US surveillance state isn’t new but its scope is

Perhaps the most startling few words about the revelations related to Edward Snowden appeared in the Washington Post this week (via Glenn Greenwald): The Washington Post this morning has… a long profile of Gen. Keith Alexander, director the… NSA, and it highlights the crux – the heart and soul – of the NSA stories, the reason Edward…

US army vet offers war truths on breakfast TV

Now and then, voices appear in the mainstream media that challenge the overly comfortable blabber that passes for news. This morning on Channel 7’s Weekend Sunrise US army veteran Vince Emanuele spoke on Iraq, Afghanistan, drones, the war on terror and Australian gutlessness towards Washington:

Force-feeding detainees at Guantanamo Bay is terrorism

Devastating short film that demonstrates the brutal reality for countless prisoners under the Obama administration: As Ramadan begins, more than 100 hunger-strikers in Guantánamo Bay continue their protest. More than 40 of them are being force-fed. A leaked document sets out the military instructions, or standard operating procedure, for force-feeding detainees. In this four-minute film…

Repeat after me, you have no privacy online ever

If we have discovered only one thing recently with the revelations of Edward Snowden, it’s that the US has established an all-seeing and all-hearing surveillance apparatus that knows no bounds. This investigation in the Washington Post adds to this picture: The U.S. government had a problem: Spying in the digital age required access to the…

How the vast, privatised intelligence world is permanent

Interesting article in the New York Times that outlines some of the background to NSA contractor Edward Snowden. It casually explains how in a post 9/11 worldc countless private employees have control over a vast network of individual communications. Transparency? As if: Intelligence officials refer to Edward J. Snowden’s job as a… National Security Agency… contractor as…

Background and context to revealing Edward Snowden NSA stories

It’s been quite a month since the details emerged of massive spying by the NSA. Here are two interesting interviews and a speech by key players. First, Guardian editors Alan Rusbridger and Janine Gibson discuss how the paper managed the ways in which a mainstream media news organisation publishes sensitive information. They’re speaking to Charlie…

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