Wargames

Today's NYT, on Iran's growing cyber capabilities:

The targets have included several American oil, gas and electricity companies, which government officials have refused to identify. The goal is not espionage, they say, but sabotage. Government officials describe the attacks as probes looking for ways to seize control of critical processing systems.

And on the larger picture:

The new attacks, officials say, were devised to destroy data and manipulate the machinery that operates critical control systems, like oil pipelines. One official described them as “probes that suggest someone is looking at how to take control of these systems.”

Did people in the Administration seriously think the Iranians would be content to just be our cyber punching bag? The Iranians are preparing for war with us since it's clear we've been preparing for the same against them for a long time now. Both countries are well on their way to making it a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The Drone Court Dodge

Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) quoted today in the CSM on the dubious idea of Star Chamber-style "drone courts":

Congress will carefully consider any drone-court proposal, Sen. Ron Wyden (D) of Oregon told National Public Radio on Thursday. Senator Wyden has demanded access to secret documents about the lethal drone attacks on Anwar al-Awlaki, an American cleric living in Yemen who was killed in 2011.

For his part, Wyden expressed reservations “about this idea of just setting up more special courts.”

“I mean, it’s not as if we’ve struck the right balance with respect to the FISA court at this point in terms of protecting the American people. I’ve been trying to get a number of these opinions declassified for years now,” he added, “and I haven’t been able to do it.”

The very creation of such a monstrosity would bring America a giant step closer to a real-world version of Orwell's 1984.

Will The Real Eric Holder Please Stand Up

From the AP on May 14:

The Justice Department says Attorney General Eric Holder removed himself from a decision to subpoena phone records of The Associated Press.

A Justice Department statement Tuesday says that Holder stepped aside — a procedure known as recusal. The statement says Holder stepped aside because he had been interviewed in a government investigation into who provided information for an AP story that disclosed details of a CIA operation in Yemen.

Holder has assigned Deputy Attorney General Jim Cole to handle the phone records case.

And from NBC News today:

Attorney General Eric Holder signed off on a controversial search warrant that identified Fox News reporter James Rosen as a “possible co-conspirator” in violations of the Espionage Act and authorized seizure of his private emails, a law enforcement official told NBC News on Thursday.

The phrase your searching for is "credibility gap"....

Why Does The Flickr Redesign Look So Familiar?

Now where have I seen a format like the one above before? Oh yeah.....

A Bland And Unassuming Official

Yale professor David Bromwich on the pernicious paternalism of Eric Holder:

Attorney General Holder is a bland and unassuming official who is not given to hyperbole. But his actions have been hyperbolic. During the first 92 years of the existence of the Foreign Espionage Act of 1917, three persons were prosecuted. In the first four years of the Holder justice department, six persons have been prosecuted, their good names taken from them, their lives turned upside down. Mark Mazetti among others has noted the predictable and intended result of the Holder prosecutions: government employees have become exceedingly reluctant to speak with reporters about anything the government does. The intimidation has been comparable in its effect to the Palmer Raids of 1918-1921. None of the quarries fits any common definition of a spy; they were trying to warn the American public of what was done behind their backs. Nor have their activities given information to the enemy so much as they have given eyes and ears to Americans. Yet, in keeping with the pattern of misrepresentation, Holder, when he was asked what element of the crime had necessitated the seizure of AP records, said that the leak "put the American people at risk, and that is not hyperbole."