2013 had its fair share of bad news, but it was also a year of extraordinary activism.
Ten Good Things about 2013
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NSA
NSA Surveillance’s Cost-Benefit Ratio
Massive data collection by the NSA comes down much heavier on the cost side of the ledger than the benefit.
Mistaking Omniscience for Omnipotence
No one knows what a major state would be like if it radically cut back its intelligence services–but based on the recent American record, it’s hard to imagine we could be anything but better off.
NSA and TMI
To: John Brennan, Langley HQ From: Operative 650, undisclosed location Re: Memo XP1476 Greetings from the tropics! I apologize for not writing to you earlier. As you probably know, if you have my file in front of you, I wrote to your predecessors with various modest...
Surveillance on Merkel’s Phone Demands a Scapegoat
As you have no doubt heard by now, German Chancellor Angela Merkel was informed by German intelligence that her phone was subjected to American surveillance. Predictably she reacted badly and called President Obama himself to ream him out. At the New York Times,...
Leak of an Al Qaeda Plot Presents Larger Problem for U.S. Intelligence Than Snowden
In the New York Times, Eric Schmitt and Michael S. Schmidt report that documents Edward Snowden released might have caused less short-term damage than leak of an Al Qaeda plot in August. After media reports, Al Qaeda significantly reduced its use of a major...
Foreign Policy Thin-Sliced (8/16/13)
Syrian Rebel-Force Futility “If a regular Syrian comes and asks me what we have given him, I don’t know what to say,” Ahmed said. Momentum Shifts in Syria, Bolstering Assad’s Position, Ben Hubbard, the New York Times Netanyahu, Agitator-in-Chief on Iran The amped-up...
Patriot Act Sponsor James Sensenbrenner — Progressive Champion?
You remember James Sensenbrenner, don’t you? A Republican from Wisconsin, he introduced the Patriot Act in the House of Representatives 42 days after 9/11. Among his other “accomplishments” was authoring the Real ID Act in 2005 and acting as a general thorn in the...
How to Be a Rogue Superpower
It’s hard even to know how to take it in. I mean, what’s really happening? An employee of a private contractor working for the National Security Agency makes off with unknown numbers of files about America’s developing global security state on a thumb drive and four...
NSA Spying Leaves Washington Lonelier than Ever
As President Barack Obama arrived in Berlin last month to deliver a speech at the Brandenburg gate, many Germans were already expressing concern about revelations of NSA spying. Little did they know that they were viewing the tip of the iceberg and that tensions in...