World Oct 5, 2017
Congress moves to limit surveillance of Americans without a warrant
A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers unveiled legislation on Wednesday that would overhaul aspects of the National Security Agency's warrantless internet surveillance program in an effort to install additional privacy protections. The bill, which was to be formally introduced as soon as Thursday, is likely ...
World Oct 2, 2017
Moscow reveals cables sent to USSR by famed British double agent Kim Philby
A new exhibition in Moscow has made public for the first time secret documents that British double agent Kim Philby sent to his Soviet handlers. Considered one of the KGB's most productive Western recruits — and Britain's biggest Cold War traitor — Philby passed information ...
World / Crime & Legal Sep 26, 2017
NSA targeted 106,000 foreigners in past year's surveillance program soon up for renewal
The U.S. National Security Agency conducted targeted surveillance over the past year against 106,000 foreigners suspected of being involved in terrorism and other crimes, using powers granted in a controversial section of law that's set to expire at the end of this year. The number ...
World Jun 10, 2017
NSA backtracks on disclosing how many Americans are caught up in warrantless spying
For more than a year, U.S. intelligence officials reassured lawmakers they were working to calculate and reveal roughly how many Americans have their digital communications vacuumed up under a warrantless surveillance law that was intended to target foreigners overseas. This past week, the Trump administration ...
World / Crime & Legal Jun 6, 2017
Contractor charged with leaking classified NSA intel about Russian hacking in U.S. election
The U.S. Department of Justice on Monday charged a federal contractor with sending classified material to a news organization that sources identified to Reuters as The Intercept, marking one of the first concrete efforts by the Trump administration to crack down on leaks to ...
National Jun 1, 2017
Japan close to ushering in new wave of mass surveillance, Snowden warns
Edward Snowden, who exposed the existence of highly invasive U.S. surveillance programs in 2013, warned this week that Japan might be moving closer to achieving sweeping surveillance of ordinary citizens with a bill that gives the police highly invasive surveillance powers in the name ...
World May 3, 2017
NSA collected Americans' phone records despite change in law
The National Security Agency collected more than 151 million records of Americans' phone calls last year, even after Congress limited its ability to collect bulk phone records, according to an annual report issued on Tuesday by the top U.S. intelligence officer. The report from the ...
National Apr 26, 2017
New Zealand spied on Japan to help U.S. at 2007 whaling confab: report
New Zealand spied on Japan to help the United States at an international whaling meeting in 2007, local media reported Wednesday, citing a classified U.S. National Security Agency document. The document, leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden and published by the Intercept website, described how New ...
National / Politics Apr 25, 2017
Tokyo evasive on report of secret deal with NSA over mass surveillance program
by Reiji Yoshida
The government's top spokesman on Tuesday declined to comment on — but did not deny — a report alleging that Tokyo has secretly and closely cooperated with the U.S. National Security Agency in intelligence-gathering, having been provided with an extremely powerful mass-surveillance tool that ...
Film / Reviews Jan 25, 2017
'Snowden': Making a hero of the 'robot nerd'
by Giovanni Fazio
Just the other day, there was President Barack Obama on the telly, giving his farewell address to the American people. "Our democracy is threatened whenever we take it for granted," he said gravely. "It falls to each of us to be those anxious, jealous ...
Film Dec 21, 2016
The bad year that pervaded the screens
by Giovanni Fazio
The past year has been a cursed one. It began with the death of David Bowie and proceeded to get worse on every level: political hysteria, impending ecological doom, the creeping encroach of net-connected tech into every corner of our lives, and a blurring ...