via hotair:
On March 9th Matt Taibbi testified before the House Committee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government.
At the same time, he was testifying before the committee the IRS paid a visit to his house–an almost unheard-of tactic used by the agency. Usually, they use the mail.
The weaponization of Government? Not a thing, we are told. And if you disagree the IRS will remind you of that fact, forcefully and in person.
John did a write-up yesterday that lays out the facts, although I admit to being more cynical than he. I need to get a few beers or bourbons in him and straighten him out! I no longer ascribe to incompetence that which can be explained by pure malice when it comes to the government!
Screw these guys.
Related: The IRS Makes A Strange House Call On Journalist Matt Taibbi.
American Left Has Grown More Violent While FBI Was Hunting Soccer Moms. “Parents at school board meetings have yet to amass a body count.”
FBI Isn’t Treating Nashville Shooting As Domestic Terrorism.
PRIVACY: The FBI Has Been Buying Bulk Internet Data from This Florida Company.
The FBI’s cybersecurity division has been purchasing bulk internet data from a little-known tech firm based in Florida, Motherboard reports. Team Cymru, which calls itself a “global leader in cyber threat intelligence,” sells access to bulk web traffic and tells clients it can act as a gateway to a “super majority of all activity on the internet.” It has previously been found selling its services to a number of other federal agencies.
Details of the FBI’s contract were revealed via a Freedom of Information Act request filed by Motherboard. The 4-page document is heavily redacted and doesn’t given much away about the broader purpose of the bureau’s data acquisition. However, it does show that, in 2017, the government paid a total of $76,450 for the information haul. Just what the bureau’s Cyber Division ended up doing with that data isn’t exactly clear, although Motherboard notes that the data in question is what is known as “netflow” data, which, in some cases, can allegedly be used to help track cybercriminal activity. Companies like Cymru typically purchase the data from internet service providers, then resell it to law enforcement agencies, Motherboard states.
The FBI isn’t the first federal agency to be found purchasing data from Team Cymru. Last September, it was reported that multiple agencies within the U.S. military had spent millions of dollars to procure a powerful internet monitoring tool from the Florida firm, dubbed “Augury.” According to advertising materials, Augury allows a user access to bulk internet traffic logs. In some cases, the data being provided could include “access to people’s email data, browsing history, and other information such as their sensitive internet cookies,” the outlet reported.
The Stasi never had it so good.
h/t Glenn