Resistance

ACLU challenges constitutionality of NSA phone surveillance program

"The American Civil Liberties Union sued senior U.S. government officials on Tuesday to challenge the constitutionality of the National Security Agency’s telephone surveillance program, saying it violates rights to free speech and privacy. The suit asked the court to immediately halt the NSA’s vast tracking program of telephone calls, declare the program illegal, and order the U.S. government to purge all databases of the call records. The ACLU suit in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York named James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, and the leaders of the NSA, the Defense Department, the Justice Department and the FBI." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingACLU challenges constitutionality of NSA phone surveillance program

FBI’s Patriot Act records requests skyrocket 1,000% under Obama

"The FBI’s use of a controversial Patriot Act provision to demand business records has skyrocketed more than 1,000 percent under President Barack Obama versus his Republican predecessor George W. Bush. The so-called business records provision of the Patriot Act, titled Section 215, is the justification used for the NSA’s massive PRISM intercept program. A single Section 215 order was behind last week’s revelation that Verizon is cooperating with the NSA and handing over millions of phone call records daily. Companies that receive demands for business records under Section 215 of the Patriot Act are also subject to a secret gag order." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFBI’s Patriot Act records requests skyrocket 1,000% under Obama

Ai Weiwei: NSA surveillance makes the U.S. sound a lot like China

"Before the information age the Chinese government could decide you were a counter-revolutionary just because a neighbour reported something they had overheard. Thousands, even millions of lives were ruined through the misuse of such information. Today, through its technical abilities, the state can easily get into anybody’s bank account, private mail, conversations, and social media accounts. The internet and social media give us new possibilities of exploring ourselves. But we have never exposed ourselves in this way before, and it makes us vulnerable if anyone chooses to use it against us." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingAi Weiwei: NSA surveillance makes the U.S. sound a lot like China

Feinstein and Rogers Refuse to Discuss Constitutionality of Mass Surveillance

"One of the arguments in favor of mass surveillance as presented in this video is that it is 'legal.' But the kinds of legalities being enshrined into law in this modern era are nothing like the natural law that was supposed to be the foundation of Western jurisprudence. The idea that a community would easily or logically adopt an ordinance that mandated that all inhabitants share every single communication with an overriding authority responsible for their 'safety' is a doubtful argument to make, in our view. Thus, it is not 'natural' – and bound to cause more problems than it solves in the end." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFeinstein and Rogers Refuse to Discuss Constitutionality of Mass Surveillance

Thousands flood Istanbul’s protest square after police clashes

"Thousands of demonstrators squared off against riot police on Tuesday and defiantly packed an Istanbul square after Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned he had 'no more tolerance' for the mass protests against his Islamic-rooted government. The nationwide unrest first erupted after police cracked down heavily on May 31 on a campaign to save Gezi Park from redevelopment. The trouble spiralled into mass displays of anger against Erdogan, who is seen as increasingly authoritarian, tarnishing Turkey’s image as a model of Islamic democracy. Four people, including a policeman, had died. Nearly 5,000 people have been injured." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThousands flood Istanbul’s protest square after police clashes

Bradley Manning’s trial is no more than a ‘judicial lynching’

"The military trial of Bradley Manning is a judicial lynching. The government has effectively muzzled the defense team. The Army private first class is not permitted to argue that he had a moral and legal obligation under international law to make public the war crimes he uncovered. The documents that detail the crimes, torture and killing that Manning revealed, because they are classified, have been barred from discussion in court, effectively removing the fundamental issue of war crimes from the trial. Manning is forbidden by the court to challenge the government’s unverified assertion that he harmed national security." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBradley Manning’s trial is no more than a ‘judicial lynching’

State Department personnel running amok with drugs and ‘hookers on foreign soil’

"CBS News obtained excerpts from a draft of an Inspector General inquiry into another incident involving 'hookers on foreign soil.' This time, however, rather than Obama’s Secret Service detail getting into trouble abroad, it was the security detail charged with protecting then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The report called the problem of U.S. foreign service employees hiring sex workers while abroad 'endemic' and cited eight different incidents. In 2011, the State Department ordered investigators to halt investigation into a U.S. ambassador who routinely left his post and 'ditched his security detail' to have sex with prostitutes in a public park." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingState Department personnel running amok with drugs and ‘hookers on foreign soil’

This is the Moment

"We have been seeing this transformation ever since 9/11, and the beginning of the Global War on Terror. Civil liberties have been eroded for the sake of 'protecting us from the terrorists'—with the result that the government has been gaining more and more knowledge of the citizenry. This knowledge of the citizenry means control of the citizenry by the government. By applying a panopticon model to the people—which is what these NSA revelations prove—then every man, woman and child in America is not only controlled by the U.S. government: They are effectively prisoners of the U.S. government." Continue reading →

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Bob Higgs: What the State Fears Most—Revelations of the Truth about the State

"The rulers can continue to plunder and bully the great mass of people only as long as the people believe the Biggest of All Big Lies, which is that the government seeks to be, and is, their essential protector and general benefactor. The Ellsbergs, Mannings, Assanges, and Snowdens, rare as they are, demonstrate that the government’s pose as protector and benefactor is nothing but a ruse to hide its essential nature and functioning. The only protection the rulers aim to provide us is the kind that a shepherd provides his sheep—protection from anything that interferes with his exclusive ability to determine how and when the sheep will be sheared and slaughtered." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBob Higgs: What the State Fears Most—Revelations of the Truth about the State

Edward Snowden And The Disruption Of Government

"What I want to focus on in this post is not Snowden himself, but what he represents, and what this may mean for governments and peoples over the next few decades. I believe we are in the midst of a centuries-long shift of power from state entities to the people those states have traditionally governed. What exactly the result of this evolution will be I don’t know, but I believe 'the State' as we know it has a limited lifespan and what replaces it, while perhaps imperfect, will be an improvement in terms of peace and prosperity. It can be explained in part by examining the research and teachings of noted icons of the business world Clayton Christensen, John Boyd, and Sun Tzu." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingEdward Snowden And The Disruption Of Government