by Elizabeth Goitein October 2, 2009 Suppose you’re returning home from a vacation in Cancun. A customs agent asks you to open your suitcase so he can check its contents. So far, so good. Now, the agent asks you to log on to your laptop so he can read your e-mails and personal files and examine which Web [...]

by David Kravets October 8, 2009 A deeply divided Senate committee on Thursday forwarded legislation to the full Senate that reauthorizes three expiring provisions of the Patriot Act hastily adopted in the wake of the 2001 terror attacks. The measures greatly expanded the government’s ability to spy on Americans in the name of national security. Thursday’s 11-8 vote by [...]

by Jeremy Scahill October 5, 2009 In the wake of the Congressional witch hunt against the community organization ACORN, initiated by Republican minority leader John Boehner and supported by all but seventy-five Democrats in the House and ten in the Senate (Independent Bernie Sanders also voted no), a small number of Democratic lawmakers are pushing back. Last [...]

by Andy Worthington September 30, 2009 In four years of researching and writing about Guantánamo, I have become used to uncovering shocking information, but for sheer cynicism, I am struggling to think of anything that compares to the revelations contained in the unclassified ruling in the habeas corpus petition of Fouad al-Rabiah, a Kuwaiti prisoner whose release [...]

by Chris Adams October 4, 2009 WASHINGTON — The federal government is engaged in a massive mortgage modification program that’s on track to send billions in tax dollars to many of the very companies that judges or regulators have cited in recent years for abusive mortgage practices. The firms, called mortgage servicers, have been cited for badgering, manipulating [...]

por Bartolomé Clavero 22 de septiembre, 2009 Hay casos particulares que revelan pautas generales. Si son graves de por sí, resultan todavía más graves por lo que ponen de manifiesto. A mediados del pasado mes de septiembre, una comunidad guaraní en Mato Grosso do Sul, Brasil, ha sido desahuciada de su tierra por el método de incendiar [...]

by David Michael Green October 2, 2009 What if the Russians invaded? It’s not so far-fetched an idea, you know. We spent half a century and trillions of dollars to make sure that it would never happen, so it’s really not such a strange notion. So what if the Russians invaded? What if they came and stole all of our [...]

29 de septiembre, 2009 La Misión Internacional de Verificación 1 de Violación de Derechos Humanos de los Pueblos Indígenas, en su visita a Comunidades de Colotenango, El Estor, Sipakapa, San Miguel Ixtahuacàn, Livingston y San Juan Sacatepèquez, ha documentado como el impacto de las operaciones de extracción y de otros proyectos de desarrollo puede ser devastador [...]

por Ileana Almeida 28 de septiembre, 2009 La historia de opresión a los pueblos indígenas es la historia del despojo de sus aguas. Las reducciones, los repartos, las haciendas, las ciudades, las industrias nacionales, las empresas transnacionales y, ahora, la pretendida Ley de Agua no son sino formas de despojo del líquido vital a los indígenas.

by Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity September 28, 2009 MEMORANDUM FOR: The President FROM: Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) SUBJECT: Accountability for Torture We write you, Mr. President, as former intelligence professionals to voice strong support for Attorney General Eric Holder’s authorization of a wider investigation into CIA interrogation. We respectfully disagree with the direct appeal to you by [...]