This is the same guy, of course, who has specifically said that the US Military is a force for wondrous good in the world, and that various invasions such as Bosnia and Vietnam have all been, on the whole, ... (more)
While the US government is running around making excuses for spying on everyone for everything, it should be noted other US government agents are still invading people's privacy by sexually molesting them at our nation's airports. In this story out of San Antonio, a cancer survivor was moved to tears after a TSA agent treated her like a worthless piece of garbage.
Via KENS 5:
SAN ANTONIO -- A woman is speaking out in hopes of restoring her dignity. She sa
A Homeland Security-funded training exercise in Boston dubbed “Operation Urban Shield” that was delayed due to April’s marathon bombing revolved around a terrorist cell dubbed “Free America Citizens,” another indication of how the DHS is characterizing liberty-loving Americans as domestic extremists.
“Months of painstaking planning had gone into the exercise, dubbed "Operation Urban Shield," meant to train dozens of detectives in the Greater Bos... (more)
Bill Maher trusts Obama to use the NSA’s surveillance grid to find terrorists and crazies with nuclear bombs. "We live in a world of nuclear weapons and there are religious fanatics who would love to get one and set it off here," he said on Friday night.
Bill Maher said he’s scared and that’s why he supports turning America into a Stasi... (more)
"Be lawyered up to the max... find a place where it's going to be that much more difficult for the US to make arrangements for his return... and and always check your six," is the warning (advice) that Thomas Drake offers Edward Snowden, adding that, "it's now validation of this vast, now systemic, industrial-scale leviathan surveillance system."
As Reuters reports, Drake is one of the few people who understands from personal experience what the NSA Whistlebl... (more)
Google is continuing to open up about the supposed "secret" program by which it hands data over to the NSA that has been subject to so much attention over the last week. And, once again, the story seems to be less than what was originally reported. Google's now said that when it receives a valid FISA order for information, the "secret" computer system it uses to get the required info to the NSA isn't some crazy server setup or dropbox... but secure FTP.
In a free society the government is supposed to be open and transparent while the citizens enjoy privacy. What, then, do you call a society where the government is ultra secretive and all citizens are spied on by the state?
Establishment pundits are frantically attempting to make the NSA spy scandal story about whether the whistleblower is a hero or a traitor instead of debating the real issue -- whether broad government spying on U.S. citizens violates their Constitutional rights... (more)
"When governments can operate almost entirely in the dark, what you get is a government full of Ari Fleischers who can go before the world and spew falsehoods. There are weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Saddam Hussein has an alliance with Osama Bin Laden. When government officials operate in secret, they abuse their power."
NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has sacrificed his freedom, his future, his family, his home and his model girlfriend in order to warn Americans that they are the targets of a monolithic spy agency which is working feverishly to ensure that privacy is demolished – and most Americans simply don’t care.
Revelations that the National Security Agency was collecting records of millions of US customers of Verizon under a secret court order issued in April, fol... (more)
In this clip from 'Morning Joe,' Glenn Greenwald forwardly calls out MSNBC propagandist Mika Brzezinski for spewing White House talking points as though they're her own opinions. It's absolutely hilarious and a delight to watch.
Note, at the end of the segment, CFR president Richard Haas, who said throughout the interview the spying is as American as ap... (more)
There's been a lot of coverage of the exchange between Senator Ron Wyden and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, in which Wyden asked Clapper about whether or not data on millions of Americans has been captured. Here's the exact text:
Wyden: Does the NSA collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions
Glenn Greenwald joins a surprisingly radical Jake Tapper (who thoroughly shows Obama to be a bold faced liar before even bringing Glenn on air) to debunk the false claims this is harming "national security," as Glenn points out, the only thing being damaged is our criminal rulers' reputations.
As the NSA and the administration continue to seek to spin the fallout from the leaks that revealed some of the overreaching surveillance efforts of the NSA, what's incredible is how self-contradictory the statements are, even when coming from the same source. The go-to defender of the program has been Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who has tried arguing both that the leaks and these programs are no big deal and that they present a grave danger to intelligence operatio... (more)
In the wake of multiple leaks regarding the data mining programs PRISM and Boundless Informant, whistleblowers are coming out in droves to talk about the unprecedented government surveillance on the American public. RT Correspondent Meghan Lopez had a chance to sit down with NSA whistleblower William Binney to talk about the latest developments coming out of the NSA ca... (more)
Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper, who is in charge of the massive spying program just revealed, lies to senator Ron Wyden after being questioned on whether the NSA collects “any data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans.”
Video from March 12, 2013.
Since the scandal broke, Clapper has been... (more)
Whenever overreaching surveillance comes to light, whether it's a national security agency or local law enforcement operating the dragnet, there's always one person who will toss out one of these two worn out, used up, dripping-in-paternal-condescension phrases in defense of the privacy abusers.
1. If you've got nothing to hide, what are you worried about? 2. Because terrorism/crime/drugs/child porn.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, usually a critic of the ... (more)
About a year ago, after a lot of pressure from Senator Ron Wyden, the government finally admitted (late on a Friday) that, yes, indeed some of its surveillance efforts had been found unconstitutional for violating the 4th Amendment. But they didn't explain what, nor did they reveal the FISA court ruling which made that assessment. Since that time, ... (more)
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. If I wanted to see your emails or your wife's phone, all I have to do is use intercepts. I can get your emails, passwords, ... (more)
