Month: November 2015

Following the government’s lead, a Washington Post email subject last week asked: “Is Snowden to blame for Paris?” The question focuses attention on blaming national security whistleblowers for violent extremism. Aside from the insufficient evidentiary basis for such suggestions, this question allows neoconservative government officials to frame the public debate in ways that favor their own, powerful interests. It fits the broader narrative about global politics that privileges a particular conception of security that is factually incorrect in ways that harm the well-being of billions by distracting from the greatest threats of our time: climate change, the arms trade, and mass surveillance. Forget ISIS. We are facing the potential collapse of the global ecosystem and economy as we know it. That’s what I call a global security crisis… 

[Read more from the latest in my surveillance essay series at Rebel News.] 

About 15 km between Emmerich, Germany and Arnhem, Holland, a tabby kitten guards the middle of the road into Landgut de Panoven. Small but unafraid, he’s more interested in new visitors than in the Eurasian coots floating and diving like black ducks with higher-reaching white beaks and puffy fennel seed-like webbing on their feet. Their lake began as a hole dug out for clay. It’s off-season, so visitors mainly come for the rustic industrial site’s restaurant or events. But over the summer, they come to see the old, clay sauna — building, machine, and stove in one.

[Read more from the latest in my gratitude essay series at Rebel News.] 

Yesterday, at least 120 people died in Paris in the largest-scale European terror attacks since the 2004 Madrid train bombing. French President François Hollande declared a state of emergency, closed the borders, and shut down the Métro, while police and City Hall recommended people stay inside. French special forces freed concert-goers who had been held hostage in one of several simultaneous gun and suicide bomb attacks. Some witnesses heard the gunmen shout, “This is for Syria.” The Islamic State has since claimed responsibility. France has been on heightened alert since joining American-led airstrikes against the Islamic State in Syria in late September. Now its capital — previously synonymous with romance — remains under curfew for the first time since World War II, has 1,500 extra troops guard buildings including schools, and the Eiffel Tower is closed indefinitely… 

[Read more from the latest in my surveillance essay series at Rebel News.] 

The criminal justice system is supposed to apply especially stringent standards of proof and rule in order to best uphold liberty. “Double jeopardy” — the legal idea that you can’t be tried for the same charge twice — doesn’t apply to most of our lives. Rather, personal history rhymes. Alcoholics usually kick the bottle several times. Divorcees often remarry. Criminals were themselves crime victims at higher rates than the general population, although most crime victims don’t go on to become criminals. People often repeat behavior they know rather than trying new things. Maybe because fear of the unknown tends to be our greatest fear, maybe because change is hard, maybe because rewards make more of an impression than punishments. We don’t know why. And we don’t know why American interrogators come home to interrogate…

[Read more from the latest in my surveillance essay series at Rebel News.] 

Fourth-generation Methodist minister Douglas Gene Williams was excited about sharing the word of God with a new audience starting Friday. They’ll probably be more interested in his other gospel — beating so-called “lie detectors” or polygraphs. They’re certainly be captive. Doug is serving a two-year sentence after federal agents entrapped him in Operation Lie Busters, a seven-figure sting targeting polygraph opponents. His case raises troubling questions about politicized prosecution, free speech, and national security.

[Read more from the latest in my surveillance essay series at Rebel News.] 

One of Jean’s first memories is of her parents’ daily border crossings between France, where their family lived, and Switzerland, where they worked. As small children often do, she worried her parents might disappear forever in that foreign country that is “out of sight, out of mind.” So as European norms about freedom of movement in the Schengen Area strengthened — with over two dozen European countries abolishing border controls, enabling passport-free movement within large parts of Europe — Jean [a pseudonym] felt safer. 

[Read more from the latest in my gratitude essay series at Rebel News.]