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.
1,805 Articles
“Fixes” to Surveillance Law Could Severely Harm FBI National Security Investigations
A core national security law allowing the government to collect intelligence information—Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act—is set to expire at the end…
Extreme Vetting by Algorithm
Last week, a group of machine learning and data mining experts wrote to the acting secretary of DHS urging her to reconsider an automated Extreme Vetting Initiative being proposed…
Hacking Back in Black: Legal and Policy Concerns with the Updated Active Cyber Defense Certainty Act
For years now, there has been a discussion surrounding the feasibility of active cyber defense, and allowing private entities or individuals to “hack back” against hostile…
Former Prosecutor Renato Mariotti’s Tweet Threads on National Security (Nov. 10-17)
Here is an exposition and analysis of some of this week’s national security-related threads authored by Just Security Editorial Board member and former federal prosecutor…
Kushner’s Unsatisfactory Senate Document Production
The most incendiary part of a stinging letter from Senate Judiciary Committee leaders to Jared Kushner’s counsel, Abbe Lowell, is the committee’s disclosure that “other…
Episode 46 of the National Security Law Podcast: The $15 Million Dollar Man
In this week’s episode, your devoted hosts dig into a bonanza of national security law odds-and-ends. First up is an en banc decision by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance…
Russian Money and Trump’s Legal Defense
Piece by piece, we continue to learn about Russia’s assault on the 2016 election: cyberattacks on voting systems in 39 states; troll farms that pushed divisive political messages…
Sessions’ Recusal, the Clinton Foundation, and Uranium One
When Attorney General Jeff Sessions testifies before the House Judiciary Committee Tuesday, he will face questioning on the Uranium One deal. As Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s…
The Int’l Criminal Court’s Case against the United States in Afghanistan: How it happened and what the future holds
What happens when a global criminal court takes on the world’s dominant military power? That was the question earlier this month when the International Criminal Court’s Prosecutor…
Congress is Facing Decisions on Torture, and Needs to Treat Them As Such
On October 17, the Senate Intelligence Committee held a hearing on Christopher Sharpley’s nomination to become the next CIA inspector general. He has been the agency’s acting…
The USA Liberty Act — aka Don’t Let the Constitutional be the Enemy of the Unconstitutional
The House Judiciary Committee has completed its markup of a major surveillance reform bill intended to better protect Americans’ privacy and enhance transparency. Responding…
What Took So Long: The Non-Indictment of Paul Manafort Over The Years
Last week, we learned that Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump’s campaign chairman, is under indictment for laundering millions of dollars worth of income to hide it from the…