Liberties
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CCR: Tell Congress It Can’t Be Judge, Jury and Executioner
Today, the Center for Constitutional Rights filed a lawsuit against the United States government in an effort to derail a a right wing campaign to target, attack and crush progressive organizations. ACORN v. USA challenges the legality of the actions of Congress in passing a resolution barring government funding of ACORN and all of its… Continue reading
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Reports state CIA “extraordinary rendition” flights landed in UK By Robert Stevens
A US registered plane named in a 2007 European Parliament report into alleged Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) ‘extraordinary rendition’ flights was observed to land at Birmingham Airport in England on October 2 of this year. Continue reading
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Mind Your Tweets: The CIA Social Networking Surveillance System By Tom Burghardt
That social networking sites and applications such as Facebook, Twitter and their competitors can facilitate communication and information sharing amongst diverse groups and individuals is by now a cliché. It should come as no surprise then, that the secret state and the capitalist grifters whom they serve, have zeroed-in on the explosive growth of these… Continue reading
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Former CIA Detainee Moazzem Begg Testifies at War Crimes Tribunal
After years of isolation and unjust imprisonment in Afghanistan and Guantanemo by the U.S. and British intelligence agencies and military, the testimony of Muazzam Begg, a young British Asian Muslim, is almost a miracle, given his sanity and eloquence after his ordeals, which is a testimony to his strength of character and faith. Continue reading
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War Is a Hate Crime By Chris Hedges
Violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people is wrong. So is violence against people in Afghanistan and Iraq. But in the bizarre culture of identity politics, there are no alliances among the oppressed. The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, the first major federal civil rights law protecting lesbian, gay,… Continue reading
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How daring is the International Criminal Court? By Alexander MEZYAEV
In September the International Criminal Court (ICC) officially reported it had started to preliminarily analyse information about likely inquiries into crimes by the US servicemen in Afghanistan and by Israeli troops in Gaza. The statements stand in stark contrast to the Court’s hitherto pursued policy and therefore merit special attention. Continue reading
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Video: ATS News With Johnny Anonymous, Edition 02 – CIA Invests In Spying On You
In this edition Johnny leads off with startling coverage of the CIA’s efforts to invest in a small software firm that specializes in “social network monitoring” in their effort to spy on everything we do online. Through their venture capital firm, the CIA has shown their interest in the development of technology to track and… Continue reading
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Spying on Americans: The Bipartisan National Security State – Telecoms Lobby US Congress By Tom Burghardt
The bipartisan consensus that encourages unaccountable secret state agencies to illegally spy on the American people under color of a limitless, and highly profitable, “war on terror” was dealt a (minor) blow October 13. Federal District Court Judge Jeffrey White denied a motion by the Obama administration that the court issue a 30-day stay to… Continue reading
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Britain: Government anti-terrorism strategy ‘spies’ on innocent By Vikram Dodd
16 October, 2009 — The Guardian The government programme aimed at preventing Muslims from being lured into violent extremism is being used to gather intelligence about innocent people who are not suspected of involvement in terrorism, the Guardian has learned. The information the authorities are trying to find out includes political and religious views, information Continue reading
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D’Escoto on the US in the age of Obama Part 3
“The inability of the United Nations to unequivocally reject the Iraq war has been a major factor in its demise”, says outgoing president of the UN General Assembly, Miguel d’Escoto. In the third and final segment of his talk with Real News Senior Editor Paul Jay, d’Escoto digs into what he believes is at the… Continue reading
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Big Brother FBI: Data-Mining Programs Resurrect “Total Information Awareness” By Tom Burghardt
Like a vampire rising from it’s grave each night to feed on the privacy rights of Americans, the Federal Bureau of Investigation is moving forward with programs that drain the life blood from our constitutional liberties. From the wholesale use of informants and provocateurs to stifle political dissent, to Wi-Fi hacking and viral computer spyware… Continue reading
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Judge rules police at Lieberman protest acted unlawfully
A Jewish peace activist was today found not guilty of using threatening and abusive words and behaviour and of assaulting a police officer. About 15 mainly Jewish protesters, between the ages of 25 and 70, had gathered outside a house in a residential street in South Hampstead where Lieberman was due to attend a garden… Continue reading
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61 arrested in protest at White House – What Happened to the First Amendment?
Video: 61 arrested in protest at White House – What Happened to the First Amendment? Continue reading
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Scottish PSC human rights activists face political trial on same day as Palestinian citizens of Israel protest racist state
Five SPSC members are facing trial on Friday for boycotting Israeli state-sponsored cultural ambassadors, the Jerusalem Quartet. The Israeli musicians, in the words of their admirers, believe that ‘a rifle in one hand and a violin in the other is the ultimate Zionist statement.’ Continue reading
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US Army Prisoners Isolated, Denied Right to Legal Counsel By Dahr Jamail
The military’s treatment of Army prisoners is “part of a broader pattern the military has of just throwing people in jail and not letting them talk to their attorneys, not let visitors come, and this is outrageous. In the civilian world even murderers get visits from their friends,” according to civil defense attorney James Branum. Continue reading
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Big Brother “Fusion Centers” Part of US Domestic Intelligence and Surveillance Apparatus By Tom Burghardtf
Speaking at San Francisco’s Commonwealth Club September 15, Director of National Intelligence Admiral Dennis C. Blair, disclosed that the current annual budget for the 16 agency U.S. “Intelligence Community” (IC) clocks-in at $75 billion and employs some 200,000 operatives world-wide, including private contractors. In unveiling an unclassi?ed version of the National Intelligence Strategy (NIS), Blair… Continue reading
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Hands off my camera! By Nathalie Rothschild
Since the Counter-Terrorism Act 2000 came into force, many amateur and professional photographers have found themselves questioned, manhandled and detained by police who have received extended stop and search rights. Under section 44, uniformed police officers can stop individuals ‘for the purposes of searching for articles of a kind which could be used in connection… Continue reading
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ID Cards – a World View – by Nathan Allonby
Electronic ID cards have made alarming progress towards becoming universal, around the world. Already, over 2.2 billion people, or 33% of the world’s population, have been issued with ‘smart’ ID cards. Of those, over 900 million have biometric facial and fingerprint systems. On present plans, over 85% of the world’s population will have smart ID… Continue reading
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Obama Administration Seeks “Emergency Control” of the Internet By Tom Burghardt
As the Cybersecurity Act of 2009 (S.773) wends its way through Congress, civil liberties’ advocates are decrying provisions that would hand the President unlimited power to disconnect private-sector computers from the internet. Continue reading
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The Responsibility to Protect, the International Criminal Court, and Foreign Policy in Focus: Subverting the UN Charter in the Name of Human Rights By Edward S. Herman & David Peterson
It was just a matter of time before members of the collapsing left enlisted in the imperial attack on the most fundamental principles of the UN Charter, and added their voices to the growing chorus of support for Western power-projection under the Responsibility to Protect doctrine (R2P) and the International Criminal Court (ICC). But this… Continue reading
The New Dark Age 