Kafkaesque

Havana scraps exit visas, but most Cubans won’t be going abroad

"Exit visas are one of the first hurdles Cubans have had to face when it comes to travel. But a new law set to come into force today scraps the requirement for the costly 'white card,' allowing Cubans to travel freely with just a passport. They will be allowed to remain out of the country for as many as two years before they lose certain rights in Cuba, such as health care and their property. There are more obvious caveats in the wording of the law that say that those of value to the Revolution – professionals such as scientists and engineers – will have a much harder time obtaining the necessary permissions to leave." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingHavana scraps exit visas, but most Cubans won’t be going abroad

Plead Guilty or Go to Prison for Life

"The efficient transformation of defendants into prisoners cannot be the standard by which we assess our criminal justice system. If the possibility of sending someone like Chris Williams to prison for the rest of his life is so obviously unfair, why does the law allow it, let alone mandate it?" Continue reading →

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Does Facebook Help the Prosecution, But Not Defense?

"[P]rosecutors generally have an easier time than defense attorneys getting private information out of Facebook and other social networks, as highlighted in an ongoing Portland murder case. In that case, the defense attorney has evidence of a Facebook conversation in which a key witness reportedly tells a friend he was pressured by police into falsely incriminating the defendant. Facebook rebuffed the defense attorney’s subpoena seeking access to the conversation, citing the federal Stored Communications Act, which protects the privacy of electronic communications like e-mail – but which carves out an exemption for law enforcement." Continue reading →

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2012 in Review: Biometric ID Systems Grew Internationally… And So Did Concerns About Privacy

"Around the world, systems of identification that employ automatic recognition of individuals’ faces, fingerprints, or irises are gaining ground. Biometric ID systems are increasingly being deployed at international border checkpoints, by governments seeking to implement national ID schemes, and by private-sector actors. Yet as biometric data is collected from more and more individuals, privacy concerns about the use of this technology are also attracting attention. Below are several examples of the year’s most prominent debates around biometrics." Continue reading →

Continue Reading2012 in Review: Biometric ID Systems Grew Internationally… And So Did Concerns About Privacy

Privacy and the Government’s Dossier on You

"The bureaucracy is inscrutable and powerful. Its resources dwarf each person's. The purposes of this spy-bureaucratic machine are unknown to the individual. It is making decisions over lives but people are not privy to them and can't affect them. The power relationship between you and government is altered drastically when the government creates a dossier on you. You are in the dark. You are helpless and powerless. You feel that way, and you are. You are placed on the defensive. You no longer can act freely. Your freedom and your privacy both vaporize. You become fearful of speaking to others and expressing yourself because this is going into your dossier." Continue reading →

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Will Grigg: Merely Being Arrested Can Ruin Your Life

"A recent investigation by the Gainesville Sun found that local police agencies make hundreds of entirely unnecessary arrests every year. The victims are arrested without charge, but the arrest is instantly noted in databases that are used for background checks for employment and housing. Even if the victim’s criminal record is expunged, the digital trail cannot be erased. Many of those arrests are summary punishment for 'contempt of cop.' Others are made for cynical reasons related to career advancement within the state’s punitive priesthood." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWill Grigg: Merely Being Arrested Can Ruin Your Life

Suicide underscores grim conditions at Guantanamo

"The suicide of a Guantanamo inmate underscores the grim reality for detainees held there for nearly 11 years without charge or trial, with no end in sight to their imprisonment. Three months after Adnan Farhan Abdul Latif was found dead in his cell, the US Army formally declared his death to be a suicide — the seventh at the prison. How, Remes would like to know, did the prisoner manage to die at the tightly-controlled facility of a self-administered drug overdose, as the autopsy report cites as the cause? And how could an inmate suffering from acute pneumonia be languishing in a disciplinary cell without medical care?" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingSuicide underscores grim conditions at Guantanamo

An American Stasi

"America is building its American Stasi openly. Some parts of its operations will be open, and critical parts will be secret. Many Americans will support it. No matter whether the American Stasi is open or secret, each isolated American will face a powerful foe, even more powerful than the Stasi, in a one-sided contest whose outcome is predetermined. The captured Stasi files on East Germans are 65 miles long, excluding 16,000 sacks of shredded documents that are being reconstructed. The American Stasi's files will be, for all practical purposes, infinite, because of the advances in technology and information storage." Continue reading →

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Indefinite Detention Without Trial: Completely Unconstitutional, Yet Routine

"Seattle residents Matt Duran and Katherine Olejnik have been imprisoned in the SeaTac Federal Detention Center for weeks. Neither of them has been indicted, arraigned, or even arrested for a crime. They have been imprisoned for civil contempt by a federal prosecutor for refusing to answer personal questions during a secretive grand jury investigation of other people in the Occupy movement. Olejnik exercised her constitutionally protected right to remain silent. That is why she was sent to prison on the orders of U.S. District Judge Richard A. Jones. Duran’s case is nearly identical. They may remain in prison until 2014." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingIndefinite Detention Without Trial: Completely Unconstitutional, Yet Routine

U.S. Passport as Instrument of Control

"Career civil servant Ruth B. Shipley acted as chief of the Passport Division of the U.S. State Department from 1928 to 1955. Shipley personally reviewed every passport application, and prior to 1958 Supreme Court decision, her actions were subject to no judicial review. Shipley denied passports to Paul Robeson, Arthur Miller, Linus Pauling, and 'many other' Americans during the 1950s. Kahn’s article explores how Shipley acquired such power and how the US passport became an instrument to prevent rather than permit travel." Continue reading →

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