Surveillance

US television news is a danger to the security of the United States. First, it is so oriented to ratings that it cannot afford to do unpopular reports (thus, it ignored al-Qaeda and the Taliban for the most part before 9/11). Second, it is so oriented toward the halls of power inside the Beltway that […]

Domestic Surveillance

Why Correa might give Snowden Asylum: All the Horrible things the US has done to Ecuador

Juan Cole

Rafael Correa of Ecuador, who won a third term this year, has significantly improved the lives of his people, reducing poverty rates and building out infrastructure. Correa, an economist trained at the University of Illinois, has a nuanced view of the US, but he has had significant frictions with the behemoth of the North, which […]

Domestic Surveillance

Top Ten American Steps toward a Police State

Juan Cole

The police state, a term first coined in the mid-19th century in German (Polizeistaat), is characterized by a standing political police, by intense domestic surveillance and by restrictions on the movements of citizens. Police states are on a spectrum, and unfortunately in the past decade the Unite States has moved toward police-stateness in small but […]

al-Qaeda

Why the 9/11 Argument for NSA Spying Fails: They Tracked, Lost their Suspect (Elliott)

Juan Cole

Justin Elliott writes at ProPublica In defending the NSA’s sweeping collection of Americans’ phone call records, Obama administration officials have repeatedly pointed out how it could have helped thwart the 9/11 attacks: If only the surveillance program been in place before Sept. 11, 2001, U.S. authorities would have been able to identify one of the […]

Domestic Surveillance

Mueller: FBI Drones on US Soil, used ‘Minimally’ (Young Turks)

Juan Cole

FBI director Robert Mueller admitted Wednesday that the FBI sometimes deploys drones over US territory. Cenk Uygur reports: Cenk points out that if the Bureau can use the drones minimally, there is no check on them being used extensively, and he evokes Orwell’s image of Big Brother.

Domestic Surveillance

I am Bradley Manning (celebrity video protesting treason charge)

Juan Cole

The celebrity video ‘I am Bradley Manning: protests against the ‘aiding the enemy charge’ against leaker Manning, who is now being tried in a military court. The organization website is here.

Domestic Surveillance

Why Cheney is the Traitor, and Why we Can’t Believe Obama on Safeguards (The Ultimate Clip of Gov’t Lies)

Juan Cole

Dick Cheney on Monday called NSA leaker Edward Snowden a traitor, and Snowden shot back that given Cheney’s own lies about Iraq, it is an honor for any American to be accused of treason by the former vice president. On Monday evening, Barack Obama came on Charlie Rose and insisted that the NSA would never […]

CIA

Syria, NSA Spying, Popular Mobilization and History: Cole Interview in La Prensa (Ricky Martinez)

Juan Cole

Interview with Juan Cole by Ricky Martínez (These are the English notes of the interview rearranged in pyramid form; they were translated and published in a different sequence in Spanish at La Prensa of Panama City). Many thanks to Mr. Martinez for a wide-ranging conversation! RM: How is Syria different from Libya? Syria is different […]

Domestic Surveillance

PATRIOT Act Drafters worried about Library Privacy, had No Idea everyone’s Phone Records would be Dragooned (Elliott)

Juan Cole

Justin Elliott writes at ProPublica In the months following the October 2001, passage of the Patriot Act, there was a heated public debate about the very provision of the law that we now know the government is using to vacuum up phone records of American citizens on a massive scale. “A chilling intrusion” declared one […]