Articles by The Intercept
We found 611 results.
Netanyahu Uses Same Fill-in-the-Blanks Response to Criticism as ISIS and Al Qaeda
Jon Schwarz – The Intercept,
4 Apr 2016
All perpetrators of extreme political brutality tend to react to criticism from their own side in exactly the same way, just with different nouns.
→ read full articleFighting Israeli Occupying Forces Is “Terrorism.” Boycotting Is “Anti-Semitism.” What’s Allowed?
Glenn Greenwald – The Intercept,
4 Apr 2016
3 Apr 2016 – That “terrorism” is a malleable term of propaganda, with no fixed meaning or consistent application, is now quite well-established. All forms of resistance to Israeli occupation — violent and nonviolent — are deemed illegitimate.
→ read full articleShooting Up: How War and Drugs Go Together
Matt Gallagher – The Intercept,
28 Mar 2016
A new book by Lukasz Kamienski delves into the history of war and drugs, from ancient Greeks to Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan.
→ read full articleHighlighting Western Victims While Ignoring Victims of Western Violence
Glenn Greenwald – The Intercept,
28 Mar 2016
U.S. media outlets bombard us with images and dramatic narratives highlighting our own side’s victims, while the victims of our side’s violence are rendered invisible.
→ read full article(Português) O Brasil Está Sendo Engolido pela Corrupção — E por Uma Perigosa Subversão da Democracia
Glenn Greenwald, Andrew Fishman and David Miranda – The Intercept,
21 Mar 2016
Tudo isso parece historicamente familiar, particularmente para a América Latina, onde governos de esquerda democraticamente eleitos tem sido repetidamente removidos do poder por meios não legais ou democráticos. A mídia internacional está apresentando os protestos de rua como uma revolta nobre e populista. Os fatos são muito mais complicados.
→ read full articleBrazil Is Engulfed by Ruling Class Corruption — and a Dangerous Subversion of Democracy
Glenn Greenwald, Andrew Fishman and David Miranda – The Intercept,
21 Mar 2016
Western media are depicting street protests as a noble populist uprising. The facts are much more complicated. It all seems historically familiar, particular for Latin America, where democratically elected left-wing governments have been repeatedly removed by non-democratic, extra-legal means.
→ read full articleNew Teflon Toxin Causes Cancer in Lab Animals
Sharon Lerner – The Intercept,
7 Mar 2016
3 Mar 2016 – The chemical introduced by DuPont in 2009 to replace the surfactant PFOA causes many of the same health problems in lab tests that the original chemical did, including cancer and reproductive problems, according to documents obtained by The Intercept. PFOA, also known as C8, was a key ingredient in Teflon.
→ read full articleA Chemical Shell Game: How DuPont Concealed the Dangers of the New Teflon Toxin
Sharon Lerner – The Intercept,
7 Mar 2016
3 Mar 2016 – Mark Strynar and Andrew Lindstrom walked down the muddy bank of the Cape Fear River toward the water, sampling equipment in hand. It was the summer of 2012, and the scientists, who both work for the Environmental Protection Agency, were taking the first steps in what would be more than two years of detective work. On the western bank of the river sits a large plant built by DuPont.
→ read full articleSpain’s Radical Left Podemos Party Refuses to Sell Out
Robert Mackey – The Intercept,
7 Mar 2016
During an impassioned speech to parliament, Iglesias said that his radical left party, which is now Spain’s third largest, would not allow the “miserable” leader of the more mainstream Socialists, Pedro Sánchez, to become prime minister because he had adopted the economic policies of the right.
→ read full articleWikiLeaks: NSA Spied on Israel’s Attempts to Repair Relations With U.S.
Nicky Hager – The Intercept,
29 Feb 2016
Newly published classified documents show the National Security Agency spied on a 2010 conversation between Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The Italian-Israeli conversation is included in one of five NSA documents released Tuesday [23 Feb 2016] by WikiLeaks, which has not disclosed the source of the leaks.
→ read full articleUpgrade Your iPhone Passcode to Defeat the FBI’s Backdoor Strategy
Micah Lee – The Intercept,
22 Feb 2016
18 Feb 2016 – Yesterday, apple CEO Tim Cook published an open letter opposing a court order to build the FBI a “backdoor” for the iPhone. By choosing a strong passcode, the FBI shouldn’t be able to unlock your encrypted phone, even if it installs a backdoored version of iOS on it. Not unless it has hundreds of years to spare.
→ read full articleRussian Purge: For Putin’s Censors, Only Suicide Is Worse than Homosexuality
Masha Gessen – The Intercept,
22 Feb 2016
Youths struggle with suicide in Russia but a restrictive law makes it difficult to publish articles and books about their troubles, especially for the LGBT community.
→ read full articleGreatest Threat to Free Speech in the West: Criminalizing Activism Against Israeli Occupation
Glenn Greenwald and Andrew Fishman – The Intercept,
22 Feb 2016
16 Feb 2016 – The U.K. government today announced that any entities that support or participate in the global boycott of Israeli settlements will face “severe penalties.” It is, needless to say, perfectly legitimate to argue against BDS and to engage in activism to defeat it. But only advocates of tyranny could support the literal outlawing of the same type of activism that ended apartheid in South Africa merely on the grounds that this time it is aimed at Israeli occupation.
→ read full article“Where to Invade Next” Is the Most Subversive Movie Michael Moore Has Ever Made
Jon Schwarz – The Intercept,
15 Feb 2016
On its surface, Where to Invade Next seems to be a cheerful travelogue as Moore enjoys an extended vacation, “invading” a passel of European countries plus Tunisia to steal their best ideas and bring them back home to America.
→ read full articleU.K. Court, in David Miranda Case, Rules Terrorism Act Violates Fundamental Rights of Free Press
Ryan Gallagher – The Intercept,
25 Jan 2016
19 Jan 2016 – A British appeals court has ruled that the United Kingdom’s broad counterterrorism laws breach fundamental rights in a case involving the seizure of encrypted documents from David Miranda, the partner of Intercept co-founder Glenn Greenwald, at a London airport in 2013.
→ read full articleWhere Were the Post-Hebdo Free Speech Crusaders as France Spent the Last Year Crushing Free Speech?
Glenn Greenwald – The Intercept,
11 Jan 2016
One year ago, millions marched in Paris in defense of free speech. Why, then, is the systematic attack on free speech rights in France now ignored?
→ read full articleDefense Industry Revenue Forecast Gushes over Global Turmoil
Lee Fang – The Intercept,
11 Jan 2016
9 Jan 2016 – According to a new report by the accounting firm Deloitte, “the resurgence of global security threats” promises a lucrative “rebound” in defense spending. The report alerts investors that “revenue growth” is “expected to take a positive turn” due to the terrorism and war in the Middle East and the tensions in Eastern Europe and the South China Sea.
→ read full articlePrivate Prison Exec Waves Off Criminal Justice Reform, Predicts More Profits
Lee Fang – The Intercept,
28 Dec 2015
22 Dec 2015 – A senior executive with the second-largest for-profit prison company in America assured investment bankers last summer that despite talk of drug policy and criminal justice reform, the country will continue to “attract crime,” generating new “correctional needs.”
→ read full articleStingrays: A Secret Catalogue of Government Gear for Spying on Your Cellphone
Jeremy Scahill and Margot Williams – The Intercept,
21 Dec 2015
17 Dec 2015 – The intercept has obtained a secret, internal U.S. government catalogue of dozens of cellphone surveillance devices used by the military and by intelligence agencies.
→ read full articleIn Greenpeace Sting, Professors Agree to Produce Research for Fossil Fuel Industry without Disclosure
Zaid Jilani – The Intercept,
14 Dec 2015
Greenpeace researchers posing as consultants for the fossil fuel industry got professors at Princeton and Penn State to agree to write papers for money but conceal the source.
→ read full articleDefense Contractors Laud Themselves for Steering Candidates toward Militarism
Lee Fang – The Intercept,
14 Dec 2015
11 Dec 2015 – A group formed this year by executives and lobbyists for the defense contracting industry is taking credit for “driving the national debate on foreign policy during the 2016 presidential election,” and in particular for getting Republican presidential candidates to call for escalating military action in Syria.
→ read full articleDefense Contractors Cite “Benefits” of Escalating Conflicts in the Middle East
Lee Fang and Zaid Jilani – The Intercept,
7 Dec 2015
4 Dec 2015 – Major defense contractors Raytheon, Oshkosh, and Lockheed Martin assured investors at a Credit Suisse conference in West Palm Beach this week that they stand to gain from the escalating conflicts in the Middle East.
→ read full articleGun Industry Executives Say Mass Shootings Are Good for Business
Lee Fang – The Intercept,
7 Dec 2015
In investor transcripts obtained by The Intercept, gunmakers and retailers describe mass shootings — and the resulting political dynamics — as lucrative.
→ read full articleThe Government Explains Why It Took My Email
Barrett Brown - The Intercept,
7 Dec 2015
I’ll get around to describing life in a gang-dominated medium security federal prison by and by, but right now it’s time for another update on this exciting game I’ve been playing with the BOP whereby I try to get them to restore the public email access they took from me back in March.
→ read full articleWTO Ruling on Dolphin-Safe Tuna Labeling Illustrates Supremacy of Trade Agreements
David Dayen – The Intercept,
30 Nov 2015
Case in point: the World Trade Organization (WTO) on Friday [20 Nov] ruled that dolphin-safe tuna labeling rules — required by U.S. law, in an effort to protect intelligent mammals from slaughter — violate the rights of Mexican fishers. As a result, the U.S. will have to either alter the law or face sanctions from Mexico.
→ read full articleIn Mali and Rest of Africa, the U.S. Military Fights a Hidden War
Nick Turse – The Intercept,
30 Nov 2015
A top general says Africa is home to nearly 50 terrorist organizations and “illicit groups” that threaten U.S. interests. But the Pentagon refuses to name more than a handful of them.
→ read full articleHow the Gates Foundation Reflects the Good and the Bad of “Hacker Philanthropy”
Michael Massing – The Intercept,
30 Nov 2015
A new book by Linsey McGoey reveals the influence over public policy that a massive philanthropy can wield.
→ read full articleThe Agony of Saada: U.S. and Saudi Bombs Target Yemen’s Ancient Heritage
Iona Craig – The Intercept,
17 Nov 2015
In addition to the growing number of civilian casualties in the country’s seven-month-long war, U.S.-made bombs dropped by fighter jets from a Saudi Arabian-led coalition are pulverizing Yemen’s architectural history, often referred to as a living museum.
→ read full articleStock Prices of Weapons Manufacturers Soaring Since Paris Attack
Glenn Greenwald – The Intercept,
17 Nov 2015
16 Nov 2015 – Already this morning, as Aaron Cantú noticed, the stocks of the leading weapons manufacturers — what is usually referred to as the “defense industry” — have soared.
→ read full articleU.S. Environmental Protection Agency Used Monsanto’s Research to Give Roundup a Pass
Sharon Lerner – The Intercept,
9 Nov 2015
27 out of 32 studies that looked at glyphosate’s effect on endocrine disruptor hormones and were cited in the June review — most of which are not publicly available and were obtained by The Intercept through a Freedom of Information Act request — were conducted, sponsored or funded by Monsanto. One study was by Syngenta, which sells its own glyphosate-containing herbicide, Touchdown.
→ read full articleTPP Trade Pact Would Give Wall Street a Trump Card to Block Regulations
David Dayen – The Intercept,
9 Nov 2015
Article 11.2 of the agreement confirms that financial services providers are covered under the minimum standard of treatment obligation. This means that almost any change in financial regulations affecting future profits could be challenged in an extra-judicial tribunal, even if they equally applied to foreign and domestic firms and even if they were enacted in response to a crisis.
→ read full articleAnti-Israel Activism Criminalized in the Land of Charlie Hebdo and “Free Speech”
Glenn Greenwald – The Intercept,
2 Nov 2015
Where are all the newfound free speech activists who insisted after the Charlie Hebdo murders that a defense of free expression was so vital to all that is good and just in the Western world? Why isn’t the #JeSuisBDS hashtag trending in defense of these activists who have been persecuted — prosecuted — by France for their political views?
→ read full articleTransparency International: Mideast and North African Military Corruption “Critical”
Yasmine Ryan – The Intercept,
2 Nov 2015
29 Oct 2015 – Western nations, primarily the U.S., Great Britain, Germany, and Russia, have helped increase corruption among Middle Eastern and North African states by selling them vast quantities of weapons with little oversight. “Corruption is endemic within the arms trade, and that’s because of the individuals and companies involved.”
→ read full articleThe Drone Papers – Manhunting in the Hindu Kush (5 of 8)
Ryan Devereaux – The Intercept,
26 Oct 2015
Civilian Casualties and Strategic Failures in America’s Longest War
→ read full articleThe Drone Papers – Firing Blind (6 of 8)
Cora Currier and Peter Maass – The Intercept,
26 Oct 2015
Flawed Intelligence and the Limits of Drone Technology
→ read full articleThe Drone Papers – The Life and Death of Objective Peckham (7 of 8)
Ryan Gallagher – The Intercept,
26 Oct 2015
Stripped of British Citizenship and Killed by an American Drone
→ read full articleThe Drone Papers -Target Africa (8 of 8)
Nick Turse – The Intercept,
26 Oct 2015
The U.S. Military’s Expanding Footprint in East Africa and the Arabian Peninsula
→ read full articleThe Drone Papers – The Alphabet of Assassination (9-Glossary of Terms)
The Intercept – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Oct 2015
A guide to the acronyms, abbreviations, and initialisms used in The Drone Papers. We defer to definitions provided in the source text where available; other interpretations are based on open source material.
→ read full articleDrones, IBM, And the Big Data of Death
Jon Schwarz – The Intercept,
26 Oct 2015
“There are no nations, there are no peoples … there is no America, there is no democracy. There is only IBM and ITT and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today.” IBM received over $1.34 billion in federal contracts in fiscal year 2014, an increase of $108 million over FY 2013.
→ read full articleLockheed Martin, Boeing Rally around Saudi Arabia, Wave Off Humanitarian Concerns
Lee Fang – The Intercept,
26 Oct 2015
“Another significant irritant” Ronald L. Perrilloux Jr., an executive with Lockheed Martin said, “is the application of human rights laws” toward U.S. allies in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates.
→ read full articleThe Drone Papers – The Assassination Complex (1 of 8)
Jeremy Scahill - The Intercept,
19 Oct 2015
Secret military documents expose the inner workings of Obama’s drone wars. There has been intense focus on the technology of remote killing, but that often serves as a surrogate for what should be a broader examination of the state’s power over life and death.
→ read full articleThe Drone Papers – A Visual Glossary (2 of 8)
Josh Begley – The Intercept,
19 Oct 2015
Decoding the Language of Covert Warfare
→ read full articleThe Drone Papers – The Kill Chain (3 of 8)
Cora Currier – The Intercept,
19 Oct 2015
The Lethal Bureaucracy behind Obama’s Drone War
→ read full articleThe Drone Papers – Find, Fix, Finish (4 of 8)
Jeremy Scahill – The Intercept,
19 Oct 2015
For the Pentagon, creating an architecture of assassination meant navigating a turf war with the CIA.
→ read full articleTop European Court Rules That NSA Spying Makes U.S. Unsafe For Data
Jenna McLaughlin – The Intercept,
12 Oct 2015
6 Oct 2015 – The European Union no longer considers the United States a “safe harbor” for data because the National Security Agency surveillance exposed by whistleblower Edward Snowden “enables interference, by United States public authorities, with the fundamental rights of persons.”
→ read full articleA Short History of U.S. Bombing of Civilian Facilities
Jon Schwarz – The Intercept,
12 Oct 2015
7 Oct 2015 – On October 3, a U.S. AC-130 gunship attacked a hospital run by Médecins Sans Frontières in Kunduz, Afghanistan, partially destroying it. Below is a sampling of such incidents since the 1991 Gulf War.
→ read full articleDuPont Found Liable in Teflon Toxin Trial
Sharon Lerner – The Intercept,
12 Oct 2015
8 Oct 2015 – A jury has found Dupont liable for negligence in the case of Carla Bartlett, taking less than a day to award $1.6 million to the Ohio woman who developed kidney cancer after drinking water contaminated with a chemical formerly used to make Teflon.
→ read full articleOne Day after Warning Russia of Civilian Casualties, the U.S. Bombs a Hospital in Afghanistan
Glenn Greenwald – The Intercept,
5 Oct 2015
Several reports suggest that this hospital has been viewed with hostility because it treats all injured human beings, regardless of which side they’re on. “The hospital treated the wounded from all sides of the conflict, a policy that has long irked the Afghan security forces,” reports the NYT. Al Jazeera notes that “a caretaker at the hospital, who was severely injured in the air strike, told Al Jazeera that [the] clinic’s medical staff did not favor any side of the conflict.
→ read full articleProfiled: From Radio to Porn, British Spies Track Web Users’ Online Identities
Ryan Gallagher – The Intercept,
28 Sep 2015
Top-secret documents from whistleblower Edward Snowden expose U.K. eavesdropping agency GCHQ’s attempts to create the largest mass surveillance system anywhere in the world.
→ read full articleAn “Enormous Opportunity”: A Short, Awful 9/11 Quiz
Jon Schwarz – The Intercept,
14 Sep 2015
For regular people, terrorism and wars are tragedies. For our leaders — in every country — they’re something very different.
→ read full articleTwo Short Paragraphs That Summarize the US Approach to Human Rights Advocacy
Glenn Greenwald – The Intercept,
14 Sep 2015
Support for human rights abuses and tyranny – not opposition to it – is a staple of U.S. foreign policy. Standing alone, how can anyone believe that the same government that lavishes the Saudi regime with support is waging war or other using forms of violence in order to stop human rights abuses?
→ read full articleDo Adults Have a Privacy Right to Use Drugs? Brazil’s Supreme Court Decides
Glenn Greenwald – The Intercept,
14 Sep 2015
“The idea is that drug usage, if there is a harm, is only self-injury, only harms the individual and thus cannot be the object of state punishment.”
→ read full articleNYT Claims U.S. Abides by Cluster Bomb Treaty: The Exact Opposite of Reality
Glenn Greenwald – The Intercept,
7 Sep 2015
For the NYT to tell its readers that the U.S. — one of the leading cluster bomb states on the planet — is actually one of the countries that “have not yet joined the treaty but have abided by its provisions” is nationalistic propaganda of the most extreme kind.
→ read full articleJorge Ramos Commits Journalism, Gets Immediately Attacked by Journalists
Glenn Greenwald – The Intercept,
31 Aug 2015
Jorge Ramos, the influential anchor of Univision and an American immigrant from Mexico, has been denouncing Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric. Yesterday at a Trump press conference in Iowa, Ramos stood and questioned Trump on his immigration views.
→ read full articleSanta Muerte, Full of Grace: The Barrett Brown Review of Arts and Letters and Prison
Barrett Brown – The Intercept,
31 Aug 2015
Getting put back in Disciplinary Segregation was actually in some ways fortuitous, as I’m now able to make a long-overdue inspection tour of this institution’s Special Housing Unit. (I’m very much the Eleanor Roosevelt of the federal prison system.) The timing is grand, too, as the nation’s tendency to keep prisoners in these sorts of 23-hour-a-day lockdown settings for no good reason has come under a rare spate of scrutiny in recent months.
→ read full article“We Come As Friends” Explores the Beautiful Nightmare of South Sudan
Nick Turse – The Intercept,
24 Aug 2015
As a filmmaker, Hubert Sauper does not take the road less traveled. That would be far too easy. He doesn’t, in fact, take roads much at all. First he spent two years on his French farm building his own ultralight plane out of tin and canvas and lawnmower wheels. Then, in 2010, he flew it from France to southern Sudan. And then things got interesting.
→ read full articleThe Teflon Toxin – Part 3: How DuPont Slipped Past the EPA
Sharon Lerner – The Intercept,
24 Aug 2015
During the five decades in which DuPont used and profited from C8, the company had only infrequently discussed the chemical with environmental authorities, and it kept most of its extensive internal research on the chemical confidential. After Bilott sent out his packages of evidence, however, DuPont’s relationships to government agencies shifted dramatically. They had the power to tarnish the company’s reputation and lead to huge legal and cleanup costs, so DuPont focused on weathering the scrutiny of regulators and keeping its name — and profits — unscathed.
→ read full articleAppellate Court Judges Cite “1984” to Expand Corporate First Amendment Rights
Jon Schwarz – The Intercept,
24 Aug 2015
Telling companies they have to disclose if they are financing conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is too big a step toward totalitarianism, the D.C. Circuit rules.
→ read full articleThe Teflon Toxin – Part 1: DuPont and the Chemistry of Deception
Sharon Lerner – The Intercept,
17 Aug 2015
In some ways, C8 already is the tobacco of the chemical industry — a substance whose health effects were the subject of a decades-long corporate cover-up. DuPont elected not to disclose its findings to regulators. A DuPont lawyer referred to C8 as “the material 3M sells us that we poop to the river and into drinking water along the Ohio River.”
→ read full articlePsychologist’s Work for GCHQ Deception Unit Inflames Debate among Peers
Andrew Fishman – The Intercept,
10 Aug 2015
7 Aug 2015 – A British psychologist is receiving sharp criticism from some professional peers for providing expert advice to help the U.K. surveillance agency GCHQ manipulate people online.
→ read full articleDylann Roof Is Not a “Terrorist” — But Animal Rights Activists Who Free Minks From Slaughter Are
Glenn Greenwald – The Intercept,
3 Aug 2015
The FBI on Friday [24 Jul] announced the arrests in Oakland of two animal rights activists and accused the pair of engaging in “domestic terrorism.” This comes less than a month after the FBI director said he does not consider Charleston Church murderer Dylann Roof a “terrorist.” The activists’ alleged crimes: “They released thousands of minks from farms around the country and vandalized various properties.” That’s it.
→ read full articleU.S. Institute of Peace’s Hawkish Chairman Wants Ukraine to Send Russians Back in Body Bags
Lee Fang – The Intercept,
3 Aug 2015
United States Institute of Peace chairman Stephen Hadley is a relentless hawk whose advocacy for greater military intervention often dovetails closely with the interests of Raytheon, a major defense contractor that pays him handsomely as a member of its board of directors.
→ read full articleFor American Psychological Association, National Security Trumped Torture Concerns
Jenna McLaughlin – The Intercept,
27 Jul 2015
The report describes how repeated expressions of concern from within the CIA itself that psychologists had no place in the abusive treatment of detainees were brushed aside by leaders of what was supposed to be a highly ethical professional association. Psychologists with close ties to the CIA, in some cases even involving financial relationships, cited national security as the reason to ignore their fundamental oaths to do no harm.
→ read full articleNBC News Releases the Long-Awaited Trailer for Its Summer Horror Film about ISIS
Glenn Greenwald – The Intercept,
27 Jul 2015
James Comey somberly warned that ISIS now officially poses a bigger threat to the ‘U.S. homeland’ than the one posed by former title-holder Al Qaeda – because, of course, the Latest Threat must always be the Greatest Threat.
→ read full articleAlaska Military Site That Has Fueled Conspiracy Theories, HAARP, Will Be Transferred to Civilian Operators
Sharon Weinberger – The Intercept,
20 Jul 2015
July 13 2015 – It’s been a suspected death beam, a secret tool to control the weather and even a weapon to manipulate the human mind. Now, the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program has reached the final stage of its strange journey that began with Cold War concerns about nuclear war.
→ read full articleRetired General: Drones Create More Terrorists Than They Kill, Iraq War Helped Create ISIS
Murtaza Hussain – The Intercept,
20 Jul 2015
“What we have is this continued investment in conflict,” the retired general says. “The more weapons we give, the more bombs we drop, that just … fuels the conflict.”
→ read full articleHacking Team Emails Expose Proposed Death Squad Deal, Secret U.K. Sales Push and Much More
Ryan Gallagher – The Intercept,
13 Jul 2015
Late Sunday [5 Jul 2015], hackers dumped online a massive trove of emails and other documents obtained from the systems of Italian surveillance firm Hacking Team. The company’s controversial technology is sold to governments around the world, enabling them to infect smartphones and computers with malware to covertly record conversations and steal data.
→ read full articleXKEYSCORE (Part I) – NSA’s Google for the World’s Private Communications
Morgan Marquis-Boire, Glenn Greenwald, and Micah Lee – The Intercept,
6 Jul 2015
1 Jul 2015 – One of the National Security Agency’s most powerful tools of mass surveillance makes tracking someone’s Internet usage as easy as entering an email address, and provides no built-in technology to prevent abuse. Today, The Intercept is publishing 48 top-secret and other classified documents about XKEYSCORE.
→ read full articleXKEYSCORE (Part II) – Behind the Curtain: A Look at the Inner Workings of NSA
Micah Lee, Glenn Greenwald, and Morgan Marquis-Boire – The Intercept,
6 Jul 2015
Around the world, when a person gets online to do anything — write an email, post to a social network, browse the web or play a video game — there’s a decent chance that the Internet traffic her device sends and receives is getting collected and processed by one of XKEYSCORE’s hundreds of servers scattered across the globe.
→ read full articleNSA’s Top Brazilian Political and Financial Targets Revealed by New WikiLeaks Disclosure
Glenn Greenwald and David Miranda – The Intercept,
6 Jul 2015
4 Jul 2015 – President Rousseff just yesterday returned to Brazil after a trip to the U.S. that included a meeting with President Obama, a visit she had delayed for almost two years in anger over prior revelations of NSA spying on Brazil.
→ read full articleSpies Hacked Computers Thanks to Sweeping Secret Warrants, Aggressively Stretching U.K. Law
Andrew Fishman and Glenn Greenwald – The Intercept,
29 Jun 2015
GCHQ needed to reverse engineer software to hack into computer networks — so it decided to secretly reinterpret British law. Then it abused its newfound powers, ignoring internal guidelines.
→ read full articleGoogle Accused of “Abusive” Conduct in Privacy App Case
Ryan Gallagher – The Intercept,
29 Jun 2015
23 Jun 2015 – An award-winning company founded by former Google engineers is taking legal action against the search engine giant over claims it has engaged in a “pattern of abusive behavior” and is violating privacy rights on a “massive scale.”
→ read full articleOrwell’s Triumph: How Novels Tell the Truth of Surveillance
Sam Frank – The Intercept,
29 Jun 2015
We are characters in narratives constructed by algorithms. Joshua Cohen’s new novel, Book of Numbers, explores the ambiguity of surveillance.
→ read full articlePopular Security Software Came Under Relentless NSA and GCHQ Attacks
Andrew Fishman and Morgan Marquis-Boire – The Intercept,
29 Jun 2015
To thwart and extract hacks from anti-virus software companies, the spy agencies reverse engineered software, intercepted email and spied on web traffic. Kaspersky Lab was a major target.
→ read full articleControversial GCHQ Unit Engaged in Domestic Law Enforcement, Online Propaganda, Psychology Research
Glenn Greenwald and Andrew Fishman – The Intercept,
22 Jun 2015
22 Jun 2015 – Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group’s use of behavioral science research is emphasized as critical to its operations. That includes detailed discussions of how to foster “obedience” and “conformity.”
→ read full articleRefusal to Call Charleston Shootings “Terrorism” Again Shows It’s a Meaningless Propaganda Term
Glenn Greenwald – The Intercept,
22 Jun 2015
Terrorism: a term that justifies everything yet means nothing — other than “violence we want to delegitimize.”
→ read full articleRevealed: How the US Dept. of Justice Gagged Google over Surveillance of WikiLeaks Volunteer
Ryan Gallagher – The Intercept,
22 Jun 2015
20 Jun 2015 – The Obama administration fought a three-month legal battle against Google to secretly obtain the email records of Jacob Appelbaum, a security researcher and journalist associated with WikiLeaks.
→ read full articleThe Sunday Times’ Snowden Story Is Journalism at Its Worst — And Filled with Falsehoods
Glenn Greenwald – The Intercept,
15 Jun 2015
14 Jun 2015 – The British Murdoch-owned paper publishes a report trying to exploit this mindset: “If some anonymous government officials said it, and journalists repeat it while hiding who they are, I guess it must be true.”
→ read full article“Combat Proven”: The Booming Business of War in Israel
Alex Kane – The Intercept,
8 Jun 2015
The wars in Gaza have devastated the population, but they’ve benefited weapons manufacturers looking to market their products. Inside an Israeli arms expo.
→ read full articleIn Myanmar [Burma], Muslims Arrested for Joining Terror Group That Doesn’t Exist
Carlos Sardiña Galache and Veronica Pedrosa – The Intercept,
1 Jun 2015
The crackdown is part of a wave of anti-Muslim persecution in the Buddhist country, this time under the cover of the U.S. war on terror.
→ read full articleEmails Reveal Dairy Lobbyist Crafted “Ag-Gag” Legislation Outlawing Pictures of Farms
Lee Fang – The Intercept,
1 Jun 2015
28 May 2015 – Across the country, legislatures are responding to whistleblowers and activists who have exposed inhumane and at times unsanitary practices at farms by passing laws that criminalize the taking of photos or videos at agricultural facilities… But the groundwork was laid by Dan Steenson, a registered lobbyist for the Idaho Dairymen’s Association, a trade group for the industry.
→ read full articleFirst Look Publishes Open Source Code to Advance Privacy, Security and Journalism
Micah Lee – The Intercept,
1 Jun 2015
27 May 2015 – The Intercept and its publisher, First Look Media, strongly believe in the benefits of free and open source software — in part because we rely on such software every day. To keep our journalists and sources safe, we use secure communication tools.
→ read full articleU.N. Special Rapporteur: Governments Must Not “Backdoor” Encryption for Spying
Ryan Gallagher – The Intercept,
1 Jun 2015
A landmark new United Nations report is “the first attempt to create a legal framework for digital security,” David Kaye, the U.N.’s special rapporteur on freedom of expression, told The Intercept in an interview Thursday [28 May 2015].
→ read full articleNSA Planned to Hijack Google App Store to Hack Smartphones
Ryan Gallagher – The Intercept,
25 May 2015
21 May 2015 – The National Security Agency and its closest allies planned to hijack data links to Google and Samsung app stores to infect smartphones with spyware, a top-secret document reveals.
→ read full articleGCHQ’s Rainbow Lights: Exploiting Social Issues for Militarism and Imperialism
Glenn Greenwald – The Intercept,
25 May 2015
Whatever your views on all this nasty surveillance business might be, how can you not feel good about GCHQ when it drapes itself in the colors of LGBT equality? This is all a stark illustration of what has become a deeply cynical but highly effective tactic.
→ read full articleApple and Google Just Attended a Confidential Spy Summit in a Remote English Mansion
Ryan Gallagher – The Intercept,
25 May 2015
22 May 2015 – At an 18th-century mansion in England’s countryside last week, current and former spy chiefs from seven countries faced off with representatives from tech giants Apple and Google to discuss government surveillance in the aftermath of Edward Snowden’s leaks.
→ read full article‘Politico’ Gives CIA’s Worst WMD Liar a Platform to Slam Seymour Hersh
Jon Schwarz – The Intercept,
18 May 2015
What’s neither appropriate nor useful is to give former government officials the chance to attack Hersh’s story without giving readers the context of their track record of veracity.
→ read full articleCanadian Government Says Free Speech is for Offending Muslims — Not Opposing Israel
Glenn Greenwald – The Intercept,
18 May 2015
As I’ve argued many times, all applications of hate speech laws are inherently tyrannical, dangerous and wrong, and it’s truly mystifying (and scary) that people convince themselves that their judgment is so unerring and their beliefs so sacrosanct that it should be illegal to question or dissent from them.
→ read full articleI Can’t Believe It’s Not Lobbying: The National Petroleum Council
Alleen Brown – The Intercept,
4 May 2015
The NPC looks, walks and quacks like lobbyists. But legally it’s a “federal advisory committee,” a little-known type of organization that in appearance and often in reality provides yet another way for corporations to get what they want out of the government.
→ read full articleAP: Americans Strongly Support Different, Imaginary Drone Program
Dan Froomkin and Jon Schwarz – The Intercept,
4 May 2015
1 May 2015 – The headline on the Associated Press story is unambiguous: “AP Poll: 60 percent of Americans approve of drone strikes on terrorists.” Strangely enough, if you get to the story’s ninth paragraph, you learn that the AP’s own reporters have a pretty good hunch that the previous eight paragraphs were bullshit.
→ read full article145 PEN Writers (Thus Far) Have Objected to the Charlie Hebdo Award – Not Just 6
Glenn Greenwald – The Intercept,
4 May 2015
30 Apr 2015 – Contrary to media accounts claiming that only 6 PEN members have objected to the group’s decision to bestow Charlie Hebdo with an award, the actual number is currently 145 PEN members. Below is the letter drafted by several of the objecting writers, along with the current full list of signatories.
→ read full articleCowardly Firing of Australian State-Funded TV Journalist Highlights the West’s Real Religion
Glenn Greenwald – The Intercept,
4 May 2015
A TV commentator in Australia, Scott McIntyre, was summarily fired on Sunday [26 Apr 2015] by Special Broadcasting Services on “Anzac Day,” a national holiday that marks the anniversary of a military action by Australian and New Zealand forces in WWI, due to a series of tweets about the violence committed by the Australian military.
→ read full articleThe Word That Cannot Be Uttered (It’s Drones)
Dan Froomkin – The Intercept,
27 Apr 2015
Over and over again, Obama called the drone strike that killed two al Qaeda hostages a “counterterrorism operation.” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest: Q: How will this incident affect specifically the U.S. policy, government policy on usage of drones?MR. EARNEST: Well, Jeff, there are certain aspects of this specific operation that I’m not going to be able to discuss, including how this specific operation was carried out … If they cannot even say the word, how can they even begin to tell the truth?
→ read full articleThe Key War on Terror Propaganda Tool: Only Western Victims Are Acknowledged
Glenn Greenwald – The Intercept,
27 Apr 2015
24 Apr 2015 – In all the years I’ve been writing about Obama’s drone killings, yesterday featured BY FAR the most widespread critical discussion in U.S. establishment journalism circles. The reason for the unusually intense, largely critical coverage of drone killings yesterday is obvious: the victims of this strike were Western and non-Muslim, and therefore were seen as actually human.
→ read full articleGermany is the Tell-Tale Heart of America’s Drone War
Jeremy Scahill – The Intercept,
20 Apr 2015
A top-secret U.S. intelligence document obtained by The Intercept reveals that the sprawling U.S. military base in Ramstein, Germany plays a critical role in the American drone program, relaying commands from drone operators to their remote aircraft in Yemen, Somalia, Afghanistan and other targeted countries.
→ read full articleOur SecureDrop System for Leaks Now Uses HTTPS
Micah Lee – The Intercept,
13 Apr 2015
The new setup helps assure leakers they are connecting with the authentic Intercept SecureDrop and not an impostor.
→ read full articleDEA Global Surveillance Dragnet Exposed; Access to Data Likely Continues
Ryan Gallagher – The Intercept,
13 Apr 2015
Phone logging across 116 nations is similar to three other programs reported by The Intercept, The New York Times, and Reuters.
→ read full articleSeven Things You Didn’t Know the U.S. and Its Allies Did to Iran
Jon Schwarz – The Intercept,
13 Apr 2015
A proposed nuclear deal is the first time in 35 years that U.S.-Iranian relations aren’t being driven by fear.
→ read full articlePassphrases That You Can Memorize — But That Even the NSA Can’t Guess
Micah Lee – The Intercept,
13 Apr 2015
It’s getting easier to secure your digital privacy. iPhones now encrypt a great deal of personal information; hard drives on Mac and Windows 8.1 computers are now automatically locked down. But none of this technology offers as much protection as you may think if you don’t know how to come up with a good passphrase.
→ read full articleIranians Are Much Talked About on Sunday Morning TV, but Never Heard From
Glenn Greenwald – The Intercept,
13 Apr 2015
The only way to exclude Iranian voices is if you choose to exclude them. That’s exactly what Sunday morning television programs have done, and the result is pure propaganda.
→ read full article