MEDIA ROOTS – It may be a sign of a public awakening when news of government surveillance hits the front page of Gawker’s future and technology blog, io9. The scope of federal survellience was widened on August 10 when Wikileaks released documents that exposed the TrapWire system to the public. The security technology helps group private surveillance recordings into one larger network … Read More
MEDIA ROOTS — Glenn Greenwald gave a lecture recently in Canada’s capital, Ottawa, entitled “Canada, America, Together Into The Storm: Secrecy, War and Civil Liberties,” hosted by long-time Greenwald reader Bill Owen with an introduction by Maher Arar. (See transcript and video below.) Recently, Media Roots noted the UK’s drive toward PATRIOT Act-style policies. Here, Greenwald discusses the common mindset … Read More
MEDIA ROOTS — The U.S. Government’s raging paranoia regarding terrorism has now led to a high-octane obsession with perpetual and complete surveillance of its citizens in every manner conceivable. “The thought police would get him just the same. He had committed—would have committed, even if he had never set pen to paper—the essential crime that contained all others in itself. Thoughtcrime, … Read More
MEDIA ROOTS — With governments, citizens, and activists worldwide increasingly relying on the internet, the environment the internet fosters is a hotly contested issue. Last summer, the United Nations declared that disconnecting people from the internet was a human rights violation and against international law. Considering internet access as a human right and witnessing the vital contribution it has played … Read More
MEDIA ROOTS — For those born with melanin or a mind critical of the establishment, throughout the education system and beyond, ethnic studies have offered crucial perspectives from which to contextualise ethnic tensions within the U.S. and its caucasian dominant monoculture. Yet, Arizona continues to build its legacy of intolerance against immigrants and people of colour. In 2010, Arizona Governor … Read More
