Espionage

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The things that irked the residents of the Thirteen Colonies about British rule have reemerged from other quarters to threaten American democracy. The colonists minded being ruled arbitrarily by British-appointed officials, some of them corrupt. They minded not being represented in parliament even though that body […]

Bush

The Middle East Policy of President John Ellis “Jeb” Bush: Iraq, Iran Wars?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Jeb Bush announced his run for president on Monday. It is hard to know what his Middle East policy would be from his wibbly wobbly pronouncements, but that it would be imperial and aggressive can be deduced from his foreign policy advisory team, including Neoconservatives such […]

Bill of Rights

Fighting for Privacy, Two Years After Snowden

contributors

By Richard Esguerra | (Electronic Frontier Foundation) | – – Two years ago today, Glenn Greenwald published in the Guardian a single document confirming a key piece of the NSA’s surveillance program, a document that fundamentally transformed EFF’s long-running battle for an end to unchecked government surveillance. To recap briefly, the document was a secret […]

Government surveillance

Wins and Losses for Liberty and Privacy in USA Freedom Act

contributors

By Cindy Cohn and Mark Jaycox | (Electronic Frontier Foundation) | – The Senate passed the USA Freedom Act today by 67-32, marking the first time in over thirty years that both houses of Congress have approved a bill placing real restrictions and oversight on the National Security Agency’s surveillance powers. The weakening amendments to […]

Bill of Rights

Why Rand Paul is right to Kill the So-Called PATRIOT Act: It was never about Terrorism

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has vowed to force the expiration of the so-called PATRIOT Act on Sunday. Paul is right that it is unconstitutional and in this regard he is a better constitutional scholar than Barack Obama, whose stance on this issue is, to say the least, […]

Bill of Rights

Why the so-called USA PATRIOT Act can’t actually Keep America Safe

contributors

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

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 […]