Constitution

by CHARLES KURZMAN for ISLAMiCommentary: Charles Kurzman With the “USA PATRIOT Act” set to expire at the end of the month, you might expect supporters of domestic surveillance to tout the take-down of the biggest plot of violent extremism America has experienced so far this year. Not the plot by two men who drove to […]

Bill of Rights

Snowden’s Revenge: USA “Freedom” [Surveillance] Act Fails in Senate

contributors

By Nadia Prupis, staff writer | (Commondreams.org) — “The failure of these bills to pass shows just how dramatically the politics of surveillance changed once the extent of the government’s surveillance programs became known to the public.” In a move that is being hailed by civil liberties advocates as a victory for privacy rights, the […]

Bill of Rights

Obama Prosecutes another Whistleblower to Senate for “Espionage”

contributors

By John Kiriakou | (Foreign Policy in Focus) Jeffrey Sterling learned the hard way that the feds will throw the book at anyone who embarrasses them. Jeffrey Sterling recently stood before a judge as his sentence was read. The former CIA officer, the judge declared, would spend 42 months — that’s three and half years […]

Bill of Rights

Unlike Congress, Majority of Americans Oppose NSA Spying

contributors

By Nadia Prupis, staff writer | (Commondreams.org) | – Survey commissioned by ACLU shows “how disconnected members of Congress are from the feelings of a lot of the public.” A new survey which found that most Americans oppose NSA surveillance comes as some key sections of the Patriot Act near their expiration date. (Photo: mlliu/flickr/cc) […]

Bill of Rights

The National Security State gets Real: 9 Ways the US is becoming Bizarro World

Tom Engelhardt

By Tomd Engledhardt | (Tomdispatch.com) | – It’s commonplace to speak of “the fog of war,” of what can’t be known in the midst of battle, of the inability of both generals and foot soldiers to foresee developments once fighting is underway. And yet that fog is nothing compared to the murky nature of the […]

Bill of Rights

Does Sen. Lindsey Graham want to Drone Americans for Thought Crimes?

contributors

John Iadarola & Jimmy Dore | (The Young Turks) | – “”Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., is ready to join the crowded 2016 presidential race — and he’s having a blast in doing it. The defense hawk and pragmatic Republican said Monday morning on CBS’s This Morning that he would make an announcement on June 1 […]

Bill of Rights

United Nations: “No confidence vote” on America’s Post-9/11 Human Rights Record

contributors

By Gustavo Capdevila | (Inter Press Service) | – GENEVA (IPS) – Without the emperor’s clothes, like in the Hans Christian Andersen story, the United States was forced to submit its human rights record to the scrutiny of the other 192 members of the United Nations on Monday. Washington attended the country’s second universal periodic […]

Barack Obama

Just how Illegal has the NSA’s Domestic Spying Been?

contributors

By Andrew Crocker | (Electronic Frontier Foundation) | – We now have the first decision from a court of appeals on the NSA’s mass surveillance program involving bulk collection of telephone records under Section 215 of the Patriot Act, and it’s a doozy. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued an opinion […]

Barack Obama

HUGE WIN FOR PRIVACY! Court Rules NSA Spying Is Illegal

contributors

John Iadarola, Jimmy Dore, Ana Kasparian | (The Young Turks) | – “The second circuit court of appeals has ruled that the bulk collection and storage of Americans phone records is ILLEGAL, good news when it comes to your privacy. John Iadarola (Think Tank), Jimmy Dore (The Jimmy Dore Show), Ana Kasparian (The Point,) break […]