Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
274 Articles
Tightening the National Security Ratchet
A ratchet is a device that employs mechanical impediments to allow movement in only one direction. As such, it is a useful metaphor for national security policy, where restrictive…
DOJ Inspector General Complains About FBI Foot-dragging
Late last week, the Inspector General (IG) for the Justice Department sent a letter to Congress complaining of the FBI’s refusal to set a timeline for turning over documents…
Security “Front Doors” vs. “Back Doors”: A Distinction Without a Difference
Thursday, FBI Director James Comey delivered a talk at the Brookings Institution, titled “Going Dark: Are Technology, Privacy, and Public Safety on a Collision Course?” His…
Justice Department Proposal Would Massively Expand FBI Extraterritorial Surveillance
A Department of Justice proposal to amend Rule 41 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure would make it easier for domestic law enforcement to hack into computers of people…
The Illusion of Justice report and the Use of “Radicalization Theories” in Counterterrorism Sting Operations
[Tarek Z. Ismail is co-author of Illusion of Justice: Human Rights Abuses in US Terrorism Prosecutions, a report co-published by Human Rights Watch and the Columbia Law School…
DoJ Requires Electronic Recording of Interrogations – But Not in National Security Cases
In an important decision not widely reported, the Department of Justice last month adopted a policy requiring that interrogations of suspects arrested by the principal federal…
The Elephant in the Room: The FBI
Commissions, oversight boards, and review groups are all the rage these days. Recent weeks have seen hundreds of pages of reports evaluating American intelligence agencies, and…
Bart Gellman’s NSL
Politico has published a short piece based on an interview with Washington Post reporter Barton Gellman, who says he’s been told that at some point his telephone records…
Hands Off Encryption! Say New Amici Briefs in Lavabit Case
The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals is in the process of deciding the first legal challenge to government seizure of the master encryption keys that secure our communications with…
Human Rights and the Pitfalls of FBI Assistance at Westgate
In yesterday’s post on Just Security, Steve and Jennifer raise important issues as to what authority the AUMF may or may not grant the United States to respond to al-Shabaab…