Data octopus. That’s how one European Parliament official described the US’ continued grab for unfettered access to more and more European data.

Of course the Intelligence Authorization bill would have a signing statement, because that’s just how these carefully crafted bills are treated by Presidents guarding their Executive Power.

DDay pointed me to the signing statement that Obama issued in conjunction with the new Intelligence Authorization. There are three key points, IMO.

It remains to be seen whether this compromise will give Congress enough new oversight powers to prevent the abuses that happened under Bush (and heck–I assume the Gang of Four, if not the Gang of Eight–has signed off on assassinating US citizens solely on the President’s say so, so it’s not clear that oversight will be any use in protecting the Constitution). But Jeff Stein reports both Pelosi and DiFi declaring victory, while the White House and DOD remain silent.

It’s worth noting that if Nancy Pelosi does happen to lose the Speaker’s gavel after November, one of her final acts was to at least achieve some more accountability on the executive branch as it relates to intelligence oversight.

It doesn’t seem like much has changed since Bush was criminalizing political speech.

The Treasury Department has released its latest set of HAMP data for August, and the program is winding down with very few new trial modifications, and less in the system.

Former Bush administration National Security and Central Intelligence Agencies director Gen.Michael Hayden has another tired whine at CNN about Obama’s treatment of the torture program. The entire logic of the piece is predictably silly.

Remember that Vanity Fair tell all in which Erik Prince offered new details about Blackwater ops? Though Michael Hayden has suggested Prince made up some of the details, it seemed to be a form of graymail targeted at those who approved Blackwater ops now under criminal investigation. Apparently, there’s a long form version.

Wikileaks has posted a single new document–a CIA Red Cell report contemplating what would (will?) happen if other countries begin to see the US as an exporter of terrorism. The document admits several cases where the US has exported terror–such as the widely known but downplayed fact that David Headley had a role in the Mumbai bombing.

When James Clapper testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee, he rejected one of the central criticisms in the WaPo’s Top Secret America series–that the redundancy in the Intelligence Community contributed to waste and intelligence failures.

Perhaps it should come as no surprise, then, that his first act as DNI is to add to the redundancy.