DHS Compiles Intelligence on Journalists … Including our Editor-In-Chief
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 5 August 2020
⏱️ 54 minutes
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Summary
“What if J. Edgar Hoover Had Been a Moron?” That’s the question Lawfare’s editor-in-chief Benjamin Wittes asks in a new article about his experience learning that his tweets had been written up in an intelligence report by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis. After reporting on an internal DHS document and publishing other documents to Twitter, Wittes learned that I&A had distributed intelligence reports about those tweets along with the tweets of New York Times reporter Mike Baker. After Shane Harris reported on I&A’s activities at the Washington Post, DHS announced that it was halting the practice of collecting information on journalists and the head of the office was reassigned. Quinta Jurecic discussed the bizarre story with Wittes and former Assistant Attorney General for National Security David Kris.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The following podcast contains advertising to access an ad-free version of the LawFair |
| 0:07.2 | podcast become a material supporter of LawFair at patreon.com slash LawFair. |
| 0:14.7 | That's patreon.com slash LawFair. |
| 0:18.2 | Also, check out LawFair's other podcast offerings, rational security, chatter, LawFair |
| 0:25.6 | no bull and the aftermath. |
| 0:34.0 | What's the understanding in the rank and file of how you're supposed to do your job and |
| 0:38.6 | how important do they think it is to operate in a framework of intelligence under law and |
| 0:43.5 | to follow the rules you can wear at some distance or wear it maybe limiting for them? |
| 0:47.4 | Do they have a regular practice of consulting with their lawyers? |
| 0:51.0 | Do they just sort of look to the bosses and what tone at the top of the boss is setting |
| 0:55.2 | for them? |
| 0:56.2 | I mean, I think I know the answer to that at the very top of the executive branch and |
| 1:01.4 | maybe, you know, level down. |
| 1:04.6 | But what's curious, what I'm curious about and potentially really frightened about is |
| 1:09.6 | the extent to which that style of operating thinking and acting has sort of permeated |
| 1:18.3 | down through the rank and file. |
| 1:21.0 | I'm Quintet Jurassic and this is the LawFair podcast, August 5th, 2020. |
| 1:28.5 | What if Jay Edgar Hoover had been a moron? |
| 1:32.1 | That's the question LawFair's editor and chief Benjamin Whittes asks in a new article |
| 1:36.2 | about his experience learning that his tweets had been written up in an intelligence report |
| 1:41.6 | by the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Intelligence and Analysis. |
| 1:47.0 | After reporting on an internal DHS document, I'm publishing other documents to Twitter, |
... |
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