The fight over Section 702 reauthorization

Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act permits U.S. intelligence agencies (including the CIA, NSA, and FBI) to conduct surveillance of people who are: 1) not United States persons (a term of art including U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, U.S. corporations, and some unincorporated associations); and 2) not located in the United States. Those […]

Why the Afghan security forces collapsed

The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) published a report this month examining why the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) collapsed so quickly when the United States withdrew from the country in 2021. The report places much of the blame with the U.S.-Taliban Agreement signed by the Trump Administration in 2020: The […]

The importance of the declassification process

Former FBI agent Asha Rangappa explains why it’s important that everyone, including the president, follows the proper procedures when declassifying documents.

To declassify a doc is to make a judgment call about its danger to our nat sec, and the person making that call needs to explain that rationale – so that those whom it affects, including public, know why.

Asha Rangappa