As I noted in my last post, DiFi is accusing the intelligence community of having missed the potential volatility of Middle Eastern unrest because they’ve been paying too little attention to social media. So I decided to check the WikiLeaks State cables to see whether DiFi’s complaint bears out. Obviously, this is a totally insufficient [...]

That’s the question NSC spokesperson Tommy Vietor used yesterday to deflect Senate Intelligence Committee concerns that the Administration was taken by surprise by the events in Egypt. Did anyone in the world know in advance that a fruit vendor in Tunisia was going to light himself on fire and start a revolution? No. But for [...]

In a press briefing on the situation in Egypt (and probably his last briefing ever), Robert Gibbs made a stunning, but important statement. We believe in the basket of individual freedoms includes the freedom to access the Internet and the freedom to use social networking sites. Gibbs did not say (and none of the reporters [...]

Update: BBC and al-Jazeera report that Ben Ali has left the country and security forces have arrested family members at the airport. The simultaneous (and related) unfolding of the uprising in Tunisia and the latest Wikileaks events reveals a great deal about our own country’s support for democracy. If you aren’t already, I recommend you [...]

Robert Gibbs has made it official: he’s leaving the White House. (Applause!!!) Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary and close confidante to President Obama, said Wednesday that he will step down and become an outside political adviser to the president and his re-election campaign. [snip] Mr. Gibbs will remain part of the president’s inner [...]

A number of outlets are reporting on the OMB memo requiring agencies to review their security procedures in response to WikiLeaks. Now, this memo is explicitly a response to WikiLeaks. It’s a follow-up on a memo sent in November that names WikiLeaks. On November 28, 2010, departments and agencies that handle classified national security information [...]

“Judith” “Miller” “Embedded” “Iraq” By Judith Miller It was the suicide vest that clinched it. John C. Myers, a veteran law enforcement officer embedded in the U.S. Army’s 1st Brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division in Iraq’s Anbar province, was certainly familiar with the outlawed amphetamine Captagon. The bonus word that makes it all the [...]

Gawker has published a misleading and uninformed article on the detention conditions of Bradley Manning; the truth is that he is presumed innocent and being held pre-trial, not a convicted criminal being punished.

Back in the early days of radio, there was a great amateur radio culture that in key ways resembled early internet culture: it was predominantly male, highly competent, espousing a belief that this new technology could democratize the world. And in spite of the amateur radio community’s offer to set up an alternative communication system [...]

The NYT has a fascinating story about the $75,000 house that led to the GMAC deposition on robosigning that finally alerted the world to the extent of the fraud behind foreclosures. It’s worth reading for the description of Thomas Cox, a lawyer who volunteers at legal assistance to make right for his years of doing [...]