Photograph by Noah Berger/Bloomberg

Attendees arrive at Google Inc.’s headquarters for the company’s annual shareholders meeting in Mountain View, California, on June 6, 2013.

Google says its lips are sealed, but complains its hands are tied.

Its obligation to secrecy about the number of requests for information it gets from the Federal Intelligence Surveillance court prevents it from fulfilling its obligation to transparency with its users.

The government does not have “unfettered” access to its users’ data, Google says, contrary to impressions that may have been created in news reports about “PRISM,”  the National Security Agency’s surveillance of international Internet traffic — with Google named among eight other companies involved in the NSA’s surveillance.

In an open letter to Attorney General Eric Holder and FBI Director Robert Mueller today, David Drummond, Google’s chief legal officer, is asking for permission to publish the “aggregate numbers of national security requests” it gets, including orders from the FISA court. This would include both the number and scope of the requests.

“Google’s numbers would clearly show that our compliance with these requests falls far short of the claims being made,” Drummond writes.“Google has nothing to hide. .. Transparency here will likewise serve the public interest without harming national security.”

Original post is Google: ‘Nothing to Hide’ by Political Capital.

Photograph by Carolyn Kaster/AP Photo

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney. Photo by Carolyn Kaster / AP

The White House was asked this question today about the IRS probe of conservative nonprofit groups:

Can you say categorically that nobody at the White House and nobody on the president’s political team had any knowledge or was involved in any way in the targeting of tea party groups by the IRS?

“Yes,” replied Press Secretary Jay Carney.

Absolutely not?

“’Look, we found out about this — or at least the counsel’s office was notified about this investigation, this activity, potential activity — very broadly just a few weeks ago,” he said.

The IRS inspector general is investigating, he said, and the White House will have to wait for that to know  “what actions should be taken. And then decide on what next steps should be taken.”

There will be consequences, Carney said,  if allegations of targeting certain Tea Party groups for questions about their tax status abuse are upheld.

The president has “made clear that if the reports about the activity of IRS personnel prove to be true, he would find them outrageous and he would expect that appropriate action be taken and that people be held responsible,” Carney said. “He has no tolerance for targeting  of specific groups, conservative groups, if the reporting is true on this, and he would expect action to be taken.”

“At this point,” he said, “we have to, you know, wait for the action of an independent investigator, if you will, the inspector general, before we can jump to conclusions about what happened, whether there was a deliberate targeting of
groups inappropriately, and — and if that’s the case, what action should be taken.”

As for the Justice Department’s investigation of government leaks that resulted in the tracking of telephone records of reporters for the Associated Press, Carney said the president first learned of that yesterday — in the news.

“Let me just be clear,” he said. “We don’t have any independent knowledge of that. He found out about the news reports yesterday on the road.”

Original post is White House: No Role in IRS Tea Party Exam, AP Saga News to Them by Political Capital.

Photograph by Ken Cedeno/Bloomberg

Retired Army General David Petraeus, pictured as the top U.S. commander in Iraq, in 2007. Photo by Ken Cedeno / Bloomberg

KKR & Co.  the private-equity firm run by Henry Kravis and George Roberts, is in discussions with former Central Intelligence Agency Director David Petraeus about a role at the company, according to a person with knowledge of the talks.

It hasn’t been decided yet what role he would have at KKR, said the person, who requested anonymity because the discussions are private. Petraeus and Kravis are friends and talk often, according to the person.

Petraeus, 60, resigned from the CIA on Nov. 9 after a probe by the Federal Bureau of Investigation uncovered evidence of an extramarital affair with Paula Broadwell, the author of a biography about the former commander of U.S. military forces in Afghanistan and Iraq entitled “All In.” Last week, City University of New York named Petraeus a visiting professor starting Aug. 1.

Kristi Huller, a spokeswoman for New York-based KKR, declined to comment on the possible hiring. Robert Barnett, a lawyer for Petraeus, didn’t respond to an e-mail requesting comment.

KKR has more than 25 senior advisers, who help the firm find and evaluate investment opportunities, according to its website. Some of them advise KKR-owned companies or serve on their boards.

The firm last year named former Morgan Stanley Chief Executive Officer John Mack as a senior adviser to help make KKR “smarter investors,” Kravis said at the time. Other KKR advisers include Honeywell International Inc. (HON) CEO David Cote, former Caterpillar Inc. CEO James Owens and Qantas Airways Ltd. Chairman Leigh Clifford.

Private-equity firms pool money from investors including pension plans and endowments with a mandate to buy companies within about five to six years, then sell them and return the funds with a profit after about 10 years. The firms, which use debt to finance the deals and amplify returns, typically charge an annual management fee equal to 1.5 percent to 2 percent of committed funds and keep 20 percent of profit from investments.

Kravis, Roberts and their partner Jerome Kohlberg Jr. started KKR in 1976, joining a small group of firms doing leveraged buyouts. Kohlberg left the firm in 1987. Today the industry manages about $3 trillion of assets, according to research firm Preqin Ltd. KKR oversees $78 billion, investing in buyouts, energy, real estate and hedge funds.

See the full report on Petraeus and KKR at Bloomberg.com.

Original post is Petraeus ‘All In’ for Private Equity? by Political Capital.

Photograph by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

President Barack Obama at the White House.

President Barack Obama continues his effort to improve relations with Congress, this time focusing on the ladies. He’s invited 20 female Senators from both parties to dinner at the White House tonight.

The Boston Marathon attacks, and whether the FBI adequately followed up on tips about one of the bombers, will be the focus of briefings on both sides of the Capitol. FBI and DHS officials will brief House members and FBI Director Robert Mueller is to testify on the attacks before a closed hearing of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, who had to cancel on the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, is back on the committee’s schedule today to talk about immigration. She’s also scheduled to talk to appropriators.

The Senate continues consideration of the motion to proceed to a measure that would let states collect sales and use taxes from out-of-state sellers for purchases made over the Internet and through catalogs.

The House plans to vote on bills that would update a few more sections of the U.S. code to streamline citations and get rid of obsolete legalese.

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray is scheduled to present his agency’s semiannual report to Congress at a Senate Banking Committee hearing. Cordray, whose recess appointment has been challenged by Republicans, won’t have a parallel hearing in the House.

Administration officials continue to make their case on the fiscal 2014 budget request. Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki is scheduled to testify before the Senate Budget Committee. Secretary of the Army John McHugh and General Raymond Odierno, the Army chief of staff, are to testify at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing. Napolitano is to appear at a Senate Appropriations Homeland Security subcommittee hearing.

Electric-car maker Fisker Automotive Inc. missed its first payment on a $529 million Energy Department loan, an agency official said. The Anaheim, California-based company was due to make the payment yesterday on about $193 million it had drawn down from the loan, Bloomberg reported.

The National Transportation Safety Board holds a hearing on design certification of lithium-ion batteries used in Boeing Co.’s 787 Dreamliner
And while the lady Senators dine, the guys are going to the game. There will be a fundraiser tonight for Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., at Nationals Park, where the Nats take on the St. Louis Cardinals.

Cary O’Reilly assisted on this report.

Original post is Washington Daybook: Welcome to Dinner, Ladies by Political Capital.

Federal Bureau of Investigation via Bloomberg

The suspects from the Boston Bombing are seen in this handout photo released to the media on April, 18, 2013.

Written with Emma Fidel. Updated at 8:45 p.m., April 21, 2013

It ended as it began, with surveillance.

The helicopter-taken heat-sensitive footage of the surviving Boston Marathon bombing suspect hiding in a boat stowed in a Watertown back yard revealed the target, the robotic arm of an FBI vehicle pulled away the tarp and flash grenades stunned the subject.

Pictures of their white and black baseball caps proliferated social media at warp-speed  after the FBI first released their photographs at 5 p.m. Thursday. Now, one of the two Boston Marathon bombing suspects is dead, and the other is in police custody.

President Barack Obama Friday night called the arrest in Watertown the closing of a tragic chapter.

Obama met with Secretary of State John Kerry and other top national security officials at the White House to discuss the developments as questions swirled about the suspects, their possible motives and how the law enforcement effort would end, Bloomberg’s Julie Hirschfeld Davis reports. He took a call from FBI Director Robert Mueller tonight about the apprehension of the second suspect.

There was no shortage of messaging on social media at work in the aftermath of the bombing of the Boston Marathon on Monday that killed three and injured more than 170.

This one from the Boston Police Department capped the week:

CAPTURED!!! The hunt is over. The search is done. The terror is over. And justice has won. Suspect in custody.

— Boston Police Dept. (@Boston_Police) April 20, 2013

Photo of POTUS mtg in Sit Room w FBI Dir Mueller and other natl sec officials: bit.ly/ZEbiGD — petesouza (@petesouza) April 19, 2013

The climax of the police chase this week was made for TV.

Dzhokar Tsarnaev, a 19-year-old immigrant born in Kygyrzstan, escaped during a confrontation with police in the Boston suburb of Watertown in which at least one person hurled explosive devices at police last night, Bloomberg News reports. Dzhokar, who was wearing a backwards white baseball cap at the marathon, was pictured placing a bag in the location of the second bomb blast moments before the explosion, according to the FBI. He was the one apprehended hiding in a boat in a Watertown back yard tonight.

His older brother,  Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, born in Russia, was killed early Friday in a shoot-out with police after a chase in a carjacked SUV. He was wearing a black baseball hat at the marathon and was first identified as 20 years old before officials later corrected that to 26.

The evidence the brothers left in the Boston area and on the Internet showed them straddling two cultures, Bloomberg’s Esmé E. Deprez reports:

Tamerlan Tsarnaev was born in Russia and his younger brother in the central Asian nation of Kyrgyzstan, said two U.S. law-enforcement officials familiar with the investigation. The brothers and two sisters came as refugees to the Dagestan city of Makhachkala in October 2001 from Kyrgyzstan, said Emirmagomed Davudov, the director of Gimnasium Number 1, where Tamerlan went to seventh grade and Dzhokar to first grade. Ruslan Tsarni, their uncle in Gaithersburg, Maryland, said his brother’s children immigrated to the U.S. in 2003, arriving in Cambridge. Asked for a possible motive for the attacks, Tsarni called them “losers not being able to settle themselves and thereby just hating everybody who did.”

Mentions of  “suspect” on Twitter have spiked to over 1.6 million at 2:30 p.m. Friday from 134,000 at 2:30 p.m. Thursday, according to Topsy, a social media analysis company. Mentions of “FBI” rose to almost 820,000 at 2:30 p.m. Friday from about 101,000 at 2:30 p.m. Thursday. Sen. Lindsay Graham of  South Carolina and Sen. John McCain of Arizona said in a statement Friday afternoon that while some have suggested the situation in Boston was a reason to delay the legislation, “the opposite is true,” Bloomberg News reports. The two Republican senators are co-sponsors of the immigration bill introduced in the Senate this week. About an hour later, Graham tweeted that the White House should hold Dzhokar Tsarnaev, a U.S. citizen, as an “enemy combatant.”

If captured, I hope Administration will at least consider holding the Boston suspect as enemy combatant for intelligence gathering purposes. — Lindsey Graham (@GrahamBlog) April 19, 2013

The last thing we may want to do is read Boston suspect Miranda Rights telling him to “remain silent.” — Lindsey Graham (@GrahamBlog) April 19, 2013

After the suspects’ uncle, Ruslan Tsarni, spoke to reporters outside his home in Gaithersburg, Maryland, he became the No. 1 trending topic on Twitter:

Uncle Ruslan is the top trending topic worldwide twitter.com/michaelhayes/s…

— Mike Hayes (@michaelhayes) April 19, 2013

The FBI enlisted public support in seeking further identification. A new photograph of the younger brother was released Friday morning, and his high school yearbook photo has been shared widely on Twitter.

Yearbook pic of Boston bombing suspect, given to me by fmr classmate. “He was quiet”. twitter.com/Brynn4NY/statu…

— Brynn Gingras (@Brynn4NY) April 19, 2013

Another photo of Suspect 2, White Hat. If seen, do not approach but call 911 immediately. twitter.com/MassStatePolic…

— MASS STATE POLICE (@MassStatePolice) April 19, 2013

Photos and accounts from locked-down Boston are also flooded Twitter:

This is crazy. We are locked down in our home. Don’t understand why these monsters have done this instagram.com/p/YSOWvSkLpT/

— Tagg Romney (@tromney) April 19, 2013

Photo: City on lockdown; an empty Kenmore Square in #Boston, Mass. (via Andrew Golden) twitter.com/NBCNews/status…

— NBC News (@NBCNews) April 19, 2013

The original surveillance footage from the marathon that helped the FBI identify the suspects:

Original post is FBI’s Boston-Bombing Suspects: One Caught, One Dead by Political Capital.

Updated at 11:35 am EDT

President Barack Obama acknowledged a federal investigation of terrorism today, the day after the fatal bombing at the finish line of the Boston Marathon.

“This was a heinous and cowardly act,” Obama said at a press briefing in the White House before noon. “Given what we now what about what has taken place, the FBI is investigating it as an act of terrorism; Anytime bombs are used to target innocent civilians, it is an act of terror.

“What we don’t know, however, is who carried out this attack or why,” he said,  and whether it was executed by an international or terrorist organization “or a malevolent individual… But we will find out..”

“We also know this” Obama said, “that the American people refuse to be terrorized.”

Photo of POTUS mtg w FBI Dir Mueller et al this am:

— petesouza (@petesouza) April 16, 2013

“Yesterday, terror was brought to the city of Boston,” Tom Menino, longtime mayor of Boston, said this morning, the morning after a bombing at the finish line of the marathon on the city’s Patriots Day, an attack that claimed three lives and injured more than 150. “This is a tragedy, but Boston is a strong city,” he said. “Boston will overcome.”

The White House is deeply involved in an investigation spearheaded by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, Sen. Elizabeth Warren said at an FBI briefing in Boston where the mayor, governor and others spoke.

“We did not have to reach out to the president,” Warren, a Democrat, said. “The president reached out to us… The president is actively involved here.”

“We will go to the ends of the Earth” to find those responsible,  Rick Deslauriers, the FBI’s special agent in charge, said at the press briefing.

It’s worth noting, as has been noted in Boston and elsewhere, that the president did not publicly call the Boston bombings an act of terrrorism yesterday, though federal officials were saying so privately.

From the Boston Globe: “In a three-minute address from the White House, Obama urged caution, saying “people shouldn’t jump to conclusions before we have all the facts.”

“Significantly, reflecting caution about the unknown motive and perpetrators, the president himself did not call the incident a terrorist attack. However, a White House official speaking after the president’s remarks but only on the condition of anonymity, said that the administration views it that way.”

“Any event with multiple explosive devices – as this appears to be – is clearly an act of terror, and will be approached as an act of terror,” a White House official said. “However, we don’t yet know who carried out this attack, and a thorough investigation will have to determine whether it was planned and carried out by a terrorist group, foreign or domestic.”

The people who lived through this attack were terrorized. The motive, still unknown to the public, will determine how official Washington characterizes it. The scope of the bombing is not as wide as originally feared yesterday.

“It’s important to clarify that two, and only two, explosive devices were found yesterday,” Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick said at the briefing. “Other parcels in the area have been examined. There are no unexploded bombs.”

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms has 30 agents on the scene, according to Gene Marquez, ATF agent in charge. They are scouring the area and people who were there for any video or media evidence. “The scene is going to take several days to process,” Marquez said.

U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz pledged today to “get to the bottom of who did this and why.”

We are a strong city. We will pull together as neighbors.

— Mayor Tom Menino (@mayortommenino) April 16, 2013

However this attack in Boston is eventually labeled, the deaths and injuries and stunning nature of an assault on the general public in a celebratory event is a reminder, once again, of what a difference one terrible day can make:

GOOD LUCK to all the runners headed to start of @bostonmarathon & THANK YOU to all the volunteers who make today such a great one in Boston.

— Mayor Tom Menino (@mayortommenino) April 15, 2013

Original post is ‘Terror’ in Boston, by Any Other Name — Obama Today: ‘Terrorism’ by Political Capital.

Photograph by ISAF via Getty Images

Gen. Davis Petraeus with biographer Paula Broadwell, co-author of 'All In: The Education of General David Petraeus' on July 13, 2011.

Paula Broadwell, the biographer and mistress of former CIA Director David Petraeus, will not face charges for cyber-stalking, according to federal prosecutors.

In a Dec. 14 letter to Broadwell’s lawyer, U.S. Attorney Robert O’Neill advised the West Point graduate that “no federal charges will be brought in the Middle District of Florida relating to alleged acts of cyber stalking.”

The federal investigation that led to Petraeus’s admission of an affair and resignationl was sparked by harassing e-mails received by Jill Kelley, a Florida woman who associated with the retired four-star general. Those e-mails, an FBI investigation discovered, came from accounts associated with Broadwell, according to law enforcement officials. The investigation also uncovered the relationship between Petraeus and Broadwell, which both admitted to during FBI interviews and Petraeus acknowledged in his resignation letter to CIA employees.

“We are pleased with the decision, and are pleased with the professionalism of the Tampa United States Attorney’s Office, particularly Assistant United States Attorney W. Stephen Muldrow,” Robert Muse, Broadwell’s lawyer, said in a statement.

The letter does not address whether officials are still looking into Broadwell’s possession of classified documents, a large number of which were discovered by the FBI when agents searched her computers, according to the law enforcement officials.

Broadwell told the FBI in interviews that the classified information did not come from Petraeus, the official said.

Last month, Petraeus, 60, resigned and admitted in a statement to having an affair. During his career, he rose to the rank of four-star general and led the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan before retiring to become head of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Broadwell, 40, graduated with academic, fitness and leadership honors from West Point, according to the Penguin Speakers Bureau. During more than 15 years of military service, she has served with the U.S. intelligence community, Special Operations Command and FBI Joint Terrorism Task Forces, according to the speakers bureau.

Original post is Broadwell: No Cyber-Stalking Charge by Political Capital.

Photograph by Olivier Douliery/Pool via Bloomberg

Members of the Connecticut state police during a memorial service for victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting on Dec. 16, 2012.

While the question remains whether the killings at a Newtown, Connecticut elementary school will prompt major changes to U.S. guns laws, lawmakers did take action yesterday on another issue raised by the mass shooting: the role of federal law enforcement in local emergencies.

Federal law enforcement agencies are always called in to work on cases of the magnitude of last week’s shootings. Dozens of agents, including more than 30 from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, are on the scene working on the investigation. Their jurisdiction to do so, however, has never been explicitly clear.

The Senate last night cleared a measure to change that, unanimously passing Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse’s bill that authorizes federal law enforcement to assist state and local counterparts in responding to violent crimes in public areas.

Federal law enforcement agencies requested the legislation, which passed the House 358-9 last September and was placed on hold by an unidentified senator. That hold was lifted this week, clearing the way for the first legislative response to the shooting rampage that led to the death of 26 people, including 20 children.

“The FBI and other federal law enforcement agencies are often crucial allies for local and state officials working to respond to mass shootings and other violent crimes, as they have been in Connecticut over the past few days,” Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat, said in a statement.

The bill, now awaits President Barack Obama’s signature, provides those agencies “clear authority” to provide assistance to state and local officials, Whitehouse said.

Original post is Newtown Shooting Spurs Legislative Response to Agencies’ Role by Political Capital.

“I have no evidence at this point, from what I’ve seen, that classified information was disclosed that in any way would have had a negative impact on our national security,” the president said at a White House news conference, asked also if he was surprised to have learned of the inquiry only recently.  “The FBI has their own protocols on how they proceed.”

Obama, who accepted Petraeus’ resignation from the CIA last week, did not learn of the FBI probe that uncovered the affair until the day after his own re-election, according to the White House.

“General Petraeus had an extraordinary career,” said Obama, who sent the four-star general to Afghanistan to run the war there and made him director of the CIA. “He served this country with great distinction… By his own assessment, he did not meet the standards that he felt were necessary at the CIA” in the relationship with the general’s biographer that was revealed by the FBI.

“We’re not supposed to meddle in criminal investigations,” he said, “and that’s been our practice.”

Original post is Obama: No Security Breach in Petraeus Affair by Political Capital.

“We should not hold the middle class hostage while we negotiate taxes for the wealthy,” the president said.

This was the president’s first White House news conference since June 8, when he answered just a few questions, and a formal one in March — and of course his first meeting of the press since winning re-election Nov. 6 with 50.8 percent of the popular vote and an Electoral College count of 332-206.

Unlike the “shellacking” of the 2010 mid-term elections, the president’s party came out of  this year’s campaign with more seats in the Senate and House, yet still a party-divided Congress.

“Our top priority has to be jobs and growth — you’ve got to build on the progress we’ve made,” Obama said. The economy “can’t afford” the taxes and spending cuts that come without action on the fiscal cliff.

Original post is Obama: `Very Clear Deadline’ — Don’t `Hold Middle Class Hostage’ by Political Capital.