Homeland Stupidity

The Imaginary Trial of Dietrich Schmoller

"Dietrich Schmoller: I plead Not Guilty. Presiding Judge: (screaming) What do you mean, 'Not Guilty'? The facts are crystal clear and undisputed! You disclosed to a journalist for a foreign newspaper what we were doing to inmates inside the Auschwitz concentration camp. As a camp guard at Auschwitz, you took a solemn oath to the German state to keep what we doing inside that concentration camp secret. You knew full well that everything we were doing inside that camp was classified 'Top Secret.' You knew that German law required you to keep such matters secret. You are guilty, guilty, guilty!" Continue reading →

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The FBI is allowed to operate in Canada

"Since the 1980s, the FBI says agents have been deployed hundreds of times around the world to investigate foreign crimes targeting US citizens, including to Athens, Greece in 2007 when a rocket-propelled grenade was fired into the US Embassy. The US and Greece aren’t adjacent, of course, and US authorities are less likely to be asked to intervene there than Canada, where both North American nations share more than 5,000 miles of border. And as the threat of terrorist attacks remains present and a desire for these units to team up grows too, new rules would ensure that it’s more than just the FBI that’s regularly racing back and forth across the border." Continue reading →

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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’

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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Americans troubled more by governmental abuse than terrorism

"In the dozen years since 9/11, frequent polling conducted by Fox has suggests that the majority of Americans have all the while said they’d give up their freedoms for the sake of security. Only with the latest inquiry though are those answers reversed: the last time a majority of Americans opposed giving up privacy for security was May 2001. Not only are Americans more opposed now to giving up personal freedoms for the sake of security than they were after 9/11, but other statistics show that distrust against the federal government continues to climb." Continue reading →

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To those who say ‘trust the government’: Remember J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI?

"Hundreds of these sorts of companies have come about in the last few years, operating in close partnerships with the state, yet existing beyond the view of Congress, the media and 'public eyes'. Even in the unlikely instance when their activities come to light, potentially illegal behavior goes unpunished; even calls by congressmen to investigate the sordid Themis conspiracy were ignored by the Department of Justice. This, then, is the environment in which public officials and Beltway insiders like Friedman are asking us to trust the intelligence community and its private partner firms with increasing power over information." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingTo those who say ‘trust the government’: Remember J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI?

Airport security boss fired after mass email photo of his genitals

"Gerard Robson was quickly suspended from his job as a project manager at FJC Security, an airport security contractor, after the June 21 mishap, which ocurred while he was trying to document a minor car accident involving a security vehicle. Instead, a picture reportedly showing his genitals, went out to supervisors at both his company and the Port Authority, as well as subordinates. Though Robson immediately sent an apology via email and moved to delete the embarassing photo from computers at his office, FJC barred him from entering the airport and suspended him before terminating him." Continue reading →

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How a 30-year-old lawyer exposed NSA mass surveillance of Americans—in 1975

"The program was codenamed SHAMROCK and known to only a few people within the government. Every day, a courier went up to New York on the train and returned to Fort Meade with large reels of magnetic tape, which were copies of the international telegrams sent from New York the preceding day using the facilities of three telegraph companies. The tapes would then be electronically processed for items of foreign intelligence interest, typically telegrams sent by foreign establishments in the United States or telegrams that appeared to be encrypted. Telegrams sent by US citizens to foreign destinations were also present in the tapes NSA received." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingHow a 30-year-old lawyer exposed NSA mass surveillance of Americans—in 1975

How a 30-year-old lawyer exposed NSA mass surveillance of Americans—in 1975

"The program was codenamed SHAMROCK and known to only a few people within the government. Every day, a courier went up to New York on the train and returned to Fort Meade with large reels of magnetic tape, which were copies of the international telegrams sent from New York the preceding day using the facilities of three telegraph companies. The tapes would then be electronically processed for items of foreign intelligence interest, typically telegrams sent by foreign establishments in the United States or telegrams that appeared to be encrypted. Telegrams sent by US citizens to foreign destinations were also present in the tapes NSA received." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingHow a 30-year-old lawyer exposed NSA mass surveillance of Americans—in 1975

Crime of Making a Terrorist Threat

"Imagine calling in police because some little kid points a toy gun or his finger, and says 'Bang, bang, you're dead'. This is already happening. These things are all birds of a feather. Penalties are severe. These laws are oppressive. They make crimes out of many varieties of ordinary statements made by ordinary people in many situations. Someone who speaks in anger, or when tipsy, or because they're upset, or without meaning what they say, can suddenly be in hot water. It is not uncommon for people to say 'I'll kill you' without meaning it. These laws give the justice system heavy artillery to fire against anyone who falls into its clutches for any reason." Continue reading →

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