Congress

Senator Boxer Upstages Powerful Testimony

August 8, 2014 Rania Khalek, www.electronicintifada.net Educate! Congress, Israel, Palestine

Goes to Senate Floor to Speak Incoherent Israeli Platitudes Forcing CSPAN to Cover Her Rather than American Between by Israelis On Friday, fifteen-year-old Tariq Abukhdeir spoke at a hearing on Capitol Hill about the brutal beating he endured at the hands of Israeli police in early July. The purpose of the hearing was to address Israeli impunity and US complicity in crimes against Palestinians. Tariq was one of six panelists to address the room, which was overflowing with congressional staffers. Moderated by author and campaigner Josh Ruebner, other panelists included Tariq’s mother, Suha Abu Abukhdeir; Hassan Shibly of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Florida chapter; Sunjeev Bery from Amnesty International; Brad Parker from Defence for Children International and Palestinian author Laila El-Haddad. Though he was just one of six speakers, Tariq’s testimony was especially powerful as he relayed to the audience the horrors and discrimination he witnessed and experienced as a Palestinian-American child visiting his ancestral homeland. But just as Tariq started to detail the Israeli beating that left him unconscious and unrecognizable, CSPAN 2, which was broadcasting the hearing live, cut to the Senate floor. You can watch the whole thing back on CSPAN’s website. The cut from Tariq to Boxer occurs soon after time code 03:30.

Redactions May Make Torture Report Hard To Read

August 6, 2014 Jonathan S. Landay and Michael Doyle, www.mcclatchydc.com Educate! CIA, Congress, Torture, White House

The Obama administration and the Senate Intelligence Committee are sparring over the administration’s deletions of fake names from the public version of a long-awaited report on the CIA’s use of harsh interrogation methods on suspected terrorists, McClatchy has learned. The outcome of the debate could impact the clarity and narrative flow of the report, the product of the most intensive congressional investigation of CIA operations since lawmakers examined the agency’s role in the Iran-Contra arms-for-hostages scandal of the Reagan presidency. “Redactions are supposed to remove names or anything that could compromise sources and methods, not to undermine the source material so that it is impossible to understand,” Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., a member of the committee, said Sunday in a statement. “Try reading a novel with 15 percent of the words blacked out. It can’t be done properly.” The blackouts have added fuel to what already were serious tensions between the CIA and its congressional overseers over the report and the agency’s admission last week that its personnel had broken into a computer database that by agreement was for the exclusive use of committee staffers. In his statement, Heinrich didn’t identify the nature of the deletions made in a months-long declassification process in which the CIA and then the White House blacked out from the executive summary what they deemed to be sensitive national security information. The 480-page executive summary, findings and conclusions are the only part of the full 6,600-page top-secret report that are to be made public

John Brennan: It’s About The Lying

August 2, 2014 Dan Froomkin, www.firstlook.org Educate! Barack Obama, CIA, Congress, Lying, Surveillance

I don’t want to understate how seriously wrong it is that the CIA searched Senate computers. Our constitutional order is seriously out of whack when the executive branch acts with that kind of impunity — to its overseers, no less. But given everything else that’s been going on lately, the single biggest — and arguably most constructive — thing to focus on is how outrageously CIA Director John Brennan lied to everyone about it. “As far as the allegations of the CIA hacking into Senate computers, nothing could be further from the truth,” Brennan told NBC’s Andrea Mitchell in March. “We wouldn’t do that. I mean, that’s just beyond the, you know, the scope of reason in terms of what we do.” Earlier, he had castigated “some members of the Senate” for making “spurious allegations about CIA actions that are wholly unsupported by the facts.” He called for an end to “outbursts that do a disservice to the important relationship that needs to be maintained between intelligence officials and Congressional overseers.” And what compelled Senate intelligence committee chairwoman Dianne Feinstein to make a dramatic floor speech in the first place, bringing everything out in the open, was that Brennan had responded to her initial concerns not by acknowledging the CIA’s misconduct — but by firing back with an allegation of criminal activity by her own staff.

CIA Director John Brennan Lied. Fire Him

August 2, 2014 Trevor Timm, www.theguardian.com Organize! CIA, Congress, Surveillance

As reports emerged Thursday that an internal investigation by the Central Intelligence Agency’s inspector general found that the CIA “improperly” spied on US Senate staffers when researching the CIA’s dark history of torture, it was hard to conclude anything but the obvious: John Brennan blatantly lied to the American public. Again. “The facts will come out,” Brennan told NBC News in March after Senator Dianne Feinstein issued a blistering condemnation of the CIA on the Senate floor, accusing his agency of hacking into the computers used by her intelligence committee’s staffers. “Let me assure you the CIA was in no way spying on [the committee] or the Senate,” he said. After the CIA inspector general’s report completely contradicted Brennan’s statements, it now appears Brennan was forced to privately apologize to intelligence committee chairs in a “tense” meeting earlier this week. Other Senators on Thursday pushed for Brennan to publicly apologize and called for an independent investigation. Sen. Ron Wyden said it well: .@CIA broke into Senate computer files. Then tried to have Senate staff prosecuted. Absolutely unacceptable in a democracy. — Ron Wyden (@RonWyden) July 31, 2014 But the director of the CIA – and the architect of America’s drone program, who will be all but defending torture for the next several weeks – should do more than that. Apologies aren’t enough: John Brennan should resign.

Senator Calls For John Brennan To Resign

August 1, 2014 Igor Bobic, www.huffingtonpost.com Organize! CIA, Congress, Privacy, Surveillance

Following reports that Central Intelligence Agency employees improperly accessed computers used by U.S. Senate staff to investigate the agency, Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) on Thursday called for the resignation of John Brennan as CIA director. "After being briefed on the CIA Inspector General report today, I have no choice but to call for the resignation of CIA Director John Brennan," Udall said in a statement. "The CIA unconstitutionally spied on Congress by hacking into Senate Intelligence Committee computers. This grave misconduct not only is illegal, but it violates the U.S. Constitution’s requirement of separation of powers. These offenses, along with other errors in judgment by some at the CIA, demonstrate a tremendous failure of leadership, and there must be consequences." According to a CIA Inspector General’s Office report first obtained by McClatchy, agency employees in 2009 hacked Senate computers being used to compile a report on the agency’s infamous detention and interrogation program -- a move that some critics have characterized as a significant breach of the separation of powers. Brennan has apologized to Senate intelligence committee leaders, including Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who took the floor earlier this year to excoriate the agency for skirting the law and attempting to intimidate Congress.

CIA Admits It Spied On Senate Committee

August 1, 2014 Johnathan S. Landay and Ali Watkins, www.mcclatchydc.com Educate! CIA, Congress, Privacy, Surveillance

An internal CIA investigation confirmed allegations that agency personnel improperly intruded into a protected database used by Senate Intelligence Committee staff to compile a scathing report on the agency’s detention and interrogation program, prompting bipartisan outrage and at least two calls for spy chief John Brennan to resign. “This is very, very serious, and I will tell you, as a member of the committee, someone who has great respect for the CIA, I am extremely disappointed in the actions of the agents of the CIA who carried out this breach of the committee’s computers,” said Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., the committee’s vice chairman. The rare display of bipartisan fury followed a three-hour private briefing by Inspector General David Buckley. His investigation revealed that five CIA employees, two lawyers and three information technology specialists improperly accessed or “caused access” to a database that only committee staff were permitted to use. Buckley’s inquiry also determined that a CIA crimes report to the Justice Department alleging that the panel staff removed classified documents from a top-secret facility without authorization was based on “inaccurate information,” according to a summary of the findings prepared for the Senate and House intelligence committees and released by the CIA.

New Missile Defense Base Public Hearings

July 31, 2014 Bruce K. Gagnon, www.space4peace.blogspot.mx Resist! Congress, Democracy, Gaza, Wars and Militarism

There are various kinds of 'missile defense' (MD) systems now being tested. The one with the very worst testing record is the Ground-based Mid-course program. It is very likely the most expensive of the MD programs because of the sheer difficulty of trying to have a bullet-hit-a-bullet in deep space at more than 15,000 mph. In the end the program is incredibly destabilizing as the entire MD program is all about being the shield to take out Russian or Chinese retaliatory response after a Pentagon first-strike attack on them. This stuff ain't theoretical either as the Space Command annually holds a computer war game to practice this very kind of an attack. We see the miniature version it being carried out by Israel in Gaza right now. You might call the Gaza attack by Israel as a field test of the Israel-US MD program. The military industrial complex, and in particular the MD lobby, has been pushing Congress hard to deploy a US east coast interceptor site. The already bought-and-paid-for bunch in Washington has mandated that the Pentagon do a feasibility study to determine which of four states (Maine, New York, Michigan, Ohio) would be the best place to host the interceptor missile facility. Public hearings to work on the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) have been announced. They are listed below.

Intelligence Community Contractors Need Protections

July 30, 2014 Keith Wrightson, www.dcmediagroup.us Organize! Congress, Edward Snowden, Whistleblowers

One year ago today, the Senate passed Resolution 202, establishing National Whistleblower Appreciation Day on July 30. Passage of Resolution 202 was led by Senators Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and was passed by unanimous consent. Truly remarkable in this era of partisan rancor. And it’s not just Congress that sees the importance of this issue. The Obama administration has also been doing its part to increase whistleblower protections for those who disclose waste, fraud and abuse. On November 27, 2012, President Obama signed into law the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (WPEA). The WPEA provides millions of federal workers with the rights they need safely to report government corruption and wrongdoing. President Obama also has issued Presidential Policy Directive 19 (PPD-19), which extends whistleblower protections to the federal government’s intelligence community employees. The directive provides for reinstatement, compensatory damages, restoration of back pay and other remedies in cases where retaliation for whistleblowing is substantiated.

How Many Politicians Is The NSA, CIA & FBI Blackmailing?

July 23, 2014 Sam Smith, www.prorevnews.com Educate! CIA, Congress, FBI, NSA, Surveillance

“One of my colleagues asked the NSA point blank will you give me a copy of my own record and the NSA said no, we won’t. They didn’t say no we don’t have one. They said no we won’t. So that’s possible.” Grayson is right: presumably, if the NSA wasn’t tracking lawmakers, it would have flatly denied it. Instead, those officials merely denied lawmakers access to whatever files the agency might have. That suggests one of two realities: 1) the NSA is keeping files on lawmakers 2) the NSA isn’t keeping files on lawmakers, but answered vaguely in order to stoke fear among legislators that it is. Regardless of which of these realities happens to be the case, the mere existence of legitimate fears of congressional surveillance by an executive-branch agency is a serious legal and separation-of-powers problem. Why? Because whether or not the surveillance is actually happening, the very real possibility that it even could be happening or has happened can unduly intimidate the legislative branch into abrogating its constitutional oversight responsibilities.

Anonymous Threatens Congress Over Bill

July 2, 2014 Dell Cameron, www.dailydot.com Resist! Anonymous, Congress, Law

A threat by the hacktivist group Anonymous over a new cybersecurity bill scheduled for committee markup next month is being taken seriously by the Washington D.C. capitol police. The Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2014 (CISA), authored by Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), is being labelled by many constitutional groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), as the third installment of a much-despised piece of Internet legislation widely known as CISPA. CISPA, or the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, was a hugely unpopular bill that has twice been dropped by the U.S. Senate. As a law, it would have permitted the U.S. government to share sensitive information with companies about the online habits of U.S. citizens, specifically, when deemed necessary to protect against rather ambiguously defined “cyber threats.” Opponents of CISPA, such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and Fight for the Future, successfully derailed CISPA by painting it as a danger to American civil liberties. The bill, critics said, would have allowed the federal government too broad authority when it came to tracking users’ online activities.

Report On Torture Survivor’s Week

July 2, 2014 Witness Against Torture, www.witnesstorture.org Resist! Congress, Guantanamo, Law, Protest, Torture

Dear Friends, Last week, members of Witness Against Torture gathered in Washington, D.C. for the International Day in Support of Survivors of Torture. Our group of about fifteen attended a panel organized by National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT) on Thursday on U.S. sanctioned torture, engaged in nonviolent direct action at Senator Ayotte and McCain’s offices, and participated in an all-day vigil with Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition(TASSC). On Sunday, we retreated to the Peace Oasis to put in motion a framework for January 11, 2015. During our opening session on Thursday, we found our energy drawn to the Cotton amendment that passed in the House of Representatives and similar efforts to keep Guantanamo open by Kelly Ayotte in the Senate. These bills would make transfers from Guantanamo virtually impossible and continue to senselessly criminalize the men detained without charge at the prison. Furthermore, we decried McCain’s tweet about shipping the newest Benghazi Attack suspect to Guantanamo. Jeremy V. wrote a letter to each senator expressing our concerns.

Congress Demands A Vote Before Bombs Fall On Iraq

June 28, 2014 Win Without War, www.winwithoutwar.org Resist! Barack Obama, Budget, Congress, Iraq, Wars and Militarism

The current situation in Iraq has grabbed the nation’s attention, and President Obama has already deployed U.S. military assets in response to the crisis. The President has also suggested that the U.S. military may take further action, such as drones or airstrikes. Many reports have also suggested that, unlike in the case of Syria last fall, the President may not seek authorization from Congress before bombing Iraq. Thankfully, many Members of Congress are speaking up and calling on President Obama to come to Congress for authorization before using military force. Our best tool to stop this rush to war is to press President Obama to come to Congress for authorization before using military force, as required by the U.S. Constitution. Read what Members of Congress are saying, and then ask your Representative to add his or her name. Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR)- “As broad as it was, the AUMF for Iraq does not cover this instance, and… the president should come to Congress and sketch out a plan [and] ask for authorization. Because I’m not sure what the plan is.” [6/24/14]

CIA Sued For Records On Senate Spying

June 25, 2014 The Sparrow Project, www.sparrowmedia.net Resist! CIA, Congress, Democracy, Surveillance

Investigative journalist Jason Leopold and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) PhD candidate Ryan Shapiro filed a lawsuit this morning against the Central Intelligence Agency. The suit is over the CIA’s failure to comply with Leopold and Shapiro’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for records on the CIA’s alleged spying on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence’s (SSCI) review of the CIA’s notorious rendition, detention and interrogation (RDI) program. As detailed in an exclusive report by Natasha Lennard for Vice News, through their FOIA request and lawsuit, Leopold and Shapiro seek to shed light on a critical yet little-understood ongoing controversy frequently described as a possible constitutional crisis. Jason Leopold is an investigative journalist covering counterterrorism and human rights. He has been called a “FOIA Terrorist” by federal employees for his aggressive use of the Freedom of Information Act, which includes successfully suing the FBI to force changes to Bureau FOIA practices.

House Votes To Rein In NSA

June 23, 2014 Josh Levy, www.freepress.net Organize! Congress, NSA, Privacy, Surveillance

Something awesome happened last night: The House of Representatives voted to cut funding the NSA has used to conduct warrantless back-door searches of our emails, browsing histories and online chats. The bipartisan vote was 293–123 for Reps. Lofgren and Massie's amendment to the defense appropriations bill. The margin of victory was much bigger than anticipated — which shows that opposition to the NSA's unconstitutional surveillance programs is growing. Last night’s vote represented a big step forward. But the movement to restore our right to privacy faces an uphill battle. Here’s why: Last month the House also voted for a version of the USA Freedom Act that was so watered down we and our friends had to withdraw our support for it. Now it’s the Senate's turn to consider the USA Freedom Act. In the coming weeks, the Free Press Action Fund will push our senators to protect our right to speak in private and restore the original bill, which would stop many of the NSA's worst abuses. Stay tuned!

The Pacific Trade Deal, Fast Track, And The 2014 Elections

June 23, 2014 Bill Waren, www.foe.org Educate! Congress, Corporatism, Elections, fast track, TPP

Recently, I had the opportunity to appear with Ian Levitt, the host of The Daily Report on Minnesota radio station KTNF. He is conducting a series of interviews with me regarding the environmental threat posed by legislation that would “fast track” the Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement and a similar trans Atlantic free trade agreement, which is the early stages of negotiation. The focus of our discussion was the TPP, which appears to be in the final stage of closed-door bargaining among the parties. It is a colossal trade deal in terms of its geographic and economic reach. The participants in the secretive negotiations include Japan, the communist dictatorship of Vietnam, the Sultanate of Brunei (ruled under sharia law), and eight other Pacific nations: a mixed bag in terms of observance of human rights standards, to say the least. The TPP would undercut sensible safeguards related to food safety, financial industry abuses and global warming, among many others. As I told KTNF listeners,, “a long list of special favors to the wealthy and the corporations is in this so-called trade agreement. It’s a Wall Street Bill of Rights.”

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