Italy rolls out tanks to battle coronavirus, same happened in China. Governments love crises because when the people are fearful they are more willing to give up freedoms for promises that the government will take care of them. After 9/11, for example, Americans accepted the near-total destruction of their civil liberties in the PATRIOT Act’s hollow promises of security. It is ironic to see the same... 

Even in our polarized and right vs. left political paradigm, there is one thing both republicans and democrats can agree on: The federal government should have vast snooping powers and conduct mass surveillance on everyone. They simply disagree over who should be in charge of abusing those excessive powers. The impeachment circus did one thing successfully. It took attention from the government’s... 

House Democrats have slipped an unqualified renewal of the draconian PATRIOT Act into an emergency funding bill – voting near-unanimously for sweeping surveillance carte blanche that was the basis for the notorious NSA program. A three-month reauthorization of the notorious PATRIOT Act was shoehorned into a last-minute continuing resolution (CR) funding the US government, bundling measures needed... 

Back in 2014, civil liberties and privacy advocates were up in arms when the government tried to quietly push through the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act, or CISA, a law which would allow federal agencies – including the NSA – to share cybersecurity, and really any information with private corporations “notwithstanding any other provision of law.” The most vocal complaint involved CISA’s... 

The United States has devolved into a “soft-core totalitarian dictatorship” and other nations should disassociate from it, activist and radio host Rodney Martin says. The United States has devolved into a “soft-core totalitarian dictatorship” and other nations should begin to disassociate from it, according to an American activist and radio host in California. Rodney Martin, the chairman of... 

The US Senate is poised to pass the USA Freedom Act now that major surveillance powers vested in the USA Patriot Act have expired. The House-passed bill, representing a slightly less intrusive spying law, will come to a vote on Tuesday. The Senate let certain parts of the USA Patriot Act lapse, failing to extend then by the June 1 deadline. Among them is the notorious Section 215, authorizing bulk... 

The bipartisan Surveillance State Repeal Act, if passed, would repeal dragnet surveillance of Americans’ personal communications, overhaul the federal domestic surveillance program, and provide protections for whistleblowers. House lawmakers Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) are co-sponsoring bill H.R.1466, which was introduced on Tuesday and would repeal the 2001 Patriot Act, limit... 

The National Security Agency has invited certain members of Congress to a top secret, invitation only meeting to discuss a proposed amendment that could end the NSA’s ability to conduct dragnet surveillance on millions of Americans. A letter circulated only to select lawmakers early Tuesday announced that NSA Director General Keith B. Alexander would host a question and answer session with members... 

The Obama administration’s financial spying plan, which if enacted will grant spy agencies access to US citizens’ finance data, is a shocking attack on personal freedom, independent journalist Charlie McGrath has told RT. The planning document recently obtained by Reuters, dated March 4, showed that the legislation is primarily aimed at targeting and tracking terrorist cells, exposing money-laundering... 

Retiring US Congressman Ron Paul American Congressman Ron Paul has blasted the US ruling establishment as corrupt, bent on promoting wars, undermining liberties, and assassinating those it considers terrorists. Throughout a 50-minute address to the chamber of the US House of Representatives on Wednesday, the retiring Texas congressman questioned not only the fundamental well-being of his nation’s... 

US Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul making a speech during one of his campaign stops for the US presidential race, Tuesday 31 Jan. 2012. US Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul has criticized America’s ‘unwinnable, undeclared’ wars overseas, which have led to the nation’s ‘bankruptcy.’ “In the last 10 years fighting these unwinnable, undeclared wars... 

The United States Congress has severely encroached on Americans’ civil liberties and constitutional rights with its post-9/11 adoption of the contentious Patriot Act, says writer and radio host Stephen Lendman. “The Patriot Act in fact was written many months before the 9/11 event that made it possible for the Congress nearly unanimously to pass this police-state act,” Lendman said... 

Libertarian-leaning Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) made headlines last week for single-handedly obstructing the renewal of the Patriot Act, calling the law an unconstitutional infringement on civil liberties. His demand to insert a series of amendments to weaken the law nearly allowed it to lapse and put the country at “risk,” but Paul said it was worth it to prevent the government from continuing to “blatantly... 

Sen. Rand Paul, shown last month, led opposition on the Senate floor Monday, arguing that the Patriot Act's provisions allow the government to peer too deeply into Americans' private lives. Senators vote overwhelmingly to extend the anti-terrorism law for four years despite objections of a coalition of conservatives and liberals. The House is expected to follow suit. The Senate voted overwhelmingly... 

As Congress seeks to renew the Patriot Act, new information exposes egregious FBI violations. Last week, Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-VT, introduced legislation to extend the Patriot Act past its February 28 expiration date to December 2013. Though the extension once again saves some of the most nefarious, First-Amendment trampling provisions of the act — roving wiretaps, secret...