Metro Spirit national security blog

Wired: "Privacy Board Knows Number of Americans Targetted by NSA but Won't Share the 411"

"Had Congress wanted us to be an indendepent agency, it would have made us independent."

So says a member of the White House Privacy and Civil Liberties Board.

CQ: "Fine Print in Defense Bill Opens Door to Martial Law"

“The changes to the Insurrection Act will allow the President to use the military, including the National Guard, to carry out law enforcement activities without the consent of a governor,” [Sen. Patrick Leahy] said.

Wired, again: "DHS Passenger Scoring Illegal?"

Describes

"A newly revealed system that has been assigning terrorism scores to Americans traveling into or out of the country for the past five years..."

Which reminds us of North Korea's categorization of its citizens into three groups: "Loyal," "Wavering" and "Hostile."

Media Matters: O'Reilly's banging the drums again

Big Brother Bill says,

"If Iran takes over Iraq and then fosters a revolution inside Saudi Arabia, which Iran wants to do, and overthrows that kingdom and gets control of all the oil and says we're not selling to the USA, we are going to level that country, because you, [caller], need gasoline to live. See? Now that's the biggest example I can give you."

IHT: "Rights group says Indian military assistance fuels repression in [Burma]"

We can't just blame China anymore.

"It is shocking that a democracy like India would offer military assistance to Burma's brutal military dictatorship, which is likely to use that assistance against the civilian population," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.