NewsTrust - National Security - Most Recent Stories: Opinion (Independent)

America’s Coming Space Wars

Fri, 09 Nov 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Informed Comment - By Alfred W. McCoy - Nov. 09 (Opinion) - It’s 2025 and an American “triple canopy” of advanced surveillance and armed drones fills the heavens from the lower- to the exo-atmosphere. A wonder of the modern age, it can deliver its weaponry anywhere on the planet with staggering speed, knock out an enemy’s satellite communications system, or follow individuals biometrically for great distances. Along with the country’s advanced cyberwar capacity, it’s also the most sophisticated militarized information system ever created and an insurance policy for U.S. global dominion deep into the twenty-first century. It’s the future as the Pentagon imagines it; it’s under development; and Americans know nothing about it.

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Why Don't Americans Care About Democracy at Home?

Tue, 02 Oct 2012 00:00:00 -0700

truth-out.org - By Henry A. Giroux - Oct. 02 (Opinion) - economic darwinism will...ensure the ...eventual elimination of those...willing to fight for public values, rights, spaces and institutions not wedded to the logic of privatization, commodification, deregulation.. we are seeing the breakdown of democracy...

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The Political Obstructionism Undermining US National Security

Fri, 11 May 2012 00:00:00 -0700

thebulletin.org - By Kingston Reif - May. 11 (Opinion) - US congressional Republicans just passed legislation that will hamper implementation of New START as well as the administration's ability to make changes to the US nuclear arsenal. But this isn't a lingering Cold War hangover or an ideological battle.

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Homeland Security Texas Homeland Security Strategic Plan - 2010-2015

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

State of Texas - By Rick Perry - Sep. 28 (Statement) - Local and state reinforcement of federal forces has proven to be an extremely effective means of helping fill the capability shortfalls created by severe manpower shortages in key federal agencies like the U.S. Border Patrol. Since 2005, Texas has dedicated over $200 million in federal grants and state funding to help fill the critical gaps, and is committed to providing further support to ensure adequate forces are available to patrol and secure the Texas-Mexico border.

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Obama: The Man Who Got the Job Done

Mon, 02 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Meredith Bagby - May. 02 (Opinion) - But what we can say tonight is that President Obama will receive great political accolades for his efforts. He is already being positioned as the leader that focused on the right mission rather than the wrong war.

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FBI serves Grand Jury subpoena likely relating to WikiLeaks

Wed, 27 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Salon - By Glenn Greenwald - Apr. 27 (Opinion) - In the wake of a massive disclosure of Guantanamo files by WikiLeaks, the FBI yesterday served a Grand Jury subpoena in Boston on a Cambridge resident, compelling his appearance to testify in Alexandria, Virgina.

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Photos capture TSA repelling toddler terrorist threat with intrusive grope-downs of 6-year olds

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Doug Ross @ Journal - By Doug Ross - Apr. 12 (Opinion) - This administration -- and Janet Napolitano in particular -- is simply out of control, that's all there is to it.

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Obama and Bush

Wed, 09 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Crooked Timber - By John Quiggin - Mar. 09 (Opinion) - The announcement that military show trials are to recommence at Guantanamo Bay, combined with the brutal and vindictive treatment of Bradley Manning, make it clear that, as regards willing to suppress basic human and civil rights in the name of security, there is no fundamental difference between the Obama and Bush Administrations. The first obvious question is, why? The second is, how to respond?

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Serious doubt cast on FBI's anthrax case against Bruce Ivins

Wed, 16 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Salon - By Glenn Greenwald - Feb. 16 (Opinion) - That there's so much lingering doubt about who was responsible for this indescribably consequential attack is astonishing, and it ought to be unacceptable.

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New TSA Scanner Makes Airport Security Far Less Sexy

Wed, 02 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Wonkette - By Riley Waggaman - Feb. 02 (Opinion) - The TSA is experimenting with new, less gaterapey scanners, “which discontinue the display of personal body characteristics while still promising to catch questionable objects.” This is good new for people who have personal body characteristics! Susan Collins, who chairs the Senate Committee on Keeping the Homeland Safe and Sound, was excited to hear about these new developments. Also, now these scanners won’t give you (too much) cancer?

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The War on WikiLeaks: John Pilger's Investigation and Interview With Julian Assange

Fri, 14 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0800

truth-out.org - By John Pilger - Jan. 14 (Opinion) - The attacks on WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange, are a response to an information revolution that threatens old power orders in politics and journalism. The incitement to murder trumpeted by public figures in the United States, together with attempts by the Obama administration to corrupt the law and send Assange to a hell-hole prison for the rest of his life, are the reactions of a rapacious system exposed as never before.read more

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2010: The Year In Crazy, Pt. 2

Tue, 28 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800

This Modern World - By Tom Tomorrow - Dec. 28 (Cartoon) - An incomplete and subjective look at the year in crazy.

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My Parents Were Executed Under the Unconstitutional Espionage Act -- Here's Why We Must Fight to Protect Julian Assange

Tue, 28 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800

AlterNet - By Robert Meeropol - Dec. 28 (Opinion) - Rumors are swirling that the United States is preparing to indict Wikileaks leader Julian Assange for conspiring to violate the Espionage Act of 1917. The modern version of that act states among many, many other things that: “Whoever, for the purpose of obtaining information respecting the national defense with intent or reason to believe that the information is to be used to the injury of the United States” causes the disclosure or publication of this material, could be subject to massive criminal penalties. It also states that: “If two or more persons conspire to violate any of the foregoing provisions … each of the parties to such conspiracy shall be subject to the punishment provided for the offense which is the object of such conspiracy.” (18 U.S. Code, Chapter 37, Section 793.) I view the Espionage Act of 1917 as a lifelong nemesis. My parents were charged, tried and ultimately executed after being indicted for Conspiracy to Commit Espionage under that act.

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U.S. Orders Diplomats to Stop Telling Truth Until Further Notice

Thu, 02 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800

borowitzreport.com - By Andy Borowitz - Dec. 02 (Comedy News) - In the first major policy fallout from the WikiLeaks disclosures, the State Department has ordered all U.S. diplomats to “cease and desist telling the truth until further notice.” “We are working overtime to try to make sure that leaks like these don’t happen again,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters. “But until we’ve got the leaks plugged, it’s incumbent on all our diplomats to put on their lying caps.” Secretary Clinton noted that since many US diplomats are major political donors with long careers in the business world, “this shouldn’t be a reach for them.”

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The FBI successfully thwarts its own Terrorist plot

Sun, 28 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Salon - By Glenn Greenwald - Nov. 28 (Opinion) - The FBI is obviously quite pleased with itself over its arrest of a 19-year-old Somali-American, Mohamed Osman Mohamud, who -- with months of encouragement, support and money from the FBI's own undercover agents -- allegedly attempted to detonate a bomb at a crowded Christmas event in Portland, Oregon.

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Politically correct Portland rejected feds who saved city from terrorist attack

Sun, 28 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Examiner - By Byron York - Nov. 28 (Opinion) - In 2005, leaders in Portland, Oregon, angry at the Bush administration's conduct of the war on terror, voted not to allow city law enforcement officers to participate in a key anti-terror initiative, the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force. On Friday, that task force helped prevent what could have been a horrific terrorist attack in Portland. Now city officials say they might re-think their participation in the task force -- because Barack Obama is in the White House.

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My TSA Anti-Rant

Tue, 23 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Mother Jones - By Kevin Drum - Nov. 23 (Opinion) - The fact that you personally are annoyed — you! an educated white-collar professional! — doesn't mean that the process is idiotic. I've heard it called "security theater" so many times I'd be rich if I had a nickel for each time it popped up in my browser, but although the anti-TSA rants are often cathartic and amusing, they've never made much sense to me.

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The Internet War

Tue, 19 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0700

The Link - By Nadim Kobeissi - Oct. 19 (Opinion) - WikiLeaks’s recent release of the largest leak of classified documents in U.S. military history has turned the Internet into a war zone. On one side, WikiLeaks has assembled the brightest and most dedicated hacker-activists in an effort to turn the Internet into a bastion of transparency and information freedom.

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Obama Wants Broader Internet Wiretap Authority

Mon, 27 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Slashdot - By CmdrTaco - Sep. 27 (Opinion) - The White House plans to deliver a bill to Congress next year that will require internet based communication services that use encryption to be capable of decrypting messages to comply with federal wiretap orders?. The bill will go beyond CALEA to apply to services such as Blackberry email. Even though RIM has stated that it does not currently have an ability to decrypt messages via a master key or back door, the bill may require them to. Regarding this development, James Dempsey of the Center for Democracy and Technology commented on the proposal saying, 'They basically want to turn back the clock and make Internet services function the way that the telephone system used to function.

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What Was Lost in the Defense Bill Filibuster

Wed, 22 Sep 2010 07:33:15 -0700

Washington Independent - Sep. 22 - Most of the stories about the Republican filibuster yesterday of the defense authorization bill have focused on two amendments it squashed: a repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and a planned addition of the DREAM Act, which would provide legal status to some young people in exchange for military service or school. But Mother Jones points [...]

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Project Vigilant: The Gov't/Corporate Destruction Of Privacy

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Salon - By Glenn Greenwald - Aug. 03 (Opinion) - The emergence of a shadowy domestic espionage group sheds light on how the Government collects online data.

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Put Away the Flags

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0700

The Progressive - By Howard Zinn - Jul. 02 (Comment) - On this July 4, we would do well to renounce nationalism and all its symbols: its flags, its pledges of allegiance, its anthems, its insistence in song that God must single out America to be blessed. Is not nationalism -- that devotion to a flag, an anthem, a boundary so fierce it engenders mass murder -- one of the great evils of our time, along with racism, along with religious hatred?read more

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Un-gagging the Whistleblowers

Sun, 23 May 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Consortium News - By Coleen Rowley, Tom Devine - May. 23 (Opinion) - In the years before 9/11, an FAA "Red Team" warns that it breaches airport security 90 percent of the time, but is censored from writing its findings and banned from retesting. The same Logan Airport gate exploited by the 9/11 hijackers had flunked just months before the attacks. After the attacks, the government grounds and reassigns the Red Team leader (a whistleblower) to remedial duties.

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Military Restructures Afghanistan Police Contract

Thu, 25 Mar 2010 10:44:39 -0700

Washington Independent - Mar. 25 - An obscure Army contracting office with ties to the private security firm Blackwater has formally lost control of a lucrative contract to train Afghan police, the Pentagon and U.S. military officials in Afghanistan confirmed to TWI. That bureaucratic

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Peter Watts may serve two years for failing to promptly obey a customs officer

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Boing Boing - By Cory Doctorow - Mar. 21 (Opinion) - David Nickle, a mutual friend who worked with Peter on his defense, has a very good post on the subject, including a quote from one of the jurors: The job of the jury was to decide whether Mr. Watts "obstructed/resisted" the custom officials. Assault was not one of the charges. What it boiled down to was Mr. Watts did not follow the instructions of the customs agents. Period. He was not violent, he was not intimidating, he was not stopping them from searching his car. He did, however, refuse to follow the commands by his non compliance. He?s not a bad man by any stretch of the imagination. The customs agents escalted the situation with sarcasm and miscommunication. Unfortunately, we were not asked to convict those agents with a crime, although, ...

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