Tag Archives: House Intelligence Committee

Articles of Interest

Justin Amash’s Revolution

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By Breaking News

Justin Amash SC Justin Amash’s Revolution

The Republican congressional leadership didn’t even want to bring Michigan Rep. Justin Amash’s anti-surveillance amendment up for a vote. The Obama administration certainly didn’t want it to pass.

Yet last week, Amash managed to force a debate on the House floor that should have happened more than a decade ago in the aftermath of 9/11. His amendment would have denied funding to the National Security Agency’s vast data-mining program.

Amash’s opponents hid behind classified information and misguided emotionalism. “Have 12 years gone by and our memories faded so badly that we forgot what happened on Sept. 11?” asked Rep. Mike Rogers, a fellow Michigan Republican who chairs the House Intelligence Committee.

“We oppose the current effort in the House to hastily dismantle one of our intelligence community’s counterterrorism tools,” White House press secretary Jay Carney echoed in a statement.

Wisconsin Rep. James Sensenbrenner, a past chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and a co-author of the Patriot Act, was one of the 93 Republicans who voted with Amash. Sensenbrenner argued that Congress never intended for the government to sweep the phone records of all Americans.

Read More at the American Conservative . By W. James Antle III.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Western Journalism

Computers

US House to vote on CISPA cyberthreat bill this week

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The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), a controversial cyberthreat information-sharing bill, will be debated on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives this week, despite continued opposition from some privacy and digital rights advocates.

The House will begin debate on the bill Wednesday at about 10 a.m. Debate will continue into Thursday, when a vote on the legislation is expected, according to the House Intelligence Committee. The committee voted 18-2 last Wednesday to approve the amended bill and send it to the House floor.

CISPA would allow private companies, including Internet service providers, banks and e-commerce sites, to share a wide range of customer information they believe is related to cyberthreats with U.S. agencies like the National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security.

The bill would give those businesses protections from lawsuits for sharing customer information, but it does not require companies to make reasonable efforts to remove unrelated private information from the cyberthreat information they share.

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From: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2034672/us-house-to-vote-on-cispa-cyberthreat-bill-this-week.html#tk.rss_all

News, Politics, Government

House Members Oppose CISPA Unless Privacy Problems Are Fixed

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By Larry Magid, Contributor

The Cyber Information Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) “has major shortcomings and would undermine the interests of citizens and their privacy,” a group of House members in a “Dear Colleague” letter.  The House members are reacting to the version of the bill that was passed by the House Intelligence Committee on April 9th.

From: http://www.forbes.com/sites/larrymagid/2013/04/15/house-members-oppose-cispa-unless-privacy-problems-are-fixed/

Articles of Interest

Rep. Mike Rogers Warns Against Nixing CIA’s Role In Drone Program

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By The Huffington Post News Editors

WASHINGTON — Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, voiced concerns on Sunday about the government‘s reported plan to shift responsibility for drone strikes from the CIA to the military. Daniel Klaidman of The Daily Beast reported last week on the planned change, but Rogers indicated on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday that he wasn’t convinced it was such a great idea.

“It’s been a very, very effective tool in disrupting the leadership of al Qaeda. I would be cautious about trying to shift around key assets in the government,” Rogers said of the drone program. “The value of this program comes from the entire set of the package, from trying to figure out who these people are, where they are, and then having the ability to do something about it.”

As Klaidman reported, bringing the drone program under Defense Department oversight would create a more uniform set of rules and procedures for carrying out attacks:

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Huffington Post

News, Politics, Government

Intel committee chairman says 'red line' crossed in Syria, urges US action

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The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee said Sunday that the Assad regime has “absolutely” crossed the so-called “red line” by moving and using at least a small amount of chemical weapons, pressuring the Obama administration to get more involved in the conflict to prevent further bloodshed.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox News – Politics

Articles of Interest

No. of Americans on Kill List: Zilch

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By Mark Russell The White House has remained mum on its so-called kill list , but at least one politician is now talking: House Intelligence Committee chair Mike Rogers yesterday revealed that there aren’t any Americans on it. “There is no list where Americans are on the list,” Rogers told the National Journal , which… …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Home

Articles of Interest

Syria Using Chemical Weapons? Rep. Mike Rogers Tells CNN ‘High Probability’ (VIDEO)

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By The Huffington Post News Editors

The chairman of the U.S. House Intelligence Committee says there is a “high probability” that the Syrian regime has used chemical weapons in its sustained war against rebel forces.

“I have a high probability to believe that chemical weapons were used,” Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) told CNN Tuesday night. “We need that final verification, but given everything we know over the last year and a half, I would come to the conclusion that they are either positioned for use, and ready to do that, or in fact have been used.”

The statement came on a day in which Bashar Assad‘s government and opposition forces accused each other of firing a rocket loaded with chemical weapons in an attack on Aleppo that killed 16 and wounded 86, Reuters reports.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Huffington Post

News, Politics, Government

Weapons seizure in Yemen shines light on Iran's attempts to destabilize region

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By Catherine Herridge

A recent shipment of weapons intercepted in Yemen, including surface-to-air missiles, shows Iran‘s determination to further destabilize the region, according to the head of the House Intelligence Committee.

“This new chapter is, with the chaos that you see in Northern Africa, with what you see happening in Yemen, is to escalate arms flow,” Republican Rep. Mike Rogers told Fox News. “Why? They’re feeling the pressure of sanctions, they’re feeling the pressure of international isolation because of their pursuit of nuclear weapons.”

Video of the weapons shipment, posted to YouTube this week by the Yemen Embassy in Washington, D.C., for the first time revealed the scope and sophistication of the weapons intercepted in late January. A Yemeni military source tells Fox News the shipment included circuits, wires and nearly 200 explosive packages for improvised explosive devices, remote detonators, military binocular and what were described as Iranian man-portable, infrared-guided surface-to-air missiles. Known as “Manpads,” the missiles can bring down civilian aircraft.

The weapons — bound for a Shia insurgent group that has called for an end to the small U.S. military presence in Yemen — were hidden inside a metal tank on a fishing vessel that was intercepted as part of a joint U.S.-Yemen operation.

At a Jan. 29 briefing, Defense Department spokesman George Little described the operation:”The dhow was observed operating erratically and low in the water and ventured into Yemeni waters, so a routine boarding was conducted. Arms were discovered, and we had crew statements that indicate that the point of origin was Iran.”

Beyond Yemen, a new British report by investigators with Conflict Armament Research concludes Iran has been expanding its footprint in Africa by secretly supplying unmarked ammunition to fuel regional conflicts.

The report, called “The Distribution of Iranian Ammunition in Africa,” describes Iran‘s role in the Sudan as “sustained and potentially escalating” with large-scale shipments — as well as technical help to produce weapons.

Separately, Fox News is told that a suspected Israeli air strike on a Sudanese warehouse in October was linked to Iran‘s weapons smuggling operations. The explosion destroyed some 40 percent of the Yarmouk munitions plant near the capital Khartoum. At the time, Israel did not confirm nor deny a bombing.

While Tehran denies involvement, there is now strong evidence, presented publicly this week, that a July bus bombing in Bulgaria that killed five Israeli tourists was the work of Hezbollah — one of Iran‘s proxies. Both Rep. Rogers and outside analysts believe the smuggling of weapons and the uptick in plots linked to Hezbollah also reflect the fact that Iran‘s longtime partner Syria is under pressure, and the regime may ultimately fall, depriving the Iranians of a key ally.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News