Trump Administration Deploys a Controversial Tool in Its Immigration Crackdown

By Nadia Prupis / Common Dreams May 22, 2017 The Detroit News reports that FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents used invasive surveillance equipment in their hunt for undocumented immigrants. Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )

Police Use of ‘Stingray’ Phone Surveillance Hurts Minority Communities Most

Thor Benson / Truthdig Mar 29, 2016 With authorities using "cell site simulators" to gather ever more cellphone information, privacy and civil rights groups fear that an effort “to chill broad social movements” is underway. A federal investigation, the groups say, is necessary. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )

14 Years After 9/11: An Improbable World

By Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatch Nov 16, 2015 Fourteen years of wars, interventions, assassinations, torture, kidnappings, black sites, the growth of the American national security state to monumental proportions and the spread of Islamic extremism across much of the greater Middle East and Africa. Dig deeper ( 9 Min. Read )

Data-Grabbing ‘Stingrays’ Are Attacking Our Civil Liberties

Thor Benson / Truthdig Nov 12, 2015 The secrecy surrounding police use of these "anti-terrorism" devices in ordinary criminal investigations is a big and growing problem, ACLU experts say, one that puts some defendants at an unfair and illegal disadvantage. Dig deeper ( 4 Min. Read )

Privacy Bill Would Make Warrantless ‘Stingray’ Surveillance Illegal

Staff / Truthdig Nov 4, 2015 Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, has introduced a bill aimed at controlling the use of a surveillance tool that is disguised as a cellphone tower in order to extract metadata. Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )

2,000 Cases in Baltimore Could Be Overturned Because of Unlawful Police and Prosecutor Collusion

Staff / Truthdig Sep 5, 2015 More than 2,000 criminal cases in Baltimore could be thrown out as a result of a retrial motion accusing the state's attorney’s office and police of “deliberate and willful misrepresentation” of their methods of evidence collection -- and attorneys say there may be many more such cases. Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )

A Five-Step Guide to Police Repression, From Ferguson to Baltimore and Beyond

By Michael Gould-Wartofsky, TomDispatch May 6, 2015 Equate dissidents with domestic terrorists; arm police with "less-lethal" weapons; replace humans with robots. Here is a step-by-step guide, based on the latest developments in the security sector, on how to police a protest movement in the new age of domestic counterinsurgency. Dig deeper ( 12 Min. Read )

The Data Hackers

By Pratap Chatterjee, TomDispatch Oct 11, 2013 Inside your mobile phone and hidden behind your web browser are little known software products marketed by contractors to the government that can follow you around anywhere. No longer the wide-eyed fantasies of conspiracy theorists, these technologies are routinely installed in all of our data devices by companies that sell them to Washington for a profit. Dig deeper ( 9 Min. Read )