Intelligence & Surveillance
Just Security’s expert authors provide legal and policy analysis of intelligence and surveillance activities, focusing on their impact on national security and on civil liberties and privacy rights, and their oversight by Congress and the courts.
1,846 Articles
Trump’s DNI Pick Would Brief Dem Nominee Ahead of 2020
The question of who Trump names acting DNI is as important as who he ultimately nominates for the job—because whoever steps in may turn out to oversee the Intelligence Community…
How Secrecy Undermines Mueller and the Defense of Democracy
Official secrecy can diminish democratic discourse, limit debate, and blind the Congress and the public to the nature of the most imminent threats to democracy, all in the name…
Mueller Moments You Might Have Missed
You might not have caught all of these more substantive, significant, and revealing moments on Wednesday, but they were there, tucked away in between the many times Special Counsel…
EU Court of Justice Grapples with U.S. Surveillance in Schrems II
Earlier this month, the Court of Justice of the European Union heard argument in Schrems II, a case that could limit companies’ ability to transfer data into the United States…
Expanding the Covert Agent Secrecy Law Threatens to Chill Reporting
Covert intelligence operatives on overseas postings face unique dangers: arrest, torture and possible execution. These dangers were embodied in the name of James Bond’s nemesis,…
Top Law and Intelligence Experts’ Views on Mueller Hearings
To help make sense of the day’s hearings, we turned to Just Security’s editors and contributors for their thoughts.
Revamped Security Clearance Process Could Provide Leverage Over Those Who Punish Whistleblowers
The security clearance backlog is finally shrinking. This offers a special opportunity to protect embattled national security whistleblowers.
Iraq ‘Dirty Tricks’ Tale Gets Star Treatment, But Big Questions Remain
The dramatic but little-told story of a British intelligence whistleblower who tried to raise the alarm over a questionable spying campaign to bolster the cause for the Iraq War…
Why the Ghost Keys ‘Solution’ to Encryption is No Solution
The use of applications such as Signal, WhatsApp, iMessage, and Facebook Messenger for communications secured by end-to-end encryption has exploded over the past few years. Two…
The Supreme Court Just Made It Easier to Conceal Abuse of Migrant Detainees
The U.S. Supreme Court has reversed a half-century of precedent on citizens’ rights to know what their government is doing, by making it more difficult for the public to probe…
U.S. Offensive Cyber Operations against Economic Cyber Intrusions: An International Law Analysis – Part II
Part I demonstrated that the United States is likely to struggle to make a convincing argument that economic cyber intrusions carried out against it breach international law. Consequently,…
Outside the Beltway: An Experiment on Human Rights & Potential CLOUD Act Agreements
What questions remain in assessing the human rights concerns of potential CLOUD Act agreements? How would executive branch lawyers approach these questions?