The psychology of hate: How we deny human beings their humanity

From slavery to genocide, society has shown a terrifying ability to disregard the personhood of others.

Money, freedom and Hopkins [Letter]

According to Ms. Kustin, support for Palestinian professors and students is not welcome the school; the same is true for blog posts about the National Security Agency's shenanigans as well as calls to end Hopkins' involvement in the development of militarized drone technology.

Report: Obama Will Ask Israel to Stop Assassinating Iranian Scientists

Iran is likely to be a major topic of discussion during Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s upcoming visit to the US, and reports are that President Obama will ask Netanyahu to stop assassinating Iranian scientists.

U.S. pushing Israel to stop assassinating Iranian nuclear scientists

At least five Iranian scientists were murdered, most of them by bombs planted on their cars as they drove to work in the morning. Remarkably, the Israeli assassins were never caught - obviously having long-established safe houses inside Iran - although several Iranians who may have helped the Mossad were arrested and executed.

U.S. drone strike kills three in Yemen

The attack took place on Monday when the US..’s unmanned aircraft fired a missile, which hit a car and killed all the three people on board, local media reported.

Drone strike kills al—Qaeda suspect in Yemen

UN Report Identifies 30 Drone Strikes That Require ‘Public Explanation’

Emmerson analysed 37 strikes carried out by the US, UK and Israel in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and Gaza, to arrive at a ‘sample’ of strikes that he believes those nations have a legal duty to explain.

Pakistan poetry drone: Drop poems not bombs

Pakistan, like much of the Middle East, is a nation that has been rife with conflict for decades. Between its own internal political turmoil, the ongoing power struggle with India for dominion over Kashmir and tensions with the West resulting from nuclear sanctions and suspicions of Pakistan’s government potentially harboring terrorists, the world’s second largest Muslim population has had a rough half-century.

New Disturbing Details of Yemeni Wedding Hit by U.S. Drone

Ukraine: Russia And China 'In Agreement'

Ex- CIA Chief: Why We Keep Getting Putin Wrong

The last time Russian troops invaded one of its neighbors, the U.S. intelligence community was also caught off guard.

Ex-CIA official: Obama credibility at stake in Ukraine-Russia conflict

US Official Claims 6,000 Russian Troops In Complete Control Of Crimea - Crisis Map Update

Pierre Omidyar co-funded Ukraine revolution groups with US government, documents show

Just hours after last weekend’s ouster of Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, one of Pierre Omidyar’s newest hires at national security blog “The Intercept,” was already digging for the truth.

Facts you need to know about Crimea and why it is in turmoil

With its multinational society and a long history of conquests, the Crimean Peninsula has always been a crossroads of cultures – and a hotbed of conflicts. Amid Ukrainian turmoil, every ethnic group of Crimeans has its own vision of the region’s future.

[...]

The majority of those living in Crimea today are ethnic Russians – almost 1,200,000 or around 58.3 percent of the population, according to the last national census conducted back in 2001. Some 24 percent are Ukrainians (around 500,000) and 12 percent are Crimean Tatars. However, in the Crimea’s largest city of Sevastopol, which is considered a separate region of Crimea, there are very few Crimean Tatars and around 22 percent of Ukrainians, with over 70 percent of the population being Russians.

Tom Hayden on the crisis in Venezuela

The American Congress and public are becoming used to street protests overthrowing elected governments regardless of the issue of national sovereignty. "Humanitarian intervention" in the affairs of other nations means willfully ignoring sovereignty where egregious human rights abuses are at stake and no negotiations are possible. The argument is somewhat attractive up to the point where it revives the Law of the Jungle. In the case of Venezuela, not only sovereignty but representative democracy are at stake, in a region which only recently began to shed the US-supported rule of oligarchs and generals.

Venezuelan Open Source Software Communities Condemn Media Manipulation

In any case, we want to remind the owners of the business known as Zello.com that Venezuela is a sovereign and independent nation, and just as they are obliged to work with law enforcement agencies in the US when their network is used by someone to commit crimes, they should work together with the Venezuelan government to block the network of terrorists issuing messages that encourage violence and endanger the lives of Venezuelan citizens.

Why should Venezuela allow any foreign company to break our laws and promote terrorism with impunity, especially at a time that are actively destabilizing our political and economic system? What would you do if a known terrorist who lives outside the United States used the network to promote aggression against the lives of public officials and promote terrorist attacks in your country? What would the US government do, or any other country do, if a group of people used a Venezuelan company to encourage US citizens to make weapons to attack and kill others, and try to destabilize and overthrow their government?

[...]

We repudiate the negative mainstreaming efforts underway by international media against Venezuela, and we exhort them to better inform themselves about the facts. We exhort the free software, hardware, knowledge and culture community around the world to research what's really happening in our country and urgently ask the end of violent attacks by Venezuelan right wing factions, pushed and promoted by the US government.

In the TV spy show 'The Americans,' the CIA has to approve the scripts

On the FX show The Americans, Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys play Philip and Elizabeth Jennings, a typical suburban couple in the 1980s. Two kids, nice house, they run a travel agency together. They’re also spies for the Soviet Union, moles sent to live among us. And their kids have no idea.

VIDEO: Bruce Schneier on the NSA

When it comes to domestic surveillance and metadata collection, Schneier firmly believes that the Federal Bureau of Investigation is the right agency to handle that data. He noted that the FBI already has domestic security capabilities and is responsible for the national fingerprint database. "The FBI is where we have laws and we have transparency," Schenier said.

Brazil, EU Take Pride In Temporarily Avoiding The NSA With New Joint Undersea Cable Run

To pretend the NSA lacks the ability to simply tap this new cable run, nab that same data at any of a million interconnection points, or just get it handed to them by other intelligence agencies is perhaps either naive, a bit of political salesmanship for the project, or both. Still, it's another instance of how the NSA revelations have significantly tarnished international/U.S. relations, resulting in a large number of countries making it a point of pride to avoid using U.S. technology. That's not going to be particularly great for U.S. industry, and we're likely only just seeing the tip of the iceberg.

NSA revelations may let jailed terrorists challenge their convictions

DOJ Still Ducking Scrutiny After Misleading Supreme Court on Surveillance

Our recent history shows that we cannot rely solely on the government’s word, even if it is operating in good faith. The lack of transparency about this obvious misrepresentation is cause for concern. Was this alleged oversight confined to Section 702, one of many controversial surveillance authorities? Or is that merely the tip of the iceberg? Lawyers have an ethical obligation to speak with candor to tribunals, especially when representing the government. Amazingly, Verrilli has managed to remain silent throughout this controversy. It’s past time we heard from him directly.

Anti-NSA services on the rise: Encryption technology to leave no data trail for spying

The National Security Agency’s snooping on email traffic and phone records has prompted a cottage industry in products meant to keep spies out of their customers’ business.

Among the companies promoting devices at this year’s RSA technology-security conference in San Francisco, which attracts thousands of corporate executives, is Silent Circle. The company said its Blackphone, which is based on the Android operating system, will leave no unshielded records of calls, text messages or data storage for spies to obtain and mine.

NSA in the bluff as it tries to cover data truth

The American security agency has claimed it’s not been collecting personal information of phone and internet users, but the Yahoo revelations have exposed the violation of individual privacy

Even Trade Talks Are Not Safe From Spying – OpEd

A couple of weeks ago, it was revealed that American and Australian spy agencies had been monitoring the law firm Mayer Brown while it was representing the Indonesian government in trade talks with the United States. The revelation made it clear that those two governments, and probably many others, have not limited themselves to spying on terrorist groups and other criminal enterprises, but have extended their activities to include trade discussions.

An end to warrantless email searches?

Legislation in the House that would end the warrantless searches of email records is gaining steam.

Privacy advocates had grown frustrated in recent months as Senate legislation that would curtail the email powers of law enforcement was thrown off track amid revelations about National Security Agency surveillance.

Dropbox Adds New Arbitration Clause

You can still use Dropbox for all your file storing and sharing needs while keep your legal options open, just make sure you opt-out. Otherwise you could sign your privacy away and end up not getting the compensation you deserve should your data ever get damaged or stolen due to Dropbox’s neglect.

Privacy, Secrecy Are Not Synonymous

Can Greenwald's digital magazine Intercept help to reinvent journalism?

With $250m in funding from eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and some high profile journalist hires, First Look Media has set itself the lofty task of reinventing journalism for the digital age, starting with the traditional hierarchy of newsrooms.

Doctors urged to grass on patients they think are potential terrorists in ''ridiculous gimmickx plan''

Doctors are being asked to identify patients they think may be potential terrorists.

Surgeries are being told to appoint a member of staff to inform on suspects.

Angry medics say the demand threatens doctor-patient €­confidentiality.

‘Trigger-happy’ Israeli army and police use reckless force in the West Bank

The Challenges of a Digital World to our Security & Liberty, Yvette Cooper MP

British Labour Party remains the party of Internet spying and censorship. They gave us RIPA, they gave us DEA, and they want to do it again.

My Labour MP, Meg Hillier, is the architect of the plan to issue national ID cards and voted for the Digital Economy Act. She’s in a safe seat, so voting against her is a fairly meaningless act, but I plan on doing so.

With Tories and Labour both committed to a digital agenda built on ubiquitous surveillance and unaccountable censorship, we could really do with a decent alternative.

Once, I believed that might be the Libdems, but their party leadership whipped them to vote for (seriously) a system of secret courts.

Don’t buy the Chipotle hype: There’s no such thing as “humane” slaughter

If there is one restaurant that has increasingly garnered favor with the vegetarian and animal advocacy crowds in recent years, it is undoubtedly the fast-growing, fast-casual Chipotle Mexican Grill.