Americans deeply distrust power and secrecy and are right to do so.  Intelligence agencies are powerful and secret---but necessary. Reconciling these propositions is a fundamental task in a democracy. We...

Many, of course, will doubt the power of data mining, geolocation and other cyber techniques to resolve ambiguities.  One would have thought, however, that Edwards Snowden the (in)famous NSA leaker would...

The New Republic has just published an essay we wrote over the weekend on the late unpleasantness involving surveillance. It opens: Former NSA contractor Edwards Snowden sure does know how to change the...

I had some hesitancy writing this blog since so many of the writers at the Post are acquaintances.  But it really must be said.  By now, readers are familiar with the Post's story on the NSA Prism progra...

You can't make this stuff up.  The Guardian has revealed its source to be NSA contractor Edward Snowden, who (not surprisingly) appears to be a fierce advocate of online freedom and privacy and who (perh...

Last week, the inter-agency Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) approved Japanese telecommunications firm SoftBank's purchase of a 70% interest in Sprint-Nextel.

Among the questions raised by the yesterday's FISC story is this: what has the executive branch said to members of Congress, regarding the collection of Verizon customers' telephony metadata under Sectio...

Like everyone else I've been following the breaking NSA stories.  [And, as an aside, almost lost in the clutter is the Guardian's next revelation of PPD-20, the Administration's Top Secret cyber operatio...

[Editor's Note: Carrie Cordero is a frequent Lawfare guest poster, a former Justice Department official, and currently Director of National Security Studies at Georgetown University Law Center]  As some...

The New York Times reports on President Obama’s first public comments on the NSA and FBI surveillance programs. Updated: Check out the C-SPAN video.

The following roundup is a running list of pertinent statements and quotes from lawmakers in Congress on the FISA order calling for Verizon to turn over customers' phone records, as well as the news abou...