U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson, who signed an order requiring Verizon to give the National Security Agency telephone records for tens of millions of American customers, attended an expense-paid judicial seminar sponsored by a libertarian think tank that featured lectures from a vocal proponent of executive branch powers. Vinson, whose term on the secret Foreign […]

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Last week saw revelations that the FBI and the National Security Agency (pictured from the sky) have been collecting Americans’ phone records en masse and that the agencies have access to data from nine tech companies. But secrecy around the programs has meant even basic questions are still unanswered. Here’s what we still don’t know: […]

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(The Justice Department kept tabs on Associated Press reporters. If President Obama doesn’t drop the hubris and show real leadership, says Doug Daniels, the next three and a half years are going to stuffed with congressional hearings and hit-job investigations by giddy Republicans, and we can forgot about advancing any progressive agenda, like gun control. […]

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(Men gathered to protest drone strikes in Yemen in January: Times of London) There is one change that the United States could make in response to the terrorism threat that is never discussed. That is to consider the part U.S. policies have played in creating and sustaining it. I understand that we are not supposed […]

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(Jeremy Scahill’s new book Dirty Wars: The World Is a Battlefield, which reports on America’s covert operations in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, was made into a documentary that competed at the Sundance Film Festival in January.) Editor’s note: In today’s post from TomDispatch.com, Tom Engelhardt once against connects the dots. In focusing on […]

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