The ACLU of Massachusetts hosted a pre-release screening of the new Oliver Stone biopic SNOWDEN last night in downtown Boston. It’s an entertaining film that will inform future generations of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden’s sacrifice from the perspective of someone who views...
Mea culpa: I’ve been on vacation; that’s why no recent posts. Here is some news I missed while I was partying and relaxing. It is extremely easy for the FBI to spy on journalists, without warrants As Freedom of the Press Foundation’s...
According to publicly available budget records, the Boston Police Department contracts with a social media monitoring company that received start-up funding from the CIA’s venture capital arm In-Q-Tel. The company, Geofeedia Inc., sells its software to police departments nationwide, as well as to...
What do you get when you add up the following? Lack of racial diversity among police intelligence employees. Failure to train police intelligence employees on federal and state law. Ignorance of Black cultural iconography. Fear of (Black) dissent. Inadequate oversight at police...
The New York Times has filed suit against the Department of Homeland Security over access to department assessments of DHS-funded “fusion centers” written between 2009 and 2014. The centers—created by DHS after 9/11 in an attempt to facilitate information sharing about terrorism...
A Boston Regional Intelligence Center (BRIC) “quarterly threat assessment” dated January 2016 and marked “unclassified/not for public release,” but posted publicly online, lists “animal rights and environmental extremists” and “anarchist extremists” as “groups [that] represent a significant domestic terrorist threat.” Animal rights activists, environmentalists,...
There’s been a lot of misinformation about the FBI’s battle to force Apple to weaken its digital security. Here are the top four myths about the case, followed by the top four reasons we’ve got to support Apple. The top four myths...
By Nancy Murray, 2016 Table of Contents I. Introduction Twenty-first century ‘homeland security’ policing took over Watertown’s streets during the hunt for those responsible for the heinous attack on the 2013 Boston Marathon. The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has reportedly...
Live from slate.com: ISIS is so scary that we should think really hard about gutting the First Amendment.
In the latest example of terror wars mission creep, the French government has begun using emergency rule powers granted in the wake of the Paris terrorist attacks to silence environmentalists.
The Intercept reports: