In a new decision in support of the NSA’s phone metadata surveillance program, U.S. district court Judge William Pauley cites an intelligence failure involving the agency in the lead-up to the 9/11 attacks. But the judge’s cited source, the 9/11 Commission Report, doesn’t actually include the account he gives in the ruling. What’s more, experts […]

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(Source: Mashable) It makes sense that we are indignant (though perhaps not indignant enough) about the scandal of illicit spying by America’s National Security Agency. But we should not be surprised. We should have seen this coming. Our reaction recalls Nietzsche’s reproach of people who spend their lives being surprised to discover things they had […]

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Citing concerns about linking to classified material, Johns Hopkins University asked a professor this morning to remove a blog post discussing  last week’s revelations about the NSA’s efforts to break encryption. The post had linked to government documents published by ProPublica, the Guardian, and the New York Times. Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins, which is short drive from the […]

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Revelations by National Security Agency (NSA) contract employee Edward Snowden have seized the attention of the world and sparked a national debate about government surveillance and privacy. Snowden’s disclosures pose two questions that strike at the heart of any democracy. What are the American people entitled to know about their government? And what is the […]

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Despite the cries of protest and the outrage, and despite the widespread banning of the magazine, the image of Boston marathon bomber Dzhoktar Tsarnaev now depicted on the latest issue of Rolling Stone does not “glorify” the photogenic bomber. Rather, the power of the image of Tsarnaev—wearing a designer t-shirt and looking every bit like […]

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