Law

“Useless” TSA scanners provided endless fodder for employees, former agent alleges
The Transportation Security Agency was aware that, before they were even introduced, the full-body scanners used at airport security checkpoints were flawed, according to a former TSA agent who alleges employees regularly peered and laughed at travelers. [...]
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Top lawyer to MPs: GCHQ mass surveillance largely illegal
A substantial part of the GCHQ's dragnet snooping program is most likely illegal and was approved by government ministers despite breaching human rights and surveillance laws, a legal analysis requested by British MPs has found, The Guardian reports. [...]
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Steve Jobs, Google CEO plotted “€˜gentlemen’s agreement”€™ to keep wages down
Two of the most powerful people in the technology world secretly and perhaps illegally coordinated business strategies in which they agreed not to poach each other’s employees, thereby keeping salaries low, according to emails unveiled in federal court. [...]
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Man who tried to arrest Tony Blair awarded more than £2000
Despite failing to arrest Tony Blair for "€˜crimes against peace"€™ last Friday, the London barman who attempted the citizen's arrest has been rewarded with a quarter of the bounty for keeping the issue of double standards alive in the media. [...]
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€‹US govt attempts to block lawsuit against NSA
Lawyers from the Justice Department have urged a judge to halt a lawsuit against the NSA's spy programs. This comes after the judge'€™s previous ruling that the NSA'€™s collection of metadata was likely unconstitutional and "almost Orwellian" in nature. [...]
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Monsanto seed plant construction halted in Argentina
A labor appeals court in north-central Argentina ruled that the construction of a Monsanto plant is unconstitutional, halting work on the site. The three judge court ruled 2-1 in favor of the activists who filed a legal appeal against Monsanto’s GMO seed plant on environmental protection grounds in the municipality of Malvinas Argentinas, located in central Cordoba Province. [...]
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Former NSA whistleblowers plead for chance to brief Obama on agency abuses
A group of former National Security Agency insiders who went on to become whistleblowers have written a letter to President Barack Obama, requesting a meeting with him to offer "€œa fuller picture"€ of the spy agency's systemic problems. The group of four intelligence specialists - William Binney, Thomas Drake, Edward Loomis and Kirk Wiebe [...]
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NSA stands for “€˜No Such Amendment”€™: Intelligence agency violates US Constitution
For the first time in history, all three branches of American government are complicit in violating the Fourth Amendment of the US Constitution by facilitating illegal surveillance, Ray McGovern, a former CIA officer, told RT. [...]
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New York to legalize use of medical marijuana report
New York governor Andrew M. Cuomo is to legalize the use of marijuana in the state, using a decades-old public health law provision, the New York Times reports. The drug -€“ which remains banned federally - will be prescribed for diagnosed medical ailments. [...]
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“€˜I already won”€™: Snowden is helping the NSA though it brands him a traitor
Edward Snowden has said he feels satisfied and a winner despite the espionage charges confronting him. Denying claims he is a traitor, Snowden said he is working to improve the NSA, something that US spy chiefs do not realize. [...]
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NSA review group member wants to expand data collection program
A review group hand-picked by United States President Barack Obama said last week that the National Security Agency needs to reform dozens of the ways it does business. One member of that panel, however, says the NSA doesn’t do enough. [...]
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Clapper reveals Bush-era docs showing NSA spying dragnet started 2001
Obama'€™s Director for National Intelligence, James Clapper, has declassified new documents that reveal how the NSA was first given the green light to start collecting bulk communication data in the hunt for Al-Qaeda terrorists after 9/11. [...]
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DNA samples taken at police checkpoint “€˜gross abuse of power,” say PA drivers
A Pennsylvania community is asking questions after a government contractor, with help from the local police, pulled drivers off the road and into a parking lot to ask about their driving and 'most notably'€“ pressure them into providing a DNA sample. [...]
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Texas judge: Search warrants can be obtained based on predictions of future crimes
Police in Texas may now obtain a search warrant based on "€œa prediction of a future crime,"€ according to a dissenting judge on the state'€™s criminal appeals court. The ruling by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals came last week, ending a controversial case in which police searched a house before obtaining a warrant but were still able to present the confiscated evidence during a trial. [...]
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Denver legalizes marijuana for use on private property
The City Council in Denver, Colorado voted on Monday to permit residents to smoke marijuana on private property, even if others can see them doing so from the street or sidewalk. [...]
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Uruguay legalizes sale and production of marijuana
Uruguay has become the first country in the world to legalize both the sale and production of marijuana. President Jose Mujica has championed the measure as a way of combatting the illegal drug industry that has decimated parts of Uruguay. [...]
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CIA monitors Americans’ financial activities
The Central Intelligence Agency is collecting bulk records of international money transfers, including the financial and personal data of millions of Americans. Citing “officials familiar with the programs,” the Wall Street Journal reported that the CIA and FBI collect financial information when international transactions are filed through numerous money-transfer companies, including MoneyGram [...]
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Despite repeated warnings, US “€˜subsidizing”€™ Afghan companies with ties to terrorism – report
American taxpayers have unwittingly paid more than $150 million to companies throughout the Middle East that are known to have helped finance terrorist attacks on US soldiers stationed in Afghanistan, according to a new internal US government report. [...]
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Britain allegedly spied on Merkel a mere stone’€™s throw from her desk
Britain is using its Berlin embassy to spy on the nearby Bundestag, as well as the office of Chancellor Angela Merkel. Concern was raised following the latest Snowden revelations and prompted the German FM to invite the British ambassador "for a talk." The news comes just one week after the alleged closure of an American listening "nest" just 150 meters away from the British embassy [...]
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