A nation at war–an indefinite, borderless one, conducted against a faceless enemy, with little legal or moral restraint, with an endless wallet to be dipped into–will find, sooner or later, that the same inchoateness, the same vagueness, the same productive lack of definition of that conflict, which permitted its waging to be conducted secretly withoutContinue reading “Ferguson And The Tale Of Two Wars”
Tag Archives: Patriot Act
Nice Try NSA-Defenders (Not!)
There are two very bad arguments and one rather illiterate confusion making the rounds in the wake of the NSA surveillance scandal. I’ll consider each of them briefly. First, we have the ‘it was legal’ argument: the surveillance was sanctioned by the Patriot Act, approved by FISA courts, and Congress was in the loop etc.Continue reading “Nice Try NSA-Defenders (Not!)”
Glenn Greenwald is Not the Story; The Surveillance Is
The New York Times has an article on Glenn Greenwald, who has broken two stories on the NSA surveillance programs that now occupy most thinking people’s attention, which is titled thus: ‘Activist Blogger Is At The Center Of A Debate‘ on its front page. (The article’s title reads ‘ Blogger, With Focus on Surveillance, Is atContinue reading “Glenn Greenwald is Not the Story; The Surveillance Is”
The Spying Will Continue Until Morale Improves
The New York Times, picking up on a Guardian story by Glenn Greenwald, reports that: The Obama administration is secretly carrying out a domestic surveillance program under which it is collecting business communications records involving Americans under a hotly debated section of the Patriot Act, according to a highly classified court order disclosed on Wednesday night. The order,Continue reading “The Spying Will Continue Until Morale Improves”
Glenn Greenwald on Civil Liberties and Their Willing Surrender
Today, at Brooklyn College, Glenn Greenwald delivered the 39th Samuel J. Konefsky Memorial Lecture. I was lucky enough to be in attendance and thoroughly enjoyed watching this top-notch muckraker and gadfly in action. I have often seen Greenwald speak on video but this was the first live presentation I have witnessed. It was everything it wasContinue reading “Glenn Greenwald on Civil Liberties and Their Willing Surrender”
Samir Chopra 