Network Archives

First Amendment lawyer: ‘It is a terrible time to be a journalist’

"Jeff Portnoy was referring to the Obama administration’s secret subpoenas for journalists’ phone and Internet records, as well as the U.S. Department of Justice’s secret investigation into Associated Press and Fox News reporters 'in the name of national security.' Portnoy received a First Amendment award for his work in trying to prevent Hawaii’s five-year-old Journalism Shield law from expiring June 30. The version which passed eliminated from protection bloggers, online journalists and non-traditional journalists. Journalists who investigate fraud, waste and corruption are a 'dying breed,' Portnoy said, but they are needed now more than ever." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFirst Amendment lawyer: ‘It is a terrible time to be a journalist’

Glenn Greenwald: ‘Obama Admin Using Snowden as an Example in War on Whistleblowers’

"Glenn Greenwald, The Guardian newspaper columnist who first published Edward Snowden's revelations about the NSA surveillance programs, joined Fox and Friends this morning and said that there are many more secrets still to come to light. While he declined to specifically say what they were at this time, he did say, 'There are vast programs of both domestic and international spying that the world will be shocked to learn about that the NSA has engaged in with no democratic accountability.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingGlenn Greenwald: ‘Obama Admin Using Snowden as an Example in War on Whistleblowers’

Text of the June 27 Letter of 26 U.S. Senators to the Director of National Intelligence

"Twenty-six Senators on June 27 sent a letter to James Clapper, the Director of National Intelligence. The letter begins with an admission that the information about this domestic snooping came from 'an unauthorized disclosure.' This means Edward Snowden. Only because Snowden had the courage to release the documents supporting this practice were 26 Senators willing to confront the domestic spying network. We will now get to see Mr. Clapper stonewall the 26 Senators. We will get to see if he gets fired for stonewalling them. We will get to see if the officially admitted budget of the NSA is reduced for Clapper to comply with the requests of the 26 Senators." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingText of the June 27 Letter of 26 U.S. Senators to the Director of National Intelligence

Bolivian President Morales’ Flight Diverted On Suspicions He Was Transporting Edward Snowden

"Bolivia's foreign minister David Choquehuanca has told reporters that France and Portugal abruptly cancelled air permits, causing the plane to make an unscheduled landing in Vienna, Austria. He said the cancellations were made over 'technical issues' but that further investigation revealed 'there appeared to be some unfounded suspicions that Mr. Snowden was on the plane'. 'We don't know who invented this lie,' Mr Choquehuanca added. Austrian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Schallenberg told The Associated Press that Snowden is not with Morales and that the Bolivian president is spending the night at a Vienna hotel." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBolivian President Morales’ Flight Diverted On Suspicions He Was Transporting Edward Snowden

‘There’s element of panic in US policy towards Edward Snowden’

"US civil rights activist Norman Solomon tells RT that hardly any government will want to challenge the US in this way. Solomon believes US attempts at grabbing Snowden and bringing him to the US are a sign of panic. No one, including Snowden, is capable of stopping further leaks, as the documents have been handed to journalists or other people who can make them public. Norman Solomon is one of the organizers of the 'Hands Off Edward Snowden!' online campaign, which calls on US citizens to individually email President Obama asking him not to interfere in Snowden’s attempts to seek asylum. 46,000 signatories have already sent emails." Continue reading →

Continue Reading‘There’s element of panic in US policy towards Edward Snowden’

Edward Snowden’s “Safe and Dreary” Global Prison

"Not even Caligula, Commodus, or Diocletian had the ability to kill their enemies by remote control from half-way around the world. Rome's enemies, Gibbon pointed out, were condemned 'to wear out a life of exile on the barren rock of Seriphus, or the frozen banks of the Danube' -- assuming that they managed to elude the Empire's enforcers. As Edward Snowden can testify, Washington's reach is universal, and those who control its apparatus of repression are utterly pitiless. Snowden's sole sanctuary -- his 'safe and dreary prison' -- is a small section of an airport in Moscow." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingEdward Snowden’s “Safe and Dreary” Global Prison

Travel Before Passports

"A century ago, there were no passports. We forget this. Our world would have seemed inconceivable to any free man in the Western world a century ago. People would not have imagined it possible that a person would be unable to cross a border because his nation had revoked his passport. There were no passports to revoke. The Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire, both considered illiberal tyrannies, had passport systems. World War I did more to undermine liberty in the West than any other event of the last century. European states killed about 20 million citizens, and began taking away liberties from those citizens who survived. War is the health of the state." Continue reading →

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Creating a Culture of Denunciation

"The Gestapo created a culture of denunciation, which destroyed the goodwill that comes from people living in peace and privacy together. It replaced goodwill and tolerance with suspicion, resentment, paranoia, and the breakdown of civil society; Nazi Germany was a psychological version of Hobbes’s 'war of all against all.' Because denunciation was thus institutionalized in Germany as a norm, the Stasi was able to walk directly into the void left by the Gestapo. How is a culture of denunciation established? The first step is to create an institutional framework that facilitates it." Continue reading →

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John Whitehead: Orwell Revisited

"In conjunction with the upcoming release of his new book, A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, John W. Whitehead sits down to discuss several 'pressure points' that are threatening the Bill of Rights and undermining our essential freedoms. In part seven of this special series, Whitehead explains the ways in which George Orwell's dystopian nightmare is slowly but surely becoming our reality." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingJohn Whitehead: Orwell Revisited

The Economics Behind the U.S. Government’s Unwinnable War on Drugs

"The U.S. government's policy of drug prohibition, like alcohol prohibition before it, is a failure. The economic analysis of fighting a supply-side drug war predicts that the war will enhance drug suppliers' revenues, enabling them to continuously ratchet up their efforts to supply drugs in response to greater enforcement. The result is a drug war that escalates in cost and violence. The drug war causes drugs to be more potent and their quality less predictable than if drugs were legal, leaving the remaining users at greater risk and, in the face of higher prices, more likely to commit crimes to support their habit." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe Economics Behind the U.S. Government’s Unwinnable War on Drugs