In The News

UK’s Secret Mideast Internet Surveillance Base Revealed

Duncan Campbell , Oliver Wright, James Cusick, Kim Sengupta September 2, 2013
Documents suggest that Great Britain operates a secret station in the Middle East to intercept emails, phone calls and web traffic, shared with the US National Security Agency. “All of the messages and data passed back and forth on the cables is copied into giant computer storage ‘buffers’ and then sifted for data of special interest,” reports the Independent. Telecom and tech firms have...

Codename “Apalachee”: How the US Spies on Europe and the UN

Laura Poitras, Marcel Rosenbach, Holger Stark August 27, 2013
NSA documents released by former contract worker Edward Snowden suggest that the US has targeted EU, UN and International Atomic Energy Agency offices with surveillance and that US embassies serve as bases for spying activities. The documents were released shortly after the US president had vowed the country's only surveillance interest was to “prevent a terrorist attack.” Such spying has...

Amid Mideast Turmoil, What Does Russia Want?

Thomas Graham August 20, 2013
Russia has reasons to resist military intervention in Syria. “Moscow has been resolute in the defense of the principle of state sovereignty in the traditional Westphalian sense, of non-interference by outside powers in the internal affairs of another state, a principle it considers to be the foundation of world order and international law,” explains Thomas Graham, senior fellow with Yale...

Egypt Highlights Race Between Trade and Terror

Humphrey Hawksley August 15, 2013
The Arab Spring protests, with demands for representative government and economic stability, have disintegrated into violent power struggles. After one year, Egypt’s military removed the first democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi, from power and cracked down on protests by his supporters, leaving more than 500 dead. Violence unfolds in Syria, Libya, Tunisia and Iraq, too. Building...

Gay Laws and the Company Russia Keeps

Tim Marshall August 15, 2013
Russia claims to uphold national values with a vague law that outlaws promotion of homosexuality among children. The stance is attracting global attention, with boycotts on Russian vodka and worries about the safety of athletes and audience members attending the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. “This values-led argument is very useful to those who want to cloak the repression of others by saying...

Fears Over NSA Surveillance Revelations Endanger US Cloud Computing Industry

Charles Arthur August 13, 2013
Cloud computing allows users to share tech capabilities, such as storing data or trying software over the internet or individual servers, yet reports about intrusive surveillance programs may scare away customers. News reports allege that US tech companies comply with government requests for customer data with minimal checks and balances. “A survey by the US-based Cloud Security Alliance, quoted...

The Growth of European Venture Philanthropy

Leonora Buckland, Lisa Hehenberger, Michael Hay August 12, 2013
Nonprofits and NGOs are growing in scale, creating banks and financing mechanisms that in turn review proposals and fund smaller efforts in target areas whether education, housing or health care. Venture philanthropy support, as explained by an article in Stanford Social Innovation Review, includes financing, mentoring, networking, performance measurements and more. The authors suggest that...