Partial Shutdown – “unintended” security consequence (from WaPo)

Posted on January 14, 2019 by markinaustin

Dozens of government websites have been rendered insecure or inactive.

Some NASA, Justice Department and other government agency websites were insecure or not working as of today because important security certificates had expired, according to a report from Internet security company Netcraft. With so many federal employees out, the agencies probably do not have the IT resources to renew the certificate.

Check out the link.

Filed under: doj, NASA, National Security, tech | 53 Comments »

Wrong Door Raid: Cops Kill Dog, Search House Anyway

Posted on August 10, 2012 by novahockey

What do you do if you have a search warrant with the wrong address? Why kill the family pet, handcuff the kids next to the fluffy corpse and search the house anyway!

Even after learning that they were in the wrong house, the complaint states, the drug busters stayed in the Francos’ home and kept searching it.

But wait, there’s more! Why not double-down by by denying a diabetic child her medicine?

But its fine, after an hour search they turned up a .22 pistol.

More here

Filed under: doj | 6 Comments »

Of Killings and Imminent Threats and Nonticking Bombs

Posted on October 11, 2011 by quarterback

I’m making this a post because a comment wouldn’t take. (Hope we aren’t becoming PL Junior!)

I don’t know whether anyone previously posted a link to this NYT article about a DOJ legal memo justifying the target killing of al–Awlaki.

Two of the points I find interesting are that it is claimed that the memo does not establish any broadly applicable precedent, and that it approves the killing despite the target’s not posing any imminent threat. The claim that the analysis is nonprecedential is one that is often made but is nonetheless unpersuasive at best. It is in the books; it is precedent for the next time an administration wants to kill an American abroad.

The fact that the memo reportedly approves the killing despite the lack of an imminent threat is interesting when juxtaposed against the arguments commonly made against harsh interrogation that (a) there are no ticking time bombs in real life, and (b) even if there were, they could not justify enhanced interrogation (let the world perish, just don’t waterboard or blow cigar smoke in a detainee’s face).

It’s hard for a conservative not to reflect on the different reaction that undoubtedly would have come from the media and Congress had this been a Bush Admin memo authored by Yoo or Bybee. Yoo reportedly has commented that he is glad that his Democratic critics turned out to be unprincipled hypocrites and not principled fools. Hard to blame him.

Filed under: doj, war on terror | Tagged: , , , , | 26 Comments »

$16 Muffins!

Posted on September 23, 2011 by Kevin S. Willis

Looks like there is a brewing scandal at the Justice Department. They’ve been spending $16 for meeting muffins. I don’t mean meeting muffins in the 1940s slang way, in which case $16 would be a baragain. I mean muffins they eat at conferences. Because you can’t discuss justice without a tasty muffin.

While undoubtedly a blueberry-infested banana nut scandal, a little context doesn’t hurt. $350,000,000 could buy a lot of extra $16 muffins.

However, one nice thing about the $300+ million dollar F-22s and the $16 muffins is at least we know what they cost. The DoD budget, generally, remains largely opaque.

Background Music: Frank Zappa’s Muffin Man. I’m having to trust that Google is giving me a good link, as I can’t check it.

Filed under: budget, dod, doj | Tagged: , | 18 Comments »