Whistleblower reveals extensive state surveillance.

From Democracy Now:

National Security Agency Whistleblower William Binney on Growing State Surveillance


Detained in the US: Filmmaker Laura Poitras Held, Questioned Some 40 Times at US Airports


"We Don't Live In A Free Country": Jacob Appelbaum on Being Target of Widespread Government Surveillance.


Whistleblower: The NSA is Lying: Government Has Copies of Most of Your Emails.


More Secrets on Growing State Surveillance: Exclusive Part 2 with NSA Whistleblower, Targeted Hacker












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That's not "change we can believe in."

Obama takes Bush’s secrecy games one step further

From: Salon.com, by Glenn Greenwald

The ACLU is suing the Obama administration under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), seeking to force disclosure of the guidelines used by Obama officials to select which human beings (both U.S. citizens and foreign nationals) will have their lives ended by the CIA’s drone attacks (“In particular,” the group explains, the FOIA request “seeks to find out when, where and against whom drone strikes can be authorized, and how the United States ensures compliance with international laws relating to extrajudicial killing”). The Obama administration has not only refused to provide any of that information, but worse, the CIA is insisting to federal courts that it cannot even confirm or deny the existence of a drone program at all without seriously damaging national security; from the CIA’s brief in response to the ACLU lawsuit:

. . .

What makes this so appalling is not merely that the Obama administration demands the right to kill whomever it wants without having to account to anyone for its actions, choices or even claimed legal authorities, though that’s obviously bad enough (as I wrote when the ACLU lawsuit was commenced: “from a certain perspective, there’s really only one point worth making about all of this: if you think about it, it is warped beyond belief that the ACLU has to sue the U.S. Government in order to force it to disclose its claimed legal and factual bases for assassinating U.S. citizens without charges, trial or due process of any kind”). What makes it so much worse is how blatantly, insultingly false is its claim that it cannot confirm or deny the CIA drone program without damaging national security.

Numerous Obama officials — including the President himself and the CIA Director — have repeatedly boasted in public about this very program. Obamarecently hailed the CIA drone program by claiming that “we are very careful in terms of how it’s been applied,” and added that it is “a targeted, focused effort at people who are on a list of active terrorists, who are trying to go in and harm Americans, hit American facilities, American bases and so on.” Obama has told playful jokes about the same drone program. Former CIA Director and current Defense Secretary Leon Panetta also likes to tell cute little jokes about CIA Predator drones, and then proclaimed in December that the drone program has “been very effective at undermining al Qaeda and their ability to plan those kinds of attacks.” Just two weeks ago, Attorney General Eric Holder gave a speech purporting to legally justify these same drone attacks.

So Obama officials are eager to publicly tout the supposed benefits of the CIA’s drone programs in order to generate political gain for the President: to make him look like some sort of Tough, Brave Warrior single-handedly vanquishing Al Qaeda. The President himself boasts about how tightly controlled, precise and effective the CIA drones are. Everyone in the world knows the CIA has a drone program. It is openly discussed everywhere, certainly including the multiple Muslim countries where the drones routinely create piles of corpses, and by top U.S. Government officials themselves.

Read more...


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That's not "change we can believe in."

Obama regime indicts another whistleblower

From RT:

The war on whistleblowers rages on and the Obama administration adds one more causality to the war on government transparency. On Thursday, former CIA official John Kiriakou was indicted for allegedly leaking information to journalists. Kiriakou is no rookie to whistleblowing; he exposed the CIA's use of waterboarding on terror suspects. If convicted, Kiriakou could receive a maximum of 45 years in prison for the five-count indictment including three charges under the Espionage Act.Stephen Kohn, author of The Whistleblower's Handbook, joins us with his take on Kiriakou's case.




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That's not "change we can believe in."

CIA Chief: We'll spy on you through your dishwasher

From Wired:

CIA Director David Patraeus unwinds with some Wii golf, 2008. Photo: Wikimedia

More and more personal and household devices are connecting to the internet, from your television to your car navigation systems to your light switches. CIA Director David Petraeus cannot wait to spy on you through them.


Read more...

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That's not "change we can believe in."

Under Obama, NSA enhances ability to spy on Americans

The Bush Administration's holy grail of "Total Information Awareness," which suffered a setback when Congress pulled funding in 2003, has finally been realised under the Obama Regime.

Wired Magazine reports:

"The NSA Is Building The Country's Biggest Spy Center (Watch What You Say)"

"The NSA has become the largest, most covert, and potentially intrusive ever."

In Utah the NSA is constructing bottomless digital storage files, where they can store every email, blog, tweet, SMS/text message, or digitised phone call made. This vast data pile will retain the data indefinitely, to be scoured by super fast computers in real time, and also years later.

It will shortly be a reality for everyone at all times, not just those under arrest... anything you say can and presumably will be used against you.

Here is some further in-depth analysis from Democracy Now!


We speak with investigative reporter James Bamford, who says that the NSA has established listening posts throughout the nation to collect and sift through billions of email messages and phone calls, whether they originate within the country or overseas.

The Utah spy centre will contain near-bottomless databases to store all forms of communication collected by the agency. This included the complete contents of private emails, cell phone calls and google searches, as well as all sorts of personal data trails - parking receipts, trade itineraries, bookstore purchases and other digital "pocket litter."

All of this reminds us of President Eisenhower's prophetic warning at the close of his term...

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That's not "change we can believe in."

Obama signs anti-protest Trespass Bill

Goodbye first amendment...

from RT

US President Barack Obama

Only days after clearing Congress, US President Barack Obama signed his name to H.R. 347 on Thursday, officially making it a federal offense to cause a disturbance at certain political events — essentially criminalizing protest in the States.

RT broke the news last month that H.R. 347, the Federal Restricted Buildings and Grounds Improvement Act of 2011, had overwhelmingly passed the US House of Representatives after only three lawmakers voted against it. On Thursday this week, President Obama inked his name to the legislation and authorized the government to start enforcing a law that has many Americans concerned over how the bill could bury the rights to assemble and protest as guaranteed in the US Constitution.

Under H.R. 347, which has more commonly been labeled the Trespass Bill by Congress, knowingly entering a restricted area that is under the jurisdiction of Secret Service protection can garner an arrest. The law is actually only a slight change to earlier legislation that made it an offense to knowingly and willfully commit such a crime. Under the Trespass Bill’s latest language chance, however, someone could end up in law enforcement custody for entering an area that they don’t realize is Secret Service protected and “engages in disorderly or disruptive conduct” or “impede[s] or disrupt[s] the orderly conduct of Government business or official functions.”

Read More...

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That's not "change we can believe in."

Voting a waste of time?

US presidential candidates owned by corporations?



This is a fantastic 8 minute overview of the state of US politics and how corporations are in full control.

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That's not "change we can believe in."