Clinton lawyer rejects subpoena for current server security details

A lawyer for Hillary Clinton told a House committee Friday the panel won't be receiving some information it subpoenaed about security arrangements for Clinton's server.

Clinton attorney David Kendall sent a letter to House Science Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) saying that the panel's subpoena to Florida-based computer security company SECNAP went too far by demanding details on safeguards in place after Clinton emails from her time as secretary state were removed from the server in 2014.

• "The subpoena ... is overbroad," Kendall wrote in the letter, obtained by POLITICO. "We have no objection to the production of documents related to the SECNAP security device used in connection with the server that ... hosted Secretary Clinton's emails from her tenure as secretary .... We do object, however, to the production of SECNAP documents and security information regarding security equipment that was used by CESC after the prior server was provided to the FBI, and thus, never hosted Secretary Clinton's work-related emails."
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•  http://www.politico.com/blogs/under-the-radar/2016/09/hillary-clinton-emails-subpoena-server-security-228614#ixzz4LJHhx7fP 

SECNAP Letter on U.S. House Science, Space and Technology Committee Chair Lamar Smith on Subpoena by Beverly Tran on Scribd

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"Stonetear" House Investigation Congressional Notification to Platte River Networks

"Stonetear" House Investigation - Congressional Notification to Platte River Networks by The Conservative Treehouse on Scribd

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State Department Records: House Oversight Committee Hearing On Hillary Clinton and Clinton Foundation Server

Three former aides of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton refused to testify at a House Oversight & Government Reform Committee hearing on her staff’s preservation of her email records. Former State Deparment Information Resource Management Adviser Bryan Pagliano did not attend the hearing after being issued a subpoena. Committee Chair Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) said there will be consequences for Mr. Pagliano failing to attend. In addition, two specialists from Platte River Networks, the company that maintained the server after it was moved to a data center in New Jersey, appeared at the hearing but asserted their Fifth Amendment privileges. Justin Cooper, who set up Hillary Clinton’s email on a private server, was questioned by the committee on the security issues surrounding Ms. Clinton’s private email account. 

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GOP chairmen subpoena tech firms tied to Clinton's email server

Two GOP chairmen on Monday issued subpoenas to several technology vendors as part of an investigation into the security of Hillary Clinton’s private email server.

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs chairman, and Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) the House Science Committee chairman, sent out the subpoenas to three companies.

“The information being sought is a crucial step in bringing greater transparency to Secretary Clinton’s ‘extremely careless’ — I would call it dangerously reckless and grossly negligent — email practices,” said Johnson.

http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/292256-gop-chairmen-subpoena-clinton-server-vendors

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Patent Reform Act Stumbles Over Control of Money

Patent Reform Act Stumbles Over Control of Money

News out of Washington is that the Patent Reform Act is off again.  The main issue of debate appears to be the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office funding provisions in H.R. 1249, “The America Invents Act.”

Section 22 of the Judiciary Committee reported bill allows the USPTO to retain all user fees to use for operations, preventing the fees from being redirected to other non-USPTO purposes.  The news came after a gaggle of modifications were submitted for vote.  See 86 pages of proposed HR 1249 Amendments here!

H.R. 1249, would move the U.S. to a “first-to-file” patent system similar to most of the rest of the developed world.  In contrast, the U.S. system relies on a determination of who invented first.  The bill creates a sort of “first-inventor-to-file” process in which priority will be given to patents that are filed first. However, it also creates a new “derivation” process that will be used to ensure that the first person to file for a patent is also the first inventor.

COPY WRONG: GOP FIGHT DELAYS PATENT BILL — The House Rules Committee postponed a planned Tuesday afternoon markup of legislation that would rewrite patent law because of an unresolved dispute over whether to give the Patent and Trademark Office full control over the money that it raises through fees or continue to require an annual congressional appropriation for its budget. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s office says he’s confident the bill will still be up this week, as planned. But it’s a serious enough disagreement that it will require either a “fix” or a change of heart by some of the opponents. Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) criticized Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) for allowing the floor vote to be postponed during a closed-door session on Monday night, according to Republican sources who spoke to POLITICO’s John Bresnahan. Boehner said “he didn’t agree with how they dealt with fees or funding mechanism,” one of the sources added.

Proponents say PTO should be able to keep all of the funds it raises through fees — rather than worry about appropriators diverting a portion of its income for other programs — in order to address a backlog of pending requests. Opponents worry that taking PTO out of the annual appropriations process will give PTO too much autonomy and too little oversight. The bill would require the director of the office to submit an annual report to the appropriations committees in the House and Senate detailing PTO’s financial plans. Still, it’s a fight that pits authorizers (who would gain authority) against appropriators (who would lose it). Put Boehner in the appropriators’ camp on this one.

If you’re cynical (and I’m not saying I am) then you might be inclined to think that “patent reform” will go on and on as long as campaign contributions keep flowing in.

HR 1249 America Invests Act Patent Reform

Conyers Initiates Investigation of Religious Profiling by U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency in Michigan

Contact: Nicole Triplett, 202-226-5543

Friday, March 25, 2011

Conyers Initiates Investigation of Religious Profiling by U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency in Michigan
(Detroit)—Today, Congressman John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) issued the following statement regarding allegations charging the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency (CBP) with improper and inappropriate interrogations singling out American-Islamic citizens.

“The allegations of religious profiling raised by Michigan’s Council on American-Islamic Relations in Detroit yesterday should be of concern to all Americans,” said Conyers. “CAIR has alleged that U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents have engaged in a pattern of invasive body searches and interrogations concerning the religious beliefs of American-Islamic citizens while returning home from Canada.”

In CAIR’s letter to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, CAIR described the interrogations as follows:

The passengers hand their passports to an agent. The passengers are immediately told to turn their vehicles off. Within seconds, their vehicles are surrounded by agents brandishing weapons in their direction, whether or not there are women and children in the car. In some instances, there are snipers. The men are thrown against their vehicles, handcuffed, and taken inside for questioning. An invasive and humiliating body search is performed, which many have described as sexual harassment. Some are left handcuffed for hours on end, in many cases standing upright. Others are left in a cell. At least a dozen Muslim women of Somali origin have also reported being subjected to invasive and humiliating searches at the border that they felt were inappropriate and a form of sexual harassment.

American Muslims crossing the border have reported in alarming numbers that they are being subjected to extensive inappropriate questioning pertaining to religion and religious practices. A number of questions appear to be most common:

1. Do you pray five times a day?

2. Which mosque do you pray at?

3. Do you pray your morning prayer at the mosque?

4. Who is the Imam (religious leader) at your mosque?

5. Who else prays at your mosque?

6. Which Muslim charities have you donated to?

7. Which Muslim countries have you traveled to?

8. During your travels to these countries, have you been approached by anyone suspicious?

9. What do you think of Anwar al-Awlacki?

10. Which Muslim organizations are you affiliated with?

11. Are you affiliated with any terrorist organizations?

12. Do you know any terrorists?

13. Are there terrorists in your mosques?

All in all, the process can take anywhere between two to ten hours. More disconcerting is that these same individuals report being subjected to the same mistreatment and inappropriate questioning each and every time they cross the border.

“With federal hearings on radicalization and intense scrutiny by law enforcement of religious institutions, the American-Islamic community today is living in a climate that has the risk of producing a siege mentality,” said Conyers. “I am therefore contacting the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security to initiate an investigation of these allegations, and I will be consulting Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas).”

“The American-Islamic community should know that the federal government will protect the interests of the community, while maintaining the appropriate focus on national security. These allegations of racial and religious profiling at the border are not new and have been supported by previous studies of the Government Accountability Office. For example, in 2000, the GAO found that the U.S. Customs’ patterns used to select airline passengers for more intrusive searches resulted in women and minorities being selected at rates that were not consistent with the rates of finding contraband.”

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