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Court Denies EFF Effort to Obtain Classified Significant Surveillance Court Opinions

3/28/2019

Court Denies EFF Effort to Obtain Classified Significant Surveillance Court Opinions
Electronic Frontier Foundation, Aaron Mackey,March 28, 2019

A federal court’s ruling earlier this week has blunted a key provision of the surveillance reform law that required the government to be more transparent about legal decisions made by the United States secret surveillance court.

After Edward Snowden revealed the government’s ongoing mass collection of Americans’ telephone phone records in 2013, Congress responded by passing the USA Freedom Act in 2015. In addition to limiting the NSA’s surveillance authority, Congress also clearly intended to end the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court’s (FISC) ability to keep the decisions it made behind closed doors secret.

Since its inception in the 1970s, the government has asked the FISC to decide what constitutional or other legal protections, if any, Americans and others enjoy while seeking approval of the government’s secret mass surveillance programs. Though we were not happy with many aspects of the final USA Freedom language, EFF was pleased that the final language did require that the government review and declassify “each decision, order, or opinion” that contained significant interpretations of the Constitution or other laws and to make them “publicly available to the greatest extent practicable.” We believe this language, along with statements from Members of Congress during the debate, clearly require the FISC to release decisions both from before 2015 as well as after. . . .

California, District Court, Edward Snowden, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, Freedom of Information Act Requests, Government Transparency, Law, Lawsuits, National Security, National Security Agency, Phone Records, Privacy, Secret Law, Surveillance, USA Freedom Act

Executive Order on Coordinating National Resilience to Electromagnetic Pulses

3/26/2019

Issued on: March 26, 2019

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered as follows:

Section 1. Purpose. An electromagnetic pulse (EMP) has the potential to disrupt, degrade, and damage technology and critical infrastructure systems. Human-made or naturally occurring EMPs can affect large geographic areas, disrupting elements critical to the Nation’s security and economic prosperity, and could adversely affect global commerce and stability. The Federal Government must foster sustainable, efficient, and cost-effective approaches to improving the Nation’s resilience to the effects of EMPs. . . .

Department of Commerce, Department of Defense, Department of Energy, Department of Homeland Security, Directed Energy Weapons, Donald Trump, Electromagnetic Pulse, Electromagnetic Weapons, Executive Orders, Law

Trump signs executive order on protecting US from potential EMP attacks

3/26/2019

The Hill 03/26/19 04:25 PM EDT
JACQUELINE THOMSEN

President Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order directing federal agencies to identify the threats posed by potential electromagnetic pulses (EMP), which are believed to be potentially dangerous to critical infrastructure like the electric grid, and find ways to guard against them.

Senior administration officials told reporters during a call Tuesday that the order will direct federal agencies to coordinate in assessing the threats that EMPs pose, and find ways to prevent their impact. An EMP is a burst of electromagnetic energy that can be caused by a nuclear weapon or solar storms. . . .

Department of Commerce, Department of Defense, Department of Energy, Department of Homeland Security, Directed Energy Weapons, Donald Trump, Electromagnetic Pulse, Electromagnetic Weapons, Executive Order, Law

Doubts Rise About Evidence That U.S. Diplomats In Cuba Were Attacked

3/25/2019

NPR March 25, 20192:41 PM ET
Jon Hamilton

The claim was extraordinary.

More than 20 U.S. diplomats in Cuba had "suffered significant injuries" in a series of attacks that seemed to target the brain. Or at least that's what State Department officials told reporters during a briefing in September 2017.

A couple of weeks later, President Trump went even further. "I do believe Cuba is responsible," he said during a Rose Garden news conference.

By that time, the U.S. had pulled most staff members from its embassy in Havana and had advised U.S. citizens to avoid traveling to Cuba. There had also been reports of similar symptoms among U.S. diplomats in China. . . .

China, Cold War, Cuba, Diplomats, Directed Energy Weapons, Electromagnetic Weapons, "Havana Syndrome", "Health Attacks", Hysteria, Microwave, Moscow, Russia, Sonic Weapons, State Department, Surveillance, Traumatic Brain Injury,

Alarm over leaked US database targeting journalists and immigration activists: Secret database listed 59 advocates and journalists tied to the migrant caravan, according to leaked documents

3/20/2019

The Guardian Wed 20 Mar 2019 03.00 EDT
Amanda Holpuch and Lauren Aratani

Photojournalist Ariana Drehsler was stopped for a secondary screening three separate times in one week while crossing the US-Mexico border to cover the migrant caravan in Tijuana this winter – unaware that the journey she had taken countless times before was suddenly more complicated because her name was logged in a secret government database.

That database, part of something called Operation Secure Line, listed 59 advocates and journalists tied to the migrant caravan, according to leaked documents obtained by local news station NBC 7. . . .

Activists, American Civil Liberties Union, Congressional Inquiry, Customs and Border Protection, First Amendment, Homeland Security Investigations, Immigration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Immigration, "Instigators", Journalists, Lawyers, Mexican Border, Migrant Workers, Operation Secure Line, Organizers, Secondary Security Screening Selection, Watchlisting

Brain trauma suffered by U.S. diplomats abroad could be work of hostile foreign government

3/17/2019

60 Minutes CBS News March 17, 2019
Scott Pelley

"Since 2016, dozens of American officials have come home from Cuba and China with unexplained brain trauma. Evidence shows it may be the work of another government using a weapon that leaves no trace"
China, Cuba, Diplomats, Microwave, Video News

San Diego Has Been Turned Into A Massive Chinese-Style Public Surveillance Network

3/14/2019

Activist Post MARCH 14, 2019
MassPrivateI

Can you imagine a city in the United States secretly creating a Chinese-style public surveillance network that can identify everyone? Can you imagine that same city secretly creating a Chinese-style public watchlisting network?

Well imagine no more because it has already happened. . . .

Department of Homeland Security, Law Enforcement, Police, San Diego, Surveillance, Watchlisting

UK military turns to universities to research psychological warfare: Cambridge among partners shortlisted for £70m MoD funding, documents show

3/13/2019

The Guardian Wed 13 Mar 2019 02.00 EDT
Damien Gayle

The British military is recruiting philosophers, psychologists and theologians to research new methods of psychological warfare and behavioural manipulation, leaked documents show.

Cambridge University was among the institutions shortlisted by officials in the Ministry of Defence’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL), as it sought a partner to spend almost £70m in funding for a project known as the human and social sciences research capability (HSSRC), looking at how the arts, humanities and social sciences can shape military and security strategies, including “psychological operations”. . . .

Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, DSTL, HSSRC, Human and Social Sciences Research Capability, Psychological Operations, United Kingdom, Universities

The Intercept Shuts Down Access to Snowden Trove: First Look Media, the company that owns the Intercept, also announced that it was laying off several of the researchers who had been charged with maintaining the documents.

3/13/2019

Daily Beast 03.13.19 11:02 PM ET
Maxwell Tani

First Look Media announced Wednesday that it was shutting down access to whistleblower Edward Snowden’s massive trove of leaked National Security Agency documents.

Over the past several years, The Intercept, which is owned by First Look Media, has maintained a research team to handle the large number of documents provided by Snowden to Intercept journalists Laura Poitras and Glenn Greenwald.

But in an email to staff Wednesday evening, First Look CEO Michael Bloom said that as other major news outlets had “ceased reporting on it years ago,” The Intercept had decided to “focus on other editorial priorities” after expending five years combing through the archive. . . .

Freedom of Information Act Requests, Edward Snowden, Federal Government, Government Transparency, Intercept

ACLU Statement on Report of Government Tracking Journalists and Immigration Advocates at Border

3/6/2019

ACLU MARCH 6, 2019

NEW YORK — The U.S. government is reportedly targeting journalists, activists, and lawyers reporting on, aiding, or representing migrants at the southern border by sending them to secondary screening, monitoring their social media accounts, or creating dossiers on them. . . .

Activists, American Civil Liberties Union, Customs and Border Protection, Immigration, Journalists, Lawyers, Mexican Border, Privacy, Secondary Security Screening Selection, Surveillance, Watchlisting

<<Previous

IN THE NEWS

Court Denies EFF Effort to Obtain Classified Significant Surveillance Court Opinions

Executive Order on Coordinating National Resilience to Electromagnetic Pulses

Trump signs executive order on protecting US from potential EMP attacks

Doubts Rise About Evidence That U.S. Diplomats In Cuba Were Attacked

Alarm over leaked US database targeting journalists and immigration activists: Secret database listed 59 advocates and journalists tied to the migrant caravan, according to leaked documents

Brain trauma suffered by U.S. diplomats abroad could be work of hostile foreign government

San Diego Has Been Turned Into A Massive Chinese-Style Public Surveillance Network

UK military turns to universities to research psychological warfare: Cambridge among partners shortlisted for £70m MoD funding, documents show

The Intercept Shuts Down Access to Snowden Trove: First Look Media, the company that owns the Intercept, also announced that it was laying off several of the researchers who had been charged with maintaining the documents.

ACLU Statement on Report of Government Tracking Journalists and Immigration Advocates at Border

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