John Byrne, Raw Story In a striking but unnoticed extension of domestic surveillance, the little-known National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency deployed a U-2 spy plane on the region affected by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 to track hazards to public health. In an article Thursday, Salon‘s Tim Shorrock explores the emergence of the NGA, born in 1996 from…
James Ewinger, Plain Dealer Reporter A soft-spoken teacher posted the words “Impeach Bush” in a public garden, and Kent police cast him as an outlaw.Today Kevin Egler is fighting that in Kent Municipal Court, and the case is emerging as a free-speech issue of interest well beyond the boundaries of placid Portage County. Police ticketed…
Data Mining Our Liberties By Aziz Huq, The Nation After enduring weeks of blistering criticism for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’s inartful elisions about the National Security Agency (NSA) spying activities, the Bush Administration has successfully forced on Congress a law that largely authorizes open-ended surveillance of Americans’ overseas phone calls and e-mails. How did they…
By Tara Lohan, AlterNet. At no time in our country’s history has the abuse of power by the executive branch been more flagrant and more dangerous to democracy. In just the past month, the Bush administration has ordered employees to ignore congressional subpoenas, asserted broad new parameters for executive privilege and issued an executive order…
