Judge says requests for mass customer data have not been challenged "despite the mechanism for doing so." No telecommunications company has ever challenged the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance court's orders for bulk phone records under the Patriot Act, the court revealed on Tuesday. [...]

Washington seems certain that exerting sanctions on countries is the safest way to achieve their foreign policy goals. In reality economic and political sanctions do little to control the governments they target, hitting ordinary citizens hard instead. “The aim of sanctions is to harm the state. But the real victims are ordinary, regular people. Experience has shown that there’s a huge wedge b [...]

Whistleblower Edward Snowden's revelations lead to petition signed by free speech groups and high-profile writers. Stephen Fry will join 40 free speech groups and other high-profile authors and artists on Tuesday to demand an end to the mass surveillance revealed by the whistleblower Edward Snowden. [...]

Guardian editor says depth of NSA surveillance programs greatly exceed anything the 1984 author could have imagined. The potential of the surveillance state goes way beyond anything in George Orwell's 1984, Alan Rusbridger, the Guardian's editor-in-chief, told an audience in New York on Monday. [...]

Eric Harroun gets "sweet plea deal" despite supporting terrorists who killed US troops. An Army veteran whose father said he was working for the CIA has been released from jail despite fighting alongside an Al-Qaeda terrorist group in Syria that was responsible for killing US troops in Iraq. [...]

by EMYRALD SINCLAIRE Is the cash in your wallet always mysteriously disappearing? Maybe you need to get a grip on your spending habits. Here are 7 things you could be wasting your money on.   Latte at your favorite coffee shop, like Starbucks. Not only are you supporting a global empire, you are wasting money. You can brew your own coffee at home and add your own nut milk to it….sweeten it with [...]

President Barack Obama said in August that an independent panel will review the United States€™ surveillance capabilities in the wake of damaging NSA leaks. One month later, though, that group'€™s game plan is being called into question. A steady stream of disclosures credited to former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden have revealed since June previously unreported details about the Nati [...]

Journalist who exposed how rebels were behind August 21st attack faces intimidation. Associated Press reporter Dale Gavlak has been threatened over her involvement in a story which exposed how Syrian rebels were responsible for the August 21st chemical weapons attack after being handed the weapons by Saudi intelligence agents. [...]

Angela Merkel may be resented by the rest of Europe, but Sunday'€™s election result is validation by Germans of the Chancellor'€™s handling of the euro crisis, as they signed-up for four more years of tough austerity. Merkel’s cautious handling of the euro crisis secured her a third term as Chancellor, but she may struggle to form a strong coalition to continue her pro-Europe agenda in conti [...]

GMO contamination that will ultimately suffocate the entire industry if something isn't done. In a telling response to the highly concerning discovery that Monsanto’s genetically modified alfalfa ended up contaminating a ‘GMO-free’ crop harvest, the USDA went on record in declaring that the genetic contamination was perfectly normal and not any of their concern. In fact, the USDA went on to [...]

Adan Salazar | Technical snafu adds extra layer of mystery to Navy Yard shooting's questionable events. In a report that has gone virtually unnoticed in the mainstream press, D.C. police and firefighters who first arrived to assist at the Washington Navy Yard earlier this week say they were frustrated when their radios failed during inspection of the building, adding yet another strange developmen [...]

US president tells memorial for Washington navy yard victims Americans must not accept mass shootings as inevitable. President Barack Obama has called for a transformation in US gun laws at a memorial service for the Washington navy yard shooting victims, saying, "There's nothing inevitable about it." Obama said Americans should honour the victims of last Monday's shooting by insisting on a change [...]

A college student from California is making waves this week after being told he could'€™t pass out copies of the United States Constitution on campus. Robert Van Tuinen, 25, was attempting to hand out complimentary copies of the US Constitution at Modesto Junior College in central California on Tuesday when a police officer informed him that he could only distribute pamphlets on campus if done f [...]

Exclusive: Journalist uses Freedom of Information Act to disclose 1961 accident in which one switch averted catastrophe. A secret document, published in declassified form for the first time by the Guardian today, reveals that the US Air Force came dramatically close to detonating an atom bomb over North Carolina that would have been 260 times more powerful than the device that devastated Hiroshima [...]

Venezuela has sent a letter to the UN chief asking him to take measures against the United States over the denial of visas for some members of its delegation who are scheduled to attend the UN General Assembly in New York. The letter sent by Venezuela’s ambassador to the UN, Samuel Moncada, requests that the Secretary General Ban Ki-moon take action in response to the apparent denial of visas, w [...]

European diplomats are holding Israel accountable over an incident where IDF servicemen attacked a EU humanitarian convoy in the West Bank on Friday. So far Tel Aviv has left the scandal in limbo, offering no official explanation for the incident. [...]

Democratic leaders from Mexico to Argentina are so resentful of American influence that they are now willing to take action. Spies did the trick. America for the Americans - this is a cornerstone of United States’ foreign policy. That doctrine, introduced 190 years ago by President James Monroe, means this: foreigners keep out of the US’ backyard. For decades it [US foreign policy] also sat w [...]

The American Empire stands naked, called out by one man among a hundred thousand who knew its dirty secrets and systematic betrayal of the world's trust. While international politics in the West has been leaping over each other to suck up to The Empire's New Clothes following September 11, 2001, the United States wasted no time in reinforcing the order of Pax Americana - that the US would establis [...]

If this doesn't wake you up, I don't know what will. [...]