Secrecy & Surveillance

NSA’s collection of metadata “should end,” according to new report

By |2020-01-03T14:08:24-05:00January 23rd, 2014|Blog|

Responses to recent disclosures about official surveillance of private communications and activities are rolling in. The most recent is from the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, which today released a Report on the Telephone Records Program Conducted under Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act and on the Operations of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. The PCLOB is an independent [...]

TomDispatch on Surveillance Abuses, Past and Present

By |2020-01-03T14:08:20-05:00January 13th, 2014|Blog|

This is a good, concise history of abuses by the intelligence community and offers a great argument against warrantless surveillance.  Without that break-in by the Media 8, J. Edgar Hoover’s “shadow FBI,” a criminal conspiracy at the heart of a developing national security state, might never have been revealed.  (The CIA, officially banned from domestic spying on Americans, turned out [...]

NCAC joins 53 other organizations to oppose the FISA “Improvements” Act – Add your voice today!

By |2019-03-07T21:56:49-05:00December 18th, 2013|Blog|

Fifty-four civil liberties and public interest groups sent a letter to Congressional leadership today opposing S. 1631, the FISA Improvements Act. The bill, promoted by Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), seeks to legalize and extend NSA mass surveillance programs, including the classified phone records surveillance program confirmed by documents released by Edward Snowden this summer. From EFF’s blog post on the [...]

Federal Judge Rules NSA Program Likely Unconstitutional

By |2020-01-03T14:08:13-05:00December 17th, 2013|Blog|

Yesterday, a federal judge issued an order holding that the National Security Agency's tracking and collecting cellphone "metadata" without a warrant is "almost certainly" unconstitutional under the 4th Amendment. The court issued a preliminary injunction against the NSA's tracking cellphone information of the named plaintiffs. This is the first serious legal fallout from the disclosures by Edward Snowden last summer [...]

NCAC Lends Support to Legislation to Curb Mass Surveillance

By |2016-02-01T11:01:34-05:00November 21st, 2013|Incidents|

In a letter to members of Congress, NCAC and other civil society groups, companies and investors call for a complete overhaul of government surveillance. The letter demands transparency and oversight ahead of a U.S. Senate Judiciary hearing on 21 November on “Oversight of U.S. government surveillance authorities.” 

For Free Expression, Privacy is a Must

By |2020-01-03T14:07:01-05:00June 11th, 2013|Blog|

The nation is abuzz this week following Edward Snowden’s leaks about the NSA’s comprehensive (and fully unconstitutional) surveillance program (Click here for the Guardian’s live feed of Snowden-related news). Those of us who spend our time protecting civil liberties are appalled at the behavior of this administration and its intelligence and security agencies, and perhaps even more disturbed by the rhetoric [...]

Press Release: Groups Urge Bush Administration to Abide by Established Combat-Coverage Guidelines

By |2016-02-05T13:16:44-05:00December 19th, 2002|Press Releases|

  A coalition of 16 journalism groups today urged the Bush administration to abide by guidelines the Pentagon and media groups established after the 1991 Persian Gulf War if an invasion of Iraq occurs. The plea came as the coalition issued an updated Statement of Principles first released a year ago. Journalists remember how their hands were tied a decade [...]

Now They Check the Books You Read

By |2016-02-05T13:06:11-05:00September 16th, 2002|Blog|

Newsday September 16, 2002   In the post 9/11 world, there is undoubtedly a government official whose job is to invent innocuous-sounding, if not reassuring, acronyms for government initiatives against terrorism. Operation TIPS is a case in point. The Terrorism Information and Prevention System will recruit millions of utility, transportation and other workers to report on "potentially unusual or suspicious [...]

MIT Professor Visited by Pentagon Officials after Criticizing Missile Testing Program

By |2020-01-03T14:12:45-05:00July 12th, 2000|Blog|

UPDATE: MIT was denied the security clearance necessary to complete a full review of the situation to determine if data was in fact manipulated. Theodore Postol, Professor of Science and Technology and National Security at MIT, wrote a letter describing how the Missile Defense Agency had doctored the results of the National Missile Defense Test. Postol was then visited by Pentagon [...]

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