Blog of Rights
Ateqah
Khaki
02/05/2010
Google

Tell Google Not to Enter Into an Agreement With the NSA

By Ateqah Khaki at 5:57pm

Yesterday, The Washington Post reported that Google — the world’s largest Internet search company — is negotiating an information-sharing agreement with the National Security Agency (NSA) — the world’s largest network for routine, mass communications surveillance.

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06/19/2012
Puerto Rico

ACLU Releases New Report on Widespread Police Brutality in Puerto Rico

By Ateqah Khaki at 10:18am

The ACLU today released a report that finds the Puerto Rico Police Department -- the second-largest police department in the U.S. -- is plagued by a culture of unrestrained abuse and brutality. The use of excessive or lethal force is routine among the 17,000 officer-department. In recent years, civil and human rights violations have resulted in the unjustifiable loss of civilians’ lives, and severe and lasting injuries.

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03/06/2012
Online Privacy

Meet the ACLU Digital Privacy Team at SXSW!

By Ateqah Khaki at 1:47pm

The ACLU's "dotRights" digital privacy team will be out in force at the 2012 South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive Conference to make sure privacy is on the agenda!

From social networking to cloud computing, online shopping to location services, Americans are increasingly living, working and playing online. As technology is advancing at lightning speed, it can sometimes feel like privacy law is moving at a glacial pace. The ACLU believes you shouldn't have to choose between privacy and technology. That is why we started the Demand Your dotRights campaign, and why the campaign will be at SXSW, one of the country's largest and most influential gathering of technology and new media brands and innovators.

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02/21/2012

Domestic Drones: Big Brother's Prying Eyes in the Sky

By Ateqah Khaki at 1:10pm

"As technology advances, so does the government's surveillance powers. If we want to protect our privacy rights, the exercise of this power has to be subject to limits," writes ACLU deputy legal director Jameel Jaffer in The New York Times "Room for Debate" discussion about the use of drones domestically, and whether they pose a threat to privacy.

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02/17/2012
Warrantless Wiretapping

Obama Administration Asks Supreme Court to Dismiss ACLU Challenge to Warrantless Wiretapping Law

By Ateqah Khaki at 6:47pm

Today, the government asked the Supreme Court to overturn an appeals court ruling that allowed our lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the 2008 FISA Amendments Act to go forward.

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10/26/2011

Salon's Glenn Greenwald and ACLU's Ben Wizner Discuss Post-9/11 Rule of Law

By Ateqah Khaki at 3:13pm

Tomorrow, the ACLU’s Ben Wizner will participate in an event with Salon.com’s Glenn Greenwald in Washington D.C. to discuss the state of American justice and the rule of law in the decade since 9/11.

The event will also feature Jim Klimaski from the National Lawyer's Guild Military Law Task Force, and will take place on Thursday, October 27, at 8:00 p.m. in the Room 309 of the Marvin Center at George Washington University School of Law in Washington, D.C. The event is being organized by the university ACLU and National Lawyers Guild groups, and is free and open to the public (tickets are not required).

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10/13/2011
FBI

Surveillance in Post-9/11 America

By Ateqah Khaki at 3:40pm

Our new timeline charts shifts in unchecked government surveillance since 9/11, and paints an unsettling picture.

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09/22/2011
Protestors' Rights

Police Abuse in Puerto Rico: The Urgent Need for Real Change

By Ateqah Khaki at 4:46pm

Today, The New York Times ran letters from Luis Fortuño, Governor of Puerto Rico, and Rosie Pérez, actress and activist who was a part of an ACLU fact-finding mission on police abuses in Puerto Rico.

They were responding to this month's scathing Justice Department report finding widespread civil rights violations, corruption and illegal conduct at the Puerto Rico Police Department (PRPD), and a subsequent Times editorial.

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09/22/2011
Warrantless Wiretapping

ACLU Lens: Court Rules Challenge to Warrantless Wiretapping Law Can Proceed

By Ateqah Khaki at 3:21pm

In a very significant development, yesterday a federal appeals court ruled that our lawsuit challenging warrantless wiretapping can proceed. The law that we’re challenging, the FISA Amendments Act (FAA) of 2008, is the most far-reaching surveillance law ever enacted by Congress. It gives the National Security Agency (NSA) virtually limitless power to spy on Americans' international phone calls and emails. It allows the NSA to collect those communications en masse, without a warrant, without suspicion of any kind, and with only very limited judicial oversight. Needless to say, the law has dramatic implications for Americans' privacy rights.

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06/16/2011

ACLU to Obama: Honor Those Who Said 'No' to Torture

By Ateqah Khaki at 12:49pm

Today, we sent a letter to the White House asking President Obama to formally honor the soldiers and public servants who opposed torture under the Bush administration.

Although senior Bush administration officials approved the torture of prisoners, there was dissent in every federal agency, and at every level. As observed in an ACLU/PEN American Center op-ed published by The New York Times recently, brave men and women throughout the military and the government challenged the Bush administration’s policies, called out abuses, and refused to participate in a torture program that they believed was illegal and immoral. But so far, our official history has honored only those who approved torture, not those who rejected it.

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