Hacking is Nothing New for the F.B.I.

April 17, 2016
Unit 4.3
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Recently the F.B.I. has been in a battle with Apple about hacking into an iPhone.  The F.B.I. wanted Apple to remove some security features on an iPhone so that they could guess the password after they could not get around the encryption.  Information was wanted off of the iPhone as a result of the investigation of the San Bernardino terrorist attack.  This was not the first time that the F.B.I. has had to break through encryption as part of an investigation.  Over a decade ago in 2003 they needed to access encrypted emails during the investigation of an animal welfare group called Operation Trail Mix.  The group was involved in ecoterrorism and was using encryption to keep their emails secure.  A process was developed that allowed the F.B.I. to read the emails.  This operation was a secret until documents were obtained during a Freedom of Information Act Lawsuit.  This case shows that the F.B.I.'s recent fight with Apple is not over a new issue, it is just a continuation of a decade old debate.

The United States is run by a very large and complex bureaucracy.  The F.B.I. is an example of a federal bureaucracy.  It must follow the regulations from the Department of Justice which is part of the cabinet.  When needing to hack into the iPhone and emails the F.B.I. needed to use discretionary authority to determine exactly how to go about solving this new problem.  The public would not have known about these operations at all if documents were not released through the Freedom of Information Act.

Obama Faces A Balancing Act

March 31, 2016

Unit 4 Presidential Post

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On Thursday President Obama will meet with dozens of foreign leaders at a summit meeting in Washington.  President Obama is planning to meet with President Jingping of China one-on-one during the summit.  The two will discuss a disagreement the two countries are having over the South China Sea.  The United States wants to maintain a strong military presence in the Pacific and China wants to increase its power in the region.  Both countries could help with their relations by agreeing to reduce their military presence in the area.  Foreign policy experts believe that China's expansion in the region is pushing its Asian neighbor's away, which is the opposite of what President Jingping wants to achieve.  There is a very small chance that anything substantial will be accomplished in this short meeting between the two presidents.  President Obama will also meet with the leaders of two of the United States chief Asian Allies, the President of South Korea and the Prime Minister of Japan, during the summit.

While Barack Obama is president of the United States (POTUS) two of his most important roles are acting as Chief Diplomat and Commander-in-Chief.  President Obama has an expressed power of maintaining relations with other foreign countries.  He must act as a diplomat to maintain these relations, these meetings will help to maintain positive relationships with these three countries.  Reducing some military presence in the South China Sea could improve relations with China, and President Obama could achieve this by fulfilling his role of Commander-in-Chief.  These meeting are unlikely to lead to any executive agreements.  Executive agreements are an example of an inherent power of the president.  They are often used to improve foreign relations.  Meeting with the leaders of these Asian countries will help President Obama fulfill his roles as POTUS.