News & Resources
Event Blog & Archives
Stay updated with all the latest news, insights, and highlights from our Divi event. Here, you’ll find in-depth articles, speaker spotlights, behind-the-scenes stories, and tips to help you make the most of your Divi experience.
Investigations Exposed CIA Drone Strike Civilian Deaths in Pakistan
Two independent investigations published in early 2012 presented substantial new evidence that CIA drone strikes in Pakistan's tribal areas were killing civilians at higher rates than official accounts acknowledged. Associated Press Field Investigation The Associated...
Kony 2012: The Geopolitical Questions Behind the Viral Campaign
In early 2012, the Kony 2012 viral campaign generated unprecedented public attention toward Joseph Kony, leader of the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda. While the campaign presented itself as a humanitarian effort to bring a war criminal to justice, a number of...
Nadim Kobeissi and the Story Behind Cryptocat Encrypted Chat
Border Interrogations Over Encryption Software Nadim Kobeissi, the developer behind the open-source encrypted chat application Cryptocat, reported being detained and interrogated at the U.S.-Canadian border in mid-2012. According to Kobeissi, it was his fourth DHS...
Bitcoin Anonymity Under the Microscope: How Network Analysis Exposes Users
Bitcoin's Anonymity Problem Bitcoin is frequently described as an anonymous digital currency, but this characterization is misleading. While it may be possible to conduct transactions in ways that obscure identity, the public nature of the blockchain means that many...
Ten Environmental and Health Concerns Linked to Industrial Agriculture and GMO Crops
Industrial farming practices that depend on chemical inputs and genetically engineered crops have drawn scrutiny not only for their public health implications but also for their environmental footprint. The following examines ten areas where major agribusiness...
Inside the First Official Area 51 Museum Exhibit in Nevada
The National Atomic Testing Museum Launches an Area 51 Exhibit In April 2012, the National Atomic Testing Museum in Las Vegas opened what was described as the world’s first official museum exhibit dedicated to Area 51. The exhibit arrived after more than three...
Shaahin Cheyene: The Herbalist Who Pioneered Smart Drugs and Vaporization
Shaahin Cheyene: From Herbal Pioneer to Filmmaker Shaahin Cheyene is an Iranian-born writer, filmmaker, lecturer, and herbalist based in Los Angeles, California. Over the course of more than 15 years, Cheyene traveled extensively and worked alongside healers and...
The Illuminati Conspiracy: From Bavarian Secret Society to Pop Culture Phenomenon
The Illuminati may be the most enduring conspiracy theory in modern culture. It connects eighteenth-century Bavarian secret societies to twenty-first-century pop stars, weaves together global finance with music video symbolism, and somehow manages to implicate both...
CISPA Cybersecurity Bill: Privacy Threats and Public Opposition
What Was CISPA and Why Did It Matter? The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (H.R. 3523) emerged in late 2011 as a proposed amendment to the National Security Act of 1947. Introduced by Representatives Mike Rogers (D-MI) and C.A. "Dutch" Ruppersberger...
Shadow Economics and Suppressed Technologies: Intelligence Disclosures From 2012
The State of the American Economy in 2012 The American electoral landscape of 2012 was shaped by economic forces that few voters fully understood. President Obama inherited two wars, a collapsed stock market, and massive national debt. While the Dow had climbed back...
George Zimmerman and the Twin Lakes Crime Wave Before the Trayvon Martin Shooting
The Twin Lakes Neighborhood Before the Shooting The February 2012 shooting of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman in Sanford, Florida became one of the most divisive cases in recent American history. While most early media...
Pentagon Contractors Launched Disinformation Campaigns Against Investigative Journalists
Journalists Targeted After Investigating Pentagon Contractors In 2012, two USA Today employees became the targets of a coordinated online disinformation and harassment campaign shortly after making inquiries to intelligence contractors with ties to the U.S. military....
How Iran Decoded the Captured RQ-170 Sentinel Stealth Drone
In April 2012, Iran announced that its military engineers had successfully decoded the intelligence systems and memory hard discs of a captured American RQ-170 Sentinel stealth drone -- an aircraft previously considered one of the most advanced unmanned surveillance...
DARPA Hypersonic Aircraft Disintegrated at Mach 20 When Its Skin Peeled Off
DARPA's Hypersonic Vehicle Disintegrated at Mach 20 In April 2012, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) released its findings on why the Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 (HTV-2), an unmanned arrowhead-shaped experimental aircraft, crashed into the...
How Bottlenose Dolphins Use Signature Whistles to Greet Each Other at Sea
Signature Whistles Serve as Dolphin Introductions Bottlenose dolphins exchange unique signature whistles when encountering other groups in the open ocean, according to research published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. The study provided the first evidence...
Obama Administration Fought to Block Court Review of NSA Surveillance Law
Obama Administration Sought to Shield NSA Surveillance Law From Court Review In 2012, the Obama administration asked the Supreme Court to dismiss a legal challenge to one of the most expansive surveillance statutes in American history — the FISA Amendments Act of...
Bee’s Get GMO Treatment: Monsanto Buys Leading Bee Research Firm For Pollination Control
Monsanto only cares about bee's so they can figure out how to make them only pollinate Monsanto GMO crops. Whistle-blower testimony and supporting evidence will confirm that Monsanto seeks ultimate agricultural world domination through most incomprehensible and...
NSA Total Information Awareness Was Already Running
William Binney Reveals the NSA Was Already Running Total Information Awareness When NSA whistleblower William Binney sat down for an interview with Democracy Now! in April 2012, he disclosed something that should have dominated headlines for weeks. While the...
CISPA Explained: How the Cyber Intelligence Bill Compared to SOPA
CISPA: The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act Explained In April 2012, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), formally designated H.R. 3523, advanced through the U.S. Congress amid fierce debate over digital privacy and national...
Pentagon Proposal to Disguise Military Spies as Civilian Businessmen
Pentagon Pushes for Military Operatives Under Commercial Cover The Pentagon submitted a formal proposal to Congress seeking expanded legal authority that would allow U.S. military personnel to operate overseas under the guise of civilian business activities. The...
How Senate Bill 1813 Could Allow the IRS to Indirectly Revoke Gun Rights
Senate Bill 1813 and Its Hidden Implications for Gun Owners In 2012, the U.S. Senate passed Bill 1813, officially titled the "Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act." While ostensibly a transportation bill, analysts who examined its 1,676 pages identified...
Smartphone Vibrations Transmitted Through Bone Could Replace Door Keys
Sending Digital Keys Through the Human Body AT&T Labs computer scientist Brian Amento demonstrated a prototype system that turns a smartphone into a biometric door key. The mechanism works by transmitting inaudible vibrations from a phone, through the user's skeleton,...
Mysterious Witness Deaths: 10 Key Figures Who Knew Too Much
Throughout history, individuals who possessed critical firsthand knowledge of significant events have met untimely and suspicious ends. Whether they were eyewitnesses to assassinations, insiders within government intelligence programs, or journalists exposing...
Psilocybin Quiets Key Brain Regions Linked to Depression
When people describe a psilocybin experience, they often reach for words like "mind-expanding" and "consciousness-altering." Scientists at Imperial College London decided to look inside the brain during these experiences to understand what was actually happening at a...
Owe The IRS? Bill Would Suspend Passport Rights For Delinquent Taxpayers
LOS ANGELES (CBS) — A bill authored by a Southland lawmaker that could potentially allow the federal government to prevent any Americans who owe back taxes from traveling outside the U.S. is one step closer to becoming law. Senate Bill 1813 was introduced back in...
The CARET Program: Alleged Reverse-Engineering of Extraterrestrial Self-Executing Technology
The CARET Program: An Alleged Insider's Account of Reverse-Engineered Extraterrestrial Technology In June 2007, an anonymous individual using the pseudonym "Isaac" released a detailed account of his alleged participation in a classified 1980s program called CARET...
FBI Communities Against Terrorism Flyers Turned Everyday Businesses Into Surveillance Posts
The FBI and Department of Justice produced a series of 25 flyers under the "Communities Against Terrorism" initiative, designed to be distributed to businesses across a wide range of industries. These documents instructed employees and business owners on how to...
Why Anonymous Was a Protest Movement, Not a National Security Threat
The U.S. Government Framed Anonymous as a National Security Threat Beginning around 2011, U.S. government agencies began classifying Anonymous — the decentralized online protest movement — as a potential threat to national security. General Keith Alexander, who led...
Five Documented Facts About Power, Surveillance, and Secrecy in America
The Private Prison Industry in the United States The American prison system has long functioned as a profit-driven enterprise. Private corporations operate over 200 correctional facilities across the country, and many of these companies are publicly traded on the New...
GMOs and the Myth of Feeding the World: What the Numbers Actually Show
The Nine Billion Question As global food prices have reached record levels, triggering unrest and political instability in multiple regions, one projection dominates the conversation: by 2050, the world's population is expected to reach nine billion, up from just...