For nearly two weeks in August, the US Federal Aviation Administration imposed a “no-fly zone” over the streets of Ferguson, Missouri, where protests raged over the police shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown. The stated reason for the “no-fly zone” was that shots had been fired at a police helicopter. Now, thanks to an Associated Press investigation, we…

A new report from the Open Society Justice Initiative documents the overuse of pretrial detention around the globe. The report estimates that around 3.3 million people are currently incarcerated awaiting trial. These people have yet to be convicted of any crime, yet they are locked in cages and subjected to brutal human rights abuses. Martin Schoenteich…

A day on which everyone can remember where they were is seldom a good memory. On September 11, 2001 we added another day to that list of days we’d rather forget. I was in an optimistic frame of mind when my radio alarm woke me that morning. My first real print publication, the pamphlet “Iron…

A couple of recent news items demonstrate once again — if such a demonstration is necessary — that “consent of the governed” as a source of legitimacy for representative democracy is absurd and impossible. In North Carolina, governor Pat McRory signed the Energy Modernization Act, which includes a provision criminalizing (reduced in the final version,…

J. Edward Carp has already written a fine piece on Memorial Day, but I see no reason why there isn’t room for another. One might expect an anarchist such as myself to simply trash veterans as stooges of the state, but I have a more nuanced perspective to offer. Memorial Day is often used by…

No creo que nadie se sorprenda por esto, pero Reporteros sin Fronteras bajó a los Estados Unidos 14 lugares en su Clasificación Mundial de la Libertad de Prensa en comparación con el año pasado – desde el 32vo al 46vo. Citando el abuso de la administración Obama de la Ley de Espionaje para hostigar a…

Davvero nessuno se lo aspettava? Secondo Reporter Senza Frontiere, gli Stati Uniti sono scesi di 14 posizioni rispetto all’anno scorso – dalla 32ª alla 46ª a livello mondiale – nella Classifica Mondiale della Libertà di Stampa 2014. Citando il modo in cui l’amministrazione Obama ha abusato della legge sullo spionaggio per vessare giornalisti e fonti…

Did anyone really not expect this? Reporters Without Borders docks the United States 14 places versus last year — from 32nd to 46th worldwide — in its 2014 World Press Freedom Index. Citing the Obama administration’s abuse of the Espionage Act to harass journalists and sources, the imprisonment of US Army whistleblower Chelsea Manning, threats of arrest…

This was quite the year for left-liberty. Others have already examined the year from different ideological perspectives. This has ranged from Lew Rockwell’s Ron Paul filled piece to Medea Benjamin’s take. It’s time for a retrospective that addresses 2013 from a left-libertarian perspective. There are 4 things worth focusing on. 1) The Canadian Supreme Court’s…

Libertarian science fiction author J. Neil Schulman made some waves at this year’s Libertopia conference in San Diego, CA when, following Angela Keaton of Anti-War.org’s talk, titled “The War At Home: What Domestic Violence, Homophobia, and Misogyny Have To Do With Empire,” he demanded that Keaton refer to Army whistleblower Chelsea Manning, currently serving 35…

On September 4th, my op-ed Chelsea Manning and the State’s Abusive Transphobia was published as a letter to the editor in Urban Tulsa Weekly. The paper treated it as a “really convoluted counterpoint” to an asinine letter by Oklahoma State Senator Frank Simpson, who argued that Chelsea Manning was not a hero. State Senator Simpson…

Dear Chelsea Manning, The courage and integrity you showed in exposing the moral depredations of the U.S. Government is an inspiration to political radicals everywhere. Your imprisonment is a grave injustice. It represents a crime against basic human decency. The genuine criminals run amok while you are confined to a cage. This inversion of justice…

Desde o início do julgamento de fachada de Bradley Manning ficou patente que o criminoso é o estado, não o Pfc. Manning. Apesar disso, o denunciante via Wikileaks acaba de ser sentenciado a 35 anos de prisão. Manning está sendo punido por expor crimes do governo, mais famosamente soldados dos Estados Unidos atingindo civis inocentes,…

“As decisões que tomei em 2010 nasceram de preocupação com meu país e com o mundo no qual vivemos. Desde os trágicos eventos do 11/9, nosso país está em guerra. Estamos em guerra com um inimigo que opta por não enfrentar-nos em qualquer campo de batalha tradicional, e devido a esse fato tivemos de alterar nossos…

“The decisions that I made in 2010 were made out of a concern for my country and the world that we live in. Since the tragic events of 9/11, our country has been at war. We’ve been at war with an enemy that chooses not to meet us on any traditional battlefield, and due to…

Trigger warning: The following article discusses rape, sexual assault, and transphobic violence Chelsea Manning, the whistleblower who released evidence of US war crimes to WikiLeaks, has announced that she identifies as a woman. “Given the way I feel and have felt since childhood, I want to begin hormone therapy as soon as possible,” she wrote…

The U.S. government’s persecution of Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning (who came out publicly as a transgender woman after sentencing) is the latest example of a general rule: In the transitional struggle between networks and hierarchies, sometimes networks’ most powerful weapons are the hierarchies themselves. You spend a few thousand bucks to yank a network’s…

At a 2011 press conference President Obama, in response to a question about Bradley (now Chelsea) Manning, said “We are a nation of laws. We don’t let individuals make decisions about how the law operates.“ Is this really a nation of laws, though? There’s an old legal principle, “nemo iudex in causa sua,” which translated…

From the beginning of the Bradley Manning show trial, it has been apparent that the state is the criminal, not Pfc. Manning. Yet the WikiLeaks whistleblower was just sentenced to 35 years in prison. Manning is being punished for exposing government crimes, most famously U.S. troops shooting innocent civilians, including two Reuters journalists, in the Collateral Murder video….