3:40 PM EST There are some lines of questioning that deserve to be highlighted because representatives actually raised critical issues that the Justice Department is responsible for creating and exacerbating. Or, these issues are ones where the Justice Department has the complete ability to take action and hasn’t. I’ll probably put up a post. But, I’m [...]

In a rare hearing held by leaders of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC), members displayed interest in providing oversight to national security policies and heard testimony on drone operations abroad, drone technology, executive and congressional authority for “targeted killings,” how strikes go beyond what is permitted under international human rights law and dangerous precedents being [...]

Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, who sent three letters to CIA director nominee John Brennan requesting an answer on “whether the president has the power to authorize lethal force, such as a drone strike, against a US citizen on US soil,” finally received an answer from Attorney General Eric Holder. The answer indicates the [...]

Four days away from massive austerity that would result in cuts to the United States government, the Pentagon is suggesting the cuts would make it harder to fight cyber threats. Posted by Secrecy News, Zachary J. Lemnios, the assistant secretary of defense for research and engineering, was asked by Sen. Rob Portman what would be the impact [...]

President Barack Obama delivered his “State of the Union” address on Tuesday night. And though he suggested there may be minimal reductions to wartime spending, he jingoistically declared, “We will maintain the best military the world has ever known.” The speech renewed the US government’s commitment to a permanent war on terrorism. While it signaled [...]

(update below) Ahead of the confirmation of Deputy National Security Advisor John Brennan to the position of CIA director, US Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon has sent a letter to Brennan asking him to provide Congress access to “secret legal opinions outlining the government’s ability to target and kill Americans believed to be involved in [...]

President Barack Obama signed the intelligence authorization bill—the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Included in the bill were restrictions that would make it harder for his administration to transfer detainees from Guantanamo Bay prison and the Bagram prison in Afghanistan. Human rights groups, which had opposed the restrictions and urged the president to veto the [...]

Lawyers involved in bringing a lawsuit against an indefinite detention provision in the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) have expressed outrage over a Congressional conference committee decision to remove an amendment offered by Sen. Dianne Feinstein that she thought would ban the indefinite detention of US citizens. Michael B. Kelley for Business Insider reports [...]

Democratic Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon has placed a public hold on the intelligence authorization bill to prevent anti-leaks provisions from passing without any meaningful debate or amendments because he believes they would “inhibit free speech and damage the news media’s ability to report on national security issues.” On the Senate floor, Wyden declared, “Congress [...]

The United States Supreme Court heard a legal challenge being brought by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) against the FISA Amendments Act (FAA) of 2008 today. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of human rights attorneys, journalists and human rights and media organizations. And, despite the threat of Hurricane Sandy, the Supreme Court went [...]