The NSA, due to a FOIA request, recently released a collection of indices for four internal publications as well as publications from the Center for Cryptologic History dating back to as early as 1956! Topics range from the usual suspects (e.g., "TEMPEST: A Signal Problem," "Soviet Defector at NSA") to the mundane (e.g., "The Effort to Create a Smoke-Free NSA").



Mirrored copies of the released PDFs:

• Cryptologic Quarterly (Spring 1982 - Winter 1996)
• NSA Technical Journal (April 1056 - Fall 1980)
• Cryptologic Spectrum (1969 - 1981)
• Cryptologic Almanac (Jan/Feb 2002 - Apr/Jun 2003)
• Center for Cryptologic History Publications

Former President Clinton walks into a trap on Fox News Sunday, but it doesn't turn out exactly as planned.

The Washington Post has an interesting article from a former Soviet dissident on the perils of state-sponsored torture.

Brave New Ballot: The Battle to Safeguard Democracy in the Age of Electronic Voting, the recently released book that tells the story of Johns Hopkins computer security researcher Avi Rubin's efforts to highlight the dangers of electronic voting, contains some amazingly discouraging anecdotes. From the Slashdot review: Is this is really the mindset of the majority of people running elections? Exposing the means by which democracy can be subverted in a virtually undetectable manner by a small number of motivated and unscrupulous individuals is somehow itself a threat to democracy?

Federal judge rules NSA wiretap program unconstitutional. The ACLU has the text of the ruling.

I'm pleased to give you Jack Rebney, Winnebago salesman and possibly the angriest man in the world. Also, don't miss the angriest puppet in the world!

In case anyone was wondering how the data provided by the NSA's domestic spying programs was being used, two ABC investigative reporters have been told that the government is tracking the phone numbers they call in order to identify confidential sources. According to the senior federal law enforcement official that tipped them off, "It's time for you to get some new cell phones, quick."



In addition, other reporters at ABC News, the New York Times, and the Washington Post are also being investigated in relation to several embarrassing leaks from within the CIA.

UPDATE

FBI confirms that it is acquiring phone records in leak investigations, using National Security Letters introduced by the Patriot Act. NSLs require no signature from a judge, and prevent the recipient from disclosing the fact that the NSL has been received.

USA Today broke a story today on the NSA's efforts to secretly collect phone call records of American citizens, with the goal of creating "a database of every call ever made" within the nation's borders. Several American telecom companies have been identified as collaborating with the NSA to provide phone record data.



This revelation comes as the US government is fighting legal challenges to another domestic spying program operated by the NSA, in which AT&T is alleged to have provided access to the contents of all Internet and telephone communications traversing AT&T's network. The government has responded by seeking to dismiss the suit by asserting "military and state secrets privilege."

From a piece in the current IEEE Security and Privacy magazine, the FBI has been gathering data on individuals from the data aggregator ChoicePoint since 2002. Discovered through a FOIA request: So, the FBI has effectively privatized its data collection operations? How many other checks and balances on government power are open to this kind of "free market solution?"

Hot on the heels of reports that Mr. Deutsch took part in a broad campaign to "limit or flavor discussions of topics uncomfortable to the Bush administration" comes news that he has been forced to resign, ostensibly for falsely claiming to have received a degree from Texas A&M. Not surprisingly, however, James E. Hansen, one of the scientists who came forward with claims that he was actively discouraged from discussing topics such as global warming, warned that the underlying problem has not yet been addressed: