FBI won’t say how it flies drones above the US, probably because people would be horrified if we knew

Obama’s loosening of watch-list guidelines makes the US less safe

Scary future: US military has developed a bullet that stalks its prey

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Writers and artists pen letter against mass surveillance

A group of 29 artists signed on to the following open letter urging congressional leaders to take action to stop dragnet NSA surveillance. The plea comes months after a PEN American study found that 1 in 6 authors surveyed "avoided writing or speaking on a topic they thought would subject them to surveillance." Nearly one in three has "curtailed or avoided social media activities" in the face of omnipresent government monitoring.

Private prisons immune from transparency laws? Not so fast

The government transparency and journalism outfit MuckRock is launching a project to free information from the grasp of the private prison industry. While they act in place of the state and incarcerate over one hundred thousand inmates—plus nearly half of all people in US immigration detention—private prisons are immune from the Freedom of Information Act.

Congress taking steps to expand public access to executive branch documents

The new COINTELPRO targets Muslims

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News roundup: Flying while Muslim, technologies to block associational spying, and racism in policing

Some items of interest on a busy news day:

Ed Snowden and Dan Ellsberg at HOPE X

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Whistleblowers Dan Ellsberg and Edward Snowden spoke together at the HOPE X conference in New York City. Freedom of the Press Foundation's Trevor Timm moderated.

COINTELPRO is not dead—it’s the FBI’s second highest-ranked priority