Stories by Tim Starks:
May 23, 2013
President Barack Obama tried to use a wide-ranging speech Thursday to reset the narrative on a counterterrorism record that has been a political thorn in the White House’s side in recent months. But the immediate reaction from adversaries in Congress about new policies relating to the Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, prison and drone strikes suggested he had changed few minds.
March 19, 2013
The budget crunch, Obama administration officials contend, is already threatening the federal government’s ability to recruit the people it needs to respond to cyberattacks. But it might end up being even harder on the next generation of would-be cyber-warriors.
March 19, 2013
The Department of Defense’s Cyber Command reportedly wants to quintuple its workforce, but its leader, Gen. Keith B. Alexander, told a House Armed Services subcommittee last week that the threat of furloughs is going to hamstring his ability to recruit people to defend U.S. computer networks.
March 7, 2013
Sen. Rand Paul waged an old-fashioned filibuster of CIA director nominee John O. Brennan Wednesday, taking to the floor for more than 12 hours to protest the Obama administration’s stance over whether the U.S. government can conduct targeted killings of suspected terrorists on U.S. soil.
March 5, 2013
The confirmation prospects for John O. Brennan to become CIA director got a boost Tuesday with Senate Intelligence Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein announcing that the administration would supply her panel with additional legal opinions on the targeted killing of U.S. citizens suspected of terrorism overseas. The committee then approved his nomination Tuesday afternoon in a closed 12-3 vote.
March 4, 2013
The Senate Intelligence Committee is scheduled to vote Tuesday on CIA director nominee John O. Brennan — and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid wants a full Senate vote this week — but Republicans still want more answers on last year’s terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
Feb. 27, 2013
House Judiciary Committee members differ over whether an after-the-fact review of drone strikes targeting U.S. citizens suspected of terrorism overseas was preferable to a court review beforehand.
Feb. 26, 2013
Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee saw some of the documents they wanted Tuesday about last year’s attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, but they were not sufficient to clear a path for President Barack Obama’s CIA director nominee.
Feb. 25, 2013
The Senate Intelligence Committee is all but certain to vote Feb. 28 on the nomination of John O. Brennan to lead the CIA, and the panel’s chairwoman predicted the committee would vote to support him.
Feb. 15, 2013
In written answers to Senate Intelligence Committee questions released Friday, CIA director nominee John Brennan would not say whether the U.S. could conduct drone strikes inside the United States — only that it did not intend to do so.
Feb. 13, 2013
Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul announced Wednesday that he plans to place a hold on the nomination of John O. Brennan to run the CIA until he receives information related to the administration’s use of armed drones.
Feb. 12, 2013
Senators don’t just want Justice Department legal opinions on drone strikes or documents about last year’s attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, as they consider whether to confirm John O. Brennan as CIA director.
Feb. 10, 2013
With 19 days to go, the sequester standoff hardened Sunday. Congressional leaders from both parties said the deep automatic spending cuts must be prevented from taking effect, but Republicans drew a line in the sand against making tax increases part of any stopgap alternative, and Democrats did the same in vowing to protect entitlements and social programs.
Feb. 10, 2013
Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, offered new details Sunday about his ideas for creating a special court to oversee drone strikes against U.S. citizens suspected of terrorism, which has gained momentum as senators consider John O. Brennan’s nomination to run the CIA.
Feb. 8, 2013
John O. Brennan’s nomination for CIA director has fueled a surge in congressional exploration of legislation to rein in the use of drones, both abroad and domestically.
Feb. 8, 2013
Senate Intelligence Committee member Angus King on Friday asked the leaders of the panel to incorporate language into the fiscal 2014 intelligence authorization bill setting up a court to review targeted killings of U.S. citizens in foreign countries.
Feb. 7, 2013
At a spirited confirmation hearing Thursday, CIA director nominee John O. Brennan staunchly defended the Obama administration’s drone strike policy, as well as his own record on the subjects of harsh interrogation methods and leaks.
Feb. 6, 2013
In a reversal on the eve of John O. Brennan’s confirmation hearing to lead the CIA, and with pressure mounting from Congress, the White House said Wednesday that the administration will provide classified Office of Legal Counsel legal documents about targeted killings of U.S. citizens suspected of terrorism to the House and Senate Intelligence committees.
Feb. 6, 2013
Senate Intelligence Committee members are closely guarding how they might vote on the nomination of John O. Brennan to lead the CIA, but one thing is for sure: He will catch heat from Democrats and Republicans alike at his confirmation hearing Thursday.
Feb. 5, 2013
Senate Intelligence Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein said Tuesday that a Justice Department legal memo on using drone strikes against U.S. citizens suspected of terrorism has allowed her panel to conduct oversight of the controversial practice.
Jan. 23, 2013
As the Senate Appropriations Committee prepares to appoint its subcommittee chairmen, one thing is already clear: Barbara A. Mikulski’s takeover of the full panel should be a boon to the National Security Agency, the largest of the U.S. intelligence agencies and one of the largest employers in her state of Maryland.
Nov. 28, 2012
Sen. Ron Wyden insists he doesn’t have a grudge against fellow Democrat Dianne Feinstein of California. What he does have, though, is a hold on her two legislative priorities of the lame-duck session — and he has, in fact, placed a hold on every major bill coming out of her Intelligence Committee in the past two years.
Nov. 16, 2012
Republicans said Friday after closed-door House and Senate Intelligence Committee meetings with David H. Petraeus that CIA talking points on the Benghazi, Libya, consulate attack mentioning terrorist connections were altered to delete those references, raising questions of politicization.
Nov. 14, 2012
Many lawmakers from both parties say they consider the extramarital affair of David H. Petraeus and his retirement from the CIA a distraction from a more meaningful spy-related investigation: what happened in the lead-up to and fallout from the September terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
Nov. 13, 2012
Leaders of the Intelligence committees are meeting with the acting CIA director Tuesday and Wednesday to get briefed on what happened with Gen. David H. Petraeus, who resigned from the CIA last week following a scandal that emerged from an FBI investigation into his extramarital affair.
