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Chip Gibbons
August 20, 2020
The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion are an infamous anti-Semetic forgery. Created to stoke anti-Semetisim in Russia at the turn of the 20th century, they continue to be the centerpiece of bigoted conspiracy theories to this day. So why did an official FBI account tweet them?
August 6, 2020
On July 17, Defending Rights and Dissent and the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) were joined by over fifty civil society groups in condemning the deployment of unidentified federal agents to Portland against the wishes of local elected officials. According
July 28, 2020
Over three years after Donald Trump’s Muslim ban was enacted – and a year after he expanded the ban – the US House of Representatives finally passed the NO BAN Act on Wednesday, July 22 by a vote of 233-183,
June 11, 2020
On Wednesday, a coalition of environmental and civil liberties groups – led by local activists from St. James Parish, Louisiana – held a press conference urging Governor John Bel Edwards to veto anti-protest legislation that recently passed overwhelmingly in the
May 29, 2020
As we watch the streets of Minneapolis, Minnesota erupt in response to the heinous killing of George Floyd, I find that it’s hard for me to separate the direct historical connection of last week’s dominant news story – the so-called
May 7, 2020
On May 5, Defending Rights & Dissent hosted an important virtual town hall meeting on incarceration during the coronavirus entitled “We’re Dying In Here: Incarceration & Coronavirus,” moderated by DRAD communications director Quentin Anthony Anderson and featured panelists such
May 1, 2020
The First of May is commemorated around the world as International Workers Day or May Day. Its origins lay in the Haymarket Massacre, an infamous act of state repression designed to bludgeon the burgeoning US workers’ movement. Instead of defeating the workers’ movement and its demand for a more just world, it sparked international solidarity. Today, throughout the United States and the world, workers, including at Amazon, Target, and Whole Foods, are continuing to fight for their basic rights as workers. Their collective action aimed at building a more just world represents the power and importance of free speech and the right to protest.
April 22, 2020
Last week, during the Defending Rights & Dissent/The Nation’s town hall on Civil Liberties and COVID-19, our board member and Project Souths’ Legal & Advocacy Director Azadeh Shahshahani gave a harrowing account of conditions inside ICE detention in Georgia. She also talked about the inspiring organizing activists were doing to end them. When I asked her during the town hall what can those watching at home could do, she urged everyone to contact Congress about the FIRST Act.
April 7, 2020
Yet again, the FBI has failed to uphold basic safeguards to protect US persons from illicit surveillance. The Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General issued a memorandum stating it did not have confidence the FBI was following its
March 16, 2020
On Monday, March 16, Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will attempt to invoke cloture on the USA Freedom Reauthorization Act of 2020 – that means shutting down debate on the bill and moving forward for a full vote. Defending
March 11, 2020
The FBI’s use of assessments and its homegrown violent extremism designation are both highly controversial. Yet, the OIG ignores this completely, taking their existence for granted.
March 2, 2020
On February 26, the House Judiciary Committee suddenly postponed a scheduled vote on the USA FREEDOM Reauthorizaion Act, a months-long, bipartisan effort to reform and reauthorize a handful of domestic surveillance authorities – most notably, Section 215 of the Patriot
November 4, 2019
The investigatory powers of the Federal Bureau of Investigation are regulated not by any Congressional charter, but by guidelines promulgated by the attorney general. Thanks to George W. Bush’s lameduck Attorney General Michael Mukasey, who was the last attorney general to revise the guidelines, the FBI’s standard for opening an investigation is shockingly lax. The lax nature of current FBI investigatory powers are in the news again.
September 4, 2019
Portions of the FBI’s Consolidated Strategy Guide were leaked to the Young Turks’ Ken Klippenstein. Labeled “threat guidance”, these documents from 2018-2020, show how Black dissent continues to be viewed as a top domestic terrorism threat by the
July 18, 2019
The First Amendment protects your right to boycott. Yet, many lawmakers don’t care about your constitutional rights.