Delaware State Legislature Calls on the First State’s Congressional Delegation to Overturn Citizens UnitedBipartisan Letter Signed by House and Senate Majorities DOVER, DE- A majority of members in both of Delaware’s state legislative chambers have signed on to a letter seeking support and action by Delaware’s Congressional delegation for Congress to pass a Constitutional amendment reversing the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United v.
Edward Snowden: saving us from the United Stasi of AmericaIn my estimation, there has not been in American history a more important leak than Edward Snowden’s release of NSA material – and that definitely includes the Pentagon Papers 40 years ago. Snowden’s whistleblowing gives us the possibility to roll back a key part of what has amounted to an “executive coup” against the US constitution.
Assange: US rule of law suffering ‘calamitous collapse’AFP – WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said Friday that the US justice system was suffering from a “calamitous collapse in the rule of law”, as Washington reeled from the sensational exposure of vast spy agency surveillance programmes.
The average professional in this country wakes up in the morning, goes to work, comes home, eats dinner, and then goes to sleep, unaware that he or she has likely committed several federal crimes that day.
In Three Felonies a Day, Harvey A. Silverglate reveals how the federal criminal justice system has become dangerously disconnected from common law traditions of due process and fair notice of the law’s expectations, enabling prosecutors to pin arguable federal crimes on any one of us, for even the most seemingly innocuous behavior. The dangers spelled out in Three Felonies a Day do not apply solely to”white collar criminals,” state and local politicians, and professionals. No social class or profession is safe from this troubling form of social control by the executive branch, and nothing less than the continued functioning and integrity of our constitutional democracy hang in the balance.
Justice Department Fights Release of Secret Court Opinion Finding Unconstitutional SurveillanceIn the midst of revelations that the government has conducted extensive top-secret surveillance operations to collect domestic phone records and internet communications, the Justice Department was due to file a court motion Friday in its effort to keep secret an 86-page court opinion that determined that the government had violated the spirit of federal surveillance laws and engaged in unconstitutional spying.
Public Documents Contradict Claim Email Spying Foiled Terror PlotDefenders of the American government’s online spying program known as “PRISM” claimed Friday that the suddenly controversial secret effort had saved New York City’s subways from a 2009 terrorist plot led by a young Afghan-American, Najibullah Zazi.
Alleged Anonymous hacker raided by FBI after exposing Ohio rape scandalA 26-year-old Kentucky man says the FBI raided his home earlier this year in an attempt to investigate two hacker groups and the role they played in exposing the players linked to a high-profile rape case in Steubenville, Ohio.
Timeline of NSA Domestic SpyingAll of the evidence found in this timeline can also be found in the Summary of Evidence we submitted to the court in Jewel v. NSA. It is intended to recall all the credible accounts and information of the NSA’s domestic spying program found in the media, congressional testimony, books, and court actions.
Hacker Faces More Jail Time Than The Convicted Steubenville Rapists He ExposedA 26-year-old farm dweller who helped expose the rape of a teenage girl is facing up to 5x more jail time than the high school football members who publicly assaulted the girl.
Edward Snowden, NSA files source: ‘If they want to get you, in time they will’Edward Snowden was interviewed over several days in Hong Kong by Glenn Greenwald and Ewen MacAskill. Q: Why did you decide to become a whistleblower? A: “The NSA has built an infrastructure that allows it to intercept almost everything. With this capability, the vast majority of human communications are automatically ingested without targeting.
Istanbul Is BurningWhat is happening in Turkey with the #occupygezi protests? Why should we care? We should care because, above all else, our grievances are connected through the violence brought when people stand up to say no to the initiatives of big business, planned behind closed doors and without our consent.
The Right to Evade RegulationEvery time you fill a prescription at a drug store like Walgreens, the pharmacy keeps a record of the transaction, noting information such as your name, the drug, the dosage, and the issuing doctor. It’s a routine bit of bookkeeping, and for a long time it raised few eyebrows.
NSA collecting phone records of millions of Verizon customers dailyThe National Security Agency is currently collecting the telephone records of millions of US customers of Verizon, one of America’s largest telecoms providers, under a top secret court order issued in April.
Dept. of Homeland Security: Laptops, Phones Can Be Searched Based on HunchesU.S. border agents should continue to be allowed to search a traveler’s laptop, cellphone or other electronic device and keep copies of any data on them based on no more than a hunch, according to an internal Homeland Security Department study.
Jeremy Hammond Case Demonstrates the Draconian Nature of the CFAAIn the months since Aaron Swartz’s death, it’s become clear to the American public that the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (“CFAA”) has become one of the most dangerous and abused criminal laws available to prosecutors. One of its biggest problems-its draconian sentencing scheme-is on full display in the case of Jeremy Hammond.
‘Why were police so angry?’: Turkish protesters slam police brutality as over 1,700 get arrestedAcross Turkey, witnesses are reporting a disproportionate response by police to the protests, which in most instances begun peacefully. At least 2 people have reportedly been killed, over 1,700 detained across the country and hundreds have been injured.
Friend of Boston bombing suspect unarmed when killed by FBIIbragim Todashev, who was killed during an FBI interview last week, was unarmed when he was fatally shot, according to law enforcement officials. Civil rights activists are now calling for independent investigation of the death.
CIA whistleblower imprisoned despite prosecutor’s promiseThe former CIA analyst who spoke out against the agency’s use of torture says he’s been deemed a “threat to public safety” and is serving his prison sentence in a crowded jail cell despite being promised admission to a federal work camp.
Anonymous hacker Jeremy Hammond pleads guilty to Stratfor breach – RT USAHacker and activist Jeremy Hammond pleaded guilty Tuesday morning in a New York courtroom to violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act as a member of the Internet collective known as Anonymous. Hammond, 28, was arrested last March and charged with hacking into the computers of Strategic Forecasting Inc., or Stratfor – a global intelligence company based out of Austin, Texas.
