Elizabeth Sheld

Rep. Sander Levin (D-MI) told The Hill that Ecuador’s trade deal with the US would be in jeopardy if they were to offer asylum to NSA leaker Edward Snowden.   “There’s been issues about Ecuador all along,” said Rep. Sander

The Washginton Post has a new poll showing that support for the President among Democrats is dropping.  The Washington Post poll was conducted among 1010 adults with an MOE of +/- 3.5%, June 19-23. Only 58% of Democrats strongly support Obama,

The Guardian‘s Glen Greenwald told the Daily Beast that Edward Snowden “has taken extreme precautions to make sure many different people around the world have these archives to insure the stories will inevitably be published.”  These people are unable to

House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) has issued subpoenas for four State Department officials to be deposed in the Benghazi investigation.  The four subpoenaed officials headed up bureaus where the ARB (Accountability Review Board) found issues contributing to an

Marco Rubio (R-FL) has seen his favorables drop over the course of the year, according to a new Rasmussen Report poll.  Fifty-eight percent of GOP voters have a favorable opinion of Rubio in these latest figures. Those numbers are “down 10

UPDATE: Accorder to Miram Elder, the Moscow correspondent for the Guardian, Snowden is not on the plane to Cuba.  Boarding is over. Aeroflot agent says Snowden not on plane. — Miriam Elder (@MiriamElder) June 24, 2013 An Interfax source reports

Wikileaks released a statement this morning regarding Edward Snowden’s exit from Hong Kong. The statement reads:  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Mr Edward Snowden, the American whistleblower who exposed evidence of a global surveillance regime conducted by US and UK intelligence agencies,

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi was booed and heckled for defending the NSA’s surveillance programs and disparaging leaker Edward Snowden at 2013 Netroots Nation conference.  During a Q & A at the event, Pelosi said “People on the far right are

The South China Morning Post has published more details released by Edward Snowden, this time the disclosures pertain to the United States’s hacking of China.  The US formally charged Snowden yesterday and SCMP reports that Snowden is still in Hong Kong,

Chicago police are gearing up for a spike in violent crime, as summer officially arrives. “Police Supt. Garry McCarthy acknowledged, in summer months, both shootings and murders usually spike.” At least six people were shot since yesterday afternoon, two were

Obama is holding his first meeting with the obscure privacy and civil liberties board (PCLOB) today in order to keep his pledge to look into the government surveillance operations recently revealed.  The PCLOB, was created in 2004 after the 9/11 Commission

The WSJ is reporting that the FAA is close to easing certain restrictions on in-flight use of electronics during take-off (10,000 feet)  “A 28-member industry and government panel’s draft report strongly recommended relaxing blanket rules against electronics that have been

Over at The Guardian, Glen Greenwald and James Ball have released two documents (here and here) that detail “procedures the NSA is required to follow to target ‘non-US persons’ under its foreign intelligence powers and what the agency does to

In response to The Snark Challenge: Something more useful was suggested (elsewhere) by Mandy (Liberty Chick) about teaching people on SNAP how to cook and shop.  It’s not too difficult to feed yourself on around $30 a week, if you

Former President Jimmy Carter is trying to convince the US government to ease up the sanctions on terrorists groups so peace groups are able to work with them. Carter and other do-gooders have petitioned Secretary of State John Kerry to

The Hill is reporting that Democrats in DC are “shifting” from Obama over to Hillary Clinton as 2016 approaches. “Hillary Clinton has already racked up a couple of endorsements for the 2016 presidential race — and she hasn’t even announced she’s

During a Senate Oversight Hearing on the FBI today, Director Mueller was asked by Senator Grassley if domestic drones were used on American soil. He responded that yes, they were used. But, “in a very very minimal way. Very seldom.”

Threat Level at Wired.com presents a compelling case that NSA surveillance did not stop the NYSE bomb plots, as stated yesterday by Deputy Director Sean Joyce in hearing before the House Intelligence Committee. “[Khalid] Ouazzani had been providing information and support

Despite a directive from the Obama administration, the Internal Revenue Service will pay out $70M in bonuses, according to Senator Chuck Grassley. “Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa says his office has learned that the IRS is executing an agreement with

Rand Paul (R-KY) will offer several amendments to the hotly contested immigration bill.  “Paul’s most ambitious proposal would eliminate the pathway to citizenship for 11 million illegal immigrants and lift the caps on guest workers.”  One of Paul’s proposals will

In the Live Q & A with Edward Snowden hosted by the Guardian, Snowden doubled down on his claim that he had the authority to wiretap anyone. Responding to this question:  Asked by MonaHol, 17 June 2013 4:37pm Ed Snowden, I

Less than half (47) of US Senators attended a classified briefing on Thursday afternoon, instead choosing to head home for the weekend.  The briefing was with “with James Clapper, the Director of National Intelligence, Keith Alexander, the head of the

The Privacy and Civil Liberties Board, a low-profile panel about which we rarely hear, will meet next week to discuss the NSA’s PRISM program. I wrote about the PCLOB a few months ago, when the Senate was going to confirm