Rights

By Peter Van Buren What We’ve Lost Since 9/11 Taking Down the First Amendment in Post-Constitutional America By Peter Van Buren America has entered its third great era: the post-constitutional one. In the first, in the colonial years, a unitary executive, the King of England, ruled without checks and balances, allowing no freedom of speech, […]

Constitution

5 Falsehoods Defenders of NSA keep Repeating that Destroy their Credibility

Juan Cole

By Cindy Cohn and Nadia Kayyali Over the past year, as the Snowden revelations have rolled out, the government and its apologists have developed a set of talking points about mass spying that the public has now heard over and over again. From the President, to Hilary Clinton to Rep. Mike Rogers, Sen. Dianne Feinstein […]

Economy

Despite dire predictions, Denver crime falls over 10 percent in wake of pot legalization

Juan Cole

Despite dire predictions by anti-marijuana activists, overall crime rates in the city of Denver are down more than five months after legal marijuana sales began in the Rocky Mountain state. According to the Denver Department of Public Safety, rates…

Censors

NYT’s James Risen risks Jail For Protecting Sources after SC declines to Take Appeal

contributors

By Trevor Timm: The Supreme Court today rejected New York Times reporter James Risen’s appeal of a 4th Circuit decision that ruled the government can compel him to reveal his source under oath. The case, one of the most important for reporter’s privilege in decades, means that Risen has exhausted his appeals and must now […]

Dissent

Snowden: Clapper pattern of Lies about My Complaints to NSA

contributors

After NBC confirmed Ed Snowden’s earlier claims that he had tried to make use of internal channels to question NSA surveillance programs, James Clapper released a single email from Snowden to the legal department at the NSA, which they claim shows he…

Bill of Rights

“Man-Up” Kerry tries to Swiftboat Ed Snowden

contributors

By Jon Queally U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is facing widespread criticism for his comment that NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden—increasingly seen by the American public as a heroic figure for exposing government surveillance—should "man up" by returning home to face criminal charges. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s attempt to bully Edward Snowden with […]

Bill of Rights

Mr. Kerry: Why Snowden can’t “Make his Case” in “Our System of Justice”

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole Secretary of State John Kerry said that Edward Snowden should “return home and come back here and stand in our system of justice and make his case.” Kerry seems to have a high opinion of the Department of Justice and the US courts when it comes to national security issues. I can’t […]

Bush

Bush-Cheney Committed War Crimes: Terrorism Czar

contributors

Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now! has an exclusive interview: ” Exclusive: Bush Committed War Crimes Says Ex-Counterterrorism Czar Richard Clarke” Excerpt: Amy Goodman: “Do you think President Bush should be brought up on war crimes [charges], and Vice President Cheney and [Defense Secretary] Donald Rumsfeld, for the attack on Iraq?” Richard Clarke: “I think things that […]

Crime

Not Snowden but Keith Alexander: Hero or Traitor (the debate we should be having)

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole NBC News’s Brian Williams interviewed Edward Snowden in Moscow on Wednesday night. But then Mr. Williams followed it up with a panel discussion of whether Snowden is a hero or traitor. It was a cowardly and venal thing to do, and Mr. Williams should be ashamed of himself. By framing the post-interview […]