FBI

Washingtonian editor Garrett Graff recently published his second book, The Threat Matrix: The FBI at War in the Age of Global Terror. THE WEEKLY STANDARD recently had the opportunity to ask Graff a few questions about his book and the FBI's evolving role in national security issues.

When it comes to homeland security, President Obama’s first year in office was a nightmare. In September, Nidal Malik Hasan, a radicalized Army major, murdered 13 defense department employees at Ft. Hood, Texas.

“Breaking a Promise on Surveillance,” is the headline of a New York Times editorial this morning. At issue is an Obama administration proposal to allow the FBI to obtain lists of anyone’s email correspondents and web browsing history by issuing a National Security Letter without going to court.

“Breaking a Promise on Surveillance,” is the headline of a New York Times editorial this morning. At issue is an Obama administration proposal to allow the FBI to obtain lists of anyone’s email correspondents and web browsing history by issuing a National Security Letter without going to court.

Late last Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to block the transfer of a Guantanamo detainee named Farhi Saeed Bin Mohammed to his home country of Algeria. Mohammed claims that he will be tortured or killed if he is returned to Algeria.

The arrests this week of ten Russian spies in the United States (another was picked up in Cyprus, released on bond, and has been missing ever since) have provoked an outpouring of news stories and commentary, not only here but abroad.

What explains the timing of the bust of the Russian spy ring just four days after Barack Obama's "cheeseburger summit" with Dmitry Medvedev?

Oops. Someone in the Russian intelligence service, the SVR, has pushed the wrong reset button, sending us back to the spy wars of the 1950s. The two FBI complaints made public yesterday, available here, contain the details of what might be the most bizarre espionage case in all of Russian/Soviet history:

Early Sunday morning, May 2, I awoke and followed my usual routine: Grabbed a cup of coffee, logged onto my computer, scanned the news for major developments in the war, and checked my email. It was no ordinary morning, though, as the evening before someone had attempted to set off a car bomb in Times Square in New York City. 

Paranoia

Update: A press release from Pete Hoekstra's office indicates that the House bill has been pulled because of opposition to the provision targeting interrogators.  

Late Wednesday, congressional Democrats inserted (at the last minute) a section into the intelligence authorization bill titled, “Cruel, Inhuman, and Degrading Interrogations Prohibition Act of 2010.” The section ostensibly outlaws the types of interrogation tactics (e.g. waterboarding) used by CIA interrogators on senior al Qaeda terrorists and even specifies prison sentences starting at a minimum of 15 years for those who do.

But, why are Democrats doing this now? No detainee has been waterboarded for years. And President Obama took the so-called enhanced interrogation techniques (EITs) off the table in January 2009, when he issued an executive order limiting interrogators to the Army Field Manual. So, we can be certain that the most controversial techniques are not being employed currently anyway.