Surveillance & drones
A recent report by the United Nations Human Rights Committee was highly critical of the U.S. in the areas of widespread surveillance, international drone use, and torture. These are all issues Amnesty International has actively opposed through published reports, leafleting, and placing pressure on governments, political organizations, multinational corporations and intergovernmental bodies
A standout publication from Amnesty International titled “Will I be next?” reported findings determining that extrajudicial assassinations and other targeted killings from U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan may in fact, be considered war crimes.
One panel during the conference titled: “Ending the ‘Forever War’ at Home and Abroad” brought together several knowledgeable individuals to discuss the U.S. government’s violations of human rights under the guise of fighting terrorism and stopping Al-Qaeda. With the tax dollars of American citizens, the government has conducted seemingly endless military operations across the globe, and has created a surveillance heavy police state curtailing civil liberties for large swaths of people, particularly Muslims.
Amnesty International in their campaign to end mass surveillance by the United States government, is urging the Obama administration to roll back many of the sweeping surveillance measures that have continued to expand under his watch. There are reportedly over 30 million surveillance cameras in the U.S. recording an estimated four-billion hours of footage weekly.
Investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald, who with award winning journalist Jeremy Scahill recently launched The Intercept, a new digital magazine aimed at shining light on human rights abuses, governmental deception, and intrusion, joined the conference via video link from Brazil to discuss the topic of mass surveillance. He also spoke about the federal government’s targeting of whistleblowers. More people have been prosecuted under the century old Espionage Act by the Obama administration than any other.