News Releases
New anti-terrorism law takes Egypt into Orwellian territory2015-08-25
Reporters without Borders
Reporters Without Borders condemns a ban on media reports that conflict with official accounts of armed attacks and operations by Jihadi militants. The ban is part of an anti-terrorism law that Presid...
Sources Select Resources
Anti-Capitalist Demonstration of May 1, 2013 in MontrealJournée des Travailleurs et Travailleuses: Manifestation Anti-Capitaliste
Film/Video
2013
CUTV
Montreal 2013: police state. Montreal's municipal goverment passes a bylaw that suspends the right of citizens to assemble unless they have received advance permission from police. Citizens who assert...
Big Brother's Getting BiggerSmith, Jack A.
Article
2012
Countercurrents
Government surveillance and attacks on the privacy of American citizens were bad enough under the Bush regime but they are getting even worse during the Obama years.
Bill C-51: A Legal PrimerOverly broad and unnecessary anti-terrorism reforms could criminalize free speech
Ruby, Clayton; Nader R.,Hasan
Article
2015
CCPA
Bill C-51, the Anti-Terrorism Act, 2015, would expand the powers of Canada's spy agency, allowing Canadians to be arrested on mere suspicion of future criminal activity.
Bringing the Battlefield to the BorderThe Wild World of Border Security and Boundary Building in Arizona
Miller, Todd
Article
2012
CounterPunch
The U.S.-Mexican border has not only become Ground Zero for every experiment in immigration enforcement and drug interdiction, but also the incubator, testing site, showcase, and staging ground for ev...
Canada considers preventive detention in wake of Ottawa attackPrime minister Stephen Harper says he plans to strengthen counter-terrorism efforts as parliament returns day after shooting
Ling, Justin
Article
2014
The Guardian
The Canadian government indicated on Thursday that it intends to speed up proposals to toughen the country’s anti-terror laws in the wake of the attack on Parliament in Ottawa, including a measure tha...
Canada's Proposed Anti-Terrorism LawAn Assessment
Roach, Kent; Forcese, Craig
Article
2015
AntiTerrorLaw.ca
A Statement to the Standing Committee on National Security & Public Safety regarding the dangers Bill C-51 poses to many of Canada's democratic freedoms.
The Canadian Ministry of "Truth": "Reality Is Whatever We Say It Is"Guerin, Fred
Article
2015
Truthout
The government and corporations operate as if truth and reality are what they say it is. Guerin analyzes and provides examples of this propaganda, including Canada's Bill C-51.
The CIA's Memory PrisonA Perverse Logic
Sottile, J.P.
Article
2013
CounterPunch
The U.S. government has ruled that the prisoners kidnapped and tortured by the U.S. cannot talk about their experiences because those experiences are the property of the U.S. government, which has cla...
Connexions Library: Human Rights and Civil Liberties FocusWebsite
Connexions Information Sharing Services
Selected articles, books, websites and other resources on civil liberties and human rights.
Crossing RafahHeading to Gaza
Barber, Johnny
Article
2015
CounterPunch
Data Mining YouHow the Intelligence Community Is Creating a New American World
Engelhardt, Tom
Article
2012
TomDispatch.com
Joseph K., that icon of single-lettered anonymity from Franz Kafka’s novel The Trial, would undoubtedly have felt right at home in Washington.
#DomesticExtremist trend mocks UK police surveillance of protestersArticle
2015
RT
Non-conformists across the UK are taking to social media to declare themselves #DomesticExtremists in a bid to raise awareness about secretive police powers.
Eavesdropping on the PlanetThe Inalienable Right to Snoop?
Blum, William
Article
2013
CounterPunch
Like a mammoth vacuum cleaner in the sky, the National Security Agency (NSA) sucks it all up: home phone, office phone, cellular phone, email, fax, telex … satellite transmissions, fiber-optic communi...
Fascism, American-StyleOne-Step from the Third Reich?
Stanton, John
Article
2014
CounterPunch
Unbeknownst to most Americans the United States is presently under thirty presidential declared states of emergency. They confer vast powers on the Executive Branch including the ability to financiall...
Foreclosures and the Police StateHernandez Family Foreclosure Sparks Anti-Eviction Outrage
Radford, Leslie
Article
2012
CounterPunch
The story of the Hernandez family, who became local heroes in their determination to keep their Van Nuys home from foreclosure.
Freedom of speech, assembly, protest? All are nixed by new police powersAppleton, Josie
Article
2015
The Ecologist
UK police now have free rein to create 'dispersal zones' in public places, writes Josie Appleton. This allows them to exclude people for anything from street drinking to looking suspicious, being home...
Government Spying Aims to Silence UsSpritzler, John
Article
2013
New Democracy World
What the ruling class is aiming at, with these occasional "leaks" about its spying on us, is not so much to collect information about us but rather to make us feel so totally spied upon that we will b...
Here come the thought policeSpratt, Michael; Moore, Chelsea
Article
2014
ipolitics.ca
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has declared his intention to fast-track legislation expanding CSIS and police powers of “surveillance, detention and arrest.”
How California police are tracking your biometric data in the fieldAgencies are using mobile fingerprint scanners, tattoo and facial recognition software
Brown, J Pat; Maass, Dave
Article
2015
EFF and MuckRock
EFF and MuckRock got together to reveal how state and local law enforcement agencies are using mobile biometric technology in the field by filing public records requests around the country. Thousands ...
How the Government Secretly Demanded the IP Address of Every Visitor to Political News Site Indymedia.usArticle
2009
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Secrecy surrounds law enforcement's communications surveillance practices like a dense fog. Particularly shrouded in secrecy are government demands issued under 18 U.S.C. § 2703 of the Stored Communic...
ICE: The making of an American GestapoChacón, Justin Akers
Article
2018
socialistworker.org
Justin Akers Chacón, author of Radicals in the Barrio and co-author with Mike Davis of No One Is Illegal, takes an in-depth look at the troubling history and practices of a government agency that more...
If U.S. Mass Media Were State-Controlled, Would They Look Any Different?Snowden Coverage
Cohen, Jeff
Article
2013
CounterPunch
The Edward Snowden leaks have revealed a U.S. corporate media system at war with independent journalism. Many of the same outlets that missed the Wall Street meltdown and cheer-led the Iraq invasion h...
Information OverloadDriving a Stake Through the National Security State
Lindorff, Dave
Article
2012
CounterPunch
Here’s an idea. Let’s all start salting all of our conversations and our written communications with a selection of those 300 key words. If every liberty-loving person in America virus were to do thi...
The Institutionalization of TyrannyWhen Victory Has Nothing to do With Justice
Roberts, Paul Craig
Article
2013
CounterPunch
Republicans and conservative Americans are still fighting Big Government in its welfare state form. Apparently, they have never heard of the militarized police state form of Big Government, or, if the...
IRS seizes hundreds of perfectly legal bank accounts, refuses to give money backArticle
2014
RT
The Internal Revenue Service has been seizing bank accounts belonging to small businesses and individuals who regularly made deposits of less than $10,000, but broke no laws. And the government is ref...
'Israel is a terrorist state'Cook, Jonathan
Article
2015
Jonathan Cook's Blog
The violence rocking the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and now Gaza is on the verge of spilling into Israel, Palestinian leaders in Israel warned. A wave of unrest has swept Palestinian towns in ...
Kurt Vonnegut and the American Police StateJust Say "Hi-Ho!" as They Strip Search You
Lindorff, Dave
Article
2012
CounterPunch
The country seems to have crossed over a dark threshold. We are now a police state in all but name. Cops and wannabe cops are shooting innocent people and nothing gets done.
Lessons of the Snowden RevelationsYou are the Target!
Lopez, Alfredo
Article
2013
CounterPunch
We in the Left have long worried about “police state tactics”. Now we have to confront the police state structure. It’s here and it can morph into a real police state with very little effort. Opposing...
Lockdown London The Olympics will see the UK's biggest mobilisation of security forces since the second world war
Graham, Stephen
Article
2012
The Guardian
The projected expense of security at the upcoming London Olympic Games is $867m -- part of the booming 'security industry'.
The Lockdown Society Goes PrimetimeSchwalbe, Michael
Article
2013
CounterPunch
Michael Schwalbe ponders the influence on society of incorporating authoritarian jargon into everyday use, with specific reference to the use of 'Lock down' normalizing the concept of restrictions on...
The Logic behind Mass Spying: Empire and Cyber ImperialismPetras, James
Article
2013
Dissident Voice
Revelations about the long-term global, intrusive spying by the US National Security Agency (NSA) and other allied intelligence apparatuses have provoked widespread protests and indignation and threat...
Met police using surveillance system to monitor mobile phonesGallagher, Ryan; Syal, Rejeev
Article
2011
Guardian
Civil liberties group raises concerns over Met police purchase of technology to track public handsets over a targeted area.
Mistaking Omniscience for Omnipotence In a World Without Privacy, There Are No Exemptions for Our Spies
Engelhardt, Tom
Article
2013
TomDispatch.com
Given how similar they sound and how easy it is to imagine one leading to the other, confusing omniscience (having total knowledge) with omnipotence (having total power) is easy enough. It’s a reasona...
Mouths Wide Shut: Obamas War on WhistleblowersFeffer, John
Article
2015
CounterPunch
The Obama administration has been ruthless in its prosecution of whistleblowers.
The New Police Surveillance StateThe Rising Price of Political Assembly
Rosen, David
Article
2012
CounterPunch
Police are increasingly being deployed to restrict if not prevent mass political actions, especially directed at the banks.
The NSA Has Effectively Destroyed Internet PrivacySnowden's Latest
Lopez, Alfredo
Article
2013
Counter Punch
Whistle-blower Edward Snowden prove that the NSA, working with its British counterpart the Government Communications Headquarters has conducted an intentional and largely sucessful campaign to destroy...
NSA's Path to TotalitarianismEver-Shrinking Democracy in America
Pollack, Norman
Article
2013
CounterPunch
The American National Security Agency (NSA) appears as a “rogue” organization, extremism in the putative service of liberty. Or better, call it, stripped of all cosmetics, the unerring mark of a Polic...
Obama's Liberty ProblemWhy Indefinite Detention By Executive Order Should Scare the Hell Out of People
Quigley, Bill; Warren, Vince
Article
2010
CounterPunch
The proposal to create a special new legal system by Executive Order will threaten the liberty of every single US citizen who is not in Guantanamo because it will damage the due process guarantees wh...
Orwell's Triumph: How Novels Tell the Truth of SurveillanceFrank, Sam
Article
2015
The Intercept
Novels may be the best medium for describing a distopian world in which everyone is under constant surveillance.
The Other Police StatePrivate Cops vs. the Public Good
Rosen, David
Article
2013
CounterPunch
A revealing study on "Spooky Business: A New Report on Corporate Espionage Against Non-profits" written by Gary Ruskin confirms one’s worst suspicions about the ever-expanding two-headed U.S. security...
Other Voices: The Connexions Newsletter - October 30, 2014Refugees
Diemer, Ulli (editor); Khan, Tahmid (production)
Serial Publication (Periodical)
2014
Connexions
Topic of the week is Refugees. Featured articles look at migration, counter-surveillance resources, farmers in Ghana fighting to retain the freedom to save their own seeds, and rebuilding communities ...
Other Voices: The Connexions Newsletter - February 26, 2015Ukraine
Diemer, Ulli (editor); Khan, Tahmid (production)
Serial Publication (Periodical)
2015
Connexions
Ukraine is spotlighted in this issue of Other Voices, with several articles on the events of the past year, from the overthrow of the government, to the rise of the far right, the armed conflict in th...
Other Voices: The Connexions Newsletter - March 12, 2015Organizing
Diemer, Ulli (editor); Khan, Tahmid (production)
Serial Publication (Periodical)
2015
Connexions
The focus of this issue is organizing. How can we challenge and overcome entrenched structures of economic and political power? Our own source of power is our latent ability to join together and work ...
Other Voices: The Connexions Newsletter - March 26, 2015Sustainability, ecology, and agriculture
Diemer, Ulli (editor); Khan, Tahmid (production)
Serial Publication (Periodical)
2015
Connexions
This issue features a number of items related to sustainability, ecology, and agriculture, including Vandana Shiva's article "Small is the New Big," the Council of Canadians' new report on water issue...
Other Voices: The Connexions Newsletter - April 23, 2015Eduardo Galeano, Latin America, the Vietnam War
Diemer, Ulli (editor); Rickwood, Darien Yawching (production)
Serial Publication (Periodical)
2015
Connexions
In this issue of Other Voices, we mark the death of Eduardo Galeano by featuring two of his books, as well as an article about his life and work. Galeano once wrote that he was "obsessed with remember...
Other Voices: The Connexions Newsletter - July 3, 2015Greece and thd debt crisis
Diemer, Ulli (editor); Rickwood, Darien Yawching (production)
Serial Publication (Periodical)
2015
Connexions
Our spotlight this issue is on the debt crisis facing Greece. To understand the crisis, one has to look beyond the mainstream media to alternative sources of information. We've done that, with article...
Other Voices: The Connexions Newsletter - October 9, 2017Meeting the Challenge of the Right
Diemer, Ulli (ed.)
Serial Publication (Periodical)
2017
Connexions
Challenging the Right requires not only anti-fascist actions in the street, but organizing to reach those who may be attracted the the appeal of the Right and offering an alternative social vision. Th...
Panama's indigenous champion defies president's mining dealCanadian-Korean consortium plans 30-year gold, silver and copper project
Helmore, Edward
Article
2012
The Guardian
In Panama the Ngabe-Bugle indigenous community fights to keep a Canadian copper mining company off their land.
Police Militarism in AmericaIn Many Communities Cops are the Terrorists
Lindorff, Dave
Article
2014
CounterPunch
The apparent murder by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, of Mike Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old black youth who was shot a number of times while he was allegedly on his knees with his hands...
Police State IndiaRobert Clive and the Forbidden
Vltchek, Andre
Article
2012
CounterPunch
Describing security-mania in India.
The Police State is RealIt Has Happened Here
Roberts, Paul Craig
Article
2013
CounterPunch
The Bush regime’s response to 9/11 and the Obama regime’s validation of this response have destroyed accountable democratic government in the United States. So much unaccountable power has been concen...
Police State: US Government-Funded Database Created to Track "Subversive Propaganda" OnlineMacEgan, Matthew
Article
2014
Global Research
The creation of the Truthy database by Indiana University researchers has drawn sharp criticism from free-speech advocates and others concerned over government censorship of political expression.
Preparing for a Digital 9/11 Greenberg, Karen
Article
2012
TomDispatch
In recent years, in one of the more dangerous, if largely undiscussed, developments of our time, the Bush and then Obama administrations have launched the first state-planned war in cyber space. First...
Preservation or plunder? The battle over the British Museum's Indigenous Australian show Daley,Paul
Article
2015
The Guardian
Indigenous Australians are calling for the objects on show at the British Museum's new exhibition to be returned.
Quebecers' right to protest restricted after 2012 "Maple Spring" in CanadaCanadian Journalists for Free Expression
Article
2013
IFEX
In 2012, a massive student strike over tuition fee increases rocked Quebec and thousands took to the streets, marching in protest. In the aftermath, Montreal residents find that their ability to prote...
Snowden leak: MI5 has gathered so much data it may actually be missing 'life-saving intelligence'Article
2016
Al Jazeera
British spies may have missed potentially "life-saving intelligence" because their surveillance systems were sweeping up more data than could be analyzed, a leaked classified report reveals. The docum...
Snowden, Surveillance And The Secret StateCromwell, David; Edwards, David
Article
2013
Media Lens
There is plenty to be said about living under a giant system of government surveillance. Just don't expect the corporate media to explore the full extent of what it really all means.
Spooky Business: Corporate Espionage Against Nonprofit OrganizationsRuskin, Gary
Article
2013
Corporate Policy
This report is an effort to document something about corporate espionage against nonprofit organizations. Law enforcement should prioritize investigating and prosecuting corporate espionage against no...
Spying by the NumbersHundreds of Thousands Subject to Government Surveillance and No Real Protection
Quigley, Bill
Article
2013
CounterPunch
Thanks to NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden many more people in the US and world-wide are learning about extensive US government surveillance and spying. There are publicly available numbers which sho...
The Stasi could only dream of such dataBritain, the birthplace of liberalism, has become the database state
Ash, Timothy Garton
Article
2008
Guardian Weekly
As technology increases the flow of stored data about individual actions, assurances of the "right to informational self-determination" must be hard won from governments. Government surveillance of ci...
Stop-and-Frisk as a Policy of State Control Over Blacks and LatinosHobbes on Trial in New York City
Paul, Ari
Article
2013
Counter Punch
Nicholas Peart is one of the plaintiffs in the federal class action lawsuit against the New York Police Department’s policy of stop-and-frisk, where officers use their power to roam the streets and st...
Surveillance USANSA and the PRISM Project
Kampmark, Binoy
Article
2013
CounterPunch
The government is merrily going about its business of keeping tabs on you in virtually every conceivable way.
Thirteen Ways Government Tracks UsQuigley, Bill
Article
2012
Countercurrents
Privacy is eroding fast as technology offers government increasing ways to track and spy on citizens. Here are thirteen examples of how some of the biggest government agencies and programs track peopl...
12 most absurd laws used to stifle occupy movementKhalek, Rania
Article
2011
Truthout
Here are 12 desperate and unsuccessful measures the authorities are using to discourage, deter and crack down on peaceful protests.
Unlawful DissentNew Laws Around the Globe Don't Curb Inequity, They Undercut Social Protests and Gag Free Speech
Warnke, Brett
Article
2012
CounterPunch
The state is increasingly encroaching upon dissent as social conditions worsen.
Unmasking the Five-Eyed monster, a global and secret intelligence-sharing regimeArticle
2013
IFEX
Privacy International is proud to announce our new project, Eyes Wide Open, which aims to pry open the Five Eyes arrangement and bring it under the rule of law.
War on Whistleblowers: Free Press and the National Security StateFree Press and the National Security State
Greenwald, Robert
Film/Video
2013
Brave New Films
During his election campaigns, Barak Obama promised the most transparent administration in U.S. history. Cynics can rejoice in the fact that the Obama administration has indicted more people for viola...
Wikileaks, the US, Sweden and Devil's IslandThe Anti-Empire Report
Blum, William
Article
2011
CounterPunch
Will the government's counter-extremist programme criminalise dissent?Kundnani, Arun
Article
2015
Spinwatch
From 1 July, a broad range of public bodies - from nursery schools to optometrists - will be legally obliged to participate in the U.S. government’s Prevent policy to identify would-be extremists. Und...
With Power of Social Media Growing, Police Now Monitoring and Criminalizing Online SpeechGreenwald, Glenn
Article
2015
The Intercept
Criminal cases for online political speech are now commonplace in the UK, notorious for its hostility to basic free speech and press rights. As The Independent's James Bloodworth reported last week, "...
You are all suspects now. What are you going to do about it?Pilger, John
Article
2012
A state of permanent war has been launched by the United States and a police state is consuming western democracy.
Sources Bookshelf
Spying on DemocracyGovernment Surveillance, Corporate Power, and Public Resistance
Boghosian, Heidi
Book
2013
Heidi Boghosian documents the disturbing increase in surveillance of ordinary citizens and the danger it poses to our privacy, our civil liberties, and to the future of democracy itself.
The WatchersThe Rise of America's Surveillance State
Harris, Shane
Book
2010
An exploration of how and why the American government increasingly spies on its own citizens.
Sources Calendar