US Senate rejects warrantless wiretapping reforms

The Senate has rejected attempts to add privacy safeguards to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) amendments that authorize the warrantless wiretapping program.

 Three amendments were reviewed on Thursday and rejected with 79 no votes and only 12 in favor. The Senate is set to finish business on a fourth and final amendment on Friday.

FISA, which began during the George W. Bush administration without congressional authorization, allows the US government to spy on emails and text messages without a court warrant.

 The program collects intelligence on Americans who are communicating abroad with foreign “targets” designated by spy agencies like the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the National Security Agency (NSA).

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Revealed: how the FBI coordinated the crackdown on Occupy

It was more sophisticated than we had imagined: new documents show that the violent crackdown on Occupy last fall – so mystifying at the time – was not just coordinated at the level of the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and local police. The crackdown, which involved, as you may recall, violent arrests, group disruption, canister missiles to the skulls of protesters, people held in handcuffs so tight they were injured, people held in bondage till they were forced to wet or soil themselves –was coordinated with the big banks themselves.

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