Reading Time: 13 minutes Sixteen-year-old Kalief Browder spent three years in jail without a trial before the charges were dropped—including more than two years in solitary. His experience left him a broken young man. Before he killed himself, he attempted to expose how authorities employed extraordinary pressure to compel confessions of guilt.
Reading Time: 3 minutes By taking the issue of gay marriage off the table once and for all, the Supreme Court provided Republican White House candidates with an opportunity to move on. But evangelical Christians will likely remain on the losing side of history.
Reading Time: 3 minutes As NATO allies’ focus shifted from the Cold War to their own economic interests, the lack of a common enemy caused them to turn on each other.
Reading Time: 5 minutes A past presidential administration official weighs in on the complicated view of the NSA whistleblower… or traitor.
Reading Time: 5 minutes The chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs recently praised whistleblowers, though he has been an outspoken opponent of Edward Snowden. Why the double standard when it comes to Snowden?
Reading Time: 13 minutes The multi-state military drill known as Jade Helm has provoked a fierce debate. Is it much ado about nothing—or, as some claim, an effort to desensitize the public toward martial law? WhoWhatWhy takes a look.
Reading Time: 6 minutes In his essay in this new collection, a law professor warns about the creep of the security state, from catching criminals to trying to anticipate who might commit a crime.
Reading Time: 4 minutes On May 18, 2015, President Obama made a surprising announcement: he ordered the federal government to reverse its standing practice of providing American police departments with surplus weapons and vehicles from the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq. Given declining confidence in police after a seemingly constant recent stream of fatalities involving black suspects, this newfound caution with heavy provisioning is understandable. But questions about the wisdom of militarizing police are not new. WhoWhatWhy first wrote about the issue in February, 2014.
Reading Time: 3 minutes Revelations that FBI surveillance planes circled Baltimore during the recent civil unrest have civil liberties advocates in a tizzy. Not surprisingly, the secretive Bureau has not been forthcoming about this ominous development.
Reading Time: 5 minutes Russia is already notorious for universities that provide “non-education.” Is an aim to stamp out independent thought behind the country’s motivations to close 40% of universities?
Reading Time: 5 minutes A Chicago professor’s obsession with a single strand of hair leads her to create face sculptures of random strangers—from DNA extracted from bits of trash they leave behind. These creepy creations pose big questions when it comes to privacy and state surveillance.
Reading Time: 2 minutes Is Edward Snowden “still a traitor” or is he now an agreed-upon American hero? Europe seems to think it is the latter, and it is urging the United States to bring him home.
Reading Time: 11 minutes Mohamedou Ould Slahi reveals what it takes to make it through Gitmo when the American justice system won’t take “I didn’t do it” for an answer.
Reading Time: 1 minute Sometimes, pictures speak louder than words. With evidence the Obama Administration is the most tight-lipped ever, here’s a picture to complete the story. DonkeyHotey and Dan Engelke show you the score.
Reading Time: 1 minute The latest from the prosecution in the trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev from the federal courthouse in Boston.
Reading Time: 4 minutes In a case that fully demonstrates the pervasiveness of surveillance cameras in America, the absence of cameras at one of the biggest trials of the year is glaring. Andrew Quemere examines how the federal courts have managed to stay happily anachronistic.
Reading Time: 1 minute WhoWhatWhy Editor-in-Chief Russ Baker and reporter Andy Thibault are tweeting live from the opening of the trial of accused Boston Marathon Bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Tune in for real-time updates and analysis from inside the John Joseph Moakley U.S. Courthouse in Boston.
Reading Time: 2 minutes Right up until the opening of Boston Marathon Bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s trial, rumors about the existence of a video showing him dropping a bomb-laden backpack at the scene persisted. Now, the evidence is in – the video doesn’t exist. Lara Turner reports.
Reading Time: 1 minute Accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev unsurprisingly lost his second appellate bid to move his trial by a vote of 2-1. But dissenting Judge Juan R. Torruella issued a scathing opinion, arguing that the refusal by both the trial and appeals courts to move the case were abuses of discretion. Further, he argued that if Tsarnaev’s case couldn’t prove overwhelming pretrial prejudice, no case could. Read on for more highlights from the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals opinion.
Reading Time: 2 minutes Several mainstream media reporters in Boston admitted that they don’t see the need to use the word “alleged” when talking about Boston Marathon Bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. The trial is merely a formality, and so are journalistic ethics, apparently. Lara Turner examines the shocking admission.