Brennan: ‘The FBI, Department of Homeland Security, National Security Agency, CIA, and Department of Defense are all engaged in intelligence activities on U.S. soil, and these activities must be consistent with our laws and reflect the democratic principles and values of our Nation.’
Benson: The case now goes back to the district court from the appeals court, and it’s unlikely it will be resolved before the USA Freedom Act takes effect, according to experts contacted by Truthdig. So what do these developments mean for the surveillance state in which we live?
From the article: Around the world, when a person gets online to do anything — write an email, post to a social network, browse the web or play a video game — there’s a decent chance that the Internet traffic her device sends and receives is getting collected and processed by one of XKEYSCORE’s hundreds of servers scattered across the globe.
Joint Terrorism Task Forces (JTTFs), of which there are currently 104 located in cities and towns across the United States, were created in the 1980s and greatly expanded in the aftermath of 9/11. They were set up to coordinate between diverse federal agencies and local law enforcement, and often work in tandem with “Fusion Centers” More
How will free speech suffer if corporations can ally themselves with government spy agencies and private security firms to intimate and silence those who questions them?
International Week to Support Whistleblowing. Democracy needs truth-telling. June 1-7, 2015 StandUpForTruth.org People in many countries will create Stand Up For Truth activities during the week of June 1-7, 2015 -- to move toward a culture of openness and truth as well as security for those who take the risk of disclosing information that authorities want More
Chris Hedges and Robert Sheer have been carrying out an extended debate on the Real News Network. In this video discuss the centrality of violence to U.S. American culture. https://youtu.be/gywyajXLrOo View the full series: Links below. Scheer and Hedges: They Know Everything About You (7/7) Scheer and Hedges: They Know Everything About You (5/7) Scheer and More
From the article: A federal appeals court recently ruled that a National Security Agency program that collects Americans’ phone records is illegal. In striking down the program, Judge Gerald Lynch wrote: “Such expansive development of government repositories of formerly private records would be an unprecedented contraction of the privacy expectations of all Americans.
In what Truthdig Editor-in-Chief Robert Scheer calls “a big victory for Rand Paul and for all who fear uncontrolled government surveillance,” the legislative body was unable to extend the NSA phone data collection program. Scheer mentions the Kentucky senator because of his 10-hour, 30-minute filibuster Wednesday in which he aimed to prolong the voting process More
Because what happens is that when you rise up, the elites can no longer count on the foot soldiers that maintain control both within the civil service, within the police and everywhere else, to protect them. mac_ivan (CC BY 2.0) truthdig.com May 9, 2015 [soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/204675196"] In advance of the May 12 release of More
The U.S. Court of Appeals ruled the mass collection of telephone metadata unlawful in a landmark decision that provides a foothold for a full legal challenge to the National Security Agency. gabitogol / CC BY 2.0 Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly Ear to the Ground truthdig.com May 7, 2015 Spencer Ackerman and Dan Roberts report at More
“The public had a right to know about these programs. The public had a right to know that which the government is doing in its name, and that which the government is doing against the public.” —Edward Snowden Posted by Natasha Hakimi Zapata truthdig.com May 5, 2015 It’s gone largely unnoticed that the first interview More
