"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 →
"A Customs & Border Protection (CPB) report, released in response to EFF’s Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the agency, shows CBP has considered adding weapons to its domestic Predator drones. The report, titled 'Concept of Operations for CBP’s Predator B Unmanned Aircraft System' and submitted to Congress on June 29, 2010 shows that, not only is the agency planning to sharply increase the number of Predator drones it flies and the amount of surveillance it conducts by 2016, but it has considered equipping its Predators with 'non-lethal weapons designed to immobilize' targets of interest." Continue reading →
"William Binney worked for the NSA for over 30 years as a cryptanalyst-mathematician but resigned in 2001 as a whistleblower. In the clip below, he discusses the problems with mass NSA data collection and also explains how the data could be used to identify, for example, who are the key active members of the Tea Party." Continue reading →
"In order for Snowden to depart safely from the Sheremetyevo without a second passport, he will need to procure some type of refugee travel document. So-called 'refugee passports' originated nearly 100 years ago when World War I ended. They look like regular passport booklets with two diagonal stripes in the upper left corner on the front cover. Hopefully, none of you reading this post will ever find yourself in the situation Edward Snowden is now experiencing: traveling internationally on a passport your country has revoked. But if you do, I hope that you take a precaution Snowden never did: to obtain a second passport, 'just in case.'" Continue reading →
"State Department officials spent $630,000 to get more Facebook 'likes,' prompting employees to complain to a government watchdog that the bureau was 'buying fans' in social media, the agency's inspector general says. The department's Bureau of International Information Programs spent the money to increase its 'likes' count between 2011 and March 2013. Despite the surge in likes, the IG said the effort failed to reach the bureau's target audience, which is largely older and more influential than the people liking its pages. Only about 2 percent of fans actually engage with the pages by liking, sharing or commenting." Continue reading →
"First American expatriates were told that their bank accounts weren’t welcome because of the growing hassles and expense banks have to deal with when they have American citizens as clients. Now, Americans’ tax-deferred retirement accounts – many of which were set up decades ago, and never touched since – are also increasingly unwanted by US financial institutions, unless these accounts are of significant size. The reason, according to a US-based adviser, is because the companies have become increasingly concerned about 'know your customer (KYC) rules' that were first introduced in the US in 2003." Continue reading →
"J.Q., you don't know me but I know you. I am your friendly ECHELON/Total Awareness/Boundless Informant Surveillance System--actually, an automated response feature of the system. You may wonder why you are receiving this email, and you may attribute it to the email you sent an associate stating that the theater play you attended 'bombed.' Since enemies of America use code phrases rather than overt words like 'bombed,' that email was noted but not considered actionable. I'm not authorized to reveal what did attract my attention about your communications." Continue reading →
"Now we hear that the same USPS that cannot operate without massive financial losses -- even with a monopoly on first class mail delivery -- somehow has the resources to photograph the front and back of each piece of mail processed! They cannot deliver our mail properly, cannot operate at a profit, cannot provide anything resembling customer service beyond the 1950s East Europe model, yet somehow they have unlimited resources to play big brother with all our postal communications." Continue reading →
"On June 27, 26 United States Senators sent a letter to James Clapper, the Director of National Intelligence. The letter called attention to the fact that domestic spying by the United States government on American citizens includes the collection of information on firearms sales. The letter said the following: 'And the bulk collection authority could potentially supersede bans on maintaining gun owner databases. . . .' How comprehensive has this collection process been? It appears to have been comprehensive to the extreme." Continue reading →
"A debate over fighting tax evasion versus protecting personal privacy looms large for Canada as it prepares to announce a deal with the United States to share banking information. FATCA was signed into law in March 2010, and many of its provisions start on Jan. 1, 2014. It requires financial institutions in other countries to tell the U.S. Internal Revenue Service about Americans’ offshore accounts worth more than $50,000. Canada and the U.S. are negotiating whether Ottawa or the financial institutions will send the information, but the clock is ticking. If no deal is reached, banks operating in Canada will have to give the data directly to the IRS." Continue reading →