Parliamentary oversight of security and intelligence agencies in the EU

One of the reasons for the lack of posts on this blog the past months is that I co-authored this large study (446 pages), together with Aidan Wills, for the European Parliament’s Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee (LIBE). The study came out today, and also includes a number of attachments written by national [...]

Dennis Blair: US intel relationship with brutal countries damages national interest

Quote from the NY Times Dennis C. Blair, the former top American intelligence official, said that while spy services in places like Libya and Egypt were cooperating with the United States against Al Qaeda, they were “aggressively and sometimes brutally suppressing dissent in their own countries.” “Not only did these intelligence relationships interfere with our [...]

US Director of National Intelligence disclosed budget request

For Fiscal Year 2012, “The aggregate amount of appropriations requested for the National Intelligence Program is $55 billion,” according to a February 14 ODNI news release. The new disclosure was required by the FY2010 intelligence authorization act (sec. 364).  That legislation permitted an optional Presidential waiver of disclosure if necessary on national security grounds, but [...]

Former CIA and NSA heads on the ‘the need to know’, Wikileaks and increased information sharing

Michael Hayden and Samuel Visner have an open-ed in the Baltimore sun in which they defend wider information sharing, if aided by sound security practices and advanced technology to protect information Vital information sharing need not be a victim of WikiLeaks. The principle of “need to know” requires segmenting information according to sensitivity and topic. [...]

Will Lord Goldsmith become the UK equivalent of John Yoo?

Afua Hirsch seems to suggest so in her comment is free article in The Guardian: As the Guardian revealed yesterday, the UK authorities relied on Bangladeshi intelligence despite well-documented accounts of their use of torture. The then home secretary Jacqui Smith flew to Dhaka for face-to-face meetings with the Bangladeshi authorities. Not only did the [...]

New JSOC centre must oversee growing use of special anti-terrorism operations

AP reports that the Obama administration has ramped up its secret war on terror groups with a new military targeting center to oversee the growing use of special operations strikes against suspected militants in hot spots around the world. Run by the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command, the new center would be a significant step [...]

Canadian intelligence head criticized role of courts in anti-terrorism cases

Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) Director Judd discussed domestic and foreign terror threats with Counselor of the State Department Cohen in Ottawa on 2 July 2008. In particular, he wasn’t very happy about the Canadian courts. Cable 08OTTAWA918 from Wikileaks’ Cablegate offers some insights: Director Judd ascribed an “Alice in Wonderland” worldview to Canadians and [...]

UK Lord Justice Gross speech on National Security and the Courts

Interesting speech by Lord Justice Gross at the Royal United Services Institute Intelligence Oversight Conference 2010, in which he outlined a variety of areas where national security impacts on the courts. He said that both the security agencies and the courts must come to a mutual understanding which helps them to perform their vital roles [...]

Saudi Arabia is still key player in fight against terrorism

Western intelligence officials say the Saudis’ own experience with jihadists has helped them develop powerful surveillance tools and a broad network of informers that has become increasingly important in the global battle against terrorism.

Intelligence spending at record $80.1 billion in first disclosure of overall figure

The Washington Post reports that the US Government announced Thursday that it had spent $80.1 billion on intelligence activities over the past 12 months, disclosing for the first time not only the amount spent by civilian intelligence agencies but also by the military. The so-called National Intelligence Program, run by the CIA and other agencies [...]