The federal government recently revealed that at least 50 U.S. government personnel working in 10 foreign countries have had their mobile devices hacked by unknown persons who employed software known as "zero-click." The zero-click product, called Pegasus,...
Does the Federal Government Believe in the Constitution?
Last week, FBI officials boasted that in 2022 their agents had spied on only 120,000 Americans without search warrants! Under the Constitution, that number should be ZERO. This revelation is supposed to give members of Congress comfort that the folks we have hired to...
Secrecy Versus Truth
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...
Spying In Plain Sight
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...
War and Indifference
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...
The Legacy of George W. Bush and His Torturers
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...
The FBI and Personal Liberty
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...
A Government That Assaults 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...
Searching for Monsters
"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...
The FBI and Zero-Click
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...