BOVARD » Surveillance

Archive for Surveillance

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Friday 5th March 2010

FBI Bankrolling Bloggers Advocating Murder?

9:17 pm | FBI | Surveillance | wool | Comments: 8

The Associated Press story on the New Jersey guy who advocating killing federal judges reveals that the bloodthirsty blogger was apparently a paid FBI informant.
A right-wing New Jersey blogger charged with threatening federal judges told a
jury Thursday that his racist Internet rants were an FBI-sanctioned ruse to “flush out” dangerous neo-Nazi and white supremacist [...]

Thursday 4th February 2010

My Early Optimism on the War on Terror & Civil Liberties

I had forgotten about the following riff until stumbling across it a few days ago.
In late September 2001, Reason magazine asked a handful of folks “to discuss which civil lliberties they thought were most at risk in what has been called America’s first 21st century war.” They published the responses in an article entitled, [...]

Thursday 22nd October 2009

On Fox News “Freedom Watch” Friday (10/23) at @ 12:15 pm

Fox News’ Judge Napolitano interviewed me today regarding how the Patriot Act allows the feds to plunder the cash of innocent Americans. This is a damned outrage that Congress is definitely not fixing with the current Patriot Act “reform” legislation.
You can watch the program online here tomorrow (Friday). It airs between [...]

Thursday 24th September 2009

Antiwar Interview on Ashcroft, Tyranny, etc. now online

Scott Horton and I had a rollicking good chat earlier this week on the post 9/11 roundup of innocent terrorist suspects, why John Ashcroft should receive “justice” (and hard), the outrage of sovereign immunity, and the bisexual congresswoman entrapped by a lesbian foreign agent.
You can hear it here.
[If that link doesn't work, hit this [...]

Tuesday 16th June 2009

Are You a “Low-Level Terrorist”?

The Pentagon is teaching soldiers and bureaucrats that people who attend public protests are guilty of “low-level terrorism.”
As a California political blog notes, “Among the multiple-choice questions included in its Level 1 Antiterrorism Awareness training course – an annual training requirement for all DoD personnel that is fulfilled through web-based instruction – the DoD [...]

Tuesday 21st April 2009

Pity for a Constitution Stomper?

Congresswoman Jane Harman is indignant. A National Security Agency wiretap reportedly picked up her conversation seeking favors from a suspected Israeli agent in return for Harman lobbying the Justice Department to drop the lawsuit against AIPAC’s former top officials.
Harman denies the charge and swears that her good name has been defiled. (Har!). Harman sent [...]

Thursday 16th April 2009

On Katherine Albrecht Radio Show Today (4/16) at 5 pm Eastern

1:37 pm | Attention Deficit Democracy | Bovard | Surveillance | Comments: 0

I will be interviewed on Internet radio today at 5 pm by Katherine Albrecht, the author of the influential expose Spychips and a leading anti-surveillance activist.
You can listen live here [click on Stream 2]
The show will also be available for 24 hours here. [click on 0416092.mp3 ]

Friday 12th December 2008

Are Democrats Better on Surveillance?

The Future of Freedom Foundation posted online today my article from their September Freedom Daily on the forgotten sordid history of the Clinton administration and the Democratic Party on surveillance.
Are Democrats Better on Privacy and Surveillance?
by James Bovard
The Bush administration has probably illegally violated Americans’ privacy more than any presidency in at least a generation. [...]

Wednesday 24th October 2007

Drunk Driving Checkpoints vs. Freedom

The Future of Freedom Foundation posted online a piece I wrote for their Freedom Daily on the scourge of drunk driving checkpoints.
DRUNK DRIVING CHECKPOINTS: EVERY DRIVER GUILTY
by James Bovard
Tens of thousands of innocent Americans are stopped each month at police checkpoints that treat every driver as a criminal. These checkpoints, supposedly started to target drunk [...]

Wednesday 29th August 2007

The “Terrorist” Batting Average

The Future of Freedom Foundation today posted online my article from the June 2007 Freedom Daily on the Bush administration’s endlessly inaccurate terrorist accusations. The title of the piece is about as close to baseball as I have gotten in the last decade or so.
The “Terrorist” Batting Average
by James Bovard
For almost six years, the Bush administration [...]

Saturday 16th June 2007

Finally! My Northwest Territory Breakthrough!

I’ll be on in Yellowknife at 7:35 a.m. Monday.
Maybe even better, I’ll be on in Gander at 7:20 a.m. and in Whitehorse at 8:30 a.m.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation will be doing a series of 6 minute interviews with me Monday morn. Canada is adapting a U.S.-style “No Fly List.” The CBC wants me to offer some [...]

Tuesday 24th October 2006

Great Cartoon Bashing NSA Wiretaps on Americans

Newsday’s Walt Handelsman, aided by Roy Furchgott, has a wonderful animated cartoon featuring singing spies. The cartoon is here.
This makes the National Security Agency wiretap issue so simple even a congressman might be able to get the point. Perhaps congressmen will respond by merely adding an amendment to a “spying legalization” bill to prohibit the feds from [...]

Friday 21st July 2006

Boston Globe: The ‘Terrorist’ Batting Average

The Boston Globe ran my piece today on how the Bush administration almost always strikes out when it accuses people of being terrorists. Here’s the text:
The ‘terrorist’ batting average
By James Bovard | July 21, 2006 Boston Globe
AFTER THE US Supreme Court’s recent decision limiting military tribunals, Congress is scrambling to pass a law regarding trials [...]

Friday 30th June 2006

Wall Street Journal replies to my hit on Bush’s illegal financial surveillance

2:34 pm | Attention Deficit Democracy | Bovard | Surveillance | Comments: 4

from today’s lead Wall Street Journal editorial:
”Since the Treasury story broke, as it happens, no one but Congressman Ed Markey and a few cranks have even objected to the program, much less claimed illegality.”
I look forward to the Journal editorial page’s updates on this subject as news leaks out about how this surveillance program ran [...]

Wednesday 28th June 2006

My hit on Bush’s Illegal Financial Surveillance

From the Baltimore Sun
Surveillance of financial transactions goes too far
By James Bovard
June 28, 2006
The Bush administration admitted that it was conducting warrantless surveillance of the financial transactions of Americans and others only after newspapers exposed the program. According to some Republicans, the solution is to imprison journalists who blow the whistle on government wrongdoing.
Shortly after [...]

Monday 26th June 2006

On New York / New Jersey TV tonight (Monday, 6 26)

12:21 pm | Attention Deficit Democracy | Bovard | Surveillance | Comments: 0

I will be interviewed on the Richard French show this evening on Regional Network News. This news network covers NY, NJ, Conn., and is also available on Direct TV and the Dish Network. Channel info is here.
The 15 minute interview will deal with the Bush administration’s vacuuming up of Americans’ financial records, as well as [...]

Friday 23rd June 2006

On Fox News Hannity & Colmes tonight 9:30 (friday)

Just finished an interview/debate on MSNBC on the New York Times’ illegal surveillance.
I will be on Fox News’ Hannity & Colmes tonight at 9:30 debating the same program.
Should be a barrel of monkeys.
LATER:
***POST-SHOW POSTSCRIPT: OK, so much for the barrel forecast. Major snafu (this blog aspires to family friendly language, except for fan mail) with the [...]

FFF Posts my hit on Bush’s Wiretap Crimes

The Future of Freedom Foundation today posted my hit on “Bush’s Wiretap Crimes & the FISA Farce.”
It is amazing how so many commentators have preserved perfect ignorance regarding the laws that the Bush administration is trampling.

Tuesday 13th June 2006

My NSA Bash - “Reach out & Tap Someone”

The American Conservative today placed online my piece on NSA wiretapping here.
June 19, 2006 The American Conservative
Reach Out and Tap Someone
The NSA’s surveillance program undermines the rule of law without producing real gains in security.
By James Bovard
The National Security Agency has been tracking the calls of millions of Americans and constructing the “largest database ever [...]

Monday 8th May 2006

Perjury as a Job Qualification for Bush Administration

Michael Hayden, the former chief of the National Security Agency, was nominated today by President Bush to be the new chief of the CIA.
Thus far, there have been no reports linking Hayden to hookers & poker games at the Watergate.
While serving as NSA chief, Hayden deceived Congress in October 17, 2002 testimony regarding the Foreign [...]

Tuesday 21st March 2006

My Cheney Tribute is now online

The American Conservative has posted my piece on Cheney’s revelation that he is exempt from federal law regarding national security secrets. Here are a few paragraphs from the piece:
The “my wish is the law’s command�? attitude towards disclosure and secrecy has permeated the Bush administration. From shortly after 9/11, the Bush team sought to drop an [...]

Sunday 12th March 2006

American Conservative prints my hit on Lawless Dick Cheney

The new issue of American Conservative (3/27/06) contains my hit on Cheney’s latest lawlessness. Here is the first paragraph:
“The biggest surprise from the shooting of Harry Worthington was Dick Cheney’s announcement that he is entitled to declassify national security secrets. Such declassifications raise the question of whether the president and vice president possess unlimited discretion to [...]

Wednesday 8th March 2006

National Security Agency spying piece now online + Update

9:40 am | Congress | Surveillance | Wiretapping | Comments: 2

My review on James Risen’s A State of War is now online at American Conservative.
The spying scandal continues to show Washington at its best. Yesterday, Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee agreed to support a legislative reform to the FISA law to legalize Bush’s actions.
One key change: Feds would be allowed to wiretap Americans’ phones [...]

Monday 27th February 2006

FFF Launches my Op-ed on Surveillance; early hate mail

10:53 pm | Attention Deficit Democracy | Surveillance | Comments: 8

The Future of Freedom Foundation posted & sent out today my op-ed on how the current NSA wiretapping scandal paves the way to repeat police state atrocities of the 1960s. Here are a couple paragraphs from the piece:
Many Americans have shrugged off the recent controversy over illegal wiretaps because they assume that the government would [...]

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