It’s a busy season for the Justice Department seeking forfeitures from ex-government authors
In perhaps the most high-profile bit of book-related court intrigue of the season, last week the Justice Department subpoenaed John Bolton’s literary agent and publisher as part of its investigation into… Read more »
DOJ sues Edward Snowden over new memoir
This past Tuesday, Metropolitan Books (an imprint of Macmillan) published Permanent Record, the memoir from former CIA and NSA intelligence contractor Edward Snowden. That same day the U.S. Department of… Read more »
Trevor Paglen publishes a monograph, gives back a coded message for the CIA
This past March, a large black flag was raised over the Manhattan HQ of the public arts institution Creative Time. Fluttering in the wind, one might have caught sight of… Read more »
Richard Nixon, watching from Elysium, is having the greatest week, big isn’t a good enough word, massive
By now, unless you’ve already sealed the reinforced doors of your subterranean shelter, you know that President Donald Trump summarily fired FBI Director James Comey on Tuesday. It was a move that provided unneeded answers to… Read more »
Amazon’s bestseller list is a futile attempt to impose order on the howling void of everyday life in America
One of the splashier pieces of book-news-during-the-Apocalypse has (alongside the ongoing S&S trainwreck) been the cultural ascendancy of George Orwell’s 1984, which we covered at length a few weeks ago.… Read more »
Over 500 authors from across the world speak out against state surveillance
Authors from across the world have signed a petition condemning state surveillance like that carried out by the NSA, as revealed by Edward Snowden earlier this year. Their petition, which… Read more »
The American Library Association defends “freedom to read and research” from NSA surveillance
The American Library Association is supporting legislation from Rep. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.), known as the USA Freedom Act, that would limit the powers of the NSA surveillance program. The documents… Read more »
German writer refused entry to the United States
In a move of spectacular classiness, at a moment when we don’t actually have a government, the zombie form of the US government (though, like a beating telltale heart, the… Read more »
Change.gov, how you’ve changed
When the Obama administration launched Change.gov back in 2008, shortly after winning the election, it seemed to indicate good things about the president and his staff: that they were web-savvy,… Read more »
Meet the artists documenting America’s secret trials
With media attention focused almost exclusively this week on the NSA leaker Edward Snowden, currently evading criminal charges in Hong Kong, it’s easy to forget that closer to home, another… Read more »