Ken Silva | The Libertarian Institute

The $2 Trillion Stimulus Package Is Funding Your Own Surveillance

by Ken Silva | Mar 31, 2020 | Events, Featured Articles

From corporate bailouts to endowments for art, the $2 trillion stimulus package signed into law last Friday has been roundly criticized as a smash-and-grab robbery perpetrated by the country’s elite. And rightly so. However, there is another provision in the 1,000-plus page legislation that should concern Americans just as much as any of its negative fiscal or economic implications: funding for what seems to be a massive surveillance program. Tucked away in a section labeled “emergency appropriations for coronavirus health response and agency operations” is a $500 million allocation to the...

The NSA’s Encroaching Oversight

by Ken Silva | Feb 28, 2020 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy, Justice, Libertarianism, Politics

The NSA’s spy program failed miserably, but some spooks want to expand it The US National Security Agency spent $100 million over three years on illegally collecting millions of American phone records – all for two reports with unique counterterrorism intelligence, according to a declassified report from an NSA oversight body. So naturally, intelligence officials and lawmakers want the NSA’s records collection program reauthorized, and some even want it expanded to include more modern forms of communications such as encrypted chat apps. The NSA’s failed spying scheme is detailed in a report...