President Obama gave a news conference on Friday in which he addressed the controversy over Edward Snowden’s revelations regarding NSA spying on the American people. This issue is a very difficult one for Mr. Obama, given that he came to it from civil libertarian position as a senator, but now is president. When you are […]
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Government surveillance
The Business of America is Spying on America (Engelhardt)
Tom Engelhardt writes at Tomdispatch.com: Hey, let’s talk spying! In Surveillance America, this land of spookery we all now inhabit, what else is there to talk about? Was there anyone growing up like me in the 1950s who didn’t know Revolutionary War hero and spy Nathan Hale’s last words before the British hanged him: “I […]
Top Ten Things that don’t Make Sense about NSA Surveillance, Drones and al-Qaeda
In a Reuters Exclusive, John Shiffman and Kristina Cooke reveal that the National Security Agency shares information it gleans from warrantless surveillance of Americans with the Special Operation Division of the Drug Enforcement Agency, which then uses the metadata to develop cases against US citizens. The DEA then routinely lies to the judge and defense […]
How we lost our Constitution somewhere in Iraq and came back without it to Try Manning (van Buren)
Peter Van Buren writes at Tomdispatch.com On July 30, 1778, the Continental Congress created the first whistleblower protection law, stating “that it is the duty of all persons in the service of the United States to give the earliest information to Congress or other proper authority of any misconduct, frauds, or misdemeanors committed by any […]
Putin as America’s Frenemy: The Snowden Paradox
Russia’s decision on Thursday to grant NSA leaker Edward Snowden asylum for one year and allow him freely to live and work in the Russian Federation hit Washington like a hydrogen bomb. Angry politicians called on President Obama to cancel talks in Moscow with Putin scheduled in September. Russia Today covered the decision rather breathlessly: […]
‘Every Stroke you Type’: Greenwald Reveals Xkeyscore, Vindicating Snowden
When Edward Snowden went public, he alleged that as a low-level analyst, he could see you type your emails in real time: “I, sitting at my desk . . .” could . . . “wiretap anyone, from you or your accountant, to a federal judge or even the president, if I had a personal email”.” […]
Top Ten Ways Bradley Manning Changed the World
Bradley Manning will be sentenced today, having been found guilty of 20 counts on Tuesday, including espionage (despite the lack of evidence for intent to spy and the lack of evidence that his leaking ever did any real harm). Whatever one thinks of Manning’s actions, that we deserved to know some of what he revealed […]
Lest we Forget that Manning was Tortured before being Found not Guilty of Aiding the Enemy (America’s Bouazizi)
Breaking news: Firedog Lake reports that Bradley Manning has been found not guilty of aiding the enemy, a blow against the Obama administration’s repeated attempts to smear whistleblowers as traitors. The other charges against him could put him behind bars for 100 years. But just so it isn’t forgotten, Manning’s journey to sentencing has been […]
The Kidnapper & Torturer vs. the Whistleblower: The Gov’t’s different Treatment of Lady and Snowden (Engelhardt)
Tom Engelhardt writes at Tomdispatch.com: He came and he went: that was the joke that circulated in 1979 when 70-year-old former Vice President Nelson Rockefeller had a heart attack and died in his Manhattan townhouse in the presence of his evening-gown-clad 25-year-old assistant. In a sense, the same might be said of retired CIA operative […]