Spencer Ackerman
National security reporter for the Daily Beast. [email protected] // [email protected]
Last synced from Twitter 841d ago
Barr Just Cost DOJ Its Prized Public-Corruption Fighter
Jonathan Kravis was one of the most experienced anti-corruption prosecutors the government had. He resigned at a time when official corruption is increasingly normalized.
Army Isn’t Investigating Lt. Col. Vindman, Despite Trump’s Tweets
But that could change in a hurry. Retired officers tell The Beast that the officer who testified about Trump’s attempts to pressure Ukraine isn’t out of professional danger yet.
The FBI Makes a Bizarre Claim About Pro-Choice Terrorism
The bureau revamped its homegrown-terror efforts to include “people on either side” of the abortion debate. But there’s almost no evidence of pro-choice violence.
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Spencer Ackerman
NEW with @eshugerman: Pro-choice violent extremism isn’t a thing, but the FBI is categorizing it as domestic terrorism.
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Republicans Hate Surveillance on Trump, but Sound Like They’ll Renew the PATRIOT Act
Judiciary Republicans gave FBI Director Christopher Wray the business over the Trump-Russia probe. But they stopped short of committing to junk expiring parts of the PATRIOT Act.
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Spencer Ackerman
NEW: The PATRIOT Act’s most notorious provisions, affecting the privacy of millions of Americans, are expiring. House Republicans are furious over FBI surveillance on Trump’s campaign. And these are two ships passing in the night.
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Revealed: the true identity of the leader of an American neo-Nazi terror group
The white supremacist group the Base uses terror to spread its ideology and recruit young men. The FBI is closely watching them – and the Guardian is now able to reveal the identity of its secretive leader
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Spencer Ackerman
So if I’m reading @jason_a_w’s piece correctly, the leader of the Base transitioned seamlessly from taking government money from counterterrorism contracting into terrorism.
theguardian.com/world/2020/jan… pic.twitter.com/ks6YFAXFZA
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Regime Critic Says Saudis Tried to Kidnap Him on U.S. Soil
Abdulrahman Almutairi is a Saudi social-media influencer who criticized Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. If not for the FBI, he says, he might’ve met Jamal Khashoggi’s fate.
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Spencer Ackerman
NEW: Meet Abdulrahman Almutieri. He’s a comedian and influencer from Saudi Arabia who lives in California. And after he criticized Mohammed bin Salman, he might have become the next Jamal Khasshogi — if not for the FBI’s intervention.
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EX-CIA Lawyer: The Soleimani Hit Was a Homicide Under U.S. Criminal Law
Was this murder? It sure looks that way, under a law that Congress passed specifically to deter global terrorist acts.
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Spencer Ackerman
Vicki Divoll was an attorney for the CIA and the Senate intelligence committee. She says the Soleimani assassination was a homicide.
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Glenn Greenwald Speaks: Bolsonaro Is Trying to Silence Me
The charges are “an obvious attempt to attack a free press in retaliation for the revelations we reported about... the Bolsonaro government,” Greenwald told The Daily Beast.
Justice Department Stonewalls Senate Democrats on Trump’s War-Crimes Clemency
More than a month after deadline from Sens. Leahy and Whitehouse, DOJ says it’ll give answers on what it might have told the White House on the controversial pardons… sometime.
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Spencer Ackerman
NEW with @swin24: the Justice Department is supposed to play a central role in pardons. But for Trump’s war-crimes clemencies, it’s blown through a deadline to explain what it recommended, if it was involved at all.
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Trump Is Handing Iran Its Biggest Strategic Objective: Iraq
Iran wants the U.S. out of Iraq, so the administration’s response is to say it won’t leave, regardless of what the government of Iraq—that the U.S. set up—has to say about it.
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Spencer Ackerman
NEW: It’s not like the USA is in the habit of respecting Iraqi sovereignty, but today’s refusal to discuss the parliament/PM’s insistence on leaving is a new imperial low. W/@ErinBanco & @swin24
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U.S. Intel: Iran Shot Down Plane, Then Realized Mistake
The Ukrainian airliner that crashed in Iran the night of the missile attacks on bases in Iraq appears to have been shot by the Iranians with a Russian-made anti-aircraft system.
Lawmakers Fume About Trump Admin’s Lack of Iran Explanation After ‘Insulting’ Briefing
Members of Congress wanted to hear about the intelligence justifying the killing of Qassem Soleimani and what the U.S. will do to avoid a war. They say they got bupkis.
Trump, Iran and Where ‘The Forever War’ Was Always Headed
Trump says he hates endless wars, but the Soleimani hit writ large shows why he hasn’t ended them. He’s the ultimate expression of impulses that have consumed the U.S. since 9/11.
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Spencer Ackerman
NEW: The assassination of Qassem Soleimani shows why Trump was never going to end “endless wars.” Endless wars brought Trump to power. Unless the war on terrorism is finally ended, it will yield neither peace nor victory — just more Trumps.
thedailybeast.com/trump-iran-and… pic.twitter.com/HG57k5H9Td
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Trump Told Mar-a-Lago Pals to Expect ‘Big’ Iran Action ‘Soon’
Attendees of a closed-door Senate briefing didn’t get much more clarity than the club guests did. Instead, officials spun Soleimani’s slaying as a way to “de-escalate” tensions.
U.S. Strike Kills Iran’s Most Important Military Commander
Qassem Soleimani, the leader of the Iranian Qods Force, is dead in Iraq, perhaps turning a proxy war into a direct one.
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Spencer Ackerman
US kills Iran’s most important military commander in one of the most fateful escalations during a generation of war. Tell me how this ends.
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Trump Considers Pardoning Murderous Blackwater Mercenary
An effort to clear a Blackwater merc doing life for murder in the infamous Nisour Square massacre may soon bear fruit, multiple sources tell The Daily Beast.
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Spencer Ackerman
NEW with @swin24: just in time for huge escalating tensions in Iraq, Trump is considering pardoning the Blackwater contractor convicted of first-degree murder in the 2007 Nisour Square massacre.
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Anguish and Anger From the Navy SEALS Who Turned In Edward Gallagher
Video interviews and group texts obtained by The Times show men describing their platoon leader in grim terms.
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Spencer Ackerman
“‘The guy is freaking evil,’” Special Operator Miller told investigators.“ nytimes.com/2019/12/27/us/… via @NYTimes
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The Surveillance State Quietly Lost a Major Court Case
The feds have a habit of rifling without a warrant through NSA data warehouses to find dirt on American citizens. An appeals court ruling may finally start to break the addiction.
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Spencer Ackerman
NEW: a small victory for the privacy of millions of Americans, concerning the ability of the FBI to warrantlesssly search through NSA databases for your data, that won’t receive much attention as it can’t fit into any Trump/anti-Trump framework.
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The Shady History of Mayor Pete’s Wine Cave—and the Ultra-Rich Couple That Owns It
$100,000 checks, plum ambassadorships, and a $102 million settlement. The cave has been an oasis for dollar-eyed Dems long before Elizabeth Warren made it instantly infamous.
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Spencer Ackerman
Let @scottbix be your Virgil through this descent into the hell of oenophile oligarchy
60d
How Biden Kept Screwing Up Iraq—Over and Over and Over Again
Biden didn’t just vote to authorize the Iraq war for “peace and security.” He got it wrong at every stage, from invasion to occupation to a withdrawal that led to ISIS’ rise.
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Spencer Ackerman
NEW: Biden’s record on Iraq — before and throughout the occupation — is amongst the worst of anyone who wasn’t part of the Bush team. It reflects a foreign policy vision still regnant in centrist/liberal circles despite its damage to the US & the world. thedailybeast.com/how-biden-kept… pic.twitter.com/XXeJNZTsfv
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