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April Falcon Doss Profile picture
April Falcon Doss
@AprilFDoss
Cyber, privacy, and natsec law. Author of "Cyber Privacy: Who Has Your Data and Why You Should Care." RT ≠ endorsement. Personal account; views my own.
5 subscribers
Jun 30, 2021 • 42 tweets • 6 min read
A (long) thread on why Tucker Carlson’s bogus claims about NSA surveillance are a textbook example of the disinformation techniques that fuel conspiracy theories – and what makes them so dangerous. On Monday, the Fox News host claimed that NSA was “monitoring our electronic communications and is planning to leak them in an attempt to take this show off the air.” Carlson offered no evidence – just a vague reference to a “whistleblower within the U.S. government.”
Jun 11, 2021 • 14 tweets • 3 min read
This is really beyond the pale. And reminiscent of the politically-motivated abuses of investigative powers that were documented in the 1976 Church Committee report.
nytimes.com/2021/06/10/us/… Take a walk with me down memory lane...
Pre-WWII, the US intelligence community consisted of loosely organized components that kicked into high gear when wartime pressures seemed to justify intrusive new activities (like intercepting all international telegrams).
Jun 9, 2021 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
This is an interesting way of framing the question. When cyber incident victims hire forensic consultants through counsel, of course attorney-client privilege is nearly always one of the considerations. But to suggest it's to "hide" information may be unfairly pejorative. A/c privilege has been hotly debated in cyber incident response for years & only more so since the EDVA decision in the Capital One litigation.
But there are good policy reasons why the a/c privilege and work product protections exist, and those policy reasons apply to cyber IR.
Sep 20, 2019 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Maybe. But, eventho the IC plays a key role in collecting intel re foreign threats to US elections, election security isn't one of the DNI's core responsibilities - that falls to DHS, FBI, and the states. Under EO 12333, the IC's core responsibilities are intel, and counterintel. So it could be that the concern goes more squarely to the IC's ability to provide accurate info about foreign plans, capabilities, & intentions. If the promise created pressure to provide damaging info no matter what (even if it's false) that wd undermine IC's fact-finding role.
Sep 17, 2019 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
It's hard to do effective questioning within the time limits and format of typical Congressional hearings. The members and staff who are best at it are the ones who can revise their questions on the fly to deal with stonewalling by witnesses. Q: "On x. page of the report, it says..."
A: "Where's that in the report? I'm looking for that..." [stalling, eating up the member's time]
Q: "I'll withdraw the question and rephrase. On x date, you [met with/ said/ did], correct?"
A: [don't recall/ waffling]
Sep 14, 2019 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Agreed, and it's deeply alarming for both its near-term and long-term consequences. Near-term: if Schiff's allegations are accurate, ODNI has circumvented the IG law by conferring with DoJ about a whistleblower complaint that should be headed to Congress. Long-term: If ODNI refuses to provide whistleblower information to Congress, that single action would set a precedent that undermines the entire structure of intelligence oversight, and with it, undermines the legitimacy of the Intelligence Community.
Aug 30, 2019 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Like so many other border actions, this is bad law, bad policy, & poor intel. Overly intrusive, extremely costly, and unlikely to yield meaningful information in the vast majority of cases. Still makes sense to use DNA testing in one-off cases (e.g. crime solving) but not in bulk Lots of research shows the ways biometrics can reinforce structural inequality. In today's climate, this kind of bulk testing, especially in an immigration context, also leads to real risk of misuse for ethnic profiling. I wrote about that risk here: bit.ly/2TEDLBm
Jul 17, 2019 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Seriously? The all-male panel of judges issues a majority decision saying female inmates have no reasonable expectation of privacy that would protect them from guards (in riot gear, hurling insults at them) ordering them to pull out their tampons, bend over, spread their cheeks to expose anus and vagina to the guards (and to other inmates on rec time in the gym) - for no better purpose than an optional training exercise for the guards. The search lasted so long that women bled on the floor, on their clothes, on their bodies,
Jun 6, 2019 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
It would also be useful to examine the teaching effectiveness (not just the scholarly output) of law profs with different types of backgrounds. @OrinKerr @PamelaSamuelson While a PhD may prove useful background for the important work of scholarship, shouldn't law school should also prepare students for the actual practice of law? After all, most law students go on to be practicing lawyers, not academics.
Feb 25, 2019 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
Experts agree: there's no national emergency at the southern border. wapo.st/2VjQOaG Claiming that there is one, when there are no facts to support it, is destructive in a host of important ways. Politicizing intelligence and national security is always a bad idea. It leads to distortion of facts, misleading arguments, bad policy, and worsening foreign relations. It can undermine Constitutional protections and - in the worst cases - lead to unnecessary loss of life.
Dec 5, 2018 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
In all the hot takes about the Flynn sentencing memo, it's helpful to step back from the docs themselves in considering the importance of Flynn's cooperation. The heavily redacted memo is short on details. But it confirms Flynn has provided extensive, and valuable, information. Per the memo wapo.st/2QczUwB Flynn met with Mueller's office and/or DoJ some 19 times, providing evidence for the Russia investigation, an apparently unrelated criminal matter, and perhaps a third matter. Here's why Flynn's cooperation is potentially so significant:
Oct 12, 2018 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Against the backdrop of concerns about Georgia voter registration practices, it's important to remember that Georgia uses voting machines that have no paper trail - meaning it's very difficult for voters or auditors to independently verify that votes were accurately tallied. Almost two years ago, I wrote about why we need to #auditthevote. bit.ly/2gAxPbh We've learned a lot more about election security since then, through reports like this one from SSCI bit.ly/2OUs6hL, and reporting like this by @KimZetter nyti.ms/2ORNFfq
Sep 18, 2018 • 16 tweets • 3 min read
Last night’s White House press statement about releasing unredacted information on the Russia investigation was a doozy. Only 139 words, but an awful lot to unpack, with lots of reasons to be concerned. I’ll try to walk through them here. bit.ly/2MFPZo9 1/x First, what does the WH say they’re going to do? 1) Release info from a few pages of the 4th Carter Page FISA; 2&3) Release never-before-seen info from FBI interviews in the RU investigation; and 4) Release unredacted text messages from specific individuals at FBI and DOJ. 2/x
Jul 23, 2018 • 15 tweets • 4 min read
Alright folks, I've been holding off on wading into the Carter Page FISA discussion. But I realize that there are a relatively limited number of people who have had the opportunity to review Title I FISA applications on a regular basis. 1/ A lot of people are trying to make sense of legal documents & standards & a complicated law (FISA) that are unfamiliar to them. There's been some great commentary, including by @pwnallthethings, @DavidKris (check them out) and others, but there's also a lot of confusion. 2/
Jul 4, 2018 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
Reminder: the SSCI investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 elections is a bipartisan investigation. The joint press release from Sen. Burr and Sen. Warner is here: bit.ly/2u2LCfh Sen. Burr: After 16 months of reviewing sources, tradecraft & analytic work, no reason to dispute the IC's conclusions. Sen. Warner: The Russian effort was extensive and sophisticated, and we have to do more to protect ourselves in 2018 and beyond. bit.ly/2u2LCfh