Obama announces restrictions on drone strikes, pledges to close Gitmo
President Barack Obama announced drastic changes to the United States’ counterterrorism operations Thursday, reforming the rules that guide America’s drone program while also expediting the release of Guantanamo Bay detainees. The president spoke at the National Defense University in Washington, DC Thursday afternoon to discuss those two issues in particular, weighing in on a pair [...]
Obama’s media shield law makes prosecuting journalists even easier
United States President Barack Obama is encouraging Congress to take up a media shield law that was abandoned at the start of his administration, but critics of the bill say it might make it even easier for journalists to be subpoenaed by the government. After the Associated Press revealed on Monday that they are the [...]
AP investigation Get short URL
The White House has denied having any prior knowledge of the Justice Department’s criminal probe of the Associated Press, but lawmakers appalled by the revelation are nonetheless lashing out at United States President Barack Obama. Just hours after the AP reported on Monday that the Justice Department secretly obtained two months of telephone records of reporters and [...]
Spam no more: ‘Biggest’ cyber-attack in history grips web
The ‘biggest cyber-attack in history’ has caused a worldwide web slowdown as the battle between an anti-spam group and a Dutch web host continues to heat up. The largest known distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) attack in history was sparked when the non-profit group Spamhaus placed CyberBunker on a real-time blacklist of sites to be blocked for spreading [...]
US news media has devolved to ‘carnival act’ – Hedges
Chris Hedges, author, columnist and former Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist for The New York Times spoke with RT about how FCC deregulation during the Clinton administration allowed a handful of corporations to dominate US media. RT: I want to start off by reading a quote from one of your articles on this very topic, you say: “The [...]
US plans to allow spy agencies to monitor every citizen’s finances – report
Washington is reportedly considering opening all US financial records to national intelligence agencies in order to prevent future crimes. Only the FBI has had unlimited access to such databases; other agencies had to file case-by-case requests. The Obama administration is preparing legislation to enable the country’s numerous security and intelligence agencies to spy on the [...]
Pentagon creates 13 offensive cyber teams for worldwide attacks
The head of the United States Cyber Command says the US is developing 40 new teams of cyber-agents that will both protect America’s critical infrastructure from hackers and as well as launch attacks against the country’s adversaries. Gen. Keith Alexander, who leads both the Cyber Command and the National Security Agency, told the US Senate [...]
Cops patrolling Facebook for predictive policing
Just seconds after the trigger of a gun is squeezed, police officers in cities and towns across America are alerted thanks to the latest and greatest state-of-the-art technology. Up-to-the-moment accuracy isn’t always enough, though. Programs like the ShotSpotter system were already in place in 44 US cities by 2009, and in recent years the company [...]
House demands Pentagon disclose details about domestic drones
The United States House of Representatives is demanding that Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel explain to Congress details pertaining to any domestic spying missions conducted by Pentagon-operated surveillance drones. The House voted this week on a lengthy appropriations bill that, tucked deep within, contained a provision ordering the Department of Defense to disclose information about a [...]
UN demands prosecution of Busha-era CIA crimes
A United Nations investigator has demanded that the US publish classified documents regarding the CIA’s human rights violations under former President George W. Bush, with hopes that the documents will lead to the prosecution of public officials. Documents about the CIA’s program of rendition and secret detention of suspected terrorists have remained classified, even though [...]