Tag Archives: FBI
FBI Gets no Bite at Apple on Terrorist’s Phone
The FBI got no bite from Apple when it fished for help to break into a terrorist’s iPhone. The company turned over cloud information but couldn’t, or wouldn’t crack the phone.
And AG Barr is pissed:
“Thanks to the great work of the FBI — and no thanks to Apple — we were able to unlock Alshamrani’s phones,” Barr said in a press release.
Vox
FBI and IRS Tea Party
Back in June a House committee wanted answers about IRS efforts to indimidate and silence Tea Party Groups. Lois Lerner, the IRS Director of Exempt Organizations took the fifth. There was very little Tea Party involvement in the campaign 2012 campaign. President Obama was re-elected.
The FBI has now declared “no harm no foul”, as Dan Henninger puts it.
Thus, two of the most powerful public institutions in the U.S.—the FBI and the IRS—have concluded no harm, no foul, and the memory hole swallows the Obama administration’s successful kneecapping of the GOP’s most active members just as they prepared to participate in the 2012 presidential campaign. Many—ruined or terrified by the IRS probes—shut down. Mr. Obama won.
G-Men Gone Wild
The FBI agent who sent Tampa socialite Jill Kelley a shirtless photo is Fredrick Humphries. He is one of Kelley’s many manly friends. Kelley made a call to Humphries which set off the FBI investigation that revealed David Petraeus’ secret love affair with Paula Broadwell, as well as making General John Allen squirm.
Humphries’ lawyer says the bare chested picture his client emailed Kelley years ago has nothing to do with the investigation. He wasn’t hitting on her. It was sent as part of a joke. Here’s the picture with a story in the Seattle Times.
Crap! I already drew the cartoon. Lucky for me, my friend, American Spectator columnist Andrew Wilson, says to go with it – “it captures the reality of unseeing, uncaring and stupendously stupid behavior in response to brewing evil”. Ok.
I wonder if Putin knows her.
J Edgar Hoover must be rolling over in his evening gown.
Don’t Let the Back Door Hit You
The FBI wants a “backdoor” to the web.
Since 9/11 the government has relied on phone wiretaps for national national security purposes. That practice, under the Bush administration, created an uproar (here’s a 2007 James Risen NYT story). With more sensitive information being encrypted on the web, the current administration wants to require that all internet communication be wire-tap friendly.
Apparently this would be a step backward, requiring an internet retrofit. Here’s Jack X. Dempsey, V.P. of an outfit called the Center for Democracy and Technology, in Monday’s New York Times:
“They are really asking for the authority to redesign services that take advantage of the unique, and now pervasive, architecture of the Internet,” he said. “They basically want to turn back the clock and make Internet services function the way that the telephone system used to function.”
Valerie Caproni of the FBI claims the government is just trying to preserve authority it already has.
“We’re not talking expanding authority. We’re talking about preserving our ability to execute our existing authority in order to protect the public safety and national security.”
Wouldn’t be the first enterprise seeking special favors to avoid being bypassed by technology.
