Showing posts with label FBI. Show all posts
Showing posts with label FBI. Show all posts
Sunday, March 24, 2013
FBI Fiscal Year 2014 Budget Request (video)
Robert Mueller testified on the fiscal year 2014 budget request for the Federal Bureau of Investigation and provided details on the effects of sequestration on his agency. Topics included terrorist and cyber threats against the U.S.,the FBI’s involvement in gun background checks, the arrest of Osama Ben laden’s son-in-law, and DNA testing. “Sequestration,” a legal procedure in which every federal agency has the same percentage of its budget taken back in order to cut deficit spending, was agreed to in the Budget Control Act of 2011 and began March 1, 2013.
Everybody crying the blues over "sequestration" -- there's so much bloat and waste in Homeland Security and related agencies (TSA, FBI, CIA, etc.) that it's amazing any of these bureaucrats have the gall to whine and complain about a small amount of fiscal restraint!
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Sunday, March 17, 2013
Federal Judge Finds Obama Administration "National Security Letters" Unconstitutional
Federal Judge Finds National Security Letters Unconstitutional, Bans Them | Threat Level | Wired.com: "Ultra-secret national security letters that come with a gag order on the recipient are an unconstitutional impingement on free speech, a federal judge in California ruled in a decision released Friday. U.S. District Judge Susan Illston ordered the government to stop issuing so-called NSLs across the board, in a stunning defeat for the Obama administration’s surveillance practices. She also ordered the government to cease enforcing the gag provision in any other cases. However, she stayed her order for 90 days to give the government a chance to appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. “We are very pleased that the Court recognized the fatal constitutional shortcomings of the NSL statute,” said Matt Zimmerman, senior staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which filed a challenge to NSLs on behalf of an unknown telecom that received an NSL in 2011. “The government’s gags have truncated the public debate on these controversial surveillance tools. Our client looks forward to the day when it can publicly discuss its experience.” . . ."
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Wednesday, November 21, 2012
"Dumbing Down" the "Intelligence"
What happened after the Benghazi attack, in which the US ambassador was killed, can only be described as an "inside the beltway" process of "dumbing down" the "intelligence"--
Sources: Office of the DNI cut "al Qaeda" reference from Benghazi talking points, and CIA, FBI signed off - CBS News: ""The intelligence community assessed from the very beginning that what happened in Benghazi was a terrorist attack," DNI spokesman Shawn Turner tells CBS News. That information was shared at a classified level -- which Rice, as a member of President Obama's cabinet, would have been privy to. An intelligence source says the talking points were passed from the CIA to the DNI, where the substantive edits were made, and then to FBI, which made more edits as part of "standard procedure.""
In other words, Rice knew, Obama knew, in fact everyone "inside the intelligence apparatus" knew that it was a terrorist attack--nonetheless, Rice went on multiple national television shows 5 days after the attack and maintained the "intelligence" indicated it was a spontaneous "protest" over some obscure YouTube video. This would be hilarious but for the tragic consequences of the attack.
Spin it however you want--this is pathetic. There is nothing honorable in the performance of Rice, Obama's posturing, or the DNI--which should be abolished. Part of the obvious problem here is we have too many "intelligence" agencies, each of whom wants to have their own input on the "end product" resulting in a very poor quality product. If Steve Jobs were running this show, DNI would have been abolished and the head of the CIA would report directly to the White House with the latest and best intelligence. We don't need a dozen bureaucracies to do one job in Washington! But you think anyone in Washington is going to streamline an inefficient and bloated government? That would save taxpayer funds and lessen the deficit!
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Sources: Office of the DNI cut "al Qaeda" reference from Benghazi talking points, and CIA, FBI signed off - CBS News: ""The intelligence community assessed from the very beginning that what happened in Benghazi was a terrorist attack," DNI spokesman Shawn Turner tells CBS News. That information was shared at a classified level -- which Rice, as a member of President Obama's cabinet, would have been privy to. An intelligence source says the talking points were passed from the CIA to the DNI, where the substantive edits were made, and then to FBI, which made more edits as part of "standard procedure.""
In other words, Rice knew, Obama knew, in fact everyone "inside the intelligence apparatus" knew that it was a terrorist attack--nonetheless, Rice went on multiple national television shows 5 days after the attack and maintained the "intelligence" indicated it was a spontaneous "protest" over some obscure YouTube video. This would be hilarious but for the tragic consequences of the attack.
Spin it however you want--this is pathetic. There is nothing honorable in the performance of Rice, Obama's posturing, or the DNI--which should be abolished. Part of the obvious problem here is we have too many "intelligence" agencies, each of whom wants to have their own input on the "end product" resulting in a very poor quality product. If Steve Jobs were running this show, DNI would have been abolished and the head of the CIA would report directly to the White House with the latest and best intelligence. We don't need a dozen bureaucracies to do one job in Washington! But you think anyone in Washington is going to streamline an inefficient and bloated government? That would save taxpayer funds and lessen the deficit!
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