Sharyl Attkisson

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Sharyl Attkisson

Warrantless wiretapping lawsuit against government dismissed

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit against the Bush Administration for "warrantless wiretapping." The judge cited national security concerns.

The group Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed the suit more than a decade ago. It has said it plans to appeal the dismissal.

Read more in John Bowden's article in The Hill:

A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit Thursday against warrantless wiretap programs established during the Bush administration, ruling that the court could not determine the plaintiff's legal standing without endangering national security.

Politico reported that U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey White dismissed a lawsuit originally filed in 2008 that argued that the Terrorist Surveillance Program set up by the NSA under President George W. Bush violated both the Fourth Amendment and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

White wrote in his ruling that allowing the case to proceed could have "devastating" consequences for U.S. national security, according to Politico.

“The Court cannot issue any determinative finding on the issue of whether or not Plaintiffs have standing without taking the risk that such a ruling may result in potentially devastating national security consequences.”

U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey White

(Continued)

You can read the rest of the article here: https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/440777-judge-dismisses-bush-era-warrantless-wiretapping-lawsuit-citing

Unscientific poll: Trump-Russia collusion

Last week's poll was about the Mueller report and what respondents think will come of it. Will it put the Trump-Russia rumors to rest, or open the door for more conspiracies?

Full results are below:

The Mueller report on Trump-Russia collusion…

Closes the book (85%)

Opens new doors (10%)

Not sure (1%)

I don’t care (4%)

The government spied on me. You could be next.

It was bad enough when the Department of Justice under Attorney General Eric Holder engaged in spying on journalist James Rosen (and even spied on his parents' phone records). And the same cast of characters secretly spied on Associated Press reporters -- also in the name of tracking down government leakers.

Amid those discoveries were NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden's revelations about massive government spying on the citizenry, which Director of National Intelligence James Clapper had denied under oath. As the dominos began to fall, Holder expressed some regret, particularly as it applied to the intrusion upon journalists, who until the Obama administration had been considered largely off limits for the government's intel dragnet.

Then there's my case.

During the same period, intelligence sources alerted me that the government was spying on my electronic devices while I was an investigative reporter at CBS News. I was often working with whistleblowers inside the administration: honest people willing to expose bad things going on inside the federal government.

The nature of the government’s surveillance on me and my family is forensically proven and not subject to legitimate question. Yet, unlike with the discoveries about James Rosen and AP, the government has yet to issue its mea culpa. And there's a reason.

As bad as they were, the other known instances of journalists being spied upon happened under cover of court orders, albeit ones issued in secrecy. But the government spying on me was not done under the authority of a court warrant. That’s why my case is even more dangerous than the others. It implies that the scope of government improperly turning its intel tools on its own citizens, including journalists and political enemies, could be far more extensive than anyone realizes.

Read the rest of the article at RealClearPolitics by clicking the link below:

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/2019/05/10/the_government_spied_on_me_you_could_be_next_474386.html

Watch the Attkisson video on the case below:

Fight improper government surveillance. Support Attkisson v. DOJ and FBI over the government computer intrusions of Attkisson's work while she was a CBS News investigative correspondent. Visit the Attkisson Fourth Amendment Litigation Fund. Click here.

Why is the Department of Justice still fighting so hard in Attkisson computer intrusion case?

Sharyl Attkisson (shown here prior to testimony to Congress about her case) with attorney Tab Turner (left) and computer forensics analyst Don Allison (right)

Under ordinary circumstances, the Department of Justice would investigate and prosecute a case against those responsible for an unlawful intrusion into a national journalist's computers and work.

So why is the Department of Justice is fighting so hard against the Attkisson computer intrusion case -- instead of providing justice?

See a video update below.

Read more about the Attkisson computer intrusion case, including a summary of the forensic evidence here.

Fight improper government surveillance. Support Attkisson v. DOJ and FBI over the government computer intrusions of Attkisson's work while she was a CBS News investigative correspondent. Visit the Attkisson Fourth Amendment Litigation Fund. Click here.

A horrific American tragedy many have forgotten: The Jonestown Massacre

More than 900 American men, women and children died in the Jonestown Massacre in Guyana

Update: Watch the Full Measure TV cover story now at this link: http://fullmeasure.news/news/cover-story/surviving-jonestown

It’s been 41 years since the socialist cult leader Jim Jones took more than 900 of his American followers to their graves.

How was Jones allowed to operate unfettered in San Francisco, then in Guyana, South America amid many disclosures of abuse from former followers and their families?

Jackie Speier says it was in large part because of Jones' political connections in San Francisco and beyond.

Speier was a young Congressional aide 41 years ago who went to investigate the "Jonestown" cult compound. Her boss, Rep. Leo Ryan, was murdered on that trip by cult members-- and she was shot five times.

Today, Speier is herself a U.S. Congresswoman and tells us her story Sunday on Full Measure.

Also this week, should the future of electric cars in the U.S. include billions of your tax dollars?

Americans have already spend billions powering America’s  electric car industry. Those subsidies are now phasing out. President Trump wants to end them entirely but some members of Congress are pushing to continue or expand them.

Add into the mix the fact that China is the dominant force in the global electric car market and looking to gobble up more of the share.

Lisa Fletcher will examine what lies ahead.

And-- Scott Thuman milks a snake.

Watch Sunday! HOW TO WATCH FULL MEASURE and TV STATION LIST

https://sharylattkisson.com/full_measure_station-list/

Fight improper government surveillance. Support Attkisson v. DOJ and FBI over the government computer intrusions of Attkisson's work while she was a CBS News investigative correspondent. Visit the Attkisson Fourth Amendment Litigation Fund. Click here.

No station in your city? There's a new way you can watch Full Measure anytime, anywhere on our new streaming service: STIRR. Download the free STIRR app on your phone. It's also available on Roku, Apple TV and Fire.Live on STIRR: Choose any home station and then watch the first run of Full Measure each week there on the landing page at 10am. On Demand on STIRR: Scroll down to "Explore More," Scroll over to the "News" box, and Full Measure is the third item at "Nation and World." Watch anytime!


Ex-U.S. intel analyst arrested and charged with leaking to the press

Predator drone

Another alleged leaker could bite the dust...

A third alleged government leaker has been arrested and charged with improperly providing information to The Intercept news organization.

31-year old Daniel Hale is a former U.S. intelligence analyst. He would have been about 26-years old in 2014 when he allegedly obtained 17 documents while working for a defense contractor, and allegedly provided them to The Intercept.

The documents pertained to a U.S. military drone program that was the subject of an expose published in The Intercept in 2015 entitled "The Drone Papers." It revealed details about the Obama administration's use of drones for "targeted" assassinations in the Mideast and Africa.

Hale was arrested in Nashville, Tennessee today and faces up to 50 years in prison for allegedly improperly leaking government documents.

Under U.S. law, experts say it is not illegal for news organizations to receive improperly obtained documents unless the organization or its representative encouraged or arranged illegal activity to obtain them.

Read the Wall Street Journal on the case article below:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/ex-intelligence-analyst-arrested-for-leaking-classified-information-to-the-intercept-11557418741

Fight government overreach and double-standard justice by supporting the Attkisson Fourth Amendment Litigation Fund for Attkisson v. DOJ and FBI for the government computer intrusions. Click here.

Microsoft considering altering "password change" policy

Microsoft Windows 10 Logo

The tech giant Microsoft wants to nix the "password expiration policy" that requires users to change their passwords every 42 days. This only applies to those who use Windows Group Policy which is typically in an office setting. If you have your own personal laptop or computer, then you would still have control over when, and if, you decide to change your password.

This TechRepublic article by Lance Whitney explains it all:

If you employ Windows Group Policy at your company, then you may enforce password expiration, which compels users to change their Windows passwords every 42 days or at some other interval. Now Microsoft is questioning the effectiveness of password expiration, to the point that it wants to remove that requirement for the next version of Windows 10.

In a Wednesday blog post, Microsoft detailed a draft of security configuration baseline settings for Windows 10 version 1903 and Windows Server version 1903, which are due for release in late May. Among the several draft settings proposed, the removal of the password expiration policy is the one that will likely affect organizations and IT administrators the most.

In its desire to drop the password expiration requirement, Microsoft argues that the policy is outdated and ineffective. The main purpose of periodically changing your Windows password is to prevent the wrong person from using it if that password had been stolen. But if the password is never stolen, there's no reason to change it. And if you have evidence that the password had been stolen, you would change it immediately rather than wait for some predefined expiration date. (continued)

Read more here: https://www.techrepublic.com/article/microsoft-wants-to-kill-windows-password-expiration-policy/

Fight government overreach and double-standard justice by supporting the Attkisson Fourth Amendment Litigation Fund for Attkisson v. DOJ and FBI for the government computer intrusions. Click here.


"Media...sold a bunch of snake oil" -- Sen. Grassley on Trump-Russia probe

Today, the Democrat-led House of Representatives Judiciary Committee voted 24-16 (along party lines) to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt over his refusal to turn over the unreacted version of the Mueller Report on Trump-Russia collusion.

Next, the matter will be taken up by the full House of Representatives.

Meantime, the Republican head of the Senate Finance Committee, Chuck Grassley, took to the Senate floor to comment on the Mueller report and the media's response to it.

Many in the media seem to be unhappy with the results of the Mueller Report or embarrassed that the world knows they sold a bunch of snake oil for the past two years. And now the jig is up.

I hope the media will pursue the origins of the Russian collusion investigation with the same vigor as they’ve pursued the collusion narrative.

It would go a long ways, then, to res)tore the media's damaged credibility.

And knowing how all this started will help us prevent such a fiasco from ever happening again. 

--Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa)

Watch Sen. Grassley's statement by clicking the link below:

Fight improper government surveillance. Support Attkisson v. DOJ and FBI over the government computer intrusions of Attkisson's work while she was a CBS News investigative correspondent. Visit the Attkisson Fourth Amendment Litigation Fund. Click here.