National Security

The UK’s ‘National Security’ Plan? It’s A Blueprint For A Police State

December 20, 2016 Nafeez Ahmed, www.middleeasteye.net Educate! National Security, Police State, United Kingdom (UK)

By Nafeez Ahmed for MEE - The report offers no insight on how Britain has destroyed the national security of other countries - and thereby threatened its own. In early December, the British government released its first annual report on the National Security Strategy and Strategic Defence and Security Review. Despite the total media blackout, the document reveals in stark detail the Conservative government’s plans to expand Britain’s military activities around the world. In the name of defending "national security", Britain is building a “permanent” military presence in the Gulf to defend Britain’s access to regional energy resources

Donald Trump’s National Security Choices Are Not ‘A’ Team In Intelligence Circles

December 6, 2016 John Kiriakou, www.truthdig.com Educate! Donald Trump, Intelligence, National Security

By John Kiriakou for Truth Dig - Donald Trump’s efforts to build a national security team have ricocheted between abject chaos and extreme conservative ideology. There’s no reason for progressives to be optimistic about retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn as national security adviser or Rep. Michael Pompeo, R-Kan., as CIA director. Trump’s national security transition advisers have proven so far to hold extreme anti-democratic and anti-Muslim views. It’s not going to get any better. The real question is whether Trump’s appointees will refuse to reinstate former President George W. Bush’s illegal and immoral torture program ...

Trump’s National Security Adviser Facilitated Murder Of Civilians In Afghanistan

November 26, 2016 Gareth Porter, www.informationclearinghouse.info Educate! Afghanistan, Donald Trump, Murder, National Security

By Gareth Porter for Information Clearing House - November 25, 2016 "Information Clearing House" - "Real News" - After retired Lt. Gen. Michael J. Flynn spoke at the Republican National Convention, The Washington Post captured the prevailing media view of Flynn in the headline: “He was one of the most respected intel officers of his generation. Now he’s leading ‘Lock her up’ chants.” Now that President-elect Donald Trump has chosen Flynn as his national security adviser, media coverage has given prominence to the more serious issue of Flynn’s denunciation of Islam as a “cancer”...

The Largest Police Force Nobody Monitors

November 15, 2016 Marisa Franco and Paromita Shah, www.theguardian.com Educate! Immigration, National Security

By Marisa Franco and Paromita Shah for The Guardian - More than 55,000 armed law enforcement officers operate inside of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as the foot soldiers of the mass deportation system. They work as you would expect any police force to operate but without even the semblance of oversight. With an annual budget line item of $18bn solely for immigration enforcement the federal government spends more on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Patrol (BPE) than all other federal law enforcement agencies combined.

CIA Torture Victims Describe How Mental Scars Never Go Away

October 24, 2016 Joshua Manson, www.aclu.org Educate! National Security, Torture

By Joshua Manson for ACLU - The New York Times is publishing a devastating exposé series on the lasting psychological effects of U.S. government torture on men who once were held in CIA-run secret overseas prisons or at Guantanamo Bay. Two psychologists, James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen, were independent contractors for the CIA and designed and helped implement the torture program. They are now defendants in an ACLU lawsuit on behalf of three of those victims. Two of them were interview for the Times series — the third was tortured to death.

Don’t Be Fooled: The TPP Is Not About National Security

October 7, 2016 Jeff Faux, www.theglobalist.com Educate! National Security, TPP, Trade Deal

By Jeff Faux for The Globalist - During the 1993 U.S. congressional debate over the North American Free Trade Agreement, a Democratic Congressman with a solid pro-labor voting record asked me why I thought NAFTA would be bad for working people. After I had given my answer, he responded: “Well, you may be right about the economics.” “But we have a 2000-mile border with Mexico. The President told me we need NAFTA to make it secure.”

Gyrocopter Mailman For Money Out Of Politics To Be Sentenced

March 12, 2016 Kathryn Blackhurst, www.theblaze.com Resist! Air, National Security

By Kathryn Blackhurst for The Associated Press - A Florida man who flew a small gyrocopter through protected Washington airspace before landing outside the U.S. Capitol last spring was seconds away from colliding with a Delta flight that had taken off from Reagan National Airport, prosecutors said. In a court filing Friday, prosecutors said Douglas Hughes flew his one-person aircraft almost directly into the oncoming flight path of the 150-person Airbus turbojet last April. Hughes came within 1,400 yards of Delta Flight 1639, while safety rules require aircraft to remain separated by more than 3,000 yards.

Obama Prosecution Of Secret Sources Undermines Freedom Of Speech

November 13, 2015 Staff, www.pen.org Educate! National Security

By Staff of Pen America - Drawing on interviews with leakers, lawyers, scholars, journalists, and government representatives, Secret Sources: Whistleblowers, National Security, and Free Expression reveals massive holes in the laws and regulations covering whistleblowing by intelligence workers, particularly when raising valid constitutional or ethical issues about a government action that has been previously authorized by an agency head or Congress as legal. PEN’s report demonstrates how these gaps in the existing scheme of protections pose high risks for national security workers wishing to expose alleged wrongdoing...

D.O.J. & F.B.I. Admit No-Fly Lists Use “Predictive Assessments”

August 12, 2015 Spencer Ackerman, www.occupy.com Educate! Corruption, Law, National Security, Racial Profiling, State Terror, Wars and Militarism

By Spencer Ackerman in Occupy - The Obama administration’s no-fly lists and broader watchlisting system is based on predicting crimes rather than relying on records of demonstrated offenses, the government has been forced to admit in court. In a little-noticed filing before an Oregon federal judge, the U.S. Justice Department and the FBI conceded that stopping U.S. and other citizens from traveling on airplanes is a matter of “predictive assessments about potential threats,” the government asserted in May. “By its very nature, identifying individuals who ‘may be a threat to civil aviation or national security’ is a predictive judgment intended to prevent future acts of terrorism in an uncertain context,” Justice Department officials Benjamin C. Mizer and Anthony J. Coppolino told the court on May 28. “Judgments concerning such potential threats to aviation and national security call upon the unique prerogatives of the Executive in assessing such threats.”

Amid Angry Scenes, Ruling Parties Force Security Bills

July 16, 2015 Reiji Yoshida and Mizuho Aoki, www.japantimes.co.jp Educate! Japan, National Security, Wars and Militarism

By Reiji Yoshida and Mizuho Aoki in Japan Times - The ruling bloc rammed two security bills through a special committee of the Lower House on Wednesday — amid a chorus of yelling opposition lawmakers — clearing a critical step toward the enactment of legislation that would expand the scope of Self-Defense Forces’ missions overseas. During Wednesday’s session, opposition lawmakers mobbed committee chairman Yasukazu Hamada of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and tried to halt the voting procedure. But amid the clamor, ruling lawmakers stood up to show their support for the bills, and Hamada declared that the legislation was passed. The bills would lift a number of restrictions on the SDF’s operations, including a ban on exercising the right of collective self-defense, or the right for a country to use force to aid an ally under attack even when not under attack itself. Article 9 of the pacifist postwar Constitution was long considered to prohibit exercising the right. The Abe administration amended the government’s official interpretation of the text, and then submitted the security bills to the Diet, but many experts have argued the reinterpretation is unconstitutional.

TSA Finds Money In Passenger’s Bag, DEA Takes It

July 14, 2015 Lisa Simeone, www.tsanewsblog.com Educate! Criminal Justice, Law, National Security, TSA

By Lisa Simeone in TSA News Blog - From the Washington Post comes this story of not only another instance of TSA abuse, but the TSA’s bragging about said abuse. The headline reads: “Why the TSA posted a photo of a passenger’s cash-filled luggage on Twitter.” And the TSA tweeter in question is none other than PR flack Lisa Farbstein, about whom we’ve written so many times before. From the Post: "The photo, from the Richmond airport, shows a passenger’s luggage containing $75,000 in cash. Farbstein asks, “Is this how you’d transport it?” Most people would not, but there is nothing illegal about simply checking a bag containing $75,000, or carrying it with you on the plane. Passengers aren’t under any obligation to report large sums of cash unless they’re traveling internationally, though the TSA recommends that passengers consider asking for a private screening."

This Shadow Government Agency Is Scarier Than The NSA

June 26, 2015 William M. Arkin, www.phasezero.gawker.com Educate! Gawker, National Security, police brutality, Surveillance, Terrorism

By William M. Arkin in Gawker - If you have a telephone number that has ever been called by an inmate in a federal prison, registered a change of address with the Postal Service, rented a car from Avis, used a corporate or Sears credit card, applied for nonprofit status with the IRS, or obtained non-driver’s legal identification from a private company, they have you on file. They are not who you think they are. They are not the NSA or the CIA. They are the National Security Analysis Center (NSAC), an obscure element of the Justice Department that has grown from its creation in 2008 into a sprawling 400-person, $150 million-a-year multi-agency organization employing almost 300 analysts, the majority of whom are corporate contractors.

On Patriot Act Renewal And USA Freedom Act

May 29, 2015 Glenn Greenwald, www.firstlook.org Resist! National Security, Privacy, Surveillance

Even in the security-über alles climate that followed 9/11, the Patriot Act was recognized as an extreme and radical expansion of government surveillance powers. That’s why “sunset provisions” were attached to several of its key provisions: meaning they would expire automatically unless Congress renewed them every five years. But in 2005 and then again in 2010, the Bush and Obama administrations demanded their renewal, and Congress overwhelmingly complied with only token opposition from civil libertarians. That has all changed in the post-Snowden era. The most controversial provisions of the Patriot Act are scheduled to “sunset” on June 1, and there is almost no chance for a straight-up, reform-free authorization.

Shoshana Hebshi Settles Suit Against TSA, Airline

April 24, 2015 Lisa Simeone, www.tsanewsblog.com Resist! Constituion, Criminal Justice, Law, National Security

The American Civil Liberties Union announced a settlement in its lawsuit filed on behalf of Shoshana Hebshi, a mother of two who was pulled off an airplane at gunpoint, arrested, strip-searched, and detained. The case was brought against Frontier Airlines and several government defendants. The ACLU charged that Hebshi, who is of Saudi Arabian and Jewish descent, was singled out at Detroit Metropolitan Airport because of her Middle Eastern name and appearance. Hebshi was never accused of any wrongdoing, and a federal judge twice denied defendants’ attempts to have her claims thrown out. “People do not forfeit their constitutional rights when they step onto an airplane,” said Rachel Goodman, an attorney with the ACLU’s Racial Justice Program.

‘Stop Cyber Spying’ Tells Congress: Drop Cybersecurity Bills

April 23, 2015 Rainey Reitman, www.eff.org Resist! Internet, National Security, Surveillance

EFF, Access, and a coalition of other digital rights organizations have launched a campaignopposing legislative attempts to make information sharing between companies and the government easier. The 5 bills—touted as cybersecurity bills—would provide legal avenues for Internet companies to share unprecedented amounts of data with the US government, often with few protections for private information that may be included in these data dumps. In 2012 and 2013, President Obama threatened to veto similar cybersecurity proposals. However, this year the Administration has made no such promise. The coalition site includes apetition to Obama urging him to issue a veto threat as well as a tool that lets concerned citizens tweet at their members of Congress, urging them to oppose these bills.

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