Category «Civil Liberties»

NSA global surveillance network knows all?

Two Part Series from The Intercept [Part 1 – XKEYSCORE: NSA’s Google for the World’s Private Communications] and Part 2 – Behind the Curtain A Look at the Inner Workings of NSA’s XKEYSCORE “The sheer quantity of communications that XKEYSCORE [global Internet surveillance network run by NSA] processes, filters and queries is stunning. Around the …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, E-Government, E-Mail, E-Records, Legal Research, Patriot Act, Privacy, Social Media

Report – Who Has Your Digital Back?

Who Has Your Back? 2015: Protecting Your Data From Government Requests. July 2, 2015 | By Parker Higgins: “We live digital lives—from the videos shared on social networks, to location-aware apps on mobile phones, to log-in data for connecting to our email, to our stored documents, to our search history. The personal, the profound, and …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Congress, Digital Rights, E-Commerce, E-Mail, Freedom of Information, Internet, Legal Research, Legislation, Privacy

Washington Post database collecting data on citizen killings by police

“The Washington Post is compiling a database of every fatal shooting in the United States by a police officer in the line of duty in 2015. The Post is tracking more than a dozen details about each killing — including the race of the deceased, the circumstances of the shooting, and whether the person was …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Legal Research, Search Engines

Secret court authorizes continued telephone metadata collection

The Guardian UK: “After a decade in the shadows, a secretive surveillance court that authorises the bulk collection of American telephone records seized on its last chance to show off a little personality on Tuesday [June 30, 2015]. “Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose, well, at least for 180 days,” wrote judge Michael …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Congress, Courts, E-Government, E-Mail, E-Records, Government Documents, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Legislation, Patriot Act, Privacy

National Initiative for Building Community Trust and Justice

“The National Initiative for Building Community Trust and Justice is designed to improve relationships and increase trust between communities and the criminal justice system. It also aims to advance the public and scholarly understandings of the issues contributing to those relationships. In September 2014, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the Department of Justice has awarded the National …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Courts, Government Documents, Legal Research

2014 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices

“On June 25, 2015, Secretary Kerry submitted the 2014 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices (commonly known as the Human Rights Reports) to the U.S. Congress.  The reports, now in their 39th year, are available at State.gov/humanrightsreports and HumanRights.gov/reports.  Mandated by Congress, the Human Rights Reports help inform U.S. government policy and foreign assistance.  They …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Defense, Government Documents, Legal Research

Pew Report – America’s Global Image

Global Publics Back U.S. on Fighting ISIS, but Are Critical of Post-9/11 Torture –  June 23, 2015: “The rise of ISIS has generated strong concerns in nations around the world, and a new Pew Research Center survey finds broad global support for American military efforts against the terrorist group. And unlike the Iraq War a …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Government Documents, Knowledge Management, Legal Research

Only 29 Convictions in Federal Hate Crime Cases Since FY 2010

“During the first eight months of fiscal year 2015, the federal government reported the convictions of eight individuals who had been charged with federal hate crimes under Title 8 Section 249 of the U.S. Code, according to the latest available data from the Justice Department. If this activity continues at the same pace, the annual …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Courts, Government Documents, Legal Research

Intelligence Cmte’s investigation of interrogation techniques

The New Yorker – To expose torture, Dianne Feinstein fought the C.I.A. -and the White House, June 22, 2015. “Dianne Feinstein, the Democratic senator from California, is making a late career of not quite pleasing anyone. After five decades in politics, Feinstein, at eighty-one, is the oldest sitting member of the Senate, where a late …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Congress, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Legal Research