Police State Harshness Intensifies Domestically
America’s political process is lawless, corrupt and dysfunctional. Fiscal cliff hype, noise and theater continue. Destroying fundamental civil society social protections aren’t mentioned.
Rushed through legislation targeted Iran’s growing Latin American influence. On December 28, Obama signed the Countering Iran in Western Hemisphere Act.
It requires the State Department to “address Iran’s growing hostile presence and activity.” Washington wants the Islamic Republic shut out of the region entirely. It wants it isolated globally.
In 2005, Iran had five regional embassies. Today it has 11. Washington’s influence is declining. Its traditional backyard grows more independent. Over time, imperial extremism makes more enemies than friends.
Police state harshness intensifies domestically. Presidential diktat authority overrides constitutional law. Secret kill lists mark targeted individuals for death. Read more È
The Boiling Frogs Presents Jon Eisenberg
This is Part V of our interview series on the Makings of a Police State. You can listen to previous segments here.
Jon Eisenberg joins us to discuss al-Haramain v. Bush/Obama, the only case against the government’s illegal wiretapping that was permitted to proceed, and his experience in dealing with Orwellian government secrecy and abuses during his representation of this case. Mr. Eisenberg talks about the Obama administration and how it has embraced the power grab and abusive litigation tactics of the previous administration, and the rise of the police state in the United States.
Jon Eisenberg is an attorney with three decades of experience in appellate litigation. He has argued 11 cases in the California Supreme Court, and dozens in the California Courts of Appeal and Ninth Circuit. He is also a California State Bar Certified Appellate Specialist. In 2011 he received California Lawyer magazine’s “Attorney of the Year” (CLAY) award and was also named one of the Recorder’s “Attorneys of the Year” for his work on the Al-Haramain case. Mr. Eisenberg received his J.D. from Hastings College of the Law, where he was Associate Editor of the Hastings Law Journal and graduated Order of the Coif. His Bachelor of Arts is from the University of California at Irvine.
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Here is our guest Jon Eisenberg unplugged!
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The Boiling Frogs Presents Cindy Cohn
This is Part IV of our interview series on the Makings of a Police State. You can listen to previous segments here.
Cindy Cohn joins us to discuss the critical constitutional questions raised by the government’s ongoing warrantless-illegal surveillance of American citizens without probable cause or a judicial warrant, and the implications of billions of everyday communications of ordinary Americans being swept up by government computers and run through a process that includes both data-mining and review of content. She provides us with her assessment of Obama’s presidency and his track record in not only maintaining but expanding the previous administration’s system of secrecy and abuse of power through authoritarian legal doctrines such as state secrets privilege. Ms. Cohn talks about the disappearance of separation of powers, the total abdication of responsibility by the US Congress, and the speedy rise of the police state in America today.
Cindy Cohn is the Legal Director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation as well as its General Counsel. Outside the Courts, Ms. Cohn has testified before Congress, been featured in the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle and elsewhere for her work on cyberspace issue. The National Law Journal named Ms. Cohn one of 100 most influential lawyers in America in 2006 for “rushing to the barricades wherever freedom and civil liberties are at stake online.” In 2007 the Journal named her one of the 50 most influential women lawyers in America. In 2010 Intellectual Property Section of the State Bar of California awarded her its Intellectual Property Vanguard Award.
Listen to the preview Here
Here is our guest Cindy Cohn unplugged!
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I would like you to consider the following hypothetical case: There is a court in X county of Y state with eleven judges. During the past one year 1500 cases of various big corporations vs. the people have been brought before these judges. In every single case, the judges have ruled pro corporation. In every single case. 1500 rulings favoring corporations. 1500 orders against the people. Wouldn’t you expect to see a major uproar and media coverage in this hypothetical case? Wouldn’t you expect that the judges and their lives would become intensely scrutinized? Wouldn’t you suspect some sort of bribery and or extortion in play here?
Now I want you to consider a real-life case. The place- The United States of America. The court- United States Foreign Surveillance Court. The parties- US Federal Government vs. Secret Foreign Targets inside the Unites States. The purpose- for independent and judicial judges to oversee government requests for surveillance warrants, and after carefully reviewing the requests and shown causes, make decisions to grant or not to grant warrants. Last year, in 2010, the federal police agencies brought before these FISA judges 1506 such warrant requests. Last year, in 2010, the FISA Court, every single judge in the FISA Court, eleven out of eleven judges of the FISA Court, granted every single warrant requested of them by our federal police agencies. All 1506 of them. Every single request: Read more È
The Boiling Frogs Presents Nick Merrill
Nick (Nicholas) Merrill joins us to recount his ‘surreal’ experience as the first American to stand up and challenge the FBI’s National Security Letters, living under FBI gag orders for the past six years, and being identified only as ‘John Doe’ in court documents. Mr. Merrill relates what made him resist the FBI order, and dicusses the unconstitutionality of these practices- government warrantless surveillance and searches, and violations of American’s liberties and privacy. He talks about the implications of the issuance of 50000 FBI national security letters per year seeking information on ordinary Americans and US businesses, our nation’s descent towards a police state, the importance of speaking out and resisting these government practices that violate our constitutional rights, our moral obligation to protect our liberties and privacy as a nation, his goals to raise public awareness on these issues, and ways to deal with them through his recently established nonprofit organization, and more!
Nick Merrill is the founder of Calyx Internet Access and the Calyx Institute. He was the first person to file a constitutional challenge against the National Security Letters statute in the USA PATRIOT Act. After receiving a National Security Letter from the FBI, he sued the FBI and DOJ and became the plaintiff in the lawsuit Doe v. Ashcroft filed on behalf of a formerly unknown ISP owner by the ACLU against the U.S. federal government. Mr. Merrill never complied with the FBI’s NSL request, and eventually – several years into the lawsuit – the FBI decided it no longer wanted the information it had demanded and dropped its demand for records. However for several years after dropping the demand, the FBI continued to prevent him from publicly speaking about the NSL, or even from being publicly identified as the recipient of the NSL. Because National Security Letters are accompanied by an open-ended, life-long gag order, Merrill was unable to be identified in court papers as the plaintiff in the case and instead was referred to as “John Doe”. In 2010, after more than 6 years, Nick Merrill was partially released from his gag order and allowed to reveal his identity, although he still cannot reveal what information the FBI sought from him.
Here is our guest Nick Merrill unplugged!
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