Jason Ditz

June 5, 2015

In mid-May, facing growing public complaints about the militarization of local police forces, President Obama signed an executive order that would ban the Pentagon from transferring certain “inappropriate” military gear, notably grenade launchers and bayonets, to police departments. Because apparently anything with the word military or any derivatives is going to have support from someone […]

Marcy Wheeler

June 5, 2015

Today marks the two year anniversary of the first Snowden disclosures. The anniversary was marked not just with a Snowden op-ed published by the New York Times titled “The World Says No to Surveillance,” but also a major new Vice story on the government’s damage assessment based on documents FOIAed by Jason Leopold. As Vice […]

Jason Ditz

June 3, 2015

ISIS doesn’t have any products, but still… In a bizarre round of comments today, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu termed international boycotts against Israel as “hypocrisy,” demanding those nations to boycott ISIS-made goods instead. ISIS doesn’t have a functioning economy right now, nor any real exports to speak of, so it is of course impossible. […]

Norman Solomon

June 3, 2015

The morning after final passage of the USA Freedom Act, while some foes of mass surveillance were celebrating, Thomas Drake sounded decidedly glum. The new law, he told me, is “a new spy program.” It restarts some of the worst aspects of the Patriot Act and further codifies systematic violations of Fourth Amendment rights. Later […]

Ron Paul

May 31, 2015

Portions of the PATRIOT Act are set to expire Sunday at midnight unless Congress finds a way to extend them. What might we expect from the race to maintain the NSA’s bulk collection of our telecommunications? And if somehow those provisions expire, does it mean that the NSA will stop spying on us? Tune in […]

Medea Benjamin

May 30, 2015

South Korea’s Jeju Island is a popular tourist destination full of spas, resorts, golf courses, sandy beaches, waterfalls and hiking trails. But if you really want to get rejuvenated, skip the tourist hotspots and go directly to the village of Gangjeong to support the extraordinary community that has been opposing the building of a naval […]

Jason Ditz

May 29, 2015

As we mentioned earlier in the week, the Patriot Act’s Section 215 expires tonight. This is the section which the Obama Administration has been using as the pretext for NSA telephone bulk surveillance of ordinary Americans. The great news is, Section 215 will be expiring tonight, as the Senate didn’t vote. The less great news […]

Jason Ditz

May 29, 2015

The Senate is in recess, but they will be returning on Sunday for a last minute vote on the extension of the Patriot Act’s Section 215. This is the section which the Obama Administration has been using as the pretext for NSA telephone bulk surveillance of ordinary Americans. The White House says without the renewal, […]

Brad Hoff

May 27, 2015

On Friday, May 22, I contacted the DIA Public Affairs office seeking official response to my May 19 article entitled, 2012 Defense Intelligence Agency document: West will facilitate rise of Islamic State “in order to isolate the Syrian regime”. DIA Public Affairs did not respond at that time. YESTERDAY (5/26), THE DIA CONTACTED ME via […]

Norman Solomon

May 27, 2015

A dozen years before his recent sentencing to a 42-month prison term based on a jury’s conclusion that he gave classified information to a New York Times journalist, former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling was in the midst of a protracted and fruitless effort to find someone in Congress willing to look into his accusations about […]