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National Security

Assata Shakur and a Brief History of the FBI's Most Wanted Lists

Assata Shakur and a Brief History of the FBI’s Most Wanted Lists

by Jamilah King on May 8 2013, 8:07AM

What’s the purpose of the FBI’s lists? Basically, publicity and fear mongering.

Topics: History, National Security

Decoding the Invisible Whiteness In Boston Bombing Coverage

Decoding the Invisible Whiteness In Boston Bombing Coverage

by Akiba Solomon on April 25 2013, 12:00PM

We live in an ahistorical culture that continually attempts to deny the white supremacy that determines who is and isn’t defined as a U.S. citizen, a criminal, a terrorist or a victim. A trip through our history is instructive.

Topics: Boston Bombing, Media, National Security

The Tangled Meanings--and Misuses--of 'Radicalization'

The Tangled Meanings—and Misuses—of ‘Radicalization’

by Seth Freed Wessler on April 25 2013, 8:50AM

Everybody wants to know whether and how the Tsarnaev’s religious views radicalized them. But is that even the right question? And what are its implications?

Topics: Boston Bombing, National Security

How We Can Break the Cycle of Pain From Mass Violence

How We Can Break the Cycle of Pain From Mass Violence

by Rinku Sen on April 16 2013, 10:17AM

Care for those hurt. Care for those who will be accused. And care for ourselves. That’s how we’ll grow together, rather than tear apart.

Topics: Boston Bombing, Coping With Terror, National Security, Rinku Sen

History Would Repeat Itself If Boston Derailed Immigration Reform

History Would Repeat Itself If Boston Derailed Immigration Reform

by Seth Freed Wessler on April 16 2013, 7:52AM

American lawmakers have generally responded to acts of mass violence, whether by U.S. citizens or foreigners, with anti-immigration laws and a retreat from reform.

Topics: Boston Bombing, Immigration, Immigration Reform, National Security

5  Things You Probably Didn't Know About Drones in the U.S.

5 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Drones in the U.S.

by Seth Freed Wessler, Jamilah King on February 13 2013, 10:33AM

No, the LAPD didn’t use a drone to track and kill Christopher Dorner. But the devices are still being used in some very unsettling ways to track U.S. citizens on American soil.

Topics: Criminal Justice, National Security

Terrorism Suspect Pleads in Yet Another NYPD Case Riddled With Questions

Terrorism Suspect Pleads in Yet Another NYPD Case Riddled With Questions

by Seth Freed Wessler on December 5 2012, 10:44AM

The city’s ongoing use of informants to create terror plots it can then prosecute raised concerns of even the FBI in Ahmed Ferhani’s case.

Topics: Criminal Justice, NYPD Spying, National Security

The Nightmare of War Finds an Outlet in Jazz, Poetry from Vets

The Nightmare of War Finds an Outlet in Jazz, Poetry from Vets

by Seth Freed Wessler on November 30 2012, 9:19AM

Musician Mike Ladd and jazz pianist and composer Vijay Iyer explore the emotional toll of war on veterans of color.

Topics: Arts & Culture, Global Affairs, National Security

The Real Reason Big Brother's Still Spying on New York City's Muslims

The Real Reason Big Brother’s Still Spying on New York City’s Muslims

by Seth Freed Wessler on August 29 2012, 9:34AM

A program that was meant to make New York City “safer” from would-be terrorists has proven to be an abysmal failure. But city officials aren’t budging.

Topics: Criminal Justice, NYPD Spying, National Security

Richard Aoki, the FBI, and the Long (Ongoing) Saga of State Spying

Richard Aoki, the FBI, and the Long (Ongoing) Saga of State Spying

by Jamilah King on August 21 2012, 9:24AM

A damning new report alleges that the late Black Panther Richard Aoki may have worked as an FBI informant. But is state intervention in progressive movements inevitable?

Topics: History, National Security, Richard Aoki

Feds Use Counter-Terrorism Laws to Fuel Deportation Machine

Feds Use Counter-Terrorism Laws to Fuel Deportation Machine

by Seth Freed Wessler on May 15 2012, 8:41AM

A decade after September 11, 2001, the government is wielding it’s broad counterterrorism powers against non-citizens who pose no threat and who face deportation as a result.

Topics: Immigration, National Security

Bloomberg's Fear of Muslims Helped Drive the NYPD's Shameless Spying

Bloomberg’s Fear of Muslims Helped Drive the NYPD’s Shameless Spying

by Seth Freed Wessler on March 15 2012, 9:28AM

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s defense of the NYPD’s spying on Muslim communities shouldn’t come as a surprise. The Mayor’s had a tense relationship with Muslim and Arab communities for nearly a decade.

Topics: Criminal Justice, NYPD Spying, National Security

A Closer Look at Ray Kelly's Multi-Billion Dollar Army of Spies

A Closer Look at Ray Kelly’s Multi-Billion Dollar Army of Spies

by Seth Freed Wessler on March 1 2012, 10:33AM

New York Police Department has argued that it’s spending billions to spy on Muslim Americans in order to foil terror plots. That assertion simply doesn’t hold up against the few facts they’ve been willing to share.

Topics: NYPD Spying, National Security

Muslim Students Reeling From Shocking News of NYPD's Spying

Muslim Students Reeling From Shocking News of NYPD’s Spying

by Seth Freed Wessler on February 24 2012, 9:01AM

On campuses all over the Northeast, horrified students are discovering they were targets of surveillance, simply because they joined a Muslim student group. But domestic religious profiling is now routine for both NPYD and the FBI.

Topics: Criminal Justice, NYPD Spying, National Security

Muslim Americans to NYPD: Enough Already, the Commish Must Go

Muslim Americans to NYPD: Enough Already, the Commish Must Go

by Seth Freed Wessler on January 27 2012, 9:48AM

This week’s revelation that NYPD leaders lied about their participation in an anti-Muslim film that was then shown to 1,500 trainees was just the latest in a growing string of evidence that the department is systematically profiling the city’s Muslim residents.

Topics: Criminal Justice, NYPD Spying, National Security

U.S. Somalis Can't Support Families During Famine, Thanks To Anti-Terror Laws

U.S. Somalis Can’t Support Families During Famine, Thanks To Anti-Terror Laws

by Channing Kennedy on December 16 2011, 9:42AM

A single small bank in Minneapolis has been the only way for many U.S. Somali immigrants to send money home. Now, community organizers like Hassan Warsame are fighting to keep its program running.

Topics: Global Affairs, National Security

FBI Uses Maps to Track Muslims and Fight Fake Crime

FBI Uses Maps to Track Muslims and Fight Fake Crime

by Jamilah King on October 25 2011, 10:00AM

Back in 2004, FBI Special Agent Bill Shute set out to prove a point. A self-described “visual learner,” Shute thought that if you took arrest data from court records and local police and dumped it into Microsoft mapping software, you…

Topics: National Security

Muslim Woman Kicked Off Southwest Flight After 'It's a Go' Mix-Up

Muslim Woman Kicked Off Southwest Flight After ‘It’s a Go’ Mix-Up

by Jorge Rivas on October 10 2011, 2:57PM

Southwest Airlines flight officials did not let Irum Abbasi re-board because the crew was “uncomfortable” with her on the plane.

Topics: National Security

Former Marine Evelyn Thomas on the Fight to End Don't Ask, Don't Tell

Former Marine Evelyn Thomas on the Fight to End Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

by MIchael Lavers on September 27 2011, 9:34AM

Thomas was among a disproportionate number of black women who were kicked out of the military for being lesbian or bisexual. But she joined the fight that, last week, finally put an end to the practice.

Topics: Gender & Sexuality, National Security

Obama's Unprecedented Use of State Secrets to Defend Religious Profiling

Obama’s Unprecedented Use of State Secrets to Defend Religious Profiling

by Asraa Mustufa on September 8 2011, 9:31AM

President Obama vowed as a candidate to end George W. Bush’s use of the state secrets privilege to get lawsuits thrown out of court. Instead, the administration is wielding it in previously unused ways to defend widespread profiling of Muslim Americans.

Topics: 9/11 Anniv., National Security

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