The first word of Guantánamo Diary is a black bar. The book, in which Guantanamo detainee Mohamedou Ould Slahi tells of his odyssey through overseas prisons and his torture and abuse by the US and its counterterrorism allies, is pockmarked… Read More ›
Archive for January 2015
NYPD Clarifies That New Counterterror Unit Won’t Carry Machine Guns At Protests
The New York City Police Department says it won’t be carrying machine guns at protests, despite comments Commissioner Bill Bratton made recently. Speaking at a breakfast hosted by New York City’s Police Foundation Thursday, the commissioner unveiled a new unit–the… Read More ›
Battle Over Google Subpoena Threatens Critical Online Free Speech Protections
Federal Law Blocks Extraordinary and Burdensome Subpoena San Francisco – A high-profile battle over whether Google must respond to an unusual and dangerous subpoena raises fundamental concerns about federal free speech law and the protections it affords hosts of online… Read More ›
Spanish Peacekeeper Is the Latest Example of Israel Killing United Nations Personnel
On January 28th a barrage of Israeli artillery fire struck near the South Lebanese village of Ghajar, killing United Nations peacekeeper Francisco Javier Soria. Soria, 36, was a Spanish citizen deployed with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, a… Read More ›
EFF Files Supreme Court Amicus Brief Over Warrantless Searches of Hotel Records
Citizens Have a Right to Challenge Laws That Violate the Fourth Amendment San Francisco – The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) today filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in a challenge brought by hotel owners against a Los… Read More ›
January's Stupid Patent of the Month: A Method of Updating "Grass" in Video Games
Sports. It’s what’s on EFF’s patent team’s mind. No, not because this Sunday is the Super Bowl. No, not even because we filed an amicus brief today in a football-related right of publicity case. It’s because of U.S. Patent 8,529,350—January’s… Read More ›
Under Suspicious Circumstances, FBI Places Brother of No-Fly Litigant on Most Wanted Terrorist List
In January 2012, 18-year-old Somali-American Gulet Mohamed was detained in Kuwait without charges and tortured, almost certainly at the behest of U.S. officials. Through a cellphone smuggled into the detention camp by another inmate, Gulet was able to call me and New… Read More ›
"Vanguard of the Revolution": New Film Chronicles Rise of Black Panthers & FBI's War Against Them
With groups around the country taking on issues of police brutality and accountability, we go back 50 years to another movement confronting the same issues. We spend the hour looking at a new documentary that just premiered at the Sundance… Read More ›
CodePink Attempts to "Arrest" Henry Kissinger for War Crimes in Vietnam, Laos, Chile and East Timor
Activists from the antiwar group CodePink attempted to perform a citizen’s arrest on former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger when he testified on global security challenges at a Senate Armed Services Committee meeting on Thursday. Kissinger served as secretary of… Read More ›
Headlines for January 30, 2015
U.S. Rejects Giving Guantánamo Back to Cuba Bipartisan Senators Introduce Bill to Open Travel to Cuba 35 Die in Bombing of Shiite Mosque in Pakistan Three U.S. Contractors Killed in Afghanistan as U.S. Moves to Classify War Data Egyptian Wing… Read More ›