TalkLeft turns 11 years old today. Wow. The time has just flown by. I wonder if I would have began this endeavor if I knew then I would be writing every day for the next 11 years.

While it's only natural that we ebb and flow, we still work really hard at keeping you up to date with the latest news on politics, crime, and injustice, tracking down actual court and legislative documents so you can read them yourselves -- and making sure the conversation stays civil by weeding out the blog-cloggers and drive-bys who try to hijack or dominate the discussion or insult our commenters. [More...]

The Judge in the George Zimmerman trial just announced the jury will be sequestered. She said the parties have stipulated the trial will last 2 to 4 weeks.

You can watch a live feed of proceedings here.

Edward Snowden says he'll stay in Hong Kong and fight extradition.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

It's Day Three of jury selection in the George Zimmerman trial. We have llive-updating of Days 1 and 2 and this morning at the Forums. Comment threads are here. Diwataman has a list of questioned prospective jurors (by number, gender, race.) [More...]

Opening Arguments were held today in the Boston trial of alleged mobster/fugitive James "Whitey" Bulger. I haven't had time to follow the case recently but if you are, here's a thread to discuss it.

Where in the world should Edward Snowden seek asylum? Early this morning I suggested:

Maybe he should go to New Zealand and hang out at the Dot Com mansion. NZ might not be so willing to provide mutual assistance in arresting Snowden after the debacle of the Kim Dotcom raid.

Australian barrister Geoffrey Robertson also thinks Snowden should go to New Zealand and join Kim Dotcom in fighting extradition to the U.S. He says Russia is another possibility, while Hong Kong is not a good idea because China might interfere.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

86 civil liberties groups and Internet companies have joined EFF in demanding an end to NSA spying.

bq. In an open letter to lawmakers sent today, the groups call for a congressional investigatory committee, similar to the Church Committee of the 1970s. The letter also demands legal reforms to rein in domestic spying and demands that public officials responsible for this illegal surveillance are held accountable for their actions.

The letter says the NSA program is illegal:

This type of blanket data collection by the government strikes at bedrock American values of freedom and privacy. This dragnet surveillance violates the First and Fourth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution, which protect citizens’ right to speak and associate anonymously and guard against unreasonable searches and seizures that protect their right to privacy.

EFF also lauched "Stop Watching Us" -- "a global petition calling on Congress to provide a public accounting of the United States' domestic spying capabilites and to bring an end to illegal surveillance." You can add your name here.

Via the ACLU:

The American Civil Liberties Union and the New York Civil Liberties Union today filed a constitutional challenge to a surveillance program under which the National Security Agency vacuums up information about every phone call placed within, from, or to the United States. The lawsuit argues that the program violates the First Amendment rights of free speech and association as well as the right of privacy protected by the Fourth Amendment. The complaint also charges that the dragnet program exceeds the authority that Congress provided through the Patriot Act.

Also:

Yesterday, the ACLU and Yale Law School's Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic filed a motion with the FISA Court, requesting that it to publish its opinions on the meaning, scope, and constitutionality of Patriot Act Section 215. The ACLU is also currently litigating a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, filed in October 2011, demanding that the Justice Department release information about the government's use and interpretation of Section 215.

Also big news: The FISA Court has published its first public docket -- of an EFF lawsuit seeking disclosure. Pleadings are here.

Google sent a letter today to AG Eric Holder and the FBI seeking permission to disclose the number of national security and FISA requests it has received, the types of data covered by the requests, and the number of user accounts affected by the requests.

We therefore ask you to help make it possible for Google to publish in our Transparency Report aggregate numbers of national security requests, including FISA disclosures—in terms of both the number we receive and their scope. Google’s numbers would clearly show that our compliance with these requests falls far short of the claims being made. Google has nothing to hide.

The letter references the permission it received in March to publish this information about National Security Letters.

Most reaction from media and privacy groups seems to be positive. But Christopher Soghoian tweets:

If Google's FISA numbers are shockingly high, asking for permission to publish if they know it won't be given would be a very savvy move.

Huffington Post reports that Congress was briefed 22 times on the PRISM program and provides the dates.

Glenn Greenwald tells the AP we ain't seen nothing yet.

"We are going to have a lot more significant revelations that have not yet been heard over the next several weeks and months," Greenwald said.
Greenwald claims "dozens" of stories can be generated from the documents, and that the Guardian plans to pursue all of them.

CBS reports the feds are prepping charges against Edward Snowden, who has gone underground in Hong Kong. He told the Guardian he may go to Iceland.

Maybe he should go to New Zealand and hang out at the Dot Com mansion. NZ might not be so willing to provide mutual assistance in arresting Snowden after the debacle of the Kim Dotcom raid.

The PRISM story keeps growing -- now there are reports the NSA has shared data on Kim Dotcom obtained via PRISM with the international spy group "Five Eyes," (background here -- it includes representatives from the U.S., U.K., New Zealand, Canada and Australia,) and that Five Eyes may have given the intercepted data on Kim Dotcom to New Zealand's GSB, which in turn gave it to a specialized New Zealand police group, that used the information to assist the FBI and facilitate his arrest on U.S. charges.

"Five Eyes" met in New Zealand just 2 days before the Prime Minister announced the illegal interception of Kim Dotcom's communications on Sept. 17. Who was at the meeting? Reportedly, Intelligence Co-ordination Group director Roy Ferguson, a former ambassador to the US,along with representatives from the US Central Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency, Britain's Communications Headquarters, Canada's Communications Security Establishment and the Australian Secret Intelligence Service. [More...]

Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.