Protecting democracy by killing it: the Obama administration’s ‘Insider Threat Program’

In the shadows of the NSA scandals: the National Counter Terrorism Center

Anybody remember the National Counter Terrorism Center (NCTC)? The one that sucks up vast quantities of private information about every single person in the United States and also helps the president identify possible targets for his ever-expanding ‘kill list’? 

The haves and the have-nots in secretive America

We have just learned from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence that 4,917,751 US citizens now have either confidential, secret or top secret security clearance. That’s more than seven times the population of Boston.

The new military urbanism, with fancy (Islamophobic) gear

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“To be targeted because of what you are… that is absolutely terrifying.”

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In the Brave New America, little brother could be listening, too

Massive electronic wiretap proposal pushed by Massachusetts officials

Uh oh. The powers that be in Massachusetts want prosecutors and police to have much more freedom to intercept our phone calls and electronic communications. And they are bringing out the big guns to push their demands -- literally. The nation's rampant gun violence crisis, they say, requires new state powers.

It’s time to pull the plug on fusion centers!

For those of us at the ACLU of Massachusetts who have been paying close attention to fusion centers ever since Governor Mitt Romney unveiled the Commonwealth Fusion Center in May 2005, there are two major surprises in the 100-page US Senate report, Federal Support for and Involvement in State and Local Fusion Centers, that was released yesterday.

Corporate data management for law enforcement and confidential informants

Yesterday I wrote a quick blog about the data-mining and electronic systems management firm NTREPID, which produced a strange document purporting to show the network of power connecting "anarchists" in the United States. The most powerful image associated with that product was the following, which purports to lay out the connections between supposedly "anarchist" activists and organizations, including PBS, Citizen Radio and Occupy Oakland. 

When the surveillance state strikes: Who you gonna call?

We need a privacy revolution. Now. Before it's too late.