Orwellian

NSA spied on Americans until a judge ruled it illegal in 2011

"The National Security Agency spied on electronic communications between Americans in a program that was later scrapped after a judge ruled it illegal in 2011, US officials said Wednesday. The court’s opinions are usually top secret but the move to release the documents came amid a firestorm over revelations of sweeping surveillance operations, following bombshell disclosures from a former US intelligence contractor, Edward Snowden. Officials said the court rulings had been declassified to better inform the public about how the eavesdropping programs are carried out, and that a mistake had occurred due to a technical problem." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingNSA spied on Americans until a judge ruled it illegal in 2011

Secret Court Opinion Finding NSA Surveillance Unconstitutional Released

"In response to EFF's FOIA lawsuit, the government has released the 2011 FISA court opinion ruling some NSA surveillance unconstitutional. For over a year, EFF has been fighting the government in federal court to force the public release of an 86-page opinion of the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC). Issued in October 2011, the secret court's opinion found that surveillance conducted by the NSA under the FISA Amendments Act was unconstitutional and violated 'the spirit of' federal law." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingSecret Court Opinion Finding NSA Surveillance Unconstitutional Released

Your identity will become “property of the U.S. government” under new rules

"Requirements in Senate Bill 744 for mandatory worker IDs and electronic verification remove the right of citizens to take employment and 'give' it back as a privilege only when proper proof is presented and the government agrees. Any citizen wanting to take a job would face the regulation that his or her digitized high-resolution passport or driver's license photo be collected and stored centrally in a Homeland Security database. The pictures in the national database would then need to be matched against the job applicant's government-issued 'enhanced' ID card, using a Homeland Security-mandated facial-recognition 'photo tool.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingYour identity will become “property of the U.S. government” under new rules

Show Me the Manual: An Internet Town Hall [2012]

"Recorded live on location at Code for America, this town hall deals with the question of Incorporation by Reference, a legal technique where private standards become federal law, available only for those with sufficient means to be informed citizens. Featuring Jennifer Pahlka, Tim O'Reilly, Carl Malamud, and the 2012 Code for America Fellows, this program was recorded on May 4, 2012." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingShow Me the Manual: An Internet Town Hall [2012]

If You Have Nothing to Hide, Be Very Worried

"Surveillance of health made the eugenics movement possible in 30 states. In North Carolina alone, 7,600 individuals were sterilized from 1929-74. Government ID papers have made checkpoints more productive and less costly. Saying that some government activities have to be more costly is the same as saying they should be constrained. There is a second reason why private information must stay private. It is simply that you may well be breaking criminal laws without knowing it. Many people are not convicted felons only because the government does not know which paper crimes they have committed." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingIf You Have Nothing to Hide, Be Very Worried

NSA Funding N.C. State University Lab

"North Carolina State University just secured a $60.75 million grant from the National Security Agency (NSA) to build a massive campus lab for the study of data analytics. The Laboratory for Analytic Sciences (LAS) is expected to create 100 jobs in the area; those actually working in the facility will need government security clearances. The NSA reportedly chose the university because of the latter’s extensive work in data analytics. While a portion of its research will remain unclassified, the bulk of it—including personnel numbers and facility details—will remain firmly under wraps." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingNSA Funding N.C. State University Lab

White House: ‘Difficult to imagine’ authorities demanding destruction of hard drives

"Alan Rusbridger, the Guardian editor, said that two GCHQ security experts oversaw the destruction of hard drives on 20 July in what he described as a 'peculiarly pointless piece of symbolism'. Rusbridger had told the authorities that the action would not prevent the Guardian reporting on the leaked US documents because Glenn Greenwald, the reporter who first broke the story, had a copy in Brazil, and a further copy was held in the US. White House spokesman, Josh Earnest, said: 'That’s very difficult to imagine a scenario in which that would be appropriate.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWhite House: ‘Difficult to imagine’ authorities demanding destruction of hard drives

This Public Preschool Looks Like a Prison

"The front entrance is card key secured, and a thick metal door attached to a gated metal security tunnel with a metal walkway leads back to a hallway of numbered, metal buildings. Every single window, including the little ones on the thick metal doors inside, have metal gratings bolted on the outside of them. It felt like I was walking through a medium security prison facility. Four-year-olds attend this campus. That means these little ones are spending the majority of their weekdays all day long inside this place." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThis Public Preschool Looks Like a Prison

Ta-ta UK freedoms! Miranda matter outs vindictiveness of wounded police state

"The notion of terrorism has developed to cover not only terrorists themselves, but also activists, placard wavers, and protesters. And now, apparently, the partners of journalists have also joined the ranks. Due process is merely yet another quaint, British artifact like the Magna Carta and habeas corpus. I know this from bitter personal experience. In 1997 former MI5 intelligence officer, David Shayler, blew the whistle on a whole range of UK spy crimes: files on government ministers, illegal phone taps, IRA bombs that could have been prevented, innocent people in prison, and an illegal MI6 assassination plot against Gaddafi, which went wrong and innocent people died." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingTa-ta UK freedoms! Miranda matter outs vindictiveness of wounded police state