Reuters reported yesterday that several Congresspersons and Senators have written Attorney General Holder seeking answers to questions about the report that the DEA used information collected by the National Security Agency (NSA) in criminal investigations unrelated to terrorism and the collection of foreign intelligence.

It appears the first letter was from Congressman John Conyers, Jerrold Nadler and Bobby Scott on August 9. It asked these questions and requested an answer by August 26:

1. Which components of the U.S. Department of Justice have access to information collected by the government under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act?

2. Does the Drug Enforcement Administration, or any other component of the Department of Justice, use or give to any other federal, state, or local agency foreign intelligence surveillance information collected under FISA for the purpose of criminal investigation or criminal prosecution? If so, with what frequency? Under which authorities is such information collected?

[More...]

Boston Magazine, which first published the leaked arrest photos of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, has published another 48 images from the arrest scene. Like the earlier photos, these were taken by Sergeant Sean Murphy.

In this photo, an injured Dzhokhar lifts his sweatshirt. Presumably, this was in response to a request by law enforcement to show he did not have a bomb strapped to his chest. In this photo, you can see the number of agents with guns trained on him as he descended from the boat. This photo shows injuries to his face and hand while still on the boat.

Here's a video in which you can hear the barrage of shots fired at Tsarnaev, who was unarmed.

Facebook has released the numbers of requests it received for user account information during the first half of 2013.

The United States sought data from between 20,000 – 21,000 accounts. Facebook said the data included “criminal and national security requests to the maximum extent permitted by law.” It said it was prohibited from detailing exact numbers or types of national security related requests, which would include National Security Letters and FISA court orders.

...The data, the social-networking giant said, concern basic subscriber information, such as name and length of service. “Other requests may also seek IP address logs or actual account content,” Facebook said.

Facebook's report is here. Take a look at FB's Data Privacy page and see how much information it stores about you. You need to check three places, the Activities Log, Expanded Archives and Downloaded Info and Activity Logs.

To save you some time, I combined them in this slideshow. The complete data use policy is here. For more on what information Facebook, Twitter and other social media companies store, see here. For stored metadata, see here.

Breaking Bad: Walter's "confession" tape was a terrific plot twist I didn't see coming. I still think the final showdown will be between Todd/Uncle Jack's people and Walt, but it will be interesting to see who else gets killed along the way.

Here's an open thread, all topics welcome (except Zimmerman.)

Thinking good thoughts for Linda Ronstadt, who in an interview with AARP this week, says she can no longer sing due to Parkinson's Disease.

Picking just one of her songs is so difficult. Other favorites: Love is a Rose, Desperado, Poor Poor Pitiful Me, Tumbling Dice, Silver Threads and Golden Needles, Love Has no Pride, When Will I Be Loved, and on and on.

It may be Sequester time for the rest of us, but not the DEA. It's moved on from Africa to the South Pacific. Why? To catch cocaine going from South America to Vanuatu in the South Pacific with a final destination of Australia.

U.S.-Australian cooperation with authorities in Vanuatu, Tonga, the Cook Islands, and New Caledonia have resulted in almost 2 tons of cocaine destined for Australia being seized from five vessels since 2010.

Muno2 TV has been replaying episodes of the Colombian series Pablo Escobar: El Patron del Mal every weeknight at 8 and 11 pm. It's really good. It's in Spanish but has English subtitles. Andres Parras, the actor who plays Pablo Escobar really looks like him. (Many of the cast members resemble their real life role models, see pictures here.) You can also watch all 74 episodes online. It was produced in Colombia in 2012 by Caracoal TV and is fact-based -- but entertaining. It's not a documentary.

In real life, last week Hugo Aguilar, the former police commander led the operation that killed Pablo Escobar in 1993, was sentenced to 9 years in prison for accepting money from the paramilitary group AUC, United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia . Here's a picture of him with the Escobar's body.

This is an open thread, all topics (except Zimmerman) welcome.

Chelsea Manning, formerly known as Bradley Manning, is requesting hormone therapy during her incarceration. Here is her letter. After thanking her supporters, she writes:

As I transition into this next phase of my life, I want everyone to know the real me. I am Chelsea Manning. I am a female. Given the way that I feel, and have felt since childhood, I want to begin hormone therapy as soon as possible. I hope that you will support me in this transition. I also request that, starting today, you refer to me by my new name and use the feminine pronoun (except in official mail to the confinement facility). I look forward to receiving letters from supporters and having the opportunity to write back.

[More...]

In response to a FOIA lawsuit(document here) by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the Government today agreed to release a FISA court opinion finding some parts of the NSA electronic surveillance program unconstitutional. For example, for a period of time, the NSA illegally collected domestic emails and internet communications of Americans.

The October, 2011 opinion by former FISA Court Chief Judge John Bates is here. A September, 2012 opinion by Judge Bates finding the issue sufficiently resolved is here. Spencer Ackerman and other reporters had a conference call with an intelligence official who gave an explanation of what happened and why. Here is the Guardian report on documents from Edward Snowden describing the loophole (also here.)

DNI Director James Clapper's letter explaining today's releases is here. The website DNI set up with links to released documents is here.
Other documents released today include: [More...]

Here's an open thread, all topics welcome. (Except Zimmerman.)

Bradley Manning was sentenced to 35 years today. The Government asked for 60. The maximum was 90. He will be eligible for parole after 1/3. He gets credit for the time already served. He also will get another 112 days of credit for the harsh conditions he endured during in the early days of his confinement.

In all, he received 1,294 days of credit, and will be eligible for parole in 8 /12 years.[More...]

A few documents were unsealed in the Dzhokhar Tsarnaev case, including the transcript of his advisement at the hospital two days after his capture. The trauma surgeon attending to him told the judge:

He has multiple gunshot wounds, the most severe of which appears to have entered through the left side inside of his mouth and exited the left face, lower 18 face. This was a high-powered injury that has resulted in 19 skull-base fracture, with injuries to the middle ear, the skull base, the lateral portion of his C1 vertebrae, with a 21 significant soft-tissue injury, as well as injury to the pharynx, the mouth, and a small vascular injury that's been treated. He has, in addition to this, some ophthalmologic injuries that have been treated.

He has multiple gunshots wounds to the extremities that have been treated with dressings to the lower extremities; and in the case of his left hand, he had multiple bony injuries as well that were treated with fixation and soft-tissue coverage, as well as tendon repair and vascular ligation.

He was questioned for two days before this hearing, without being advised of his right to counsel. He was also being administered Diluadid, a potent pain killer, every three hours.