Andrew P. Napolitano

The arrest last week of 21-year-old air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira on charges of espionage has sparked a debate in the intelligence community and elsewhere about whether his behavior is criminal or heroic. He apparently shared top-secret intelligence and military briefings – to which he had lawful access – with folks in his chatroom, at … Continue reading “Secrecy Versus Truth”

Last week, the Biden administration asked Congress to permit its agents to continue to spy on Americans without search warrants. The actual request was to re-authorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978. FISA requires warrants from the FISA Court for all domestic spying. Section 702 is a 2008 amendment to FISA. … Continue reading “Spying In Plain Sight”

Which is more destructive to personal liberty, a government that engages in secret acts of war or a public and news media that are indifferent to it? In the current American toxic stew of anti-Russian hatred and beating the drums of war – in President Joe Biden’s America – we have both. Here is the … Continue reading “War and Indifference”

In the days and months following the attacks of 9/11, the government laid the blame for orchestrating the attacks on Osama bin Ladin. Then, after bin Ladin was murdered in his home in Pakistan in 2011, the government decided that the true mastermind of 9/11 was Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. By the time of bin Ladin’s … Continue reading “The Legacy of George W. Bush and His Torturers”

Among the lesser-known holes in the Constitution cut by the Patriot Act of 2001 was the destruction of the "wall" between federal law enforcement and federal spies. The wall was erected in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, which statutorily limited all federal domestic spying to that which was authorized by the Foreign Intelligence … Continue reading “The FBI and Personal Liberty”

During the course of an FBI written response to a Freedom of Information Act request asking about the trade names and suppliers of surveillance software the FBI had purchased, and in a legal brief submitted to a federal judge, the government has yet again quietly acknowledged its antipathy to constitutional provisions that all of its … Continue reading “A Government That Assaults Liberty”

"America goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy … She might become the dictatress of the world, But she would no longer be the ruler of her own spirit." ~ John Quincy Adams (1767-1848) In the middle of his term as Secretary of State, the future president John Quincy Adams requested permission to … Continue reading “Searching for Monsters”

During the Trump administration, the FBI paid $5 million to an Israeli software company for a license to use its "zero-click" surveillance software called Pegasus. Zero-click refers to software that can download the contents of a target’s computer or mobile device without the need for tricking the target into clicking on it. The FBI operated … Continue reading “The FBI and Zero-Click”

Last week, the government announced that it does not want to try Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and four of his colleagues whom it claims are the remaining conspirators of the attacks on 9/11. All five are awaiting trial at the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The allegations are that these five conspired to commit … Continue reading “Bush, Guantanamo, and the Rule of Law”

Last week, President Joseph R. Biden Jr. secretly reaffirmed his own self-willed authority to kill persons in other countries, so long as the CIA and its military counterparts have "near certainty" that the target of the homicide is a member of a terrorist organization. That standard was concocted by the Biden administration. There is no … Continue reading “Killing With Near Certainty”