USA must not hunt down whistleblower Edward Snowden | Amnesty InternationalThe US authorities must not prosecute anyone for disclosing information about the government’s human rights violations, Amnesty International said after Edward Snowden was charged under the Espionage Act.

Canada Outlaws Wearing of Masks at Unsanctioned Government Protests: Punishing DissentThe conservative Canadian government, as of June 19, has made the wearing of a mask during an “unlawful assembly” a crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison. According to the Canadian Broadcasting Company website, the bill’s sponsor in the Canadian parliament claims it is aimed at rioters who cause vandalism or violence (which sometimes is, however, precipitated by police intervention).

NSA’s Keith Alexander seeks cyber shield for companiesEven as he defends controversial government surveillance programs, the head of the National Security Agency is asking Congress for another authority sure to inflame critics – legal immunity for companies that help the feds fight cyberattackers. Gen. Keith Alexander has petitioned Capitol Hill for months to give Internet service providers and…

Judge Orders NSA To Release Dragnet Surveillance Records For Armed Robbery Case | FDL News DeskIn what could become a precedent-setting legal battle, a Florida judge has ordered that the NSA provide the court with phone records of a man accused of armed robbery. What does this case have to do with national security? Absolutely nothing, but the records exist and could exonerate the man.

America’s private prison system is a national disgraceThe privatization of traditional government functions – and big government payments to private contractors – isn’t limited to international intelligence operations like the National Security Agency. It’s happening with little oversight in dozens of areas once the province of government, from schools to airports to the military.

How Shell is trying to send a chill through activist groups across the countryOne of our most important rights as Americans is the freedom to express ourselves. This takes the form of voting, it takes the form of activism, and it takes the form of our First Amendment right to free speech.

Google challenges U.S. gag order, citing First AmendmentRevelations about the program, called PRISM, have opened fissures between U.S. officials and the involved companies, which have scrambled to reassure their users without violating strict rules against disclosing information that the government has classified as top secret.

Why The FISA Court Is Not What It Used To BeThe furor over recently exposed government surveillance programs has posed an abundance of political challenges for both President Obama and Congress. Relatively unmentioned in all of this, however, is the role of the courts – specifically, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, known as the FISA court, and how its role has changed since the terrorist attacks of Sept.

The Lockbox Lie: The NSA Searches Phone Records Without a WarrantYou can also listen to William Saletan read this piece. For the past week and a half, U.S. officials have told us that the National Security Agency’s vast collection of phone “metadata”-which numbers have called which other numbers and when-is kept in a “lockbox.” They’ve implied that the data can’t…

Exclusive: Whistleblower Says State Department Trying to Bully Her Into SilenceThe State Department investigator who accused colleagues last week of using drugs, soliciting prostitutes, and having sex with minors says that Foggy Bottom is now engaged in an “intimidation” campaign to stop her. Last week’s leaks by Aurelia Fedenisn, a former State Department inspector general investigator, shined a light on alleged wrongdoing by U.S.

Body scanner ruling could squelch NSA domestic spyingElectronic Privacy Information Center organizes request by leading technologists to halt National Security Agency’s domestic surveillance. They’re trying a novel argument from a 2011 lawsuit. (Credit: Getty Images) A high-profile group of technologists and privacy advocates is attempting to halt domestic surveillance of Americans through a clever twist: using federal bureaucratic rules against federal bureaucrats.

Accused bank robber wants NSA phone records for his defenseDefense lawyers for Terrance Brown, a south Florida man facing bank robbery charges, have asked for NSA mobile phone surveillance records to be supplied in order to support his claim that he was not in the vicinity of the bank at the time it was robbed.

Secret Court Ruling Put Tech Companies in Data BindSAN FRANCISCO – In a secret court in Washington, Yahoo ‘s top lawyers made their case. The government had sought help in spying on certain foreign users, without a warrant, and Yahoo had refused, saying the broad requests were unconstitutional. The judges disagreed. That left Yahoo two choices: Hand over the data or break the law.

Take Action: Repeal the Monsanto Protection ActIt’s one of the most outrageous special interest provisions in years. Written anonymously, the Monsanto Protection Act allows corporations to sell genetically-modified seeds even when federal courts have blocked them from doing so. Think about that: We have a process for making sure that genetically-modified seeds aren’t sold, planted and grown until we know that they don’t pose a threat to other crops or to humans.

Merkley waves Verizon phone, demands NSA chief share grounds for seizing dataIn a dramatic exchange Wednesday on Capitol Hill, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) demanded National Security Agency chief Keith Alexander explain why the agency was legally authorized to obtain his personal cellphone data. Waving his Verizon phone from his seat, Merkley asked Alexander to explain “what authorized investigation gave you the grounds” to seize information on his calls and those of millions of other Americans.

Only One Big Telecom CEO Refused To Cave To The NSA … And He’s Been In Jail For 4 YearsREUTERS/Rick Wilking Former Qwest CEO Joseph Nacchio is currently serving a six-year sentence after being convicted of insider trading in April 2007 for selling $52 million of stock in the spring of 2001 as the telecommunications carrier appeared to be deteriorating.

Why you should worry about the NSAPAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/Getty Images None of us want another terrorist attack in the United States. Equally, most of us have nothing to hide from the federal government, which already has so many ways of knowing about us.

Lawsuits over government surveillance languishSAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Before there was Edward Snowden and the leak of explosive documents showing widespread government surveillance, there was Mark Klein – a telecommunications technician who alleged that AT&T was allowing U.S. spies to siphon vast amounts of customer data without warrants.

This abuse of the Patriot Act must endWe’ve gotten used to what “Big Government” looks like – Washington’s unchecked deficit spending, the Obama administration’s policing of the press and the IRS’s targeting of conservative groups. But the problem is bigger than we thought. “Big Brother” is watching.