14,000 Websites Have Blocked Congress From Accessing Their Pages, Here’s Why

“It’s like a strip search, online. We should never, ever have to worry the government is watching our private moments. Congress should be ashamed that they want to see our naked photos, so we’re putting up plenty of them to make sure they are!”

Carey Wedler
By Carey Wedler

(ANTIMEDIA) As of Friday afternoon, over 14,000 websites have blocked Congressional access to their pages, instead directing them to a protest page. The massive move is an effort to show Congress that its push for continued surveillance via the Patriot Act and USA Freedom Act is unwelcome. Facilitated by Fight for the Future (a non-profit

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‘Fake’ Reform: Little To Celebrate As USA Freedom Act Passes House

With Patriot Act re-authorization looming, end of domestic phone collection program not enough to assuage civil liberty and privacy advocates.

Jon Queally
By Jon Queally
President Obama greets CIA Director John O. Brennan, center, and Navy Adm. Michael S. Rogers, director of the National Security Agency, in McLean, Va., on April 24.

Obama greets CIA Director John O. Brennan, center, and Navy Adm. Michael S. Rogers, director of the National Security Agency, in McLean, Va., on April 24. Though the overwhelming and bipartisan passage of the USA Freedom Act in the House of Representatives on Wednesday portends the end of the NSA's mass collection of Americans' private

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Not Just Rand Paul: Patriot Act Renewal Divides Republican Party

The Kentucky senator told a New Hampshire paper he will intervene this month when Congress debates renewal of the USA PATRIOT Act, source of modern surveillance programs.

MintPress News Desk
By MintPress News Desk
Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. speaks during a town hall meeting at the Loins Club hall with area residents, Monday, May 11, 2015, in Londonderry, N.H.

Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. speaks during a town hall meeting at the Loins Club hall with area residents, Monday, May 11, 2015, in Londonderry, N.H. Paul is an outspoken critic of the Patriot Act, and one only two Republicans to vote against it's renewal in 2011. MINNEAPOLIS --- An important deadline is looming

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Secret Law Is A ‘Direct Threat’ To Americans’ Privacy, Says NSA Whistleblower

The former NSA official turned whistleblower said, among other things, a greater threat exists to Americans’ privacy than the controversial Patriot Act.

Zack Whittaker for ZDNet
By Zack Whittaker for ZDNet
One of the highest-level whistleblowers to emerge from the National Security Agency, William Binney, spoke out recently about the NSA's “totalitarian ...

One of the highest-level whistleblowers to emerge from the National Security Agency, William Binney. NEW YORK -- It's not often you walk out after having lunch with a polite and intelligent retiree and know that you're probably now on a government watchlist. On Wednesday, I spoke with William Binney, a former National Security Agency

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Patriot Act Re-authorization Debate Heats Up In Congress With ‘USA Freedom Act’

With Patriot Act reauthorization quickly coming down the pipe, fight over surveillance reform represented in competing congressional bills.

Jon Queally
By Jon Queally

A 2012 photo inside the NSA security operations center (Photo via Wikimedia Commons) A bipartisan bill, designed to rein in the bulk collection of the private communications of American citizens, was introduced Tuesday by members of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees, ahead of an upcoming expiration date for key Patriot Act provisions

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National Security Whistleblowers Call For Repeal Of Patriot Act

Group charges that federal government’s ‘war on whistleblowers’ has shredded the US Constitution.

Lauren McCauley
By Lauren McCauley
Photo of (left to right) Kirk Wiebe, Coleen Rowley, Raymond McGovern, Daniel Ellsberg, William Binney, Jesselyn Radack, and Thomas Drake. (Photo: Kathleen McClellan/ Government Accountability Project)

Photo of (left to right) Kirk Wiebe, Coleen Rowley, Raymond McGovern, Daniel Ellsberg, William Binney, Jesselyn Radack, and Thomas Drake. (Photo: Kathleen McClellan/ Government Accountability Project) Prominent national security whistleblowers are calling for the full repeal of the USA Patriot Act, charging that under that legislation

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