Image 01 Image 03

Author: Mandy Nagy

Profile photo

Mandy Nagy

Mandy Nagy (aka "Liberty Chick") was an investigative writer and researcher. She primarily covered the institutional left, protest movements, hacking and cybercrime, and technology. After suffering a serious stroke in September 2014, Mandy no longer was able to work at Legal Insurrection, but she's always on our minds and in our hearts. For more information, see here.

After days of demonstrations and mounting tension, protests continue across Egypt today  in what is expected to be a peak point in the movement against President Mohammed Morsi. You can follow live coverage and updates below. Video livestream:
Watch live streaming video from ontveglive at livestream.com
Russia Today also has a good live streaming video feed without any commentary, but it's not embeddable - you can view it here in a separate window. On Twitter: Follow the #Egypt and #June30 hashtags: Other coverage: Pat Poole is also live-blogging the protests at Pajamas Media.  You can also follow him on Twitter at @pspoole. https://twitter.com/zakariamj/status/351349295640879106 https://twitter.com/DoaaY/status/351349628349853696 https://twitter.com/MiroEgyptian/status/351349496363499521

Major demonstrations are taking place across Egypt Sunday on the first anniversary of President Mohammed Morsi taking office.  Morsi, backed by the Muslim Brotherhood, was elected after the January 2011 Arab Spring, which led to the ousting of former president Hosni Mubarak. Observers have grown increasingly...

SCOTUS decisions had some college folks talking this week. DOMA ruling praised by some professors at Catholic universities Not all of it so nice. Students ridicule DOMA supporters as ‘hideous’ and ‘disgusting’ outside Supreme Court George Washington U. student blasts Clarence Thomas as ‘Uncle Tom’ for affirmative action ruling Other...

Military Judge Col. Denise Lind ruled Friday that two tweets posted by Wikileaks can be permitted as evidence in the case against Army Private First Class Bradley Manning. From FOX News: A military judge has ruled that prosecutors can introduce tweets suggesting an Army private took his...

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform approved a resolution Friday determining that IRS official Lois Lerner waived her Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination when she made opening statements in a May hearing before refusing to answer further questions. https://twitter.com/DarrellIssa/status/350658805895409664 From USA Today: A deeply divided House...

The Army is reportedly restricting staff members’ internal access to The Guardian UK’s NSA related news coverage. Officials say automatic content filters are responsible. From the Monterey Herald:
Gordon Van Vleet, an Arizona-based spokesman for the Army Network Enterprise Technology Command, or NETCOM, said in an email the Army is filtering "some access to press coverage and online content about the NSA leaks." He wrote it is routine for the Department of Defense to take preventative "network hygiene" measures to mitigate unauthorized disclosures of classified information. "We make every effort to balance the need to preserve information access with operational security," he wrote, "however, there are strict policies and directives in place regarding protecting and handling classified information." In a later phone call, Van Vleet said the filter of classified information on public websites was "Armywide" and did not originate at the Presidio. Presidio employees described how they could access the U.S. site, www.guardiannews.com, but were blocked from articles, such as those about the NSA, that redirected to the British site.
Spencer Ackerman, U.S. national security editor at the Guardian, tweeted earlier that the Department of Defense indicated it is not selectively blocking Guardian content, rather, automatic content filters are responsible. https://twitter.com/attackerman/status/350597454627995648 https://twitter.com/attackerman/status/350598534241861632 Indeed, an email from Van Fleet embedded in the Monterey Herald article goes on to elaborate:

The military trial of Private First Class Bradley Manning resumes today at Fort Meade in Maryland.  Manning stands accused of charges that include violation of the Espionage Act and aiding the enemy for his actions in releasing a trove of classified files to the anti-secrecy...

While the public shifts its attention to more recent scandals, such as that of the flap regarding the NSA, the scandals of days gone by like the IRS and Benghazi still haven't been resolved. USA Today reports this afternoon that an IRS official says the agency...

A Hong Kong media outlet has revealed today that NSA leaker Edward Snowden sought the position as an NSA contractor at Booz Allen Hamilton specifically to gather evidence on NSA surveillance. From the South China Morning Post: Edward Snowden secured a job with a US government contractor...

UPDATE 6/23 1:00pm EST: Snowden has requested asylum in Ecuador, per Ecuador's Foreign Affairs Minister. https://twitter.com/RicardoPatinoEC/status/348841761684197378 ***** A statement from Hong Kong's government confirms that NSA leaker Edward Snowden has left the country.  A local news outlet reports that Snowden is bound for Cuba and Venezuela by way of Moscow, while Wikileaks is claiming that it has "assisted Mr. Snowden's political asylum." (added -- live feed from Russia Today -- Update -- which confirms Snowden has landed in Moscow) [feed removed] The HKSAR government issued the following statement today:
Mr Edward Snowden left Hong Kong today (June 23) on his own accord for a third country through a lawful and normal channel. The US Government earlier on made a request to the HKSAR Government for the issue of a provisional warrant of arrest against Mr Snowden. Since the documents provided by the US Government did not fully comply with the legal requirements under Hong Kong law, the HKSAR Government has requested the US Government to provide additional information so that the Department of Justice could consider whether the US Government's request can meet the relevant legal conditions. As the HKSAR Government has yet to have sufficient information to process the request for provisional warrant of arrest, there is no legal basis to restrict Mr Snowden from leaving Hong Kong. The HKSAR Government has already informed the US Government of Mr Snowden's departure. Meanwhile, the HKSAR Government has formally written to the US Government requesting clarification on earlier reports about the hacking of computer systems in Hong Kong by US government agencies. The HKSAR Government will continue to follow up on the matter so as to protect the legal rights of the people of Hong Kong.
It is notable that the Hong Kong government’s statement makes direct reference to Snowden’s accusations against the US of hacking Hong Kong targets. The South China Morning Post has provided more details on Snowden’s flight itinerary, indicating that he is expected to then fly from Moscow to Cuba, and then to Venezuela.
The 30-year-old left from Chep Lap Kok airport on a flight scheduled for 10.55am. He boarded Aeroflot Flight SU213, which is due to land at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport at 5.15pm local time (8.15pm Hong Kong time). Russian news agencies Interfax and Itar-Tass reported Snowden is booked on a flight from Moscow to Cuba on Monday. Itar-Tass said Snowden would fly from Havana to Caracas, Venezuela. “A passenger under that name will arrive in Moscow from Hong Kong today on flight SU213, and tomorrow, on June 24, he will fly to Havana on flight SU150,” the state news agency ITAR-Tass quoted a source at the airline as saying. “Also tomorrow, he will go to Caracas from Havana on a local flight.”
Wikileaks is claiming that it has assisted Snowden in securing political asylum, and has issued a statement indicating that Snowden requested its assistance to “secure his safety.”  It also said that Snowden is currently “being escorted by diplomats and legal advisors from WikiLeaks.” https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/348724514135347200 https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/348732325909102593 https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/348773063816519681

A Hong Kong news outlet unveiled explosive new hacking accusations against the US on Saturday morning, citing information shared with the outlet by NSA leaker Edward Snowden. From the South China Morning Post: Snowden, who celebrated his 30th birthday on Friday as the US government made public...