What’s interesting in the news today?

The claims by the President and his admin that the NSA snooping prevented a terror attack appears to be not exactly accurate. Looks like just another inaccurate and ever evolving excuse. From BuzzFeed

“Defenders of the American government’s online spying program known as “PRISM” claimed Friday that the suddenly controversial secret effort had saved New York City’s subways from a 2009 terrorist plot led by a young Afghan-American, Najibullah Zazi.

But British and American legal documents from 2010 and 2011 contradict that claim, which appears to be the latest in a long line of attempts to defend secret programs by making, at best, misleading claims that they were central to stopping terror plots. While the court documents don’t exclude the possibility that PRISM was somehow employed in the Zazi case, the documents show that old-fashioned police work, not data mining, was the tool that led counterterrorism agents to arrest Zazi. The public documents confirm doubts raised by the blogger Marcy Wheeler and the AP’s Adam Goldman, and call into question a defense of PRISM first floated by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, who suggested that PRISM had stopped a key terror plot.

Reuters’s Mark Hosenball advanced the claim Friday, based on anonymous “government sources”:

The NSA leaker has come forward to tell his story. From TheGuardian

“The individual responsible for one of the most significant leaks in US political history is Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old former technical assistant for the CIA and current employee of the defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton. Snowden has been working at the National Security Agency for the last four years as an employee of various outside contractors, including Booz Allen and Dell.

The Guardian, after several days of interviews, is revealing his identity at his request. From the moment he decided to disclose numerous top-secret documents to the public, he was determined not to opt for the protection of anonymity. “I have no intention of hiding who I am because I know I have done nothing wrong,” he said.”

Gee, I wonder if this leaker get’s a pass like this one did? Something tells me no, since it didn’t benefit Obama. From TheNYPost

“Ex-CIA Director Leon Panetta while in office revealed “top secret” details of the Osama bin Laden raid during an event attended by “Zero Dark Thirty” screenwriter Mark Boal, according to a draft of a Pentagon inspector general report.

The report, which was published yesterday by the watchdog group Project on Government Oversight, appears to support allegations made two years ago that the Obama administration was leaking information to Hollywood about the raid.

The report shows that Panetta disclosed “top secret” and “classified” information during a speech at a June 2011 award ceremony at the CIA headquarters.”

I doubt Panetta get’s the treatment they’re about to give Snowden. In fact Clapper is already out telling anyone who will listen what a grave danger this is. From WeaselZippers

“Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said in an interview that aired Saturday night that the leaks regarding the Obama administration’s surveillance programs are “literally gut-wrenching” and that the administration has requested a criminal investigation into who leaked the information.

“For me, it is literally – not figuratively – literally gut-wrenching to see this happen because of the huge, grave damage it does to our intelligence capabilities,” Clapper told NBC News’s Andrea Mitchell.”

And Greenwald, who broke the story at the Guardian, says save the melodrama, there’s more coming. Should be interesting.

Meanwhile Feinstein and Rogers want an investigation into the leaker. No word when the Penatta investigation will begin though.

Here’s more on it from TheWashingtonTimes

“The National Security  Agency’s collection of phone data from all of Verizon’s  U.S. customers is just the “tip of the iceberg,” says a former NSA official who estimates the agency has data on as many as 20  trillion phone calls and emails by U.S. citizens.

William Binney, an award-winning  mathematician and noted NSA whistleblower, says the collection dates back to when the super-secret  agency began domestic surveillance after the Sept. 11 attacks.”

The author of the Patriot Act wants the abuses stopped. Seems Jim’s a bit late to the party. This is the kind of stuff that people warned about when he wrote it. From TheGuardian

“This abuse of the Patriot Act must end

President Obama falsely claims Congress authorised all NSA surveillance. In fact, our law was designed to protect liberties”

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Conservative counties in Colorado have had enough. Introducing the 51st state? From FoxNews

“Officials in eight northern Colorado counties united in opposition to the  state’s new gun control laws and oil and gas regulations are reportedly  considering forming a 51st U.S. state called North Colorado.

The Denver Post reports that a proposal to separate Weld, Morgan, Logan,  Sedgwick, Phillips, Washington, Yuma and Kit Carson counties from the rest of  the state was hatched at a meeting of county commissioners last week.

Weld County commissioners Sean Conway, Mike Freeman and Doug Rademacher said  they will conduct public meetings and decide whether to draft a ballot measure  by Aug. 1., according to a report in The Greeley Tribune.”

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This one is going to cause a lot of hand wringing from one side of the aisle. From TheDailyMail

“Strain’s northwest Houston  community of Oak Forest is the  first neighborhood in the country being trained  and equipped by the Armed  Citizen Project, a Houston nonprofit that is giving  away free shotguns to single  women and residents of neighborhoods with high  crime rates.

While many cities have  tried gun buy-backs and other tactics  in the ongoing national debate on gun  control, the nonprofit and its supporters  say gun giveaways to responsible  owners are actually a better way to deter  crime. The organization, which plans  to offer training classes in Dallas, San  Antonio, and Tucson, Ariz., in the  next few weeks, is working to expand its  giveaways to 15 cities by the end of  the year, including Chicago and New  York.”

“It costs the organization  about $300 to arm and train an  individual and about $20,000 for an entire  neighborhood. All costs are paid  through donations, said Coplen, though he  declined to say how much his  organization has raised so far.

While some residents in  the neighborhood are supportive,  several officials have mixed feelings about  it.”

Oh I bet they do. Better make sure Feinstein is sitting when they break it to her. 🙂

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Here’s a story that’s interesting from New Mexico. Nixon would be so proud. From HotAir

“Hoo boy… Moe Lane at Red State has come across a nasty little piece of business coming out of New Mexico this past week. If the story plays out as early reporting indicates, there are a number of people – including prominent Democrats and a potential gubernatorial candidate – who will have some ‘splaining to do. The story begins in the campaign offices of Governor Susana Martinez, one of the rising stars of the GOP who has already been mentioned as possible POTUS or VPOTUS material in the future. Moe gives us the top line:

Executive summary: Jamie Estrada, former campaign manager for Susana Martinez (now the Republican governor of New Mexico), is accused of stealing* emails from her campaign account and passing them along to Democratic operative (and accused pedophile[**]) Jason Loera. Loera is likewise accused of passing along selected emails to Democratic state chair Sam Bregman, who then used those emails in at least one court case. Loera and Bregman are linked – the former consulted for the latter – and at this point, well. The whole thing is getting quite close to New Mexico Attorney General (and Democrat) Gary King.”

Here’s  a news report with the sordid details.

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