civil liberties

Former Guantánamo Prosecutor Loses Job for Criticizing Military Commissions

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 11:10:06 -0500

by Andy Worthington

So much for the First Amendment.

Is Obama's Civil Liberties Record Understandable?

Sat, 28 Nov 2009 12:49:19 -0500

by Glenn Greenwald

Earlier this week, Kevin Drum said that "nine times out of ten" Obama's policies are "pretty much what [he] expected" but that "the biggest one-time-out-of-ten where he's not doing what [he] expected is in the area of detainee and civil liberties issues." Similarly, Andrew Sullivan cited "accountability for war crimes and civil

The Weekly Standard's ACLU Smear Indicts Only Itself

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:01:26 -0500

by Glenn Greenwald

Even for The Weekly Standard, this bitter, juvenile McCarthyite attack on the ACLU by Thomas Joscelyn sputters with so much fact-free, impotent, and self-defeating rage that it's hard to believe it was printed. Right in the headline, it oh-so-cleverly smears the ACLU as "Al Qaeda's Civil Liberties Union"; it ends by proclaiming the group to be "al Qaeda's useful idiots"; and it's filled in the middle with all sorts of trite innuendo circa read more

'Booked on Suspicion'

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 09:22:58 -0400

by David Benjamin
In Louis Jordan’s classic song, “Saturday Night Fish Fry,” which recounts a riotous party on Rampart Street eventually raided by the police, the hapless protagonist is nabbed by the cops and “booked on suspicion.”
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Taser Advice: Don't Aim at Target's Chest

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 12:08:57 -0400

by Robert Anglen
The maker of Taser stun guns is advising police officers to avoid shooting suspects in the chest with the 50,000-volt weapon, saying that it could pose an extremely low risk of an "adverse cardiac event."
The advisory, issued in an Oct. 12 training bulletin, is the first time that Taser International has suggested there is any risk of a cardiac arrest related to the discharge of its stun gun.
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Nurses to Sue Over H1N1 Shots

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 11:23:04 -0400

by Scott Waldman
ALBANY -- Lorna Patterson is willing to take on New York's top health official for her right to be flu vaccine-free.
The registered nurse in Albany Medical Center's emergency room is among a group of nurses who plan to file a lawsuit against state Health Commissioner Dr. Richard Daines to prevent the mandatory vaccination of New York's health care workers with the H1N1 flu virus.
"It takes away our freedom of choice," Patterson told reporters during a news conference Monday. "Our health is being affected."
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Watch What You Tweet

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 09:17:01 -0400

by Amy Goodman
A social worker from New York City was arrested last week while in Pittsburgh for the G-20 protests, then subjected to an FBI raid this week at home -- all for using Twitter. Elliot Madison faces charges of hindering apprehension or prosecution, criminal use of a communication facility and possession of instruments of crime. He was posting to a Twitter feed (or tweeting, as it is called) publicly available information about police activities around the G-20 protests, including information about where police had issued orders to disperse.
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Announcing National Use Zazi to Gain New Surveillance Powers Day!

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 11:14:41 -0400

by Marcy Wheeler
The last line of this article on how the Najibullah Zazi arrest was a victory for the Obama Administration's approach to terrorism boasts that the Administration didn't have a John Ashcroft-style press conference on the day of the arrest.
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Men Arrested for G-20 Twittering say It's Free Speech

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 11:38:02 -0400

by Paula Reed Ward
The quick evolution of technology has changed the way Americans do almost everything, including how law enforcement combats crime, and consequently, how criminals elude law enforcement.
Those two concepts converged during the G-20 summit, when state police arrested two New York men for using Twitter to inform protesters in Pittsburgh about the movements of local officers.
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Electronic Border Control

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 08:53:19 -0400

by Elizabeth Goitein
Suppose you're returning home from a vacation in Cancun. A customs agent asks you to open your suitcase so he can check its contents. So far, so good.

Now, the agent asks you to log on to your laptop so he can read your e-mails and personal files and examine which Web sites you've visited. He makes a copy of your hard drive so the government can comb through its contents. You've done nothing to give the agent any cause for suspicion.

That can't be legal - can it?
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