Secretary of State Hillary Clinton whose State Department was the subject of the Cablegate release (photo: IIP State) More than a thousand US government organizations and nearly two thousand private companies currently work counterterrorism, homeland security and intelligence programs. Well over two million Defense Department civilian, military and contractor personnel hold confidential, secret and top [...]

Ethiopian PM Meles Zenawi (photo: aheavens) In the Committee to Protect Journalists’ (CPJ) report on attacks on the press in Ethiopia in 2010, the advocacy organization for press freedom summarized how the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (ERDF) had “imprisoned journalists, jammed foreign broadcasters and blocked websites as it swept general elections in May.” The [...]

Jawad al-Bulani (photo: DoD Imagery) Over 1,400 detainees were found in an Iraqi Interior Ministry (MOI) detention facility known as “Site 4″ by an inspection team on May 30, 2006. An inspection team uncovered cases of juveniles, who were raped to induce confessions, and a hook-and-pulley system for torturing detainees. [The Dissenter reported on this revelation [...]

Pope Ratzinger (photo: Ammar Abd Rabbo) The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) and the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) filed an International Criminal Court (ICC) complaint case today that calls on the ICC to investigate and prosecute the Vatican for crimes against humanity. The complaint details what the two groups call “systematic [...]

Cablegate (photo: Global Astrology Blog) Decryption passwords for an encrypted file containing the entire cache of unredacted unpublished US State Embassy cables have been disclosed. The file has been cracked and supposedly two WikiLeaks mirror sites have published the cache of unredacted unpublished cables. It is only a matter of time before cables that WikiLeaks [...]

Rainbow protest on Gaza massacre to Australia PM Kevin Rudd (photo: Takver) Pro-Cuba, pro-Serbian, pro-Palestinian, pro and anti-Kosovo Independence, Sri Lankan, antiwar and socialist demonstrations were closely monitored by the US Embassy in Canberra, Australia in 2008 and 2009, a secret cable posted by WikiLeaks reveals. The cable also reveals the Embassy kept tabs on [...]

Here are the latest news and updates on civil liberties and digital freedom issues—and, also, WikiLeaks. If you have any news tips and would like to contact me, email kevin.gosztola@firedoglake.com. Rep. Steven Chabot (R-OH)’s ban on citizens bringing cameras to town hall meetings declared unconstitutional. The First Circuit Court of Appeals found “citizens have a [...]

Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Awlaki (photo: Pan-African News Wire) (update 1 & 2 below) A list of 23 Australian or Australia-based citizens recommended for placement on Australia’s “terror” list was recently published by WikiLeaks. The secret cable, which contains the list of 23 names, opens with a notice that the US State Embassy in Canberra, Australia, [...]

(photo: WikiLeaks-Movie) Over the course of the past three days, WikiLeaks has been making headlines again. This time the headlines actually have to do with the work the organization aims to do as opposed to drama media organizations sometimes have played a role in instigating. The media especially news blogs and aggregator web sites have [...]

(photo:Truthout.org) The batch of US State Embassy cables recently published by the media organization WikiLeaks contain a few assessments of how other countries’ governments manage their terrorism watch lists. The assessments reveal much about how countries have tried to implement security regimes for travel in the aftermath of 9/11. And, each assessment is in the form [...]