Espionage and Intelligence

Operation Midnight Climax: How the CIA Dosed S.F. Citizens with LSD

WikiLeaks' Data Dump: Let's Hold Off on Pronouncing It a Dud

​If the widespread derision of WikiLeaks' latest document drop is any indication, the struggling organization might be nearing the end of its useful life. Still, the stolen e-mails it started publishing on Sunday night so far seem more interesting in general than the trove of diplomatic cables it ... More >>

"Safe House": Shaky Cinematography Blurs Action

​If the widespread derision of WikiLeaks' latest document drop is any indication, the struggling organization might be nearing the end of its useful life. Still, the stolen e-mails it started publishing on Sunday night so far seem more interesting in general than the trove of diplomatic cables it ... More >>

Judge Grants Feds Access to Twitter Accounts as Part of WikiLeaks Investigation

Only you and the government know your passwords​In a major blow to Internet privacy, a district court judge ruled today that federal investigators were allowed to collect private records of three Twitter users as part of their investigation related to WikiLeaks.According to the Electronic Frontier ... More >>

Sonic.net: The Li'l ISP that Stood up to the Feds

​I way overpay for my monthly Internet service. There are a bunch of reasons: Sonic.net, my ISP, has great customer service. It almost never goes down. The website is simple and user-friendly. It updates it quickly with service info. When you call them, they talk to you like you're a fellow human, ... More >>

WikiLeaks Investigation: Electronic Frontier Foundation Fights to Keep Twitter Records Private

How private can you really be on the Internet?​Last month, a lower court ruled against the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation, which tried to block the U.S. Government from obtaining secret tweets for its WikiLeaks investigation. Now the EFF, which works to protect the people's dig ... More >>

Wikileaks' Julian Assange and NYT's Bill Keller Trade Barbs at UC Berkeley

Matt Smith Assange via skype ​Julian Assange is a paranoid, misguided, smelly bag lady -- not an open government hero. And New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller? Well, he is a cynical dissembler interested more in covering his own ass than telling the truth.A couple hundred journalists, incl ... More >>

Female Activists Strip Down in Front of Feinstein's S.F. Office, Protest WikiLeaks Case

When a phone call to your senator doesn't get attention​If you were passing through downtown San Francisco early this morning your eyes might have wandered over to a group of women staging a protest San Francisco-style -- without their clothes on.What you saw was a handful of women from San Franci ... More >>

WikiLeaks Reporting Error Corrected, Thanks To Former Chronicle Scribe Henry Norr

If I see you guys make one more mistake, I'm gonna blow my top​Henry Norr, an ex-San Francisco Chronicle technology reporter who was fired for his anti-war kibitzing, has turned his energies to sideline critiques of the media.Calling Norr "one persistent listener," NPR Ombudsman Alicia Shepard sai ... More >>

Wikileaks Supporters Rally in San Francisco

Gil RiegoRainey Reitman of the Electronic Frontier Foundation speaks in support of Julian Assange and Bradley Manning​ Martin MacKerel wanted to make sure no one got confused about the location of a hastily organized rally in favor of Wikileaks and its founder, Jullian Assange. Around 50 demon ... More >>

Where are Wikileaks' Media Friends?

​Where are the First Amendment's establishment warriors as government-spooked businesses try to shut down Wikileaks? Hackers with computers, not hacks with press passes, have been the first line of resistance. More to come.

What To Do? Monday's Pick: Nils Gilman at Fort Mason

​Nils Gilman @ Fort Mason In the 2008 Italian film Gomorrah, tiresome members of a Neapolitan crime syndicate shuffle around in bad shorts, trying to make their business ventures run smoothly between hits. The unglamorous, stomach-churning revelation of Gomorrah, and the book on which it is based, ... More >>

Who's in Control Here?

​Nils Gilman @ Fort Mason In the 2008 Italian film Gomorrah, tiresome members of a Neapolitan crime syndicate shuffle around in bad shorts, trying to make their business ventures run smoothly between hits. The unglamorous, stomach-churning revelation of Gomorrah, and the book on which it is based, ... More >>

Obama 'Even Worse' Than Bush On Secret Wiretapping Case, Says S.F. Lawyer

Is 'Mr. Change' listening?​San Francisco attorney Jon Eisenberg thinks he's learned a thing or two about Barack Obama over the past 15 months. Eisenberg, who won a landmark decision against the government in Northern California's U.S. District Court Wednesday on a wiretapping case, says that when ... More >>

Local Blogger Takes (Some) Credit For FBI Release Of Michael Jackson Files

via flickr by Bernissimo Sunshine act​The FBI finally released hundreds of pages of classified documents related to pop star icon Michael Jackson, who died in August, detailing various investigations, including threats of a terrorist attack against Jackson. And local rabble-rouser Michael ... More >>

SFPD polygraph expert's controversial views

via flickr by Bernissimo Sunshine act​The FBI finally released hundreds of pages of classified documents related to pop star icon Michael Jackson, who died in August, detailing various investigations, including threats of a terrorist attack against Jackson. And local rabble-rouser Michael ... More >>

Human Rights Watch: Pelosi Has Some 'Splaining To Do About Torture Briefing

Oh, that waterboarding...Oh, for a return to the days when a troupe of miscreants breaking into Democratic Party headquarters was the source of our national angst -- and not nightmarish, government-sanctioned torture techniques. A memo released yesterday by the Director of National Intelligence and ... More >>

Who Knows What Darkness Lurks in the Hearts of Men?

Oh, that waterboarding...Oh, for a return to the days when a troupe of miscreants breaking into Democratic Party headquarters was the source of our national angst -- and not nightmarish, government-sanctioned torture techniques. A memo released yesterday by the Director of National Intelligence and ... More >>

Lies We Can Believe In

Ridley Scott's latest is the post-9/11, tech-savvy terror thriller we deserve.

Finally, a Jason Statham Movie Not Headed Straight to DVD

Ridley Scott's latest is the post-9/11, tech-savvy terror thriller we deserve.

Billboard Liberation Front Redecorates Mission Sign

Ridley Scott's latest is the post-9/11, tech-savvy terror thriller we deserve.

DJ Cam

Revisited By

Veronique of the Mounties

Our local source for protest theater offers a weird exercise in moral equivalence

Big Doctor Is Watching

As of April 14, the national security police can monitor your medical records without your knowledge. So can the local police.

My Country Versus Me

Two books delve into the Wen Ho Lee espionage case

The Spybots Among Us

How the NSA tracks terrorists in the United States through the Internet

Earlier Warning

Hijacking on the East Coast. It was predicted.

The Path of Inquiry

How research for this story was conducted

Agent Provocative

In the 1960s Anthony Poshepny was a CIA operative whose macabre Southeast Asian exploits drew comparisons with Col. Kurtz, the megalomaniacal anti-hero of Apocalypse Now

Paper Trails

In the 1960s Anthony Poshepny was a CIA operative whose macabre Southeast Asian exploits drew comparisons with Col. Kurtz, the megalomaniacal anti-hero of Apocalypse Now