Politics in the Zeros

Rumors that a shadowy White House task force known only as AFD has been investigating leftist organizations appear to be true. Massive COINTELPRO-like monitoring of antiwar groups has been occurring, with AFD intercepting and reading all email sent and received by organizers, as well as listening to their cell phone calls. Apparently the volume [...]

Judge halts US eavesdropping program

A US federal judge has ordered the Bush administration to halt the National Security Agency’s (NSA) program of domestic eavesdropping, saying it violates the US Constitution.

Naturally, the Bushies whined that upholding the Constitution is a bad and evil thing to do.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s office in charge of protecting California against terrorism has tracked demonstrations staged by political and antiwar groups, a practice that senior law enforcement officials say is an abuse of civil liberties.

This was done by a “53-person operation,” which certainly implies is a whole lot of spying on legal activities. They say [...]

That’s what our Big Brother government wants you to think.

Pentagon sets its sights on social networking websites

New Scientist has discovered that Pentagon’s National Security Agency, which specialises in eavesdropping and code-breaking, is funding research into the mass harvesting of the information that people post about themselves on social networks. And it could harness [...]

Two proverbs say it best: Quis custodiet custodes ipsos? (“Who watches the watchers?”) and “Absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

Cardinal Richelieu understood the value of surveillance when he famously said, “If one would give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest man, I would find something in them to have him hanged.” [...]