May 23, 2012 | Government Agenda
The May Day Bridge Plot: FBI Arrests Five Self-Described Anarchists On April 30, 2012, the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force arrested five individuals in Ohio on charges of conspiring to destroy a bridge near Cleveland. The arrests of Douglas L. Wright (age 26), Brandon...
May 23, 2012 | Government Agenda
Reports of Government Bulk Ammunition Purchases Surface in 2012 In early 2012, ammunition dealers across the United States began reporting that the federal government was purchasing massive quantities of military surplus ammunition, particularly in 5.56mm and .223...
May 23, 2012 | WAR: By Design
The CIA’s drone strike program operated as one of the worst-kept secrets in American national security — acknowledged by senior officials in public statements yet shielded from legal scrutiny through claims that the program’s very existence could neither...
May 19, 2012 | Anonymous, Government Agenda
When the Occupy Wall Street encampment in Lower Manhattan was barely a month old, federal and local law enforcement agencies were already receiving inside intelligence about the movement’s plans. The source was not an undercover officer or a formal informant —...
May 13, 2012 | Government Agenda
Strong, credible allegations of high-level criminal activity can bring down a government. When the government lacks an effective, fact-based defense, other techniques must be employed. The success of these techniques depends heavily upon a cooperative, compliant press...
May 10, 2012 | Activism, Events & Assassinations
The photo was taken in Hamburg in 1936, during the celebrations for the launch of a ship, the’Horst Wessel’. In the crowd, one person refuses to raise his arm to give the Nazi salute. That man was August Landmesser. He had already been in trouble with the...
May 10, 2012 | Abuses of Power, News
Michigan State Police were found to be using a handheld forensic device capable of extracting the entire contents of a smartphone in under two minutes — including deleted data — during routine traffic stops, raising serious Fourth Amendment concerns about...
May 10, 2012 | Events & Assassinations
Here is the latest body count that we have. All of these people have been connected with the Clintons in some form or another. We have not included any deaths that could not be verified or connected to the Clinton scandals. All deaths are listed chronologically by...
May 10, 2012 | Government Agenda, News
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security actively monitors social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, scanning for specific keywords that trigger what the agency calls “Items of Interest” (IOI). This surveillance program came to light through...
May 10, 2012 | Abuses of Power
In 2012, the United States Supreme Court handed down a five-to-four decision authorizing strip searches for any arrest, regardless of how minor the alleged offense. The ruling arrived on the heels of two other sweeping legal changes: the National Defense Authorization...
May 9, 2012 | Abuses of Power
ACLU Investigation Reveals Widespread Warrantless Phone Tracking ACLU affiliates across the United States submitted public records requests to local law enforcement agencies seeking information about cell phone tracking practices. The resulting data painted a...
May 9, 2012 | News, WAR: By Design
Leaked Emails Linked Private Military Contractor to Libyan and Syrian Operations Emails obtained from the private intelligence firm Stratfor and published by WikiLeaks revealed that a former Blackwater director who led a private security company played an active role...
May 9, 2012 | Abuses of Power, Anonymous
What Is Coltan and Why Does It Matter? Columbite-tantalite — commonly known as coltan — is a dark, tar-like mineral found in enormous concentrations within the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The Congo holds approximately 80 percent of global coltan reserves....
May 8, 2012 | WAR: By Design
The rapid expansion of America’s unmanned aerial warfare program represents one of the most consequential shifts in modern military strategy. What began as an experimental capability in the early 2000s has grown into the centerpiece of U.S. counterterrorism...
May 8, 2012 | Activism, Government Agenda, Video
In his first television interview since he resigned from the National Security Agency over its domestic surveillance program, William Binney discusses the NSA’s massive power to spy on Americans and why the FBI raided his home after he became a whistleblower. Binney...
May 4, 2012 | Abuses of Power, News
First American Arrested Using Predator Drone Surveillance The small town of Lakota, North Dakota, became an unexpected battleground over domestic drone use in 2012 when one of its residents became the first known American citizen to be arrested with the assistance of...
May 4, 2012 | Events & Assassinations
A Weapons Expert Found Dead Near Porton Down In April 2012, the body of Dr. Richard Holmes, a 48-year-old weapons expert, was discovered in a field approximately four miles from the Porton Down defense research facility in Wiltshire, England. Holmes had gone missing...
May 4, 2012 | Government Agenda
The scope of government surveillance in the United States extends far beyond what most citizens realize. With nearly 4,000 federal, state, and local organizations working on domestic counterterrorism — as documented by the Washington Post’s investigation into...
Apr 30, 2012 | Abuses of Power
Police Subpoenas Reveal the Full Scope of Facebook Data Collection In April 2012, documents uncovered during an investigation revealed exactly what law enforcement receives when it subpoenas a Facebook user’s data. The answer was far more comprehensive than most...
Apr 29, 2012 | Events & Assassinations, Satire
The Official Narrative of the September 11 Attacks According to the accepted account, on the morning of September 11, 2001, nineteen individuals armed with box cutters — allegedly coordinated by a man reportedly dependent on kidney dialysis, operating from a remote...
Apr 28, 2012 | Abuses of Power
The FBI’s ambitions to monitor social media in real time raise fundamental questions about the balance between national security and individual privacy. In early 2012, the bureau began soliciting the technology industry for help building an open-source...
Apr 27, 2012 | WAR: By Design
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...
Apr 27, 2012 | WAR: By Design
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...
Apr 27, 2012 | Abuses of Power, News
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”...
Apr 26, 2012 | Abuses of Power, News
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....
