Surveillance

Finnish Journalist Faces Strip Search To Cover Pence In Israel

January 30, 2018 By Andrew Buncombe, Independent.co.uk. Educate! Israel, Journalism, Police State, Surveillance

“But given all of the technology and intelligence at Israel’s fingertips, we fail to see any good reason for the continued humiliation of professional accredited journalists and can only conclude that this only-in-Israel practice is aimed at making people feel unwelcome and keeping them away,” it added. The alleged incident is said to have taken place as Mr Pence told Israel’s parliament that the US Embassy will move to Jerusalem by the end of 2019, an announcement that earned him a rousing ovation, The plan to accelerate the move of the embassy, announced in the first address of a sitting American vice president to the Knesset, marked the highlight of Mr Pence’s three-day visit to Israel celebrating President Donald Trump’s decision last month to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

“Show Me Your Papers!” Roundups, Checkpoints & National ID Card

January 28, 2018 By John W. Whitehead, Counterpunch.org Educate! Immigration, Surveillance, Undocumented

No one gets spared the anguish, fear and heartache of living under the shadow of an authoritarian police state. That’s the message being broadcast 24/7 to the citizens and residents of the American police state with every new piece of government propaganda, every new law that criminalizes otherwise lawful activity, every new policeman on the beat, every new surveillance camera casting a watchful eye, every sensationalist news story that titillates and distracts, every new prison or detention center built to house troublemakers and other undesirables, every new court ruling that gives government agents a green light to strip and steal and rape and ravage the citizenry, every school that opts to indoctrinate rather than educate, and every new justification for why Americans should comply with the government’s attempts to trample the Constitution underfoot.

Congress Votes To Move Forward With Surveillance Under Trump

January 18, 2018 By Alex Emmons, Theintercept.com Educate! Congress, Electoral Politics, Surveillance, Trump Administration

A CRITICAL MASS of Senate Democrats voted with Republicans on Tuesday to shut down any further debate on a bill that strengthens the government’s spying powers. The bill would renew a key surveillance authority for the National Security Agency until 2023 and consolidate the FBI’s power to search Americans’ digital communications without a warrant. The motion, which passed 60-38, virtually guarantees that the final bill will pass likely later this week and quashes any opportunity to debate whether protections should be added. Eighteen Democrats — including Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who had previously proposed an amendment to restrict the FBI’s surveillance authority — voted in support of the motion. They were joined by 41 Republicans and one independent, Angus King, giving the pro-surveillance bloc the supermajority needed to push the bill forward. Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Dan Sullivan, R-Ala., did not vote.

NSA’s Spying Power Could Soon Be Extended

January 7, 2018 By Marlee Kokotovic, Nationofchange.org Resist! Fourth Amendment, NSA, spying, Surveillance

People all over the nation are joining together to pressure Congress to uphold the Fourth Amendment. The National Security Agency’s (NSA) surveillance powers are soon up for renewal in Congress, which could continue to affect millions of Americans’ privacy. Lawmakers are hoping to pass the bill, which would allow the NSA to continue violating millions of American’s privacy, quickly to avoid resistance. Many believe the NSA’s powers, known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Security Act, to be unconstitutional because it allows the NSA to collect and read communications between millions of Americans without a warrant. House Republicans are attempting to expand these powers even more. These new powers would include allowing the FBI to target citizens’ emails in NSA databases without a warrant.

TSA Facial Recognition; Part Of Growing Biometric Surveillance System

December 8, 2017 Michael Maharrey, activistpost.com Educate! Facial Recognition, Surveillance, Technology, TSA

By Michael Maharrey for Activist Post - The federal government plans to use a TSA program advertised as a way to avoid lines at airport security checkpoints to harvest photos and other biometric information that will ultimately end up in multiple federal databases. The TSA touts its PreCheck program as a way to avoid the hassle of security screening. Members of the program do not have to remove shoes, laptops, liquids, belts and light jackets. But according to a report by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the Department of Homeland Security has developed this program with a broader purpose in mind. PreCheck will facilitate the collection of face images and iris scans on a nationwide scale. Once that happens, this biometric data will almost certainly be widely shared with other federal agencies and even private corporations. DHS’s programs will become a massive violation of privacy that could serve as a gateway to the collection of biometric data to identify and track every traveler at every airport and border crossing in the country. The TSA currently collects fingerprints during the PreCheck application process. Over the summer, the agency ran a pilot program at the Atlanta Airport using fingerprints to verify passengers’ identities. According to the EFF, the TSA wants to roll out the program to airports across the country and expand it to include facial recognition, iris scans, and other biometric data. This TSA will almost certainly share this information with other federal agencies, including the FBI.

White House’s Plans For Private Spies To Counter “Deep State” Enemies

December 7, 2017 Matthew Cole and Jeremy Scahill, theintercept.com Educate! spying, Surveillance, Trump Administration

By Matthew Cole and Jeremy Scahill for The Intercept - THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION is considering a set of proposals developed by Blackwater founder Erik Prince and a retired CIA officer — with assistance from Oliver North, a key figure in the Iran-Contra scandal — to provide CIA Director Mike Pompeo and the White House with a global, private spy network that would circumvent official U.S. intelligence agencies, according to several current and former U.S. intelligence officials and others familiar with the proposals. The sources say the plans have been pitched to the White House as a means of countering “deep state” enemies in the intelligence community seeking to undermine Donald Trump’s presidency. The creation of such a program raises the possibility that the effort would be used to create an intelligence apparatus to justify the Trump administration’s political agenda. “Pompeo can’t trust the CIA bureaucracy, so we need to create this thing that reports just directly to him,” said a former senior U.S. intelligence official with firsthand knowledge of the proposals, in describing White House discussions. “It is a direct-action arm, totally off the books,” this person said, meaning the intelligence collected would not be shared with the rest of the CIA or the larger intelligence community. “The whole point is this is supposed to report to the president and Pompeo directly.”

Lawsuit Sheds Light On Justice Department’s Surveillance Of Journalists

December 5, 2017 Kevin Gosztola, mintpressnews.com Resist! Department of Justice, DOJ, Journalism, Lawsuit, Surveillance

By Kevin Gosztola for Mint Press News - The Justice Department has twenty-seven ongoing leak investigations, according to Attorney General Jeff Sessions. That is a staggering number, and now, the Knight First Amendment Institute and Freedom of The Press Foundation are suing for records on how those investigations may infringe upon the First Amendment rights of journalists. In a filing submitted to the United States District Court of the Southern District of New York, the two organizations seek “the immediate release of agency records concerning the restrictions imposed by statute, regulation, or the First Amendment on government surveillance targeting members of the news media,” as well as those regulations or laws that implicate “freedoms of speech, association, or the press.” The two organizations requested records from the Justice Department, National Security Agency, Office of the Director of National Intelligence, CIA, and other agencies in October but received only two documents in response. Particularly, the Knight Institute and Freedom of the Press Foundation would like records on the Justice Department’s “Media Guidelines” and the media subpoena policies Sessions pledged to review. “The apparent hostility toward the press from senior government officials combined with increasing government surveillance create a dangerous environment for reporters and whistleblowers,” Knight Institute Staff Attorney Carrie DeCell stated. “The public has a right to know if the limits on surveillance of journalists are sufficient to ensure a free press.”

Petition To Seattle’s Federal Court – Unseal Surveillance Orders

November 20, 2017 Steven Hsieh, thestranger.com Resist! Courts, Petitions, Surveillance

By Steven Hsieh for The Stranger - It’s now easier than ever for cops to snoop on Americans without their knowledge. Using technology known as pen registers and trap and trace devices, law enforcement can collect a wealth of data on internet and cell phone users, including who they call and email and what websites they visit. Through a federal law called the Stored Communications Act, police agencies can also force tech companies to hand over online communications records telling them all kinds of personal information. All it takes to conduct electronic surveillance is a court order. Notably, pen register and trap and trace requests require a lower burden of proof than wiretaps, for which cops need a warrant. Rather than showing probable cause, police only need to demonstrate that the personal data they’re requesting is somehow relevant to a criminal investigation. On top of that, under current court practices, it’s impossible to know how often judges grant electronic surveillance requests—much less how cops justify their surveillance, the forms of electronic surveillance permitted, and the companies compelled to assist with that surveillance. Federal court records related to electronic surveillance requests are filed under seal, and in many instances, they’re kept that way indefinitely. Even after police wrap up whatever criminal investigation they cited as a basis for their snooping. Law enforcement conducts Internet and cell phone surveillance under complete secrecy, free from public scrutiny that could prevent them from abusing this power.

Liberty Act: “Fake Fix” To Controversial NSA Spying Program

November 3, 2017 Whitney Webb, blackagendareport.com Educate! Fourth Amendment, NSA, Surveillance

By Whitney Webb for Mint Press News - Ever since Edward Snowden helped reveal the true extent of the National Security Agency’s (NSA) massive spying program, U.S. politicians have attempted to “fix” the program’s gross violations of the Fourth Amendment with legislation. While some legislative efforts were “fake fixes,” others were well-meaning but have fallen short, as legislators still lack key information regarding how the government interprets and uses Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and Section 215 of the Patriot Act to legally justify its dragnet collection of citizen phone records and other information. Indeed, over the past four years, Congress has been stonewalled by the NSA in its attempts to learn more about the program. The NSA has repeatedly refused even to estimate how many Americans are spied on by the agency’s most invasive programs and has even refused to reveal whether it spies on members of Congress or other elected officials in the United States. Despite the NSA’s failure to cooperate, Congress is again attempting to rein in the agency’s internet surveillance program, as its key legislative underpinning is set to expire by year’s end. The newly introduced bill, titled the USA Liberty Act, seeks to address the worst of the program’s abuses while also reauthorizing some aspects of the program to continue for another six years.

10th Amendment Center Activist Fights Against Local Gov Bullying Tactics

October 28, 2017 Staff, www.activistpost.com Resist! ACLU, Lawsuit, Surveillance

By Staff of Activist - The American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky will represent Tenth Amendment Center national communications director Michael Maharrey in a lawsuit filed against him by the City of Lexington after he attempted to obtain documents relating to surveillance cameras owned and operated by the Lexington Police Department (“LPD”). “Honestly, I think it’s a bullying tactic more than anything,” Maharrey said. “I think the city thought it could just slap me with a lawsuit and I’d go away. Newsflash – I’m not going away.” The LPD denied Maharrey’s request citing a statute that exempts certain documents relating to homeland security, along with a second statute exempting certain “investigative reports.” On appeal, the Kentucky attorney general’s office rejected both exemptions claimed by the LPD and ordered it to turn over the records. At that point the city sued Maharrey. “One of the fundamental principles of our government is transparency. The public has a right to know the actions of government officials and disseminate that information to others. City officials appear to be shirking their responsibility to provide records they are obligated to by law, simply because they don’t want the public to have access to them,” ACLU of Kentucky Attorney Heather Gatnarek said. Maharrey has been involved in efforts at the Tenth Amendment Center to address the growing federal surveillance state through state and local action for several years.

How These Librarians Are Changing How We Think About Digital Privacy

October 20, 2017 Eoin O'Carroll, www.csmonitor.com Create! Digital, Library, Privacy, Surveillance

By Eoin O'Carroll for The Christian Science Monitor - In August, New York University and the Library Freedom Project – an organization that trains librarians on using privacy tools to protect intellectual freedom – received a $250,000 grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, a federal agency. Its purpose: to train librarians to implement secure protocols on their own web services, and to teach members of the community to evade the prying eyes of governments, corporations, and criminal hackers. According to the Library Freedom Project’s website, the group aims to create what it calls “a privacy-centric paradigm shift in libraries and the communities they serve.” As society’s sole public space dedicated to collecting and sharing information, public libraries have long been a flashpoint for conflicts over censorship, surveillance, and secrecy. The digital age has accelerated these conflicts, placing librarians squarely between the government’s and corporations’ desire to pursue their interests and the public’s desire to learn how to seek information in private. “Libraries teaching this stuff can really have a big effect on getting them into wider adoption,” says Alison Macrina, the project’s founder and director. “There are a lot of libraries. They reach a lot of people. They are a place where a lot of people already get introduced to new technologies.”

Is FBI Setting Stage For Increased Surveillance Of Black Activists?

October 19, 2017 Thaddeus Talbot, Hugh Handeyside, and Malkia Cyril, www.aclu.org Resist! Activists, FBI, Surveillance

By Thaddeus Talbot, Hugh Handeyside, and Malkia Cyril for ACLU and Center for Media Justice - A recently leaked FBI “Intelligence Assessment” contains troubling signs that the FBI is scrutinizing and possibly surveilling Black activists in its search for potential “extremists.” The report, which the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division prepared, identifies what it calls “Black Identity Extremists” as security threats. Their “perceptions of police brutality against African Americans … will very likely serve as justification” for violence against law enforcement officers, the report claims. Today, the ACLU filed a Freedom of Information Act requestwith the Center for Media Justice seeking other records regarding the FBI’s surveillance of Black people on the basis of a supposed shared ideology, including records using the term “Black Identity Extremists.” The report is disturbing on several levels, starting with the label “Black Identity Extremist.” Its definition of the term is so confusing as to be unintelligible: “The FBI defines black identity extremists as individuals who seek, wholly or in part, through unlawful acts of force or violence, in response to perceived racism and injustice in American society and some do so in furtherance of establishing a separate black homeland or autonomous black social institutions, communities, or governing organizations within the United States.”

Stop The Border Surveillance Bill

September 29, 2017 Adam Schwartz, www.eff.org Resist! Border, Legislation, Surveillance

By Adam Schwartz for EFF - EFF opposes a new federal bill that would dramatically expand dragnet biometric and other surveillance of U.S. citizens and immigrants alike at and near the U.S. border. Sen. Cornyn (R-TX) introduced S. 1757, styled the Building America’s Trust Act, in August. EFF’s opposition letter objects to the following provisions of the bill: Biometric Border Screening. The bill would require the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to collect biometric information from all people who exit the U.S., including U.S. and foreign citizens. This would entrench and expand DHS’s existing program of facial recognition of all international travelers who take certain outgoing flights from U.S. airports. EFF opposes such biometric border screening, given the sensitivity of biometric information, the threat it will be stolen or misused, and the hazard of mission creep. Collection of Immigrants’ DNA. The bill would require DHS to collect DNA and other biometric information from “any individual filing an application, petition, or other request for immigration benefit or status.” EFF has long opposed dragnet biometric surveillance of immigrants. DNA surveillance raises special concerns, because DNA can expose sensitive information about familial history and health issues.

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