the D.C. Navy Yard before the shooting began. The video is part of this full report released by the FBI, that includes everything the agency knows about Alexis so far. The report has detailed pictures of the rifle Alexis used during the shooting, including close ups of the many strange engravings on the bottom and sides of the gun.

The video pinpoints the car Alexis used to enter the facility's parking garage where, much later, many of the buildings employees would hide while law enforcement tried to contain the situation. Alexis can be seen setting up his rifle and then sneaking between floors before opening fire on the unsuspecting Navy Yard employees.

The report also confirms much of the information we already know. In the days leading up to the shooting, Alexis bought the Remington shotgun from a gun store in Virginia. He was employed as a contractor and was stationed at the Navy Yard beginning at the end of August. Because of his past work in the Navy and his current employment with a contractor, Alexis had full access to the Navy Yard. Then, on September 16, Alexis entered the D.C. Navy Yard building and killed 12 people and injured four more.

Read more on The Atlantic Wire.

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The Justice Department's AP Leaker Was an Ex-FBI Agent

Connor Simpson, The Wire — Tue, 24 Sep 2013 10:13:24 -0400

Former FBI bomb technician Donald Sachtleben, a 55-year-old who was arrested last year for distributing child pornography, has been identified as the source for the Associated Press story about a foiled Al Qaeda terrorist plot that led the Justice Department to snoop on AP reporters' phone records.

The Justice Department announced Sachtleben will plead guilty to charges of unlawfully disclosing national defense information and face 43 months in prison. Sachtleben worked for the FBI for 25 years, before retiring in 2008, when he was rehired as a contractor and maintained his Top Secret clearance. During his time with the agency, he worked on high-profile cases like the hunt for the Oklahoma City bomber. If an Indiana court approves, some are saying it would be the longest prison term ever for releasing national security information. You can read the plea agreements here, per the Huffington Post.

"While I never intended harm to the United States or to any individuals, I do not make excuses for myself," Sachtleben said in a statement. "I understand and accept that today's filings start the process of paying the full consequences of my misconduct, and I know that the Justice System I once served so proudly will have its say."

Read more on The Atlantic Wire.

(Image via Flickr user michaelhebb )

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What It's Like to Work for a Background Check Contractor

Connor Simpson, The Wire — Mon, 23 Sep 2013 10:58:17 -0400

The contractor responsible for vetting Edward Snowden in 2011 and Navy Yard shooter Aaron Alexis in 2007, already under criminal investigation for "routine" background check failures, is coming under fire about the way they handle information and operate. Workers are expected to turn out clearances and fast as humanly possible, with little regard for oversight and security.

"People were leaving their laptops at Starbucks," a former USIS investigator told The Washington Post. A number of former USIS workers told the Post about the pressures they faced to churn out background checks, the little oversight from their bosses, and the lack of security placed on personal information collected for the checks. USIS rules say any personal information collected for a background check must be kept behind two layers locks: "for instance, a locked file cabinet in a home, plus a locked front door would qualify," the Post explains. But in practice, things are much, much different. "People were leaving cases on top of their cars, information blowing off. We had a lady that left her files at Chuck E. Cheese with her kids," the same former employee said.

Two others described a workplace that put pressure on producing as many clearances as possible, paying little attention to "red flags" that should warrant a more thorough investigation. "It was like wink, wink, do this as fast as humanly possible... There was this intense pressure to do more and faster," one former employee said. "It’s very: 'Here’s a sheet of questions, ask the questions, hurry and get the answers, submit them and move forward,' said another. "There’s just not a lot of paying attention to potential red flags and that sort of thing."

Read more on The Atlantic Wire.

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Hillary Clinton's Not in a Hurry to Run for President

Connor Simpson, The Wire — Mon, 23 Sep 2013 10:10:53 -0400

Hillary Clinton has spoken for the first time since leaving her post as secretary of State and no, she still hasn't decided whether or not she will run for president in 2016, but Clinton does admit the Oval Office is on her mind.

"I do," wrestle with the idea of running for president, Clinton tells New York's Joe Hagan. "But I’m both pragmatic and realistic," she adds. "I’m not in any hurry," she tells Hagan later in the interview. "I think it’s a serious decision, not to be made lightly, but it’s also not one that has to be made soon."

But people are impatient and want to know now, Ms. Clinton. She's noticed the unquenchable thirst surrounding her potential run for office from former aides, donors and supporters. "She’s running, but she doesn’t know it yet,” one old Clinton ally tells Hagan."She’s doing a very Clintonian thing. In her mind, she’s running for it, and she’s also convinced herself she hasn’t made up her mind. She’s going to run for president. It’s a foregone conclusion," says another longtime friend.

Read more on The Atlantic Wire.

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Report Says Budget Cuts Led to Security Lapses at Navy Yard

Connor Simpson, The Wire — Tue, 17 Sep 2013 13:59:38 -0400

The Navy reportedly allowed security to loosen at the D.C. Navy Yard and other facilities in an effort to cut costs, a soon-to-be-released government audit will reveal, and the Navy is already ordering a complete security review at all facilities.

Time's Alex Rogers reports an upcoming audit from the Pentagon inspector general has been in the works since September 2012 to determine whether "the Navy Commercial Access Control System [NCACS] is mitigating access-control risks to Navy installations." The report will find the Navy "did not effectively mitigate access-control risks associated with contractor-installation access," at installations like the D.C. Navy Yard. The lapses came from an effort "to reduce access-control costs," the report concludes.

On Monday, 34-year-old Aaron Alexis used the access card granted to him as a Naval contractor to enter a building at the D.C. Navy Yard and kill 12 civilians and injure many more, including two law enforcement officials, despite a long history of gun-related arrests and mental health issues. Alexis should have been flagged by a background check as a risk. But this report will show that, before Monday''s tragic events, he was not the worst offender granted access to Navy facilities:

The audit shows a history of those with criminal records managing to bypass the Navy’s security. Fifty-two “convicted felons received routine unauthorized installation access, placing military personnel, attendants, civilians in installations at an increased security risk,” according to the audit.

Read more on The Atlantic Wire.

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What We Know About the Navy Yard Victims

Connor Simpson, The Wire — Tue, 17 Sep 2013 10:05:07 -0400

This story has been updated.

As the dust begins to settle in Washington, D.C., after Monday's tragic Navy Yard shooting that left 13 dead, including the shooter, the focus finally turns toward the victims lost. He's what little we know about the victims so far.

Name: Michael Arnold, 59

Family: Married for 30 years to his wife, Jolanda. They had two sons. "He was a loving son of his mother and his wife, and great father to his kids," Steve Hunter, Arnold's uncle, told the Associated Press.

Occupation: Retired Navy commander, but was working at the Navy Yard designing vessels such as the USS Makin Island, a Wasp-class amphibious assault ship.

Name: Sylvia Frasier, 53

Family: The Washington Post profiled Frasier's family's struggle to gather information about her in the wake of the shooting. The story is tense, moving, frustrating and tragic, and it deserves your attention.

Occupation: Worked at the Navy Yard as a network security administrator with the Naval Sea Systems Command.

Name: Kathy Gaarde, 62

Family: Gaarde's husband, Douglass, told the AP the couple were planning to live well in retirement together soon before her death. "Today my life partner of 42 years (38 of them married) was taken from me, my grown son and daughter, and friends," he wrote in an email. "We were just starting to plan our retirement activities and now none of that matters. It hasn’t fully sunk in yet but I know I already dearly miss her." Gaarde has two children: a son, Christopher, and a daughter, Jessica, who lives at home with her parents. "She just helped make it a good home for her family and worked hard and provided everything her family could need," a neighbor said.

Occupation: Worked at the Navy Yard as a financial analyst.

Name: Arthur Daniels, 51

Family: Daniels had five children and nine grandchildren. "I don’t know why they shot him," Priscilla Daniella, his wife, told the AP through tears. "He was a good father and hard worker."

Occupation: Daniels relocated and installed office furniture in government buildings. He just so happened to be stationed at the Navy Yard on Monday when the shooter opened fire on the same floor where he was working. While running for an elevator, Daniels was shot in the back.

Name: John Roger Johnson, 73

Family: Unknown.

Occupation: A civilian who worked for the Navy, according to an unidentified neighbor. "He loved children. He loved our grandchildren. No one could ask for a better neighbor," the neighbor said.

Name: Frank Kohler, 50

Family: Kohler was married with two daughters.

Occupation: Unknown.

Name: Kenneth Bernard Proctor, 46

Family: Recently divorced with two teenage sons.

Occupation: Proctor didn't work inside the building where Alexis Aaron opened fire. He was a civilian utilities foreman at the Navy Yard with 22 years of work experience with the federal government. But he often ate breakfast in that building's cafeteria. "It was a routine thing for him to go there in the morning for breakfast, and unfortunately it happened," Evelyn Proctor, his ex-wife, told the AP.

Name: Vishnu Pandit, 61

Family: Lived with his wife in North Potomac for 20 years. The couple owned an Irish Setter, too.

Occupation: Unknown.

Name: Mary Francis Knight, 51

Family: Unknown.

Occupation: Unknown.

Name: Gerald Read, 58

Family: Unknown.

Occupation: Unknown.

Name: Martin Bodrog, 54

Family: Unknown.

Occupation: Unknown.

Name: Richard Michael Ridgell, 52

Family: Unknown.

Occupation: Unknown.

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Assad Presents His Defense Against the U.S.

Connor Simpson, The Wire — Mon, 09 Sep 2013 09:44:44 -0400

Syrian President Bashar al Assad defended himself publicly to the United States in an interview with Charlie Rose, claiming that the U.S. doesn't have "a single shred" of evidence tying him to the August 21 chemical attacks, and that we should "expect every action" in retaliation if the United States does execute military strikes against him.

The first glimpses of the interview -- Assad's first with an American anchor in nearly two years -- debuted Monday on CBS This Morning. The full conversation won't be available until Monday evening, when it airs on PBS' The Charlie Rose Show. Assad was calm and collected for a leader who is accused of killing more than 1,400 people with poison gas and who is facing a military strike from the United States, possibly with the help of an international coalition in the "double digits," according to Secretary of State John Kerry. But, of course, Assad maintains his government is innocent and accused the United States of trying to start another false hunt for W.M.D.s:

"He presented his confidence and he presented his convictions," Assad said of Kerry. "It's not about confidence, it's about evidence. The United -- sorry, the Russians have completely opposite evidence that the missiles were thrown from area where the rebels controlled. That reminds me -- about what Kerry said -- about the big lie that Colin Powell said in front of the world on satellites about the W.M.D. in Iraq before going to war when he said, 'This is our evidence.' Actually, he gave false evidence. In this case, Kerry didn't even present any evidence. He talks, 'we have evidence,' and he didn't present anything, not yet. Nothing so far... not a single shred of evidence."

Read more on The Atlantic Wire.

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The State Department Will Send Someone to North Korea to Rescue Kenneth Bae

Connor Simpson and Abby Ohlheiser, The Wire — Wed, 28 Aug 2013 12:00:27 -0400

For the first time in two years, the State Department is sending an official representative to North Korea in an attempt to broker the release of jailed American citizen Kenneth Bae. Bob King, the special envoy for North Korean human rights issues, will make the trip on Friday. He'll ask the country for a pardon in Bae's case.

In a statement, the State Department said:

"Ambassador King will request the DPRK pardon Mr. Bae and grant him special amnesty on humanitarian grounds so that he can be reunited with his family and seek medical treatment."

In July, there were (false) rumors that Jimmy Carter would go to the country, more or less for the same reason. Bae is an American who's been in North Korea's prisons since November. In April, he was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for "hostile acts" against the country. Before his arrest, Bae was a tour operator and an evangelical missionary. The North Korean government, among other things, has accused Bae of propagating materials in what it believes to be a Christian conspiracy to take over the country. His mission work apparently focused on helping homeless children in the border region near South Korea, whom he also photographed. North Korea wouldn't like that: the pictures were likely of some of the many starving children there.

NSA Bugs United Nations With Enthusiasm, Documents Suggest

Connor Simpson, The Wire — Mon, 26 Aug 2013 10:08:29 -0400

The U.S. National Security Agency is accused of bugging the United Nations' New York headquarters, along with the European Union and the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, last summer, according to documentsreleased by Edward Snowden to Germany's Der Spiegel.

NSA agents could hardly contain their excitement after getting access to the U.N. "The data traffic gives us internal video teleconferences of the United Nations (yay!)," one document says, according to Der Spiegel. NSA experts allegedly infiltrated the U.N. system through the video conferencing set-up at the U.N.'s offices and used that to access offices for the European Union and the U.N.'s Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency office. The number of decrypted communications rose from 12 to 458 within three weeks.

The documents released to Der Spiegel also claim the NSA has bugs in 80 embassies and consulates around the world. This seems like a very high number, which is probably why the documents allegedly say that should remain top secret otherwise everyone would be very upset. But we already know to an extent that everyone is spying on everyone at all times, even at G20 summits, so it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise.

Reuters points out some European presidents wrote an open letter to British Prime Minister David Cameron on Sunday criticizing his recent detention of Guardian reporter Glenn Greenwald's partner, David Miranda. Sweden's Dagens Nyheter, Finland's Helsingin Sanomat, Denmark's Politiken and Norway's Aftenposten also criticized Cameron for threatening to press charges if the Guardian did not destroy a laptop with files leaked by Snowden. The paper complied. "(We are) deeply concerned that a stout defender of democracy and free debate such as the United Kingdom uses anti-terror legislation in order to legalize what amounts to harassment of both the paper and individuals associated with it," the letter says.

(Image via Flickr user lukeredmond)

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The Internet Made the Military Stop Selling Playboy

Connor Simpson, The Wire — Wed, 31 Jul 2013 14:02:03 -0400

The military will finally stop selling nudie magazines at on-post shops run by the Army and Air Force Exchange Service after years and years of protest, but only because soldiers are moving to the millions of free porn site on the Internet, or to soliciting real, live sex on Craigslist, which is a rising problem.Playboy, Penthouse and the other 889 "adult sophisticate titles" will be pulled from shelves today because no one is buying them anymore, Army Times reports. Sales have plummeted 86 percent since 1998, so stocking the magazines doesn't make any sense.

Technically, the sale of porn has been banned on military bases under the Military Honor and Decency Act of 1996. That law prohibits the sale of anything wherein "the dominant theme ... depicts or describes nudity, including sexual or excretory activities or organs in a lascivious way." Anti-porn groups have lobbied the Defense Department to remove the magazines for years, but the DoD has resisted. Being deployed away from your friends and family is hard enough, why would the Pentagon limit the troops' ability to, uh, relax, too?

"The decision to no longer stock the material is a business decision driven by the time, money and energy required to facilitate buying habits, combined with decreasing demand," Army Lt. Col. Antwan C. Williams, a spokesperson for AAFES, said in a press release. Williams said more and more soldiers were finding the same content on the Internet. It's free there, of course.

Read more on The Atlantic Wire.

(Image via Flickr user republicanconference)

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Jack Lew: No Debt Limit Fight This Fall

Connor Simpson, The Wire — Mon, 29 Jul 2013 09:52:09 -0400

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew did a tour of four major Sunday shows this morning, hitting up NBC's Meet the Press, Fox News Sunday, ABC's This Week and CNN's State of the Union all in one weekend. Obviously Lew touched on a lot over the course of the morning, so we've boiled down his most important points here:

On a potential looming Debt Limit fight

Lew said there won't be a fight over the debt limit this time. "Congress can't let us default. Congress has to do its work," Lew said on This Week. He explained that the President has been "crystal clear" that there won't be negotiations for spending cuts with Congress over the spending limit. "I certainly hope that Congress isn't looking to create confrontations and false crises because we did see, in 2011, how bad that is for the American economy," Lew said. "The mere fact of negotiating over the debt limit, after 2011, would introduce this notion that somehow there's a question about whether or not we're going to pay our bills, whether or not we're going to protect the full faith and credit of the United States." There have been rumblings that a group of Senators are working to fix cuts caused by the Sequester, but Lew explained on Meet the Press there are limitations to what they can and can't fix: "What the president said, and has written to Congress, is that they cannot fix the problems created by the across-the-board cuts -- known as sequestration -- by cutting domestic priorities in order to fund defense. That's unacceptable," he said. "[The President] won't sign that."

On Detroit

"Detroit has serious challenges. We support Detroit in its efforts. But Detroit's going to have to work with its creditors," Lew told State of the Union. Host Candy Crowley asked why the government would bail out the auto industry and not a major city. "Let's be clear, Candy, in the middle of the economic crisis, we were saving the American economy. We were in free fall. If we hadn't taken decisive action, we would have had a massively worse problem than what we even had," he said. But Lew assured the Treasury was doing everything within its regular power to help Detroit through the bankruptcy proceedings. "Detroit's got serious financial problems. They've been a long time in the making," Lew said. "We stand with Detroit and have been working with them, the technical advice, working with the kinds of normal programs the federal government has to see if there's anything we can do to help in the Treasury Department."

On his choice for chairman of the Federal Reserve

"I'm going to keep private any conversations that we're having with the president on the question of when and what kind of succession there should be," Lew told This Week. "I think that those conversations are best left in the privacy of the Oval Office."

Read the full story at TheAtlanticWire.com.

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What to Expect from the President's Big Climate Change Speech

Connor Simpson, The Wire — Mon, 24 Jun 2013 11:08:11 -0400

On Tuesday, President Obama will use a speech at Georgetown University to announce new, sweeping executive orders addressing climate change that will be designed to appease critics who have attacked the President for talking the green talk and not walking the green walk. Obviously, the White House is also hoping tackling climate change will get them some decent press in the wake of that pesky surveillance scandal.

After signalling he was ready to act during a speech in Berlin last week, the White House released a video of the President teasing his plan to lay out new climate initiatives late Saturday. "This Tuesday, I'll lay out my vision for where I believe we need to go - a national plan to reduce carbon pollution, prepare our country for the impacts of climate change and lead global efforts to fight it," he says. "There's no single step that can reverse the effects of climate change. But when it comes to the world we leave our children, we owe it to them to do what we can."

The President is expected to use his executive powers to adopt a wide array of climate change measures, but no one is 100% sure what those measures are just yet.

Why Edward Snowden Leaked the Secret NSA Information

Connor Simpson and Abby Ohlheiser, The Wire — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 09:17:43 -0400

The Guardian has revealed the identity of the man who leaked information about the NSA's surveillance programs, PRISM and Boundless Informant. Meet Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old defense contractor employee who's worked for the NSA for four years.

Snowden is currently employed by defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, where he makes around $200,000, and has worked at the NSA office in Hawaii for four years. "I have no intention of hiding who I am because I know I have done nothing wrong," he said in a taped interview with Greenwald. He used to work for the CIA as a technical assistant. He's an American citizen with a girlfriend and a house in Hawaii. But on May 20, he told his boss he needed to take a few weeks off work. He got on a plane and flew to Hong Kong, where he's been holed up in a hotel room ever since (UPDATE: he may have left his home as early as May 1, according to the AP). He explained his motivations for leaking the NSA information in a note:

In a note accompanying the first set of documents he provided, he wrote: "I understand that I will be made to suffer for my actions," but "I will be satisfied if the federation of secret law, unequal pardon and irresistible executive powers that rule the world that I love are revealed even for an instant."

Snowden realizes he's risking his life -- his house, his freedom, his girlfriend -- by leaking this information. "I'm willing to sacrifice all of that because I can't in good conscience allow the US government to destroy privacy, internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they're secretly building," he said.

Read more on The Atlantic Wire.

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Senior Execs' Secret Email Addresses Offered for $1 Million -- Briefly

Connor Simpson, The Wire — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 15:04:47 -0400

The Associated Press filed Freedom of Information Act requests for the secret email addresses of appointed administration employees, and a Labor Department spokesman came back with an offer: you can have the emails if you give us a million bucks.

The AP tried to get the alternate addresses — being used by a variety government officials "to prevent their inboxes from being overwhelmed with unwanted messages" — after an Environmental Protection Agency administrator disclosed using separate email accounts for work last year. But the government was hesitant because, as spokespeople for Labor and the Department of Health and Human Services insisted, the accounts are necessary for government officials to do their jobs efficiently. After the AP filed the FOIA requests, they were met with this:

The Labor Department initially asked the AP to pay just over $1.03 million when the AP asked for email addresses of political appointees there. It said it needed pull 2,236 computer backup tapes from its archives and pay 50 people to pore over old records. Those costs included three weeks to identify tapes and ship them to a vendor, and pay each person $2,500 for nearly a month’s work.

Issa Says Washington Directed IRS Scrutiny of Conservative Groups

Connor Simpson, The Wire — Mon, 03 Jun 2013 08:21:00 -0400

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., made some bold accusations during his exclusive appearance on CNN's State of the Union Sunday morning. Namely, Issa said an IRS employee testified under oath the Cincinnati office at the center of the Tea Party scrutiny scandal received that direction from Washington. He also called White House press secretary Jay Carney a lair. "Their paid liar, their spokesperson, the picture behind, he’s still making up things about what happened and calling this a local rogue," said Issa, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee. (Carney was pictured behind Issa on set.) "The reason the Lois Lerner tried to take the fifth is not because there is a rogue in Cincinnati, it's because this is a problem that was coordinated in all likelihood right out of Washington headquarters and we're getting to proving it," he added. Issa was trumpeting a big get, in his mind, when one IRS agent apparently said they were receiving direction from Washington during the IRS investigation. Issa provided the transcript to CNN ahead of his interview, but host Candy Crowley wasn't as convinced as Issa. Her reading of the transcript:

The investigator said, "so is it your perspective that ultimately the responsible parties for the decisions that were reported by the IG," that is the decision that target tea party and Patriot applications, "are not in the Cincinnati office?"

The employee says, "I don't know how to answer that question. I mean, from an agent standpoint, we didn't do anything wrong. We followed directions based on other people telling us what to do."

Investigator, "and you ultimately followed directions from Washington, is that correct?"

The employee, "if direction had come down from Washington, yes."

The investigator, "but with respect to the particular scrutiny that was given to Tea Party applications, those directions emanated from Washington, is that right?"

The employee answers, "I believe so."

It's totally not definitive.

But Issa is determined that his committee will prove the White House is lying and that they demanded the Tea Party groups get extra attention."This is a problem that was in all likelihood right out of Washington headquarters," Issa said. "We’re getting to proving it." Then he unloaded some Detective Mulder level truth-seeking rhetoric: "What we have is people who have to come in and transcribe interviews. They’re saying under penalty of crimes that certain things are true. We have subpoenaed documents that would support that that they say emails went back and forth," Issa said. "We will learn the whole truth." It's probably out there.

Read the rest at TheAtlanticWire.com.

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Justice Investigated a New York Times Reporter, Too

Connor Simpson, The Wire — Tue, 28 May 2013 07:58:11 -0400

The New York Times reports the Department of Justice investigated national security leaks given toTimes reporter David Sanger over his story last year about the Stuxnet virus by pulling all the email and phone records of government officials who communicated with the reporter. Last summer, Sanger reported the U.S. helped develop the Stuxnet virus and used it to attack Iran, becoming the first country to carry out a sustained cyber attack with the intent of destroying another country's infrastructure. There was some hoopla and a hullaballoo about leaks and Justice investigations, the Associated Press case, and now a year later we're finding out just how far things went.

The Times' Ethan Bronner, Charlie Savage and Scott Shane report the FBI requested all phone and email logs from the White House, the Defense Department and other "intelligence agencies" that showed any contact between employees and Sanger. It does not appear they went so far as to seize Sanger's telephone records or emails, as they did with the Associates Press and Fox News reporter James Rosen. Instead of looking at Sanger's communication records, they looked at the communications between him and every government employee by looking on their end.

The Times report does paint a very detailed picture of how far the Justice Department goes with these investigations, even before they get into the legally and morally questionable practice of subpoenaing a reporters' email and phone records. As a result of the intense scrutiny, the Times says some sources are starting to clam up

Read the rest at TheAtlanticWire.com.

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