The Class of 2014 enters a shadowy world of corporate and state surveillance.
The Last Commencement Address
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Surveillance
Drones Trail a Whole Host of Dilemmas – Ethical and Otherwise – in Their Wake
The problems that drones pose are legion.
NSA Surveillance’s Cost-Benefit Ratio
Massive data collection by the NSA comes down much heavier on the cost side of the ledger than the benefit.
NSA and TMI
To: John Brennan, Langley HQ From: Operative 650, undisclosed location Re: Memo XP1476 Greetings from the tropics! I apologize for not writing to you earlier. As you probably know, if you have my file in front of you, I wrote to your predecessors with various modest...
Surveillance on Merkel’s Phone Demands a Scapegoat
As you have no doubt heard by now, German Chancellor Angela Merkel was informed by German intelligence that her phone was subjected to American surveillance. Predictably she reacted badly and called President Obama himself to ream him out. At the New York Times,...
Patriot Act Sponsor James Sensenbrenner — Progressive Champion?
You remember James Sensenbrenner, don’t you? A Republican from Wisconsin, he introduced the Patriot Act in the House of Representatives 42 days after 9/11. Among his other “accomplishments” was authoring the Real ID Act in 2005 and acting as a general thorn in the...
How to Be a Rogue Superpower
It’s hard even to know how to take it in. I mean, what’s really happening? An employee of a private contractor working for the National Security Agency makes off with unknown numbers of files about America’s developing global security state on a thumb drive and four...
Emphasis Added: the Week in Pieces (7/5)
From Edward Snowden to Taliban drug dealing to Stratfor’s ruined credibility.
Emphasis Added: the Week in Pieces (7/1)
From Erdogan to Bradley Manning.
Germans Shocked That Obama Allowed NSA Free Rein
The NSA’s access to data clouds in Europe is news to most Europeans.