E-Mail Confused Osama, and 5 Other Revelations From the Bin Laden Files
Osama bin Laden may have been the evil mastermind behind the world’s most successful terrorist group. But in his final days, he sounded more and more like your great aunt Henrietta: nagging his subordinates for not hating America enough – the terrorist equivalent of telling the kids to get off his lawn – and getting…
Privacy-Killing CISPA Bill Passes House
CISPA, a terrible bill that would let websites hand over your personal data to the government with little oversight, just passed the U.S. House of Representatives. That’s not good. https://gizmodo.com/what-is-cispa-5905360 Although the vote was scheduled for tomorrow, in something of a surprise, it took place today, and passed the House 248-168. The bill is still…
CIA’s Secret Fear: High-Tech Border Checks Will Blow Spies’ Cover
When Tom Cruise had to break into police headquarters in Minority Report, the futuristic crime thriller, he got past the iris scanners with ease: He just swapped out his eyeballs. CIA agents may find that just a little beyond the call of duty. But meanwhile, they’ve got to come up with something else: The increasing…
7 Rules for Recording Police
Last week the City of Boston agreed to pay Simon Glik $170,000 in damages and legal fees to settle a civil rights lawsuit stemming from his 2007 felony arrest for videotaping police roughing up a suspect. Prior to the settlement, the First Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled that Glik had a “constitutionally protected right…
The DHS Is Using Wartime Mega-Cameras to Study the Southern Arizona Border
One legacy of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars has arrived on the southern border of the United States. The Department of Homeland Security recently completed tests of a powerful camera, one that cut its teeth in the war zones, that captures video of entire miles of border in a single frame. DHS thinks mega-cameras on…