U.S. directs agents to cover up program used to investigate Americans

Via Reuters:

A secretive U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration unit is funneling information from intelligence intercepts, wiretaps, informants and a massive database of telephone records to authorities across the nation to help them launch criminal investigations of Americans.

Although these cases rarely involve national security issues, documents reviewed by Reuters show that law enforcement agents have been directed to conceal how such investigations truly begin - not only from defense lawyers but also sometimes from prosecutors and judges.

The undated documents show that federal agents are trained to "recreate" the investigative trail to effectively cover up where the information originated, a practice that some experts say violates a defendant's Constitutional right to a fair trial. If defendants don't know how an investigation began, they cannot know to ask to review potential sources of exculpatory evidence - information that could reveal entrapment, mistakes or biased witnesses.

NSA program collects 'nearly everything a user does on the internet'

The latest revelations by the Guardian about the NSA spying program

US officials vehemently denied this specific claim. Mike Rogers, the Republican chairman of the House intelligence committee, said of Snowden's assertion: "He's lying. It's impossible for him to do what he was saying he could do."

But training materials for XKeyscore detail how analysts can use it and other systems to mine enormous agency databases by filling in a simple on-screen form giving only a broad justification for the search. The request is not reviewed by a court or any NSA personnel before it is processed.

I'm shocked (shocked!) that the government was lying and not Snowden. 

Not all that technology replaces is obsolete

Beautiful video on the about page of Kathy Sierra's new blog:

100 years after horses were declared "obsolete", the recreational horse industry in the United States alone is $40billion. Yes, that's with a "b". Sometimes a technological replacement reveals a deeper underlying value. From printed books to vinyl records, not everything rendered obsolete vanishes.

Promises not to kill or torture

Anyone else think there's something wrong when US government has to promise not to kill or torture people?  Via the NY Times:

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said in a letter sent to the Russian minister of justice this week that the United States would not seek the death penalty against Edward J. Snowden, and would issue him a passport immediately so he could travel back to the United States.

The letter also offered reassurances that the United States would not torture Mr. Snowden, the former intelligence contractor who faces criminal charges of disclosing classified information and has been hiding in an airport in Moscow in order to evade the American authorities.

If there's one thing we've learned from the Obama administration, it's that there's a massive delta between what they say and what they do. Why anyone would believe anything these war criminals say is beyond me.

Team Retreat

We had our first team retreat at this great house in Two Rivers, WI

Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, we've spent the past few days in this great home, hanging out, talking about our business, and getting to know each other.