It’s about time someone reverses the spy lens, and exposes the corporations and government agencies behind a new wave of surveillance. In her new book Spying on Democracy, Heidi Boghosian draws on her extensive legal and activist experience to document a web of surveillance stretching between private industry and the state. It’s a chronicle of rogue spy operations, but it’s also a damning indictment of how our privacy rights are violated in ways that are shockingly legal. The material here is unsettling, but Boghosian’s message is not that we should attempt to hide in the shadows; it’s that we must be out front, loud, and on the side of the journalists and dissidents whose rights are most threatened.
Check out her recent interview with Bill Moyers.
I’ll be joining Heidi Boghosian at Busboys and Poets bookstore in Washington, DC to discuss these issues, and answer the question: If you’re not doing anything wrong, why should you care if someone is watching you?
Wednesday, November 20th, 6:30 pm
Washington DC: Busboys and Poets Bookstore
Heidi Boghosian discusses Spying on Democracy: Government Surveillance, Corporate Power, and Public Resistance. She’ll be joined by Will Potter, author of Green is the New Red: An Insider’s Account of a Social Movement Under Siege. Both books are published by City Lights.
Busboys and Poets is located at 2021 14th Street NW in Washington DC.
For more information, contact Don Allen at dallen@teachingforchange.org or call the store at 202-387-7638 (POET).
The event is cosponsored by Busboys and Poets, Teaching for Change, City Lights, Nader.org, and GreenistheNewRed.com
Animal rights activists in Brazil rescued nearly 200 beagles last week from a laboratory that was experimenting on the dogs for the pharmaceutical industry.
According to one activist I spoke with in Brazil, the protest began with about 40 people outside of Instituto Royal in San Roque because the lab had been accused of animal cruelty. As the crowd grew to about 150 people, they could hear the cries of the dogs. Some activists entered the building, opened the cages, and began rescuing them.
Nearly 200 dogs were immediately taken to veterinary clinics in the area. They were found in filthy conditions. Some of them were mutilated and others had tumors. One dog had no eyes.
Since the rescue, Instituto Royal has been shut down pending a government investigation. The lab says that even if police recapture stolen beagles, they will be put up for adoption.
Yet, following the lead of the U.S. animal testing industry, the lab is also saying that the open rescue was an act of terrorism.
Does this look like terrorism to you? [click to continue…]
The FBI believed that People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) might be planning the release of anthrax in Maryland, and in the late 1990s opened an investigation into the animal rights group based on rumors.
“Part of PETA’s long-range plan is to infiltrate by gaining employment with various research facilities,” one of the document says. “PETA intends to create an incident… that would benefit their cause. PETA intends to cause a release of anthrax.”
The FBI said a source reported that PETA had moved its offices from Maryland to Norfolk, VA, in order to distance itself from the anthrax. The documents also say a source told the bureau that a PETA operative got a job at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, or USAMRIID, in order to “orchestrate the anthrax release.” The FBI checked out the lead about the facility, which tests on animals, and found no one by that name. [click to continue…]
An inmate in Illinois has been in solitary confinement since July for possessing “copious amounts of Anarchist publications” and “handwritten Anarchist related essays,” according to prison documents.
Mark “Migs” Neiweem is a prisoner at the maximum security Pontiac Correctional Center who, in addition to the publications and his writings about the prison industrial complex, was also found in possession of anarchist symbols including a “Circle A” and “Circle E” (the latter, which stands for equality, is described in prison reports as representing “class warfare, the 99%”).
“I’ve been doing this work since 1979 and I can’t think of another case where someone has gotten a disciplinary report for something so obviously political as this,” said Alan Mills, who is Neiweem’s lawyer and a professor at Northwestern University…
