Forewarned Is Forearmed

I posted this in yesterday's Commentariat:

Laura Poitras,et al., in Der Spiegel: "President Obama promised that NSA surveillance activities were aimed exclusively at preventing terrorist attacks. But secret documents from the intelligence agency show that the Americans spy on Europe, the UN and other countries." The documents come from Edward Snowden. CW: First, Obama did not "promise" that the NSA wouldn't spy on other countries. He was talking about specific NSA programs that target terrorists in the cited remark. No one in the world thinks that the U.S. limits its spying to Al Qaeda & Friends. Second and more important, exactly how is Patriot Snowden (not to mention Poitras, who is a U.S. citizen, too) helping the U.S. public by revealing E.U. building floor plans obtained from the NSA? Are Americans shocked, shocked, that their government wants to know what other governments are saying? This whole article is infuriating crap.

I didn't think I needed to explain more, but this comment from contributor cowichan suggests I do:

UN spokesman Farhan Haq commenting on disclosure of US hacking "The inviolability of diplomatic missions, including the UN and other international organizations, whose functions are protected by the relevant international conventions like the Vienna Convention has been well-established international law."

Vienna Convention: 'A host country cannot search diplomatic premises or seize its documents or property. Host government must permit and protect free communication between diplomats of the mission and their home country'

Deutsche Welle: 'The alleged spying activities are illegal. The US has a long standing agreement with the UN stipulating that the US refrain from covert operations with regards to the UN's activities.' Obama, August 9: "And to others around the world, I want to make clear once again that America is not interested in spying on ordinary people. Our intelligence is focused on finding the information that's necessary to protect our people and, in many cases, protect our allies."

To be honest I would think most people would not consider diplomats to be 'ordinary people' like mechanics or house wives but does Obama really agree with Bolton that the UN and its black helicopters are a legitimate threat to the US? I would expect that the EU mission to the UN qualifies for the same theoretical guarantees of freedom from spying given to the UN itself.

Let's take those one at a time:

UN spokesman Farhan Haq commenting on disclosure of US hacking "The inviolability of diplomatic missions, including the UN and other international organizations, whose functions are protected by the relevant international conventions like the Vienna Convention has been well-established international law."

Peter Grier of the Christian Science Monitor: “'We’ve always assumed that this kind of thing goes on,' IAEA spokesman Mark Gwozdecky told the Post in 2004. 'We wish it were otherwise, but we know the reality.'” … Of course, one reason the US might be interested in spying on the UN is because other nations have used it as a place to assign spies with diplomatic cover.” Grier goes on to list some examples of cases in which Soviet or Russian spies used the U.N. as a base of operations. Feel assured that Europeans are doing the same. I recall reading years ago that at least some of the Concorde “flight attendants” were French spies. The “outrage” you heard from various E.U. spokespeople yesterday was pro forma.

Vienna Convention: 'A host country cannot search diplomatic premises or seize its documents or property. Host government must permit and protect free communication between diplomats of the mission and their home country'

This is apparently a reference to the 1961 Vienna Convention. AP: “... wiretapping and eavesdropping have been rampant for decades, most dramatically between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.”

CBS/AP: “In Washington, a statement from the national intelligence director's office said U.S. officials planned to respond to the concerns with their EU counterparts and through diplomatic channels with specific nations. However, 'as a matter of policy, we have made clear that the United States gathers foreign intelligence of the type gathered by all nations,' the statement concluded.”

Deutsche Welle: 'The alleged spying activities are illegal. The US has a long standing agreement with the UN stipulating that the US refrain from covert operations with regards to the UN's activities.'

See AP reports above.

Obama, August 9: "And to others around the world, I want to make clear once again that America is not interested in spying on ordinary people. Our intelligence is focused on finding the information that's necessary to protect our people and, in many cases, protect our allies."

No, diplomat-spies whom we are “hosting” at the U.N. are not “ordinary people.”

… does Obama really agree with Bolton that the UN and its black helicopters are a legitimate threat to the US?

See, the U.N. is made up of many, many countries. It is not really “united.” And every single one of those other countries has unique interests – interests that differ and often are at odds with ours. So we like to watch. And, yes, many of those countries – including our erstwhile friends – do pose threats to the U.S., if not existential threats.

If I can do one good & true thing this week, it will be to explain to a few starry-eyed idealists that spying on our friends & enemies alike is a legitimate and necessary function of the federal government. Rather than being “shocked, shocked that there's spying going on here,” we should damned well hope so.

The Commentariat -- Aug. 27, 2013

** Karen DeYoung & Anne Gearan of the Washington Post: "President Obama is weighing a military strike against Syria that would be of limited scope and duration, designed to serve as punishment for Syria's use of chemical weapons and as a deterrent, while keeping the United States out of deeper involvement in that country's civil war, according to senior administration officials. The timing of such an attack, which would probably last no more than two days and involve sea-launched cruise missiles -- or, possibly, long-range bombers -- ... is dependent on three factors: completion of an intelligence report assessing Syrian government culpability in last week's alleged chemical attack; ongoing consultation with allies and Congress; and determination of a justification under international law." ...

... Major Garrett & David Martin of CBS News: "President Barack Obama called his national security team together Saturday to talk about the next move in Syria. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper led off the three-hour White House meeting with detailed analysis of the evidence about the chemical weapons attack, the disposition of victims and what the administration now believes is a near air-tight circumstantial case that the Syrian regime was behind it. Obama ordered a declassified report be prepared for public release before any military strike commences. That report, top advisers tell CBS News, is due to be released in a day or two." ...

... Mark Thompson of Time: "Taking out Syria's chemical-weapons stockpile isn't easy – and is fraught with perils, including creating plumes of deadly vapors that could kill civilians downwind of such attacks. That's why Pentagon officials suggest that any U.S. and allied military strike against Syria will tilt toward military, and command and control, targets -- including artillery and missile units that could be used to launch chemical weapons -- instead of the bunkers believed to contain them." ...

... New York Times Editors: "A political agreement is still the best solution to this deadly conflict, and every effort must be made to find one. President Obama has resisted demands that he intervene militarily and in force. Though Mr. Assad's use of chemical weapons surely requires a response of some kind, the arguments against deep American involvement remain as compelling as ever." ...

Andrew Bacevich: assuming the Assad government is responsible for chemical attacks on Syrians, "President Obama should answer several questions. He should share those answers with the American people, before not after pulling the trigger." Bacevich poses the questions. ...

... Charles Pierce: "The message you are sending with your missiles gets just a trifle muddled. Make no mistake. If we strike, we will be making actual war in Syria. Ordinary Syrians will not see our missiles as 'bomb-o-grams,' telling them with every deadly explosion that we're really on their side.... That is what we do now. We make war in a place without going to war in a place, and nobody is fooled except ourselves."

Scott Shane of the New York Times: "In a detailed legal attack on the National Security Agency's collection of Americans' phone call data, the American Civil Liberties Union argued in court papers filed Monday that the sweeping data gathering violates the Constitution and should be halted.... The Justice Department is expected to ask the judge in the case, William H. Pauley III of the Southern District of New York, to dismiss it." ...

... John Shiffman of Reuters: "Eight Democratic senators and congressmen have asked Attorney General Eric Holder to answer questions about a Reuters report that the National Security Agency supplies the Drug Enforcement Administration with intelligence information used to make non-terrorism cases against American citizens. The August report revealed that a secretive DEA unit passes the NSA information to agents in the field, including those from the Internal Revenue Service, the FBI and Homeland Security, with instructions to never disclose the original source, even in court. In most cases, the NSA tips involve drugs, money laundering and organized crime, not terrorism." The original report, dated August 5 & linked here contemporaneously, is here. ...

AP: "NSA leaker Edward Snowden spent two days in the Russian Consulate in Hong Kong directly before flying to Moscow on what turned out to be an abortive attempt to reach asylum in Latin America, the respected newspaper Kommersant reported Monday, citing unidentified sources in Snowden's circle and the Russian government. If true, this would suggest greater Russian involvement in Snowden's efforts to escape American justice than President Vladimir Putin's government has acknowledged. The newspaper also reported that Cuba was instrumental in blocking Snowden's further travels.... The newspaper ... said that Cuba informed Russia that the Aeroflot flight from Moscow would not be allowed to land in Havana if Snowden were on board, citing pressure from the United States."

Annie Lowrey of the New York Times: "Behind the roiling conversation over whether President Obama might make Janet L. Yellen the first female leader of the Federal Reserve is an uncomfortable reality for the White House: the administration has named no more women to high-level executive branch posts than the Clinton administration did almost two decades ago.... Over all, Mr. Obama has named 13 women to cabinet-level posts, matching the historic high achieved by the Clinton administration. Mr. Obama has also put a record number of women in judicial slots, including two on the Supreme Court. Women make up about 42 percent of confirmed judges appointed by Mr. Obama, compared with 22 percent appointed by George W. Bush and 29 percent by Bill Clinton."

Annie Lowrey: "Unless Congress raises the debt ceiling, the Treasury Department said on Monday that it expected to lose the ability to pay all of the government's bills in mid-October. That means a recalcitrant Congress will face two major budget deadlines only two weeks apart, since the stopgap 'continuing resolution' that finances the federal government runs out at the end of September."

Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) said Monday that he will attempt to replace, by the end of the year, the portion of the Voting Rights Act that was struck down by the Supreme Court. Sensenbrenner's comments came Monday at an event hosted by the Republican National Committee, commemorating the March on Washington.... Taking the stage after Sensenbrenner, RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said, 'I think Jim just made some news.'" ...

     ... Actually, no, Reince. Sensenbrenner has been saying this publicly at least since July 19, when he testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee, urging the panel to update the Voting Rights Act. Mike Lillis of the Hill: "Sensenbrenner, who headed the Judiciary panel during the 2006 VRA reauthorization, minced no words Wednesday in his criticism of the court. He said [Chief Justice] Roberts and the conservative majority 'essentially disregarded years and years of congressional work' and 'substituted [their] own judgment.'" We know you've participated in the national effort to restrict voting rights, Reince, but not everybody has jumped on your nasty little voter suppression bandwagon. ...

... CW: Huh. I just might be wrong about that. Andrew Cohen of the Atlantic notes Sensenbrenner's objection to the Justice Department's suit against Texas's voter suppression law: "it sounds like Representative Sensenbrenner is searching for an excuse for why Republicans in Congress won't any time soon fix what the Supreme Court broke in June." Read Cohen's whole piece on U.S. v. Texas. ...

Dahlia Lithwick of Slate on Justices Scalia & Ginsburg's dissatisfaction with the dysfunctions of the Supreme Court. Best bit: "Scalia ... says he would defer to legislative bodies on most things (if gays want to pass a law, they should just do it!) but then rather consistently finds reasons to second-guess Congress whenever it actually does legislate. In other words, he is always apt to defer to the bill that didn't happen, but ready to strike down a bill (like the Affordable Care Act, or the VRA) that did." ...

... ** Worse Than Lochner. Ian Millhiser of Think Progress on Ginsburg's remark that the Roberts Court is "one of the most activist courts in history." Millhiser compares this court to the anti-worker "Lochner Court" of the early 1900s: "The Lochner Court strangled basic protections for workers in their crib, but the Roberts Court takes fully matured protections for workers and carves them up a piece at a time.... the Roberts Court is unusually willing to take from ordinary Americans rights they have enjoyed for a very long time. The Supreme Court has a long history of standing athwart history yelling stop. This Supreme Court, however, wants to shift history into reverse."

Beth Reinhard of the Atlantic: "When Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his 'I Have a Dream' speech 50 years ago this week, just five African-Americans held seats in Congress. There are 44 today. But those numbers mask a hard reality: Even with an African-American in the White House, blacks arguably have less clout in Congress than they did in 1963."

National Constitution Center: "Senator Patrick Leahy wants to clear the air in the debate between states and the federal government over the legal use of marijuana, in what could be a significant hearing on the issue in September.... The hearing is set for 10 a.m. on September 10 and it is about 'Conflicts between State and Federal Marijuana Laws.' The hearing is for the full Judiciary Committee."

New York Times Editors: New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's suit against Donald Trump & his fake "Trump University" "offers compelling evidence of a bait-and-switch scheme." ...

... Everything Is Barack Obama's Fault. Zeke Miller of Time: "Trump, who for years raised questions about the birth status of President Barack Obama -- even after the president released his birth certificate — characteristically suggested that Obama had ordered the prosecution when he met Schneiderman in New York last week as part of his bus tour on college affordability."

Thanks to contributor Julie L. for this link:

Eric Lach of TPM: "The conservative video maker James O'Keefe has turned his cameras on the former federal prosecutor whose office brought charges against him and his accomplices in the phone-tampering of a Democratic U.S. senator. In a video released by O'Keefe's Project Veritas on Monday, former U.S. Attorney James Letten can be seen shouting at O'Keefe and his colleagues. Letten can also be seen filming O'Keefe with his own smart phone. 'You went to my house, you terrorized my wife, you're violating federal law, you're trespassing, you're a nasty little cowardly spud,' Letten says in the video. 'All of you, you're hobbits. You are less than I can ever tell you. You are scum. Do you understand?'" CW: Exactly right:

Rene Stutzman of the Orlando Sentinel: "George Zimmerman ... plans to ask the state of Florida to cover $200,000 to $300,000 of his legal expenses.... Because Zimmerman was acquitted, state law requires Florida to pay all his legal costs, minus the biggest one: the fee that goes to his lawyers. That includes the cost of expert witnesses, travel, depositions, photocopies, even that animated 3-D video that defense attorneys showed jurors during closing argument that depicts Trayvon punching Zimmerman."

News Ledes

NBC News: "The U.S. could hit Syria with three days of missile strikes, perhaps beginning Thursday, in an attack meant more to send a message to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad than to topple him or cripple his military, senior U.S. officials told NBC News on Tuesday. The State Department fed the growing drumbeat around the world for a military response to Syria's suspected use of chemical weapons against rebels Aug. 21 near Damascus, saying that while the U.S. intelligence community would release a formal assessment within the week, it was already 'crystal clear' that Assad's government was responsible." ...

... Washington Post: "Vice President Biden said Tuesday that there is 'no doubt' that the Syrian regime used chemical weapons in an attack on innocent civilians in Syria." ...

... New York Times: "President Obama is considering military action against Syria that is intended to 'deter and degrade' President Bashar al-Assad's government's ability to launch chemical weapons, but is not aimed at ousting Mr. Assad from power or forcing him to the negotiating table, administration officials said Tuesday." ...

... New York Times: "United Nations weapons inspectors in Syria postponed a second visit to the site of a suspected chemical weapons attack on the outskirts of the capital, Damascus, on Tuesday after failing to secure assurances of their safety, the United Nations and Syrian officials said." ...

... Reuters: "The U.S. military is ready to act immediately should President Barack Obama order action against Syria over a chemical weapons attack, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said in a television interview with the BBC on Tuesday." ...

... Washington Post: "British forces are drawing up contingency plans for a 'proportionate' response to an alleged chemical weapons attack in Syria, the prime minister's office said on Tuesday, raising the possibility that Britain could join a possible U.S.-led military strike." ...

... The Hill: "The White House reached out to Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) Monday as part of an effort to build congressional support ahead of what appears to be an imminent military strike against Syria. Press secretary Jay Carney said administration officials, including those from the White House and State Department, were actively 'consulting with Congress' as it weighs a response to the "repugnant" use of chemical weapons in Syria."

The Sacramento Bee publishes the videotaped testimony of President Gerald Ford in the Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme trial re: her attempt on his life. The Bee story on the history of the tape is interesting, too:

The Commentariat -- Aug. 26, 2013

Laura Poitras, et al., in Der Spiegel: "President Obama promised that NSA surveillance activities were aimed exclusively at preventing terrorist attacks. But secret documents from the intelligence agency show that the Americans spy on Europe, the UN and other countries." The documents come from Edward Snowden. CW: First, Obama did not promise that the NSA wouldn't spy on other countries. He was talking about specific NSA programs that target terrorists in the cited remark. No one in the world thinks that the U.S. limits its spying to Al Qaeda & Friends. Second and more important, exactly how is Patriot Snowden (not to mention Poitras, who is a U.S. citizen, too) helping the U.S. public by revealing E.U. building floor plans obtained from the NSA? Are Americans shocked, shocked, that their government wants to know what other governments are saying? This whole article is infuriating crap. ...

... Spreading the Wealth. Ben Smith of BuzzFeed: "The non-profit investigative reporting group ProPublica is among the media organizations with access to some NSA documents leaked by Edward Snowden, another suggestion that the reportorial investigation into the National Security Agency's programs and practices is broader than previously known.... ProPublica's president, Richard Tofel, confirmed the collaboration in an email, and suggested the group has quietly been in the mix for some time."

NYC's CIA. Matt Apuzzo & Adam Goldman in New York: "After 9/11, the NYPD built in effect its own CIA -- and its Demographics Unit delved deeper into the lives of citizens than did the NSA." And it was Ray Kelly's bright idea. "The activities Kelly set in motion after 9/11 pushed deeply into the private lives of New Yorkers, surveilling Muslims in their mosques, their sporting fields, their businesses, their social clubs, even their homes...."

Oh, great. Tweeting foreign policy while on vacation. Jeffrey Goldberg of Bloomberg News: "This week, the Barack Obama administration's most eloquent and ardent advocate for humanitarian intervention overseas, Samantha Power, the ambassador to the United Nations, tweeted the following about the alleged Syrian chemical weapons attack: 'Reports devastating: 100s dead in streets, including kids killed by chem weapons. UN must get there fast & if true, perps must face justice.' Since then, she's been publicly silent. Apparently, she's on a previously scheduled, and unfortunately timed, vacation (which a handful of Republicans are casting as a scandal of some sort, Democrats not being allowed to take vacations in August)." ...

... Shane Harris & Matthew Aid of Foreign Policy: "The U.S. government may be considering military action in response to chemical strikes near Damascus. But a generation ago, America's military and intelligence communities knew about and did nothing to stop a series of nerve gas attacks far more devastating than anything Syria has seen, Foreign Policy has learned.... [Recently declassified] CIA documents ... show that [during the Reagan administration] senior U.S. officials were being regularly informed about the scale of the nerve gas attacks. They are tantamount to an official American admission of complicity in some of the most gruesome chemical weapons attacks ever launched."

Mary Shinn, et al., of the Washington Post: "While veterans waited longer than ever in recent years for their wartime disability compensation, the Department of Veterans Affairs gave its workers millions of dollars in bonuses for 'excellent' performances that effectively encouraged them to avoid claims that needed extra work to document veterans' injuries, a News21 investigation has found. In 2011, a year in which the claims backlog ballooned by 155 percent, more than two-thirds of claims processors shared $5.5 million in bonuses, according to salary data from the Office of Personnel Management. The more complex claims were often set aside by workers so they could keep their jobs, meet performance standards or, in some cases, collect extra pay, said VA claims processors and union representatives."

Jelani Cobb of the New Yorker: "There's a bizarre dissonance that comes with watching the first black Attorney General give a speech to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the March on Washington and recognizing that the themes of his speech might have fit well with those given at the original march, in 1963." ...

... Bryce Covert of Think Progress: "On Face the Nation this Sunday, Colin Powell ... warned his fellow Republicans that the continuing push to restrict voting rights is going to 'backfire' and harm the Republican Party." ...

I'd like to see [President Obama] be more passionate about race questions.... I mean, in my lifetime, over a long career in public life, you know, I've been refused access to restaurants where I couldn't eat, even though I just came back from Vietnam, we can't give you a hamburger, come back some other time. And I did, right after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed, I went right back to that same place and got my hamburger, and they were more than happy to serve me now.... But we're not there yet. We're not there yet. And so we've got to keep working on it. And for the president to speak out on it is appropriate. I think all leaders, black and white, should speak out on this issue. -- Colin Powell

What’s going on about voting rights is downright evil because it is something that really needs to keep going forward not backward. -- Cokie Roberts, on "This Week" yesterday

First smart thing Roberts has said in 50 years. -- Constant Weader

E. J. Dionne: "... after three years of congressional dysfunction brought on by the rise of a radicalized brand of conservatism, it's time to call the core questions: Will our ability to govern ourselves be held perpetually hostage to an ideology that casts government as little more than dead weight in American life? And will a small minority in Congress be allowed to grind decision-making to a halt?" CW short answer: Yup.

Paul Krugman on the fall of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, the travails of Microsoft & dynastic history. "Even though Microsoft did not, in fact, end up taking over the world, those antitrust concerns weren't misplaced. Microsoft was a monopolist, it did extract a lot of monopoly rents, and it did inhibit innovation. Creative destruction means that monopolies aren't forever, but it doesn't mean that they're harmless while they last. This was true for Microsoft yesterday; it may be true for Apple, or Google, or someone not yet on our radar, tomorrow."

In the August 24 Commentariat, contributor Trish Ramey writes a sensitve & informative response to my query about whether or not to honor Chelsea (ne Bradley) Manning's request to refer to her as a female.

Dexter Filkins of the New Yorker on the large-scale chemical-weapons attack in Syria last week.

Senate Race

Kim Severson of the New York Times: "Conservatives in South Carolina are eager to oust [South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham [R], who has enraged the far right for, among other things, reaching across the aisle on immigration and supporting President Obama's nominations for the Supreme Court. Tea Party supporters called him a community organizer for the Muslim Brotherhood when, instead of heading home for the Congressional break this month, he went to Egypt at the request of the president.... At least 40 [South Carolina] groups align themselves along Tea Party and Libertarian lines, and trying to unify them to topple the state's senior senator will be no easy task."

News Ledes

New York Times: "Red Burns, an educator who gained wide recognition for pushing for more creative uses of modern communications, helping to lead the movement for public access to cable television and starting a celebrated New York University program to foster Internet wizards, died on Friday at her Manhattan home. She was 88."

Washington Post: "An aerial drone ... crashed Saturday ... into the grandstand at Virginia Motorsports Park during the Great Bull Run.... Four or five people suffered very minor injuries...." It was apparently being used to videotape the event. Or not.

AFP: "Firefighters reported progress Monday battling a huge blaze on the edge of Yosemite National Park, but warned it remains an 'extreme' threat as it nears the top US tourist destination and San Francisco's water supply. The Rim Fire, which began nine days ago, has grown to become the 13th largest in California's recorded history and has sparked the closure of one of the main roads into the spectacular natural beauty spot."

AP: "The Air Force has removed the commander of a nuclear weapons unit at a Montana base following a failed safety and security inspection that marked the second major misstep this year for one of the military's most sensitive missions.Military leaders say the decision to relieve Col. David Lynch of command at Malmstrom Air Force Base stems from a loss of confidence."

New York Daily News: "A bigoted thug brutally beat a transgender woman to death in Harlem just moments after realizing his friend was actually born a man, the victim's family and officials said Friday. It was the latest in a series of troubling bias attacks in the city, which is on pace to double the number of crimes against the gay, lesbian, transgender and bisexual community in 2013 compared with last year."

Washington Post: "U.N. inspectors attempting to visit the site of an alleged chemical weapons attack in eastern Damascus were forced to turn back on Monday after their convoy came under what the United Nations described as intentional fire. The team plans to try again to access the area within a few hours, the statement said. In the meantime, three key U.S. allies, [Britain, France & Turkey,] indicated on Monday that they would back the Obama administration if it decides to take action against Syria without a United Nations mandate." ...

     ... Update: "U.N. chemical weapons inspectors on Monday successfully entered a Damascus suburb that was allegedly hit last week with poison gas, part of an assault on three rebel strongholds that left hundreds of people dead." ...

     ... New York Times Update: "Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday that the use of chemical weapons in attacks on civilians in Syria last week was undeniable and that the Obama administration would hold the Syrian government accountable for what he called a 'moral obscenity' that has shocked the world's conscience."

CNN: "An 8-year-old Louisiana boy intentionally shot and killed his elderly caregiver after playing a violent video game, authorities say. Marie Smothers was pronounced dead at the scene with a gunshot wound to the head in a mobile home park in Slaughter, Louisiana, the East Feliciana Parish Sheriff's Department said in a prepared statement.... Authorities identified the woman as the boy's 'caregiver,' without stating whether she is a relative. But CNN affiliate WBRZ reported that the woman was the boy's grandmother." The gun belonged to her.