Category «Civil Liberties»

Sexual Assault in the Military-2013 Statutory Report

“The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights chose to focus on sexual assault in the U.S. military for its annual 2013 Statutory Enforcement Report. This report examines how the Department of  Defense and its Armed Services—the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force (the  Services)—respond to Service members who report having been sexually assaulted (“victims”)  and …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Defense, Government Documents

KRISTALLNACHT: A NATIONWIDE POGROM, NOVEMBER 9–10, 1938

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum:  Kristallnacht, literally, “Night of Crystal,” is often referred to as the “Night of Broken Glass.” The name refers to the wave of violent anti-Jewish pogroms which took place on November 9 and 10, 1938, throughout Germany, annexed Austria, and in areas of the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia recently occupied by German troops. Instigated primarily …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Government Documents

Senate Intelligence Committee Approves FISA Improvements Act

Increases privacy protections, oversight, transparency of critical intelligence programs: The Senate Intelligence Committee [October 31, 2013] approved the FISA Improvements Act by a vote of 11-4. The bipartisan legislation increases privacy protections and public transparency of the National Security Agency call-records program in several ways, while preserving the operational effectiveness and flexibility of this vital …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Congress, Courts, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Patriot Act, Privacy

CRS – Promoting Global Internet Freedom: Policy and Technology

Promoting Global Internet Freedom: Policy and Technology – Patricia Moloney Figliola, Specialist in Internet and Telecommunications Policy – October 22, 2013 “Modern communication tools such as the Internet provide a relatively inexpensive, accessible, easy-entry means of sharing ideas, information, and pictures around the world. In a political and human rights context, in closed societies when the more established, formal …

Subjects: Blogs, Censorship, Civil Liberties

Report of National Commission for Review of Research and Development Programs of the United States Intelligence Community, Unclassified Version

Report of the National Commission for the Review of the Research and Development Programs of the United States Intelligence Community, Unclassified Version, released November 2013 “The global spread of scientific and technical knowledge challenges U.S. national security. It threatens to erode essential capabilities of the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) and the strength of the U.S. …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Congress, Defense, E-Government, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Knowledge Management, Patriot Act, Privacy

OECD report measures human cost of crisis

How’s Life? [November 5, 2013] “finds that subjective well-being deteriorated in countries most affected by the crisis. Between 2007 and 2012, reported average life satisfaction declined by more than 20% in Greece, 12% in Spain, and 10% in Italy. However, moderate increases were recorded in Germany, Israel, Russia, Mexico and Sweden. The report also finds that citizens in …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Economy, Education, Energy, Free Speech, Government Documents, Health Care

Apple Reports to Customers on Government Information Requests

Report on Government Information Requests:  “We believe that our customers have a right to understand how their personal information is handled, and we consider it our responsibility to provide them with the best privacy protections available. Apple has prepared this report on  the requests we receive from governments seeking information about individual users or devices in the …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, E-Government, E-Mail, E-Records, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Internet, Patriot Act, Privacy

Stanford Medical School – Seeking a Path to Health on Rosebud Indian Reservation

BY TRACIE WHITE – ILLUSTRATIONS BY JEFFREY DECOSTER “Cursed with some of the highest suicide rates in the country, tribal leaders declared a state of emergency here back in 2007 making headlines in The New York Times. But today, six years later, not much has changed. Across the United States, American Indian and Alaska Native youth ages …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Economy, Education, Government Documents, Health Care, Legal Research

NYT – No Morsel Too Minuscule for All-Consuming N.S.A.

Via Scott Shane this investigative report – “From thousands of classified documents, the National Security Agency emerges as an electronic omnivore of staggering capabilities, eavesdropping and hacking its way around the world to strip governments and other targets of their secrets, all the while enforcing the utmost secrecy about its own operations. It spies routinely on friends as well as …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, E-Government, E-Mail, E-Records, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Legal Research, Legislation, Patriot Act, Privacy

UK Guardian’s interactive interviews, charts open the debate on NSA surveillance

NSA Files Decoded – Edward Snowden’s surveillance revelations explained – By EWEN MACASKILL and GABRIEL DANCE – Produced by FEILDING CAGE and GREG CHEN “When Edward Snowden met journalists in his cramped room in Hong Kong’s Mira hotel in June, his mission was ambitious. Amid the clutter of laundry, meal trays and his four laptops, …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Congress, E-Government, E-Mail, E-Records, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Patriot Act, Privacy

Afghanistan: Post-Taliban Governance, Security, and U.S. Policy

CRS – Afghanistan: Post-Taliban Governance, Security, and U.S. Policy, Kenneth Katzman – Specialist in Middle Eastern Affairs – October 23, 2013 “The United States and its partner countries are reducing military involvement in Afghanistan as  Afghan security forces assume lead security responsibility throughout the country. The current  international security mission will terminate at the end of 2014 and likely …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Congress, Defense, Government Documents, Legislation

Towers Watson Report – Extreme Risks 2013

News release: Focus on the extreme risks ‘that can kill you’ Towers Watson warns institutional investors: “Towers Watson’s extreme risks ranking has a new top three: Food/water/energy crisis, Stagnation and Global temperature change – while Sovereign default and Insurance crisis have both fallen five places and Depression loses the top spot for the first time since …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Climate Change, Cybercrime, Economy, Energy, Environmental Law, Financial System, Government Documents