Liberties
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FORTRESS UK – Closing the door on international artists and academics – Wednesday 17 March
The Home Office’s new points-based visa system has meant thousands of international students unable to start their courses on time, cancelled concerts and lecture series, and the growth of suspicion and surveillance on campus. Come and discuss these new rules – and what we can do about them. Continue reading
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ATTEMPT TO BAN PROTEST OUTSIDE BLAIR INQUIRY
Negotiations between the police and Stop the War broke down today when it became clear that the government is trying to hide our legitimate peaceful protest from Tony Blair when he gives evidence to the Chilcot Inquiry on Friday. Continue reading
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Undermining the American People’s Right to Privacy: The Secret State’s Surveillance Machine By Tom Burghardt
Hoping to forestall public suspicions of how things actually work in Washington, the administration has declared that “it will continue to block the release of additional documents, including communications within the Executive Branch and records reflecting the identities of telecoms involved in lobbying for immunity,” according to EFF’s Senior Staff Attorney Kurt Opsahl. Continue reading
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A Message from CCR on Human Rights Day
10 December, 2009 — Center for Constitutional Rights Each year the world celebrates Human Rights Day on December 10, the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), adopted by the United Nations 61 years ago today. Through the UDHR, the international community set out for the first time the rights that all human… Continue reading
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Canada’s Guantanamo By Eric Walberg
A scandal erupted last week in sleepy Ottawa with the revelations of Canada’s chief diplomat in Kandahar in 2006-07, Richard Colvin, who told a House of Commons committee on Afghanistan that Afghans arrested by Canadian military and handed over to Afghan authorities were knowingly tortured. His and others’ attempts to raise the alarm had been… Continue reading
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Heroic Human Rights Lawyer Lynne Stewart is Jailed By Stephen Lendman
‘Defiant to the end as she embraced supporters outside the federal courthouse in Lower Manhattan, Lynne F. Stewart, the radical lawyer known for defending unpopular clients, surrendered on Thursday to begin serving her 28-month sentence for assisting terrorism.’ Continue reading
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UK Judge Approves Use of Secret Evidence in Guantánamo Case by Andy Worthington
Those of us who have been aware that the principles of open justice in the UK are being threatened in an unprecedented manner have, to date, focused largely on the use of secret evidence in cases related to terrorism — widely ignored by the general public, and by much of the media — and on… Continue reading
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Welcome Home, War! Creating the “Domestic Surveillance State” By Prof. Alfred W. McCoy
In his approach to National Security Agency surveillance, as well as CIA renditions, drone assassinations, and military detention, President Obama has to a surprising extent embraced the expanded executive powers championed by his conservative predecessor, George W. Bush. This bipartisan affirmation of the imperial executive could “reverberate for generations,” warns Jack Balkin, a specialist on First Amendment… Continue reading
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VIDEO: What Happened inside the Guantanamo Prison: Former Muslim chaplain speaks out
As part of Al Jazeera’s “In My View” series, former US Muslim chaplain for the US detention facility in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba talks about his experience after being accused of spying and the abuse he alleges occurred at the camp. Continue reading
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Department of Justice Threatens the Internet By Tom Burghardt
When the Independent Media Center (IMC) received a formal notice on January 30 from the Department of Justice, demanding they provide an Indianapolis grand jury with ‘details of all reader visits on a certain day,’ the feisty left-wing news aggregators fought back, CBS News reported. Continue reading
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Feds Wanted Private Data on All Visitors to Liberal Internet News Site By Daniel Tencer
A Justice Department subpoena requesting all available information on all visitors to an independent news site is raising serious privacy concerns, and questions about how much information the US government is storing about its citizens’ news reading habits. Continue reading
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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
The New Dark Age 