Report: Guilty Knowledge on the Vulnerability of the Electric Grid
- Tuesday, May 12, 2015
On May 7, 2015, a federal appeals court issued a decision in American Civil Liberties Union v. Clapper that could have significant implications for both the telephone metadata collection program operated by the National Security Agency (NSA) and the legislative debate surrounding consideration of the USA FREEDOM Act of 2015 (H.R. 2048 S. 1123) currently taking place in the House and the Senate. While the ruling did not reach the question of whether the collection itself was a violation of the Fourth Amendment, the court did reject the government's use of Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001 (as amended) to effectuate the bulk collection of telephone records by the NSA.
Since our last publication in 2009, the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLA(N)) has made significant strides in operationalizing as well as modernizing its force. Although the PLA(N)'s primary focus remains in the East Asia region, where China faces multiple disputes over the sovereignty of various maritime features and associated maritime rights, in recent years, the PLA(N) has increased its focus on developing blue-water naval capabilities. Over the long term, Beijing aspires to sustain naval missions far from China's shores.