This post is adapted from CJ Ciaramella's weekly FOIA newsletter, which you can subscribe to here. STINGRAYS Last week I mentioned a new, crowd-funded project by MuckRock to collect nationwide data on law enforcement surveillance of cell phones, particularly the use of "stingray" tracking technology. The stingray tech …
Today we’re helping to launch the Tor Challenge, a clarion call for people all over the world to support the Tor network in the most crucial way possible: by running relays. Relays are the fundamental building blocks of Tor; they are the nodes through which your connection is routed …
The Supreme Court today rejected New York Times reporter James Risen's appeal of a 4th Circuit decision that ruled the government can compel him to reveal his source under oath. The case, one of the most important for reporter's privilege in decades, means that Risen has exhausted his appeals and …
One of the most fascinating aspects of Glenn Greenwald’s journalism is the way it provokes various people who think of themselves as journalists to reveal their actual priorities. I wrote about this at length last week in a response to Michael Kinsley’s non-review review of Greenwald’s new book, No Place …
You'd be hard-pressed to find a better example of the government’s ludicrous approach to secrecy than a current case before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals challenging the constitutionality of National Security Letters. For almost two months, the government and Court of Appeals have teamed up to prevent a group …
Glenn Greenwald spends the last third of his excellent new book, No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the US Surveillance State, exposing the mentality and function of pseudo-journalists like David Gregory, who are in fact better understood as courtiers to power. So it was kind of …
Ninety-Nine Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests filed by journalists and researchers since last July were flagged by the Department of Defense (DOD) and had to receive “Department Level Clearance” before agencies within DOD could issue a response and/or responsive records. I obtained the latest so-called Department Level Interest list …
Even if you haven’t studied criminal law, you’ll immediately understand the concept of motive, means, and opportunity. Motive is you wanted to kill the victim. Means is you were holding a loaded gun. Opportunity is the victim was standing right in front of you. Without all three, you can’t have …
We’ve fact-checked statements in the media about Edward Snowden and the NSA before, but by far the biggest falsehood being spread by government advocates is the alleged fact that he took 1.7 million documents from the NSA. All the parties involved—Snowden, the journalists, and even the government—either deny it or …
It’s now been over a month since the Senate Intelligence Committee voted to force the Obama administration to declassify parts of the Committee’s landmark report on CIA torture, and the public still has not seen a word of the 6,000 page investigation. Despite both the White House and CIA …
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