military industrial complex

Army won’t suspend contracts with Al Qaeda-tied companies, citing ‘due process rights’

"The U.S. Army is refusing to suspend contracts with dozens of companies and individuals tied to Al Qaeda and other extremist groups out of concern for their 'due process rights,' despite repeated pleas from the chief watchdog for Afghanistan reconstruction. In a scathing passage of his latest report to Congress, Special Inspector General John Sopko said his office has urged the Army to suspend or debar 43 contractors over concerns about ties to the Afghanistan insurgency, 'including supporters of the Taliban, the Haqqani network and al Qaeda.' Sopko wrote that the Army 'rejected' every single case." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingArmy won’t suspend contracts with Al Qaeda-tied companies, citing ‘due process rights’

Obama’s abuse of the Espionage Act is modern-day McCarthyism

"President Obama has been unprecedented in his use of the Espionage Act to prosecute those whose whistleblowing he wants to curtail. The purpose of an Espionage Act prosecution, however, is not to punish a person for spying for the enemy, selling secrets for personal gain, or trying to undermine our way of life. It is to ruin the whistleblower personally, professionally and financially. It is meant to send a message to anybody else considering speaking truth to power: challenge us and we will destroy you. Only ten people in American history have been charged with espionage for leaking classified information, seven of them under Barack Obama." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingObama’s abuse of the Espionage Act is modern-day McCarthyism

Obama Denies Domestic Spying But He’s Wrong

"Obama on the Jay Leno show said 'We don’t have a domestic spying program.' He said 'What we do have are some mechanisms where we can track a phone number or an e-mail address that we know is connected to some sort of terrorist threat.' Obama is incorrect. The XKeyscore program of the NSA spies on everyone. 'A top secret National Security Agency program allows analysts to search with no prior authorization through vast databases containing emails, online chats and the browsing histories of millions of individuals, according to documents provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden.' It’s not the only program of the government." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingObama Denies Domestic Spying But He’s Wrong

CFR Admits Drones May Be Creating Sworn Enemies of the United States

"With its so-called signature strikes, Washington often goes after people whose identity it does not know but who appear to be behaving like militants in insurgent-controlled areas. The strikes end up killing enemies of the Pakistani, Somali, and Yemeni militaries who may not threaten the United States at all. Worse, because the targets of such strikes are so loosely defined, it seems inevitable that they will kill some civilians. The drone campaign has morphed, in effect, into remote-control repression: the direct application of brute force by a state, rather than an attempt to deal a pivotal blow to a movement." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCFR Admits Drones May Be Creating Sworn Enemies of the United States

Fmr. NSA chief: Snowden defenders ‘20-somethings who haven’t talked to the opposite sex’

"'If and when our government grabs Edward Snowden, and brings him back here to the United States for trial, what does this group do?' said retired air force general Michael Hayden, who from 1999 to 2009 ran the NSA and then the CIA, referring to 'nihilists, anarchists, activists, Lulzsec, Anonymous, twentysomethings who haven’t talked to the opposite sex in five or six years'. 'I’m just trying to illustrate that you’ve got a group of people out there who make demands, whose demands may not be satisfiable, may not be rational, from other points of view, may not be the kinds of things that government can accommodate,' Hayden said." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFmr. NSA chief: Snowden defenders ‘20-somethings who haven’t talked to the opposite sex’

Israel’s Killer Robots

"Israel is the world's biggest exporter of military drones, used around the world for everything from surveillance to precision rocket attacks on speeding cars in remote locales. Israel's drone program hasn't stirred as much controversy as its American counterpart, but not because their targeted killings are any less fatal. VICE sent Simon Ostrovsky to a drone testing airfield in Israel to find out what their latest eye-in-the-sky can see." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingIsrael’s Killer Robots

Japan calls on U.S. to suspend military chopper operations in Okinawa

"Japan’s prime minister on Tuesday called on the US military to suspend helicopter operations in the country’s southern Okinawa island chain after a fatal crash. An American HH-60 helicopter with four personnel on board crashed at the Camp Hansen Marine base on Monday. The base is located on Okinawa, which is home to tens of thousands of US military personnel, with the latest incident stoking renewed concerns among many residents about the vast American presence there. Okinawans have mounted protests against both the US military and its deployment of the controversial Osprey aircraft on the island." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingJapan calls on U.S. to suspend military chopper operations in Okinawa

Justice Department to review DEA’s mass surveillance program

"The Justice Department is reviewing a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration unit that passes tips culled from intelligence intercepts, wiretaps, informants and a large telephone database to field agents, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Monday. 'It’s my understanding… that the Department of Justice is looking at some of the issues raised in the story,' Carney said during his daily briefing at the White House on Monday. Carney referred reporters to a Justice Department spokesman, who confirmed that a review was under way, but declined further comment." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingJustice Department to review DEA’s mass surveillance program

DEA agents use NSA intercepts to investigate Americans

"The Drug Enforcement Agency has a secret unit that has been funneling information from intelligence intercepts, wiretaps, and a massive database of phone records. The unit has been passing this data to law enforcement agencies across the nation and assists in launching criminal investigations against American citizens. Matthew Feeney, assistant editor for Reason 24/7, joins us with more on the findings and how this affects people's Fourth Amendment rights." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingDEA agents use NSA intercepts to investigate Americans

Are Police in America Now a Military, Occupying Force?

"Today, the SWAT team is largely sold to the American public by way of the media, through reality TV shows such as Cops, Armed and Famous, and Police Women of Broward County, and by politicians well-versed in promising greater security in exchange for the government being given greater freedom to operate as it sees fit outside the framework of the Constitution. Having watered down the Fourth Amendment’s strong prohibitions intended to keep police in check and functioning as peacekeepers, we now find ourselves in the unenviable position of having militarized standing armies enforcing the law." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingAre Police in America Now a Military, Occupying Force?