Wikileaks Judge Reverses His Own Injunction

Privacy groups file to intervene in case

(NEWSER) - Legal action resulting in the closing of whistleblower site Wikileaks.org has backfired for the Swiss bank that sought to protect confidential information about their clients, the AP reports. Popular outrage over the closing of the site over its posting of documents from Bank Julius Baer has cause the widespread circulation of those documents on privacy advocacy websites, as well as on Wikileaks own mirrors. More»

Bill would require funeral protesters to stay extra 100 feet away

(NEWSER) - Westboro Baptist Church could soon find itself foiled in Illinois. The state Senate passed a measure yesterday that broadens the protection granted to funerals, requiring any protesters to remain at least 300 feet away from the site rather than the currently required 200 feet. The original House bill, proposed by a sociology class at Northern Illinois University, required a 1,000-foot limit. More»

Web indoctrination of terrorists on US soil poses major threat

(NEWSER) - Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has knocked Nidal Hasan out of the headlines but the Fort Hood suspect is the kind of threat America needs to focus on, warns Daniel Henninger. Home-grown terrorists, indoctrinated over the Internet, are now more of a danger than "old-school" jihadis abroad, and the ideology that radicalizes them is currently protected speech, Henninger writes in the Wall Street Journal. More»

Review-Journal , ACLU fight subpoena for commenters' identities

(NEWSER) - A tax-evasion trial has sparked a free-speech controversy at the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The paper has declined to honor a federal subpoena demanding the identities of everyone who commented on an article on the trial. Businessman Robert Kahre faces tax-fraud charges for hiding the real value of sales of gold and silver coins, and an article attracted nearly 200 comments—mostly supportive of Kahre, and highly critical of the prosecution. More»

(NEWSER) - The ACLU and other watchdog groups on both the left and right think President Obama is carrying his crusade against lobbyists too far, Politico reports. Obama's recent directive forbidding government officials from discussing how to spend the stimulus with lobbyists infringes on free speech, they say. The groups plan to send a formal letter of protest to the White House next week. More»